Saturday, December 10, 2016
Here's some SCMS2016 official statistics, based on the net timing:
Net Timing: 04:30:15
Total number of Marathon Finishers: 8029
My net position among the Finishers: 814th / 8029 (Top 10.1%)
Total number of Male Marathon Finishers: 6671
My net position among the Male Finishers: 715th / 6671 (Top 10.7%)
Total number of Male Marathon Finishers in the 20-29 Age Group: 1479
My net position among the Male Finishers in my Age Group: 109th / 1479 (Top 7.4%)
Other interesting stats:
Number of competitors: 8878
Number of countries represented: 17
Average Age of competitors: 37
Ratio of Male to Female: 82%: 18%
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Past Races at a glance:
My past 13 Full Marathons at a glance:
1. Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2007 : 5:06:14
2. adidas Sundown Marathon 2008 : 5:07:58
3. Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 : 5:01:04
4. Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2010 : 5:13:35
5. Volkswagen Prague International Marathon 2012 : 4:53:22
6. Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2012 : 4:59:49
7. Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2013 : 5:17:47
8. Maybank Bali Marathon 2014 : 4:48:08
9. Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2014 : 5:14:22
10. Maybank Bali Marathon 2015: 4:52:39
11. Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2015: 4:43:41
12. 2016阿猴國興盃公益路跑：4:41:13
13. Maybank Bali Marathon 2016: 5:04:35
14. Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2016: 4:30:15 (Best!)
My past 9 Half Marathon at a glance:
1. SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2007 timing -- 02:14:29
2. SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2008 timing -- 02:21:02
3. SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2009 timing -- 02:17:38
4. SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2010 timing -- 02:04:18 (Best!)
5. SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2011 timing -- 02:07:33
6. SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2012 timing -- 02:15:18
7. SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2013 timing -- 02:24:41 (Huge bottleneck)
8. SAFRA Army Half Marathon 2014 timing -- 02:14:44
9. OSIM Sundown Half Marathon 2016 -- 03:24:05 (With WL)
人生是黑白的.
7:25 PM <3
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Thursday, December 08, 2016
I’m done with the races this year! With the end of the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2016, it’s time to give my legs a desired month break, after all those trainings that led up to this 14th Full Marathon.
This marathon went well on a number of factors, and it resulted in my Personal Best timing so far – 04:30:15, finally hitting the 4:30 mark that I had envisioned years ago. I thought I could come close during the SCMS 2015 edition, only to fall short by some 13 minutes. It took some mental push within me, to close that gap this year.
So, what exactly went well?
- The route! This year’s SCMS route seemed to be the best yet – they removed the killer upslope towards the end of the marathon (usually around 36km mark) at the Sheares bridge! In fact, this year’s route was generally flat and it definitely helped me in shaving those minutes off.
- The earlier start time! Although my supposedly flag off was 4:45am (for my dedicated Pen), it wasn’t until 5:15am when I managed to cross the Start Line. However, at 5:15am, it was still earlier than the SCMS editions years ago. I appreciated the earlier start timing, especially when I could feel the sun rising up against my back after I turned around at the ECP segment. This meant that I would not be facing directly at the glaring sun in the later half.
- I started re-fuelling much earlier than usual. In previous years, I only started consuming the energy gels after the halfway mark, sometimes even delaying till the 25km mark. This year, I started to feel hungry after 10km, so I decided to start eating my first energy gel pack at the 15km mark. This probably helped to delay the time when I ‘hit the wall’, due to the added carbohydrates for the body to use earlier. There was a banana point at around 20-21km, which I also relied on. Thenafter I consumed my other energy gels at around 25km and 30km. I believe that this intake at every 5-6km was instrumental to the good results this year.
- I slept slightly more than previous years. This year, I slept at 10plus and woke up at around 2am. This worked out to be about 3.5 hours, which was longer than my average pre-race sleep of about 2 hours. I’m not sure how relevant this was, because the anxiety and adrenaline rush before flag-off meant that I’ve never been really sleepy regardless of the sleep duration anyway.
- Regular runs leading up to the marathon. I tried to put in the mileage especially in the final 8 weeks. 3 runs a week, with the weekly long runs reaching about 21-22km, up to about 3 weeks before the big day. The weeknight runs were also at least 10km-15km. Admittedly, this isn’t even enough, as the supposed long run mileage ought to be at least 30km-35km, with other variants of runs like tempo runs, intervals and hills training. I will have to plan my training around these standards if I hope to further improve on my times in future.
- Transport to venue. Having the luxury of the MRT transportation in the past few editions of the SCMS, the removal of the service this year (due to track maintenance) seemed to result in some unhappiness between the organisers and SMRT. For the runners, we had to make do with the $5 bus services from designated MRT stations. It shouldn’t have made much of a difference to me since I had to walk to Eunos MRT anyway. BUT the fact that the buses only left Eunos MRT 15 minutes after 3:00am, and then went the opposite direction up to Bedok interchange to see if there are any late-comers there (but there weren’t), plus there were jams near the starting point (as buses from all around the island converged there), it screwed up my plans to start in my designated starting pen. I alighted at 4:15am at the starting point area, which is really double the time if the MRT system was operating. Eventually I had to make a dash to the baggage drop-off, and then quickly find a ulu toilet where there weren’t many people, and then squeezed my way into one of the later starting pens behind.
- Crowds! Alright, crowds are synonymous with SCMS, because the organisers believed in getting bigger scale each year. But we know that it would compromise the runners’ experience. In recent years, they tried to improve, by moving the Half-marathon race starting point to Sentosa, instead of with the Marathoners at Orchard Road. But perhaps for cost and logistical reasons, they converged us all together at Orchard once again. Worse, the flag-off times are the same! Can you imagine having tens of thousands of people trying to enter the barricaded Orchard road, through the small openings at various starting pens? It’s a massive crowd control nightmare. As I’ve mentioned above, my designated flag-off time was 4:45am for my designated start pen, but I wasn’t able to get anywhere close. In fact, the start pens became irrelevant eventually, as Pens D, F and G were all mixed up. My group only managed to flag-off at 5:15am. To be honest, starting late doesn’t matter much to me, since I’m just racing against my own PB timing, BUT I needed the 4:30-pacers isn’t it? And they had already flagged off half an hour before..
- Lack of energy gel at halfway. According to the race guide and the race map, there were supposed to be 2 Energy gel stations along the route, one after the halfway mark (probably around 25km), and another towards the end (around 38km). I had planned my re-fuelling strategy and it included the energy gel packs given by the organisers. BUT I didn’t see the one at the 25km mark. I can’t confirm if I had missed it totally, or if there wasn’t any gel there at all, but I probably ought to have prepared extras for backups. I heard many water stations ran out of water eventually. Thankfully I had water when I needed it.
Overall, I did quite enjoy the process of this year’s race. No leg cramps, late hitting of the wall, minimal pain, bearable sun, no bottle-necks, flat route etc. Perhaps it’s really a combination of multiple factors that made it the best result ever. With that 4:30 milestone checked, I’m already quite excited to think about when my next race shall be, and if I can improve on my trainings to reach the next milestone.
During this year’s run, there was a quote on one of the distance markers, and it roughly read “There will be a day when you cannot run anymore. But today is not the day”. This is really the thought that I frequently have. I know there will be one day when my legs cannot take me on another marathon anymore. Hence, before that day comes, I shall continue to try to surpass my own limits.
人生是黑白的.
12:15 AM <3
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