Running has always been my weakest discipline in swim bike run. (Well it used to be swim, but as I don't feel so drained after swim anymore, I'm putting it no.2) Clocking 3hours+ for half marathons during half Ironman distances was no fun, and affects my overall time a lot.
With the triathlon season more or less over, I decided to focus on run for the rest of the year. Signed up for SCMS full marathon this year because...well just because.
Ironman legend Chrissie Wellington once remarked "There is a special mystique about the marathon, for example, because of it's length - but that's just the bit you do at the end of an Ironman''
Well she is an Ironman legend afterall.
I have been following Hal Higdon's novice marathon plan for SCMS, and decided to sign up for the Newton Challenge 32km as a gauge of how well I've been progressing.
My longest run prior to this race was 25km, and the haze has been affecting us pretty badly so the weekly mileage hasn't gone according to plan. My LSD's though gave me an indication of pace, HRM and nutrition planning and the Newton Challenge would be a good opportunity to put these to the test.
On race day, I arrived at 4:30am and managed to get one of the last parking lots on site. Saw Priscilla my colleague and her hubby who got the last slot. They were doing 18km and had arrived early to get parking. Kiasu!
Looked for #teambm Benjamin and Marina who were going to be the pacers for 18km. After selfies with them and a visit to the toilet, Andrew and wife hadn't arrived yet. It was 15mins to flag off so I proceeded to the start pen to wait.
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| #teambm pacers for 18km |
It was hot, stuffy and humid in the pen as everyone waited for flag off. At 5am sharp, the gun went and we were off!
Race target was 4 hours which meant a 7:30min/km pace. Started off comfortably, I had expected many to speed off like most races, but apparently this crowd was quite smart with most doing a regulated pace. The first 5km was hot and stuffy however as everyone remained in a jammed pack. Bit of bottlenecks here and there of course, but nothing too bad.
Most of the race went according to plan, keeping within my planned pace with about 30secs variants. Nutrition was on target as well as I had set alerts for them. Based on experience, I knew I would get hungry after 2 hours, so nutrition was GU Energy Chocolate Outrage (Rinny's favourite!) after first 45mins, 1 Bonkbreaker Peanut Butter and Chocolate at 1:30, then gels every 45mins after. I'm quite fussy about food and don't like all the usual fruity flavoured gels provided in races.
Well it was a long run and most of it went smoothly. Before the first Uturn, one of the tacx tabs i used to fasten the bib dropped off so it was dangling. Pretty irritating, it was later on when i saw the mobile medics did i stop to ask for a safety pin. Fortunately they had one so fastened it and off I went.
Nothing much to say about a run at ECP, it's flat and scenic. Weather was good, not very hot and I was wearing my Triumphant trucker cap. Did a steady pace only stopping at water points to rest and hydrate, but soon my stomach was full of Pocari Sweat and felt a bit like puking.
I hit the hurt locker around the 23km mark, which was expected but it wasn't that bad and could keep going. Kept a constant eye on HR and pace though and started to take more walk breaks to bring down my heart rate. The Newton Distance III were hurting a bit at the lugs too but found they were more painful walking then running. Hmmmm.
Passing the 26km mark, told myself if I'm hurting so is everybody else and just pushed on. Although I was being overtaken by quite a number of people, I was overtaking quite a number too which felt good. I'm a really slow runner so being able to overtake anyone at all is something!
At the 30km mark I suddenly received a phone call. Fumbled my phone out to answer it and saw it was Benjamin. I answered the call and he hung up! Grumbling as I tucked my phone away, I looked up and saw a lady's hand in my face doing a peace sign. Shit photographer!
Quickly ran to the side of the lady and photobombed her shot and had my own pic taken.
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| After recieving a call from Benjamin... |
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| phew posed in time! |
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| almost there! 100m more! (pic Pixelated) |
Waited for Andrew and his wife Jerlyn, grabbed some food and recovered. Newton run is famous for post race food with either Nasi lemak or box of snacks like pandan cake, nuggets, eclair etc. There was also ice cream but was too lazy to go queue.
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| curry puff for you sir? |
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| Happy finishers! |
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| #iamtriumphant |
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| Nice 32km finisher's medal |
All in all, enjoyed the race. Run races are quite straightforward without as many things that can go wrong as a triathlon. Glad my training is on track and will rest a few days before resuming and hope for the best in SCMS!
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| steamboat that night with the families and rest of Triumphant! |
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| Official results |
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