STANDARD CHARTERED '04
It all started at 330 a.m. Woke up after four hours of sleep, drank milo and had an instant potato prata! After that it was off to bedok stadium to take the shuttle bus thingy to the start point. Met my friend at city hall and deposited our bags. By then it was already 540a.m. Warmed up and congregated infront of the esplanade for the start. Was amused by the pace setters! They had colourful floating balloons with the time range they were pacing attached by a string to their backs so that they rain with a trail of balloons floating behind them! Hahaha. Like WTF! Talked to some of them along the way, there was this old guy who did 11 marathons before. Respect!
Started at exactly 0600. Started really slow and overtook a thousand odd people with my running buddy Albert before we managed to settle into a crowd of our speed. Talked cock along the way… quite fun. At one point in marina bay Albert ran into a pacesetter’s balloons and got his face smothered. Laughed my head off at this point… bout 10 km… By 14km I decided that I had to leave Albert behind cos he was slowing down and it was getting really tiring slowing down. ( U gotta run at your own optimum pace… too slow or too fast and It’s just tiring.) Did a hi-five and left my buddy behind to catch the runners who were running my pace… ran past people’s association and into east coast. Met quite a few friends along the way. But most of them had started walking and I couldn’t run with ‘em. Hit the half marathon mark feeling good in a time of 1h 52 ish minutes. Into east coast I felt good. Most of my motivation along the way was overtaking almost everyone… Only one guy evaded me… This guy wearing OCS AHM running team ’04 attire. Funny cos I was wearing ’03 attire, but I met him later. Headed past the seven eleven/ macs area where there were a hellava lot of cheer leaders and loud music and people giving out bananas and bottles of water! Got a banana which I took one bite of and threw away cos di’nt feel like eating it. Mind u I’m running while doing this! The loud music was refreshing and gave me renewed energy to continue. U just feel this spurt of energy, dunno whether it’s adrenaline or what but it’s a good feeling. Sped down East coast and turned just before the hawker centre. Along the way back down East coast i ran after this guy in a grey vest… That dude set the pace. Dunno what happened in the end though cos I was too shagged to realize whether I overtook him or he had left me behind after we exited East coast. Exited east coast at the 33km mark and realized that I there was only 9 more kilometers! I was going to do it… But I felt super strained at this point. Twas what they call hitting the wall… Your muscles have run out of energy and just don’t wanna work anymore. Your body has to switch metabolism and start burning fat and muscles for energy. You feel numb and like u don’t have legs but u just push on… Luckily there were plenty of people slowing down and thus to over take! Haha.
Met quite a few commandos acting like marathoners with “ Army marathoner” on the back of their vests. Thinking of how these bitch’s treated Kumaran at Ranger course and their apparent arrogance I delighted in overtaking them. But at fort road one of em overtook me… He had a tattoo on his back. My aim shifted to overtaking him. Met that OCS dude at 35km. He was massaging his thigh… must have started cramping badly. We cheered each other and I moved on. Both of us had OCS on our back and shared a common bond eventhough I’ve never seen him before, that of being in the AHM team. 36km… Met that commando dude with the tattoo. He had slowed down like hell… Felt quite happy leaving him in my dust! I was thinking like , “For Kumaran and infantry!”. HAHAHA! Felt sooo good! And so I trudged on… The kilometers seemed like forever and u just felt like collapsing. Was feeling really hot now… the sun burning what seemed like a few metres above! Every water point I drank a bit and splashed the rest of the contents over my head. U don’t have any idea how good that felt! Seriously like one of those running advertisements!
Went past national stadium... There were quite a few buggers who kept on sprinting and stopping, sprinting and stopping. Very annoying I tell you. Just ignored them and went on…3 KM left… Went through some park. Just felt like it would never end at this point. Almost tripped and fell on a loose stone on the pavement but managed to maintain balance. But the heavy landing caused my knee to hurt… Happy! Now must deal with knee too… like the burning muscles were’nt enough! 2KM left, had my last bottle of water and splashed more on my head, this time drenching myself. I told myself… Last kilometer I’ll stride and end really fast… Was pure mental now. But just as I hit the 1 KM mark, my right calf badly cramped! Happy! So near and this has to happen. But I did’nt want to stop. So I flexed my ankle keeping my calf stretched and half limped half ran. Every now and then I tried to stride but it just kept on cramping. Past esplanade… 500 more metres. I just wanted to sprint all the way. I always end fast… It feels good. But the cramp prevented me. Last 200 m! Infront of city hall… Heard the M.C. and music and just told myself, screw the cramps… So I sprinted and then both my legs cramped! HAPPY! Haha, so I limped- ran the last part. Felt like Terry Fox I tell you! 3H 55MIN it said but the net time (Using the transponder we put on our shoes, they can calculate the actual time you took, given that it took quite a few minutes to reach the actual start line at the beginning I have a net time less than 3 h 55 min)
After that I exchanged my electronic chip thingy for my medal and finisher T-shirt and continuously cramped for half an hour… Trying to stretch in between cramps… Recovered my bag from the baggage handling section and took a seat in the field ( They put plastic chairs all over the place) Sat there and cramped somemore while waiting for my running buddy and other frenz. Somehow there was salt on my arms. Then I realized… That all that sweat had evaporated in the hot sun… so much of which that the salt in the sweat had crystalised! It was real salt! Weird! Wiped myself with my towel and sat there and waited. People who finished were lying down on the field sleeping/ sun bathing! I fell asleep sitting there too! 1 hour passed before i managed to meet my friends, they all finished at around 5 hours! My running buddy is a toot! He took so long! Why? Cos he went for the free massage at the end point! We took quite a few photos. One of which is below…
My running buddy, Albert and me infront of city hall.
After that we relaxed for another hour or sooo, Albert refused to move! We were supposed to go have a mammoth lunch afterwards but when we finally moved... Albert was in too much pain to go anywhere, so he took a cab back and i trudged back home myself.
Today i did something unimaginable a few years ago... Today i ran without stopping even once, not for water points, not for eating a banana, not even for cramps. Today i did something amazing, today i ran 42.195 KM.
Started at exactly 0600. Started really slow and overtook a thousand odd people with my running buddy Albert before we managed to settle into a crowd of our speed. Talked cock along the way… quite fun. At one point in marina bay Albert ran into a pacesetter’s balloons and got his face smothered. Laughed my head off at this point… bout 10 km… By 14km I decided that I had to leave Albert behind cos he was slowing down and it was getting really tiring slowing down. ( U gotta run at your own optimum pace… too slow or too fast and It’s just tiring.) Did a hi-five and left my buddy behind to catch the runners who were running my pace… ran past people’s association and into east coast. Met quite a few friends along the way. But most of them had started walking and I couldn’t run with ‘em. Hit the half marathon mark feeling good in a time of 1h 52 ish minutes. Into east coast I felt good. Most of my motivation along the way was overtaking almost everyone… Only one guy evaded me… This guy wearing OCS AHM running team ’04 attire. Funny cos I was wearing ’03 attire, but I met him later. Headed past the seven eleven/ macs area where there were a hellava lot of cheer leaders and loud music and people giving out bananas and bottles of water! Got a banana which I took one bite of and threw away cos di’nt feel like eating it. Mind u I’m running while doing this! The loud music was refreshing and gave me renewed energy to continue. U just feel this spurt of energy, dunno whether it’s adrenaline or what but it’s a good feeling. Sped down East coast and turned just before the hawker centre. Along the way back down East coast i ran after this guy in a grey vest… That dude set the pace. Dunno what happened in the end though cos I was too shagged to realize whether I overtook him or he had left me behind after we exited East coast. Exited east coast at the 33km mark and realized that I there was only 9 more kilometers! I was going to do it… But I felt super strained at this point. Twas what they call hitting the wall… Your muscles have run out of energy and just don’t wanna work anymore. Your body has to switch metabolism and start burning fat and muscles for energy. You feel numb and like u don’t have legs but u just push on… Luckily there were plenty of people slowing down and thus to over take! Haha.
Met quite a few commandos acting like marathoners with “ Army marathoner” on the back of their vests. Thinking of how these bitch’s treated Kumaran at Ranger course and their apparent arrogance I delighted in overtaking them. But at fort road one of em overtook me… He had a tattoo on his back. My aim shifted to overtaking him. Met that OCS dude at 35km. He was massaging his thigh… must have started cramping badly. We cheered each other and I moved on. Both of us had OCS on our back and shared a common bond eventhough I’ve never seen him before, that of being in the AHM team. 36km… Met that commando dude with the tattoo. He had slowed down like hell… Felt quite happy leaving him in my dust! I was thinking like , “For Kumaran and infantry!”. HAHAHA! Felt sooo good! And so I trudged on… The kilometers seemed like forever and u just felt like collapsing. Was feeling really hot now… the sun burning what seemed like a few metres above! Every water point I drank a bit and splashed the rest of the contents over my head. U don’t have any idea how good that felt! Seriously like one of those running advertisements!
Went past national stadium... There were quite a few buggers who kept on sprinting and stopping, sprinting and stopping. Very annoying I tell you. Just ignored them and went on…3 KM left… Went through some park. Just felt like it would never end at this point. Almost tripped and fell on a loose stone on the pavement but managed to maintain balance. But the heavy landing caused my knee to hurt… Happy! Now must deal with knee too… like the burning muscles were’nt enough! 2KM left, had my last bottle of water and splashed more on my head, this time drenching myself. I told myself… Last kilometer I’ll stride and end really fast… Was pure mental now. But just as I hit the 1 KM mark, my right calf badly cramped! Happy! So near and this has to happen. But I did’nt want to stop. So I flexed my ankle keeping my calf stretched and half limped half ran. Every now and then I tried to stride but it just kept on cramping. Past esplanade… 500 more metres. I just wanted to sprint all the way. I always end fast… It feels good. But the cramp prevented me. Last 200 m! Infront of city hall… Heard the M.C. and music and just told myself, screw the cramps… So I sprinted and then both my legs cramped! HAPPY! Haha, so I limped- ran the last part. Felt like Terry Fox I tell you! 3H 55MIN it said but the net time (Using the transponder we put on our shoes, they can calculate the actual time you took, given that it took quite a few minutes to reach the actual start line at the beginning I have a net time less than 3 h 55 min)
After that I exchanged my electronic chip thingy for my medal and finisher T-shirt and continuously cramped for half an hour… Trying to stretch in between cramps… Recovered my bag from the baggage handling section and took a seat in the field ( They put plastic chairs all over the place) Sat there and cramped somemore while waiting for my running buddy and other frenz. Somehow there was salt on my arms. Then I realized… That all that sweat had evaporated in the hot sun… so much of which that the salt in the sweat had crystalised! It was real salt! Weird! Wiped myself with my towel and sat there and waited. People who finished were lying down on the field sleeping/ sun bathing! I fell asleep sitting there too! 1 hour passed before i managed to meet my friends, they all finished at around 5 hours! My running buddy is a toot! He took so long! Why? Cos he went for the free massage at the end point! We took quite a few photos. One of which is below…
My running buddy, Albert and me infront of city hall.
After that we relaxed for another hour or sooo, Albert refused to move! We were supposed to go have a mammoth lunch afterwards but when we finally moved... Albert was in too much pain to go anywhere, so he took a cab back and i trudged back home myself.
Today i did something unimaginable a few years ago... Today i ran without stopping even once, not for water points, not for eating a banana, not even for cramps. Today i did something amazing, today i ran 42.195 KM.
posted by nesh at 6:21 PM
6 Comments:
that was way long. Anyways, gd job on the marathon!
whoa loong entry =)
so super proud of u!!in awe at the same time.
all hail the running king...
wow! COngratulations nesh, you must be really proud of yourself. Congrats for beating that tatoooed commando guy... I could never have the determination to do something like this. =P
eyeknee
easy peesy! =)
who the hell is eyeknee?!
isn't that pronounced 'love' in chinese?
Thanks guys! Dhash eye knee is ainie who is your TJ friend's sister? Toot!
Yups this blog is kinda only for my close friends to see so i don't tell anybody much bout it though it's public. I saw so many St. John's dudes/dudettes during the run though i prefer the cheerleaders! Hahaha.
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