Sundown Marathon 2010

I did all the prep, including purposefully going to town to have a pasta lunch and drinking salt-water 2 days before the race.

The start was not as exciting as StanChart's, but what the heck. After flag off, I set into a 6:10min/km pace, a comfortable doable pace for 42km. The high humidity had me perspiring so much for the first 5km that I started to panic: I don't want to lose so much salt and water so early, invitation for cramps later! But well, I can do nothing about the humidity. Just concentrate on my breathing and putting my foot forward landing as mid/fore foot as possible.

Entering into ECP, my socks started to get wet. No good. There is nothing that I can do about this either, but it adds another panic factor. The short uphills were fun, as I accelerated up and controlling the downhill speed. Soon the fun stopped, another problem surfaced. My knees are in pain.

I had no choice but to slow down further, taking my time during drinks stations and awarding myself a toilet break. My mind is succumbing to all the negatives, my high perspiration, fear of cramps, wet socks and knee pain. Not sure what was my pace then, but i'm sure it was pretty slow. This lasted a good 10kms!

Forcing my body into maintaining the speed, however slow, and keeping my mind on overtaking a friend easily 1km ahead of me, everything somehow just settled into place. Perspiration was still high, but there was the occasional sea breeze which was a relief. The cramps which I usually suffer after 25km didn't set in. The wet socks didn't cause blisters. The pain in my knees disappeared.

I started to pick up speed at the 28km, at the NSRCC stretch in ECP. Paced a ang-moh for 1-2kms, then not sure he lost me or I lost him. Regardless, I'm starting to cruise at a constant speed.

The onset of the so-called runner's high at 32km was both a surprise and comfort. 32km was the supposed hit-the-wall mark, but I'm experiencing the high! It means that my body is doing well. Reminded myself that I need to moderate my intensity level regardless of the high lest I hit the so-feared cramps or lose the high. I ensured I stop at water points, and stopped for a short stretch whenever required.

38km, the first signs of cramps appeared. I quickly pulled aside to stretch. No way I'm allowing cramps to thwart my sub-5hr target. Turning into Aviation Road for the last 3kms, I picked up more speed, overtaking at least a dozen of people. I think I was running at nearly 6min/km pace.

I almost had no more energy for the last km. Forced my mind into the narrow vision, picturing my typical StanChart Esplanade Bridge run-up to the FINISH, I pushed forward. Keeping pace with another runner, I also notice another runner behind me catching up. Round the first bend, a warm breeze hit me. A cool breeze would have been so much better. Never mind, picked up more speed. Overtaking the first runner. From the corner of my eye, I saw someone tried to catch up. I just ran faster, not caring about others; It's my race against myself.

Round the last bend, only 200m left. More speed. My mind went into a blank. There's no more pain. Just me and my breathing. A final burst at 100m saw me cross the FINISH. It's a sub-5hr. The time is still too near to the 5hr mark, but it's a Personal Best nonetheless. :)

The OSIM Frog

Life has been pretty different since I've taken up the challenge to attempt a Triathlon several months ago. There's the time spent on training, making new friends and a whole new view of work-life-balance.

Having to train 3-4 days a week with each session lasting 2-3 hours is not easy to maintain. There are always times when I ask myself if what I'm doing is worthwhile, and what is it for? I don't have an answer now, and I don't think I'll have answer later. At least I know I'm enjoying the entire process, the process of training and sufferring and then enjoying the race day high.

OSIM was a wash-out. Bad weather caused the organisers to cut the race short, even shorter than the sprint. The transition area was also a muddy mess, literally. This is my first major race, and my first DNS. A major disappointment.

I had to have something to fill for the missing gap, to remedy the disappointment. I found The Frog Race, a charity run-swim-run. It was to be held at ECP with an open water swim, but they moved it to NTU later, with the swim at the SRC pool.

I guess I completed the race ok. It was thoroughly enjoyable. Biscuit was also there to support and take pictures.

History Lesson 3

About 12 years ago...

Einstein, photons, light, wave theory and particle theory intrigued me. Something funny though I thought, why should wave and particle theories have to co-exist to explain the characteristics of light? If there is an universal theory as Einstein has envisioned, shouldn't there be just one theory that explains light itself?

Is there such a unified theory for light now? I don't know. But if there still isn't, here are my ideas:

Particle theory should hypothetically able to encompass all of light's characteristics. Photons are particles with mass, however negligible. Due to their free running nature, unlike electrons, and with such a small mass, enables them to travel in what we now refer to as light-speed. All particles have a natural frequency, and this determines the radioactivity of the photon itself. It vibrates as it travels through space, and coupled with the tremendous velocity, emits electric and magnetic fields, which we now know as EM waves.

All right... then what this there within this freak idea that can explain how light penetrates transparent matter but not opaque ones? What about reflection?... Got to think more. Thinking since 1 decade ago...

History Lesson 2

About 15 or more years ago...

I was almost always the first to arrive for any appointment, and usually more than 15 minutes early. And often I have to wait for more than 45 minutes for my friends to arrive. Waiting is no enjoyment, especially alone and in the days where mobile phones are unheard of and pagers are only just created and are meant more for businessmen. What about public phones? Well, if your friend is already 15 minutes late, and you are still able to get him at home, I'm not sure if it's to congratulate you on having contacted him or having such a latecomer as a friend.

Anyway, during those long waits, I thought that it would be good if there's some means to find out if the friend is indeed on his way. No, I'm not thinking about mobile phones. I'm thinking of a watch-like device which somehow calculates the distance between him and me. And it will provide a sense of how fast he will be arriving.

Ahh... riding on that, another application of it will be to enable my mum to know if I'm really on my way home, and perhaps with an estimate of how soon that will be (assuming I'm already on my way home).

Then also, travelling to an unknown place, if this device can somehow lock itself to my eventual destination, I will somehow get there eventually as long as the distance between my current location and destination decreases.

History Lesson 1

More than 20 years ago...

Long bus rides are exciting; looking out the window and just filling in with the sights and sounds along the route. Then somehow, I started to wonder where is exactly the midpoint of the bus route. I started to have a fascination for looking out for the same bus service, but running in the opposite direction. I will often be disappointed if I didn't spot any, but when I do, I would conclude that is roughly the midpoint of the bus route.