July has come. First July goal : Gold Coast marathon. Status : check! Next July goal : eat/drink weekend in Taipei.
My first overseas full marathon and I'm happy it all came together despite my lack of a focused build up in training. If not for a morale-boosting 5 hour/39km run 3 weeks before race day, I had thought all is lost with the GC marathon. Thanks to the coach for a great run route through Marina barrage. Prior to that, I was barely running beyond 22km for LSDs.
It wasn't just my training plan that was messy, my packing was messy too (literally threw stuff in bag) and we changed flights plans repeatedly, up to the last minute, which touched some raw nerves. All very unsettling indeed.
Thankfully once there, all was good. Weather stayed fine and cool, made some new friends and it was nice chatting/eating and drinking copious amounts of wine before and after the race. Traveling companion who is Krisflyer Gold is very nice too. Queue - what queue? And having free food in a lounge is the correct way to travel!
And we all had good races! The baby flying elephant ran 2 very fast races - 10km and 21km the very next day. Very good morale boosters for someone coming back from a back injury.
Coach's game plan was to go with the 3:30 pacers. He stayed with them until the 36km mark when tendon/ligaments/muscles gave up on him. I first saw him at the 36km mark, waved at him from the other side. Next I saw him, he was sitting on a wall at the 40km mark, where he promptly jumped down and ran alongside me. I assumed he had finished and came back for me. I outran him and went through the finish line without waiting for him - cannot go through finish line twice right? Wrong! Apparently, his leg seized up around the 36km mark, he managed to hobble until he fell over totally immobile for half an hour. No race medic went to his aid :( He sat there until I came along. Finished behind me despite a fantastic first 36km. Fortunately no bodily damage other than disappointment.
The new running friends we made all clocked personal best times (PBs). All is well!
My game plan was to go with the 4:30 pacers and try to stay with them as long as I can - no confidence in my training buildup. So I started with the pacers but it was congested - too many people like to run within sight of the pacers. Got tired of jostling one another, at 5km I ran ahead of the pacers, felt strong, kept going until I caught sight of the 4:15 pacers! Then I stopped for a pee break, and slowed a little to pace myself better.
Everyone was saying, you can score a PB because of the better weather on the Gold Coast, methinks you can score a PB only if you are well trained! Cos I totally felt the strain, just that I kept pushing, focus on my striding.... By 28-32km, the wall hit me bad. I tried to shake off the tiredness and focus on using my butts, but not enough training, even consuming my last gel (7th pack!) wasn't enough. I slowed to a 7:51 pace, dragging along, waiting for the 4:30 pacers to overtake me. And she did! I tagged myself onto her, she said she was going for 4:30 gun time and that the other 4:30 pacer still behind would be chip time. Her pace was sub-6. I lasted 1.5km with her. Weak. Until I saw Alex at 40km. Overall the race was very well organized but perhaps our own Singapore Marathon is better organized! At least we have more medic coverage!
As I crossed the finish line, gun time read 4:27, my watch read 4:26, the official chip time 4:22! I am blown away.
I cannot ask for more. I am grateful for the many blessings Jesus!
You know, I even managed to attend mass on Surfer's Paradise! The new-found friends I met on this trip are stanch Catholics. Even better, there is a Catholic church within walking distance from our hotel (20mins walk) and there is a 6pm sunset mass! 4 of us attended mass. It felt very nice indeed.
My race results and photos :
