Not a PB (about 1 minute slower), but given the temperature differential between Singapore (24-26c, 90% relative humidity) and Western Australian winter (5-10c, <70% humidity), I think the result was comparable or might be better than my running times in Perth.
My confidence was low this morning as I only slept around 2 hours. Watched Liverpool vs M'borrough until around 12, but couldn't sleep until about 2am+. I guess I got excited too much by the race! Woke up at 4:30am, drank a cup of coffee and ate a slice of bread. Left home around 5:15am and jogged 2km to the start point.
Given the crowd size (70,000+ runners doing 21k, 10k, 6k), I went to the start line 30 minutes before the start time. By then probably there were already close to 1000 runners in front of me. Felt like being trapped in a can of sardines but that's the way Singapore races are. Everybody (either fast or slow) always wants to start in front.
At 6:30 the gun went off and I went out at sub 4:10 pace for the first 2k. At km 3, there was a 300-400m bridge and my pace slowed down to 4:25. Passed the 5k marker at 20:44 (av 4:09) and still felt comfortable. After around 7k, my Garmin and the actual distance markers started to show discrepancy. We then went towards the East Coast Park and passed the turnaround point (chip checkpoint) at 9.5k.
Passed the 10k (according to Garmin) in 41:23 (second 5k in 20:39) so still sub 4:10 pace. At this point, my Garmin was 400m ahead of the distance marker and I passed the 10k road marker in 43:00. We now ran on pavement for the next couple of ks before going to the unpaved section of the race route. My pace started to slow down due to the uneven, sandy like surface which was also a bit tilted (the surface wasn't that horizontal). I also began to struggle due to dehydration. Passed the 15k in 62:14 (third 5k in 20:51). The unpaved section seemed to be endless and finally managed to get a drink and took gel at km 16.
We then went back to the paved road at km 16 and my Garmin was still off by 400m to the distance marker. I was suffering for the next 3-4 km and km 15-20 took me 21:16 (4:15 pace). I passed the km 20 marker in 1:23:10 and fortunately, the distance discrepancy was now narrowing to around 200m. Ran km 20-21 in 3:51 and passed the 21.1k mark according to Garmin at 1:27:50. Crossed the finish mat in 1:28:35 with Garmin showed 21.3k. Since I was zig-zaging throughout the run then the total distance should be accurate at 21.1k.
Av HR for the race was 175 bpm of 90% Max HR. Reached a high of 193 bpm while sprinting to the finish.
Thanks for everyone for the advices and good luck messages. Plugging the HM time to McMillan calculator put me in a 3:07 shape for the full marathon. The upside is that Seoul weather is cool at 7-15c, so should be conducive for running. The downside is that we will be on holiday for 12 days and upon returning, I will only have 8 weeks (incl taper) to train.
Splits (according to GPS):
1k - 4:05/155
2k - 4:08/166
3k - 4: 25/169 (300m hill)
4k - 4:02/171
5k - 4:04/168
6k - 4:05/171
7k - 4:12/172 (gel, drink)
8k - 4:05/173
9k - 4:10/175
10k - 4:07/175 (5k split 20:39)
11k - 4:14/175
12k - 4:14/176 (drink)
13k - 4:06/178
14k - 4:07/180
15k - 4:10/180 (5k split 20:51)
16k - 4:19/179 (gel, drink)
17k - 4:16/181
18k - 4:13/182
19k - 4:17/182 (drink)
20k - 4:11/184 (5k split 21:16)
21k - 3:51/188
0.3k - 1:05/191 (according to GPS)
Training this week:
Mon (treadmill):
55mins Easy Run (av 5:17)
2 x 30 torso rotation, 2 x 40 leg swings
Tue:
Off. 30mins massage.
Tried a new masseur. He is from Traditional Chinese Medicine background and used point pressure techniques (different to the rubbing technique in normal sports massages)
Wed (pavement):
13.3k in 62mins (av 4:43 min.km)
Incl. 6k Moderate Pace Tempo @ 4:22 then 3 x 30secs strides
Felt sluggish for some reason and the Tempo run was harder than it should be. The av HR for the tempo run was 167 bpm compared to 169 for a 18k run (3 times the distance) at the same pace two weeks ago. Could be either due to muscle stifness from yesterday's massage or the 89% relative humidity. I hope this is just a temporary and one-off issue.
Thu (treadmill):
45mins Recovery Run (av 5:27)
80 sit-ups
Left knee cap was sore, after yesterday's run on hard pavement.
Friday (road):
45mins Easy Run (about 4:57) incl 4 strides
Garmin showed me running at 4:48 pace, but don't think I ran that fast this morning. Also, half of the run was on a hilly course and it was 90% humidity. Left knee cap sore.
Saturday (pavement):
30mins Easy Run (av 5:16)
5mins stretching
Sunday (road):
2.3k warm up
SAFRA Army Half Marathon in 1:28:33 (av 4:12 pace, 175 bpm) . 13th in Mens Closed (local) category.
2k cool down
http://www.safra.sg/UserFiles/File/SSBR%20&%20AHM%2008%20Results/21km_Men's_Closed_2008.pdf
Total 72.4k for the week, 2284k for the year
5 comments:
Widi, congrats on the run, a fantastic effort, glad to see the hard work has paid off.
Cheers
Given the difference in conditions this one must count as a PB.
And 70,000 people, that's just awesome.
Well done & I'm looking forward to the reports leading up to and of Seoul.
sling,
that's really good.
temperature makes really a great difference (aside from Wanjiru..) and you can imagine to give a shot at sub-3 in Seoul
the McMillian calculator is quite "pessimistic" for the marathon... I found (for myself) that an average between Daniels's formula and McMillan give me the best idea.
And we still have 2 months to go...
That's a good result. The heat/humidity would be worth 2 minutes or so for mere mortals over the half. Wanjiru would have run 2:03:30 had it been cool in Beijing!
Get in the long runs and you'll go well - definitely looking at 3:05-3:10.
Congratulations! Well done! Great to see you back at your best again, be interesting to see how far you can go from here!
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