Over the next 2 1/2 months of preparation, I learnt so much through personal experience and running vlogs. Although I've heard it many time before, I've learnt to appreciate the importance of getting the right shoes, to build up the mileage slowly, hydration and nutrition during a long run, setting aside time to rest my body, and warming-up properly. But I have also learnt that everyone is different and some things just don't work for me - eating a breakfast before a run and having to chew something during a long runs.
Three weeks before the race, I managed to do a 31km long run. It made me wonder if it was still worthwhile running the Half-Marathon since I knew that I could complete that distance. In any case, I followed the plan to taper. The subsequent week I reduced my long run to 16km, my last long run before the race. Then I did something radical, I didn't run for an entire week (this is not how you should taper). That was a horrible mistake because I felt lethargic and was breathless when I subsequently did a 5km run. That scared me a bit and so I kept up with the daily 5km runs up until the Friday before the race.
It rained heavily on Saturday morning and the thought did cross my mind to skip the run if it rains on Sunday. Again, it wasn't clear to me what were the strong reasons to run if I knew I could complete the distance. But I reminded myself to finish what I started, especially because the race was what motivated me to train. I told myself that there are surely new things to learn from the experience. I spent the afternoon preparing all the things that I needed for the race. I had to decide which waist pack to use - the simple one which I have been using all along which meant that I would have to hold a water bottle in one hand, or the new waist pack which I haven't run in before but holds 3 small water bottles. The sensible thing would have been to follow what all the vlogs and articles tell you - don't try anything new on race day. I decided I would try out the new waist pack so that I could be hands-free, but I took the precaution of bringing the other waist pack along.
I went to bed early on Saturday but did not sleep well. I wasn't anxious about the poor sleep because that's what all the vlogs tell you. I work up at 3am and was out of the house by 3.30am to avoid being flustered if there are any surprises. There were not many people there yet when I arrived. When I was warming up, I realised that the new waist pack wasn't going to work for me so I went back to the car for the other waist pack. Lesson learnt.
We were flagged-off at 5am and I was about 2 minutes behind the starting line. I kept reminding myself to start slow. Runners where just continuously running pass me, non-stop. Although this was something I completely expected, it was nevertheless a strange sensation. I saw people of different shapes, sizes and age - there was a girl as young as my daughter running with her father; there was a man who looked like he was in his 70s who was so fast; a lady who was walking faster than I was running at the 13km point. I was reminded that there is such thing as a typical runner, and nobody needs to feel like an impostor either.
It was a little emotional when I was running up the Marina Barrage. I recalled about 3 years ago I was jogging there in the morning and noticed that there was a race. At that time, the lymph nodes on the right side of my neck were enlarged but I didn't know that it was lymphoma. To be back here 3 years later doing something that I never thought I had the interest nor the ability to do made me realise that I have come a long way. Thank God for watching over me.
The plan was for me to speed up in the last 5km if I was still feeling good, so I picked up the pace slightly. With 3km to go, I realised that I could finish the race within 3 hours, which I have not been able to do in my long runs. I had to remind myself to be patient and keep up the pace. At the final bend, when I could see the finishing line, I ran as fast as I could. The remaining distance felt a lot longer than it looked. My nett time was 2hrs 45mins. My Samsung watch said that I only ran 18.45km. This is possibly why, based on my long runs timings, I thought it would take me at least 3hrs to complete this race.
I am glad I did the race. Running with thousands others is quite different from a long run on a quiet weekend. There are a lot more distractions but at the same time it is comforting to know that so many people are going through the same challenges. It taught me to trust tapering (so long as I do it correctly), and the importance of sticking to all the golden rules that I have learnt. It was a new experience and I had fun.
