I had a really hard time waiting to go to the race tonight and probably called the taxi too early (I decided to take a taxi to and from because I assumed (rightly so) that I wouldn't feel like driving home after the race and the MRT isn't running that early in the morning). The race didn't start until 11:30 and I got to the site around 9:45 or 10. As soon as I got there though, my anxiety went away so, in the end, I'm glad I went a little early. I had time to eat my pre-race food, hydrate, and use the porta-potties.
Finally it was time to line up. I had planned to stand near the 4:30 pacers which was my goal. (When I had been training for the marathon last year in Texas I wanted to get as close to 4 hours as I could; now I was trying to get as close to 4 hours & 30 minutes.) The announcer dude (I think this is the same guy at every race I've been to in Singapore and he's really annoying because he keeps asking "are you ready?!" like every five minutes. I'd prefer to not be asked that until immediately before the starting horn--honestly, we were ready when we woke up in the morning and it's almost midnight!) kept having us move forward to make room for the folks behind us so I ended up a lot closer to the start of the crowd than I would have liked. (Interestingly the fastest pace group they have here is 4:00 which I thought was odd but what do I know.)
I could tell before the start that I probably wouldn't make my 4:30 time goal because I was already sweating profusely just waiting around in the humidity. Finally we got going and both of my hips were really stiff (I realize now that it was my IT-bands). My hips were stiff the entire 26.2 miles! The course was really crowded until about 10km and then finally started to thin out a bit. Since I had given up on my original time goal, I was now trying to stay under 5:00 but also not stressing. My B goal was to not walk (except through water stations--I need the hydration!) and my C goal was to not "hit the wall" and to make sure I kept up with my nutrition (alternating isotonic drinks & Clif Shot Bloks every 40 minutes).
I started the race with my fuel belt full (3 bottles of water & 1 bottle of Pocari Sweat plus six servings of Shot Bloks) and I hand-held a full bottle of Pocari Sweat. This worked really well. I didn't have to stop at the first few (super crowded) water stations and then I was able to refill my water bottles as-needed along the way.
At about 15km there was this guy I started to pass but then right as I fell in line with him he started running again. He was breathing like he was dying and his form looked like he was near collapse. Not wanting to be responsible for him, I took off to get away from him--I sped away until I couldn't hear him breathing any more. (I did not run with music and many others did not also. In fact, this was another quiet race (like the Run350 1/2 marathon I did in April) but there were actually people cheering the runners on throughout East Coast Park (including my friend Barbara who was there to support me and some other runners she knows).
A little over half way I knew it was going to be tough to make the 5-hour goal but kept moving forward. I actually felt really good and only had to talk to my left IT-band a couple of times about how this was not the time to start causing problems. I also was trying to do random math problems (figuring out what pace I needed to run to get to the end in 5 hours, etc.) but always ended up getting confused and told myself to just forget it!
I really never felt "bad" during the whole run. Sure, I felt slow and I wished for a breeze and a drop in the humidity. I also wished that the race had started at 9pm instead of 11:30pm. I have to believe that the middle-of-the-night aspect of the race slowed me down, too. I was happy with myself when at about mile 20 I saw a lot of people walking and I was still running. The signs for mileage mostly matched up with my Garmin during the race although a few signs didn't agree. They put the 40km sign too early in the course and those last 2.1km felt like the longest part of the race (I knew it was off b/c of my Garmin but their sign still messed with my head).
Finally, finally, finally I saw the finish line and I was so happy to see it and be done! I finished in 5:07. I admit I was disappointed in my time but mostly I was just glad that I did it. Surely 5:07 will be easy to beat the next time around!
So, I went through the finish line, went to the finisher t-shirt & medal line, and was also given a banana and a isotonic drink. Really? I just finished a marathon and all they gave me was a banana?! I was disappointed in that but moved on, stretched out my hips, then got in the queue for a taxi. It didn't take long to get a taxi and I had a really nice driver. I gave him a $10 tip because I smelled so bad and he, of course, had a nice Mercedes taxi with leather seats. It was when I rolled out of the taxi 25 minutes later that I realized I had major chaffing everywhere on my body.
I went upstairs to attempt to shower only not-chaffed areas (very difficult task!) and then fell into bed after wrestling with my compression socks and causing a big ruckus and waking Craig in the process. It's honestly hard to say if staying up all night or the marathon was harder on me. That the combination wasn't very kind is certain.
