06 December 2009

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon and 1/2 Marathon 2009

87:34 chip time..

Distance was 21.3k by GPS, passing 21.1k in 86:5x. Quite sure the race distance is close to accurate since normally GPS overstates by 100-200m as runners will not take the shortest pathway as envisaged by the race measurer.

Not sure whether the result is better than my current PB in Melbourne which is 87:05. Today's timing is 30 seconds slower. Temperature was 24c with 95% humidity, while the race in Melbourne was around 10c and relatively dry conditions. Also I did a couple more drink stops to re-hydrate which cost 5-10 seconds each (sadly, I couldn’t drink on the run, hence I walked in order to drink properly). The course was also harder than Melbourne which included 500m-long steep hill (ECP).

But who knows…

But again self-conviction was probably the main culprit. I felt strong but just didn’t have the guts to push. Splits for 5k were: 19:48, 20:36, 20:52, 21:13, and 5:05 for the last 1.3k of whatever. (10k splits were 40:24, 42:05). The first 5k was probably a tad too fast in hindsight but there were 2 pretty long gradual downhill (av 3:58 for the 5k). Next 5k included a 500m hill and it broke me down, but pace wise was still okay averaging 4:07s for this segment. After that I was basically ‘locked’ into a cruising pace for the second half. Although, I wasn’t struggling but I just couldn’t find the guts to shift to a higher gear. Since the 21k was a side-event to the marathon, there were not many runners and I was virtually running alone the whole way. Ran the next 10k at around 4:10+ pace and was simply cruising until I picked it up a bit in the last k. As can be seen in the km splits below, my HR was hovering at 170s between km 3 – 20. I was simply locked into a twilight zone and felt afraid to fail. I felt that I still had a lot left in the tank at the finish, but what the heck, the race is already over.

All in all, I am pretty okay with the result, only 30secs slower than Melbourne (I am only good at cool weather runs) and beat my Singapore best timing for the distance by a full minute. So, I feel that I am on the improve fitness wise. Habing said that, I still need to work hard next year to do sub-3.

My lingering issue is just poor race execution. Probably started too fast (albeit downhill start), but the main problem is simply too much aversion towards pain. Perhaps I should do more races during the build-up to GCM in order to practice pacing, drinking on the run, and more importantly, to increase pain tolerance and the will to push myself.

On the elite level, today’s cool weather for Singapore standard (24c, 90+% humidity, wind) resulted in course record to be broken. Luke Kibet, defending champ and 2007 World Championship gold medalist (2:08 PB) won it in 2:11 and brought home US$35k + appearance fees.


Km splits according to GPS and HR:

3 50 158
4 0 167
3 47 170
4 1 171
4 10 169
4 3 170
4 12 170
4 5 170
4 7 171
4 9 171
4 9 172
4 14 171
4 7 173
4 11 174
4 11 173
4 14 175
4 16 174
4 16 176
4 12 177
4 15 177
4 6 181
59 183

Chip time: 87:34
Position: 19th overall out of 9794, 17th Men out of 6371, 7th AG 35-39 out of 1122

Results link

7 comments:

Epi said...

Well done Sling,

I'd agree that equates to a better run than your PB, although in the long term only the times will be considered.

I think you are correct about needing to learn to push yourself a bit more. Races help, but I've found you can do the same in training. Two changes I've made in this regard are 1. The longer tempo/ subtempo runs up to 20k without a stop preferably or only a very brief one at halfway. 2. Not stopping at all on recovery runs. Especially when my body feels shot I used to take a break on my 10k recoveries. In the last 6 months I try to make a point of running these through no matter what, and trying to focus on what hurts and view it with some degree of detachment. This seems to have worked for me to some extent.

Happy Christmas to the family!

Epi

Clown said...

Congrats Sling on a Singas pb. Agree that it is better than the Melb effort and also think doing more races is a good tactic to practice things such as drinking etc.

Keep up the good work.

trailblazer777 said...

Well done! Have to agree thats a superior effort than in Melbourne.
Some good splits there especially early on. Agree you can go harder. the heart rates suggest that too to me...probably should be able to hold onto high 170's most of the way...i think a fast 20k run in training maybe 2-3 times will help.
Tapering and periodising, rest important. Practise drinking on the run during training. some progress there, just need to be a bit more PRE-ish mentally (do it in training some days, and it will be easy on race day, maybe even some psyching up music before race?) and fine-tune a few things, and the big breakthrough will come...going well. Oh and I want to see lots of links in your posts now...hahaha

Unknown said...

Hi Sling, nice meeting you before the race. Managed to took some photos of you. You want me to email to you?

Ewen said...

I agree with the others Sling - probably worth a high 84, low 85 on an easy course in cool, still conditions.

Not sure how many you can do (or Sean advises), but more short races in the 3k - 8k range would help. You can always push higher into pain in a race than in training. I especially like 3k, as the intensity is very high (pain happens quickly), so quite a bit different to longer races. Also, recovery is much faster from short races - one recovery day and you're back into it.

Anonymous said...

Hey! Congrats (:
Btw what GPS device are you using?

Sling Runner said...

Running addict, I wear Garmin 305