~*angie's lil reverie*~

My 6th Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon

Every year when it comes to running SCSM, I would be feeling very excited and nervous. Though I have been running a marathon for 7 times, running a marathon every time still scares me a lot. Partly because I didn't train enough and also there are too many uncertainties running a full marathon. The distance is just too far that anything can happen.

This year, we booked a hotel room at our favourite hotel, Pan Pacific Hotel so that we can catch more hours of sleep. And the best part was, we got a free upgrade to Pananomic King's room at level 30! It's a beautiful and spacious room. The toilet is amazingly big with bathtub! As both of us would be running, we got to leave Lexuan at my in laws' place overnight. This must be the first time she's away from me. And seriously, I miss her though having her around with mean will probably means we cannot sleep in peace. Haha. At least she got to enjoy half a day in the hotel room with us.

True enough, both of us had a relatively good sleep (without Lexuan calling for us in the middle of the night). Haha. I woke up at 3am to pump milk while Jianhui woke up at the same time to get ready. By the time we were ready, it was already 4am+. We quickly walked to the starting point but we were still too late to enter Pen B. In the end, we had to go all the way to Pen E. It's our fault for not reading the race guide that the baggage deposit for Pen B is closing at 4.10am. Sigh.

So, we had not choice but to enter Pen E. The race started in waves with internal of 1 minute. We were flagged off at around 5.05am. It's good that Jianhui and I started at the same pen so that we could estimate our finishing time. We started running at our own pace so I lost him the moment we started the race.

I didn't clock enough mileage compared to Chicago Marathon. Hence, I don't have much expectation that I would be achieving any PB. Nevertheless, I was aiming for a local PB of sub 5hr30mins, so I tried to keep to the same pacing as my Chicago Marathon. But, I know my body doesn't feel as good as I was running Chicago Marathon. And this was such a quiet Marathon compared to Chicago's when the whole streets was filled with supporters that I felt so hyped up running. In fact, there wasn't much entertainment throughout the route, especially when we ran towards West Coast. It was kinda demoralizing as we started to see the elite men and women exiting West Coast while I was just about to run towards West Coast.

By 10km, I was already feeling hungry as I only ate one croissant. It seems like we should really eat McD's sausage muffin and pancake for breakfast before a marathon so that we will have enough fuel for marathon. And my legs also feel kinda weird though I had only ran 10km. It doesn't help that it was a boring route from 9km onwards to 17km - West Coast expressway. ZzZz. The only thing that kept me going was to look out for runners opposite me to see if I could spot Jianhui. Sadly, I didn't get to see him at all.

Frankly speaking, when I saw the signboard for half marathon to head back to finishing line and the signboard for full marathon, I was so tempted to go for the half marathon route. For the half marathon runners, they only had 3km to go while I have more than 21km to go... So demoralizing.

I tried to keep it going until 32km. And that was the best I could do. The weather was really harsh and I was feeling so hot that I was very tempted to give up. When I was at 35km, my right leg was cramping quite badly. I could hardly move. I had to stop and massage my legs. It was so bad that I was thinking that I might have to walk the balance 7km, limping back. Luckily, after walking for a while, my legs feel better. I tried to run/walk every 1km till the water point.

And then it was the nightmare Sheares Bridge. I gave up running up the bridge. I basically walked up the bridge to rest my legs (and also simply I was too tired to run up the slope). Luckily, after the slope, my legs miraculously can run again.

When I was left with the last 2km, I started to jog slowly. I told myself this is leisure jog and I must not stop. That was when I saw the 5hr15min pacers behind me. This means that there is a possibility that I could complete within 5hr15mins. This got me kinda motivated. And thankfully, I didn't have cramps so I could still do slow jog.

When I reached 42km, I was so happy that I picked up my pace and managed to run towards the finishing line.

I'm proud to complete my 6th SCSM in 5hr17mins24sec. =p

2 marathons in a year and 2 PBs (one overseas PB and one Local PB). Good job Angeline! It had been a fantastic comeback year for me! This would not be possible if not for my supportive husband who always believes that I could do it! Thanks for taking care of Lexuan when I go for my training run and thanks for believing in me! You are the best! =p Congratulations for completing your 15th SCMS too!

Now, it's time to feast and enjoy the festive season!

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Angeline winks
at |11:56 AM| 0 comments