Daily Lessons from Life 07 November 2010 - My 2010 Marathon Familiarization Jog/Walk!

It is a month from the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore on 05 December 2010 and I thought I better do a familiarization tour of the route since it is going to be a new one with the starting point in Orchard Road area instead of from the Esplanade, the Singapore National Theatre if you like.

I started my jog at 0805 hrs from my house to the starting point instead of taking the bus to it. That is about 3-4km away. As usual the 1st 5km is not a problem. I past the actual starting point and then got round to the CBD bit before heading to the East Coast Park where 1/2 of the marathon will be run as the we go up and down the stretch. I run out of gas at the 16km point and resorted to walk and jog tactic. When I hit, I think, around the 21km mark, I started walking all the way for the next 1 hr to get to 25km!! A total workout of about 4 hours.

There are good and bad out of this trial.

The good things are: 1. I don't feel too much strain in the 1st 16km; 2. the 1st part of the route is interesting and still relatively flat; 3. I do not get the pains in my left waist area; 4. I think I got the most appropriate position to place my pouch!

The not-so-encouraging things are: 1. I run out of gas at 16km point and had to resort to the 'walk and jog' tactic. This is way too early!; 2. I still can feel the cramp coming out during the 1 hour walk'; 3. my left toe-ball (not sure if this is the right way to describe it but it is the bone right behind the big toe) hurts a bit after the 16km; 4. I did not complete 30km on this trial.

I must be optimistic as I DID the trial like in 2008 though not in 2009. With the crowd and the water and isotonic drink stations along the way, I know I can go further and get pass the 21km mark before I start the 'walk-and-jog' tactic. It will be cooler too when I get to the half-way mark as we will start at 0500hrs. So, we will see how the actual run goes! Soon!!

p/s: My young friend, Mr. Scott Wong, should be completing his New York Marathon right now as I write this blog! He did his 1st marathon in Washington last year in 3hr 45mins!! Will share the headline when I receive his post-race updates!