The Race

This half marathon was by far the easiest half marathon I have ever done.  By easy, I mean it was easy on my body and I barely hurt or struggled throughout the whole race.  How does this happen when one trains so little and when running in Singapore humidity??  Well I will say this---when the day of a race comes, you never can predict how it's going to go.  You don't know how your legs are going to behave, if your digestive system is going to cooperate, or if your mental attitude will carry you throughout the 21 Kilometers.  There are several factors that may or may not have contributed to this:

-It started at 5:15am in the morning, so I got up at 3:30am so that I could get a cab at 4:25, pick up my friend and get there by 4:45am.  Since it was so early, I was half asleep and had no time to think or freak out.  It was dark for the first hour and a half (at least) of the race, with very little lighting, so it was almost like you were running in a dream. (kind of)  Many of the trails were not lit very well.  But I rather liked running in the dark with tons of people around me.  It's like no one was watching you, yet everyone is running alongside providing a kind of silent support to help carry you through.

-I took advantage of every water/100 Plus (the Singapore gatorade equivalent) station along the route because I did not want Singapore humidity to kick my butt!  I also used those 10-20 second water breaks to walk as I drank the water, whereas in the past I've always tried to drink it while still running.

-The course was in kilometers instead of miles.  Kilometers are much shorter than miles.  So even though there were more of them, they came much faster than each everlasting mile during the previous half marathons.  Running is more mental than anything in the first place, this only added to it in a positive way.

-I saw the Glee concert movie the night before.  It made me exceedingly happy to watch my favorite characters singing to me in 3D.  I was smiling from ear to ear the whole movie. :-D  It put me in an amazingly positive mood before the big race.  I mean how could you not do anything but smile at this kid who was in the movie.  This little kid performs the songs that the Warblers do on the show and does the exact same dance moves---it is beyond adorable.  For those who are not fellow Gleeks, I apologize for this little stint.  Moving on...

-During the times that I felt I needed to go a little slower to reserve my energy, I picked someone who was running at a slow, steady pace and followed them for awhile.  Thank you to my pacers who have no idea of the huge weight they carried on their shoulders for that 1 kilometer. :)

-Support always helps.  Two of my very dear friends dragged themselves out of bed, one to go to the race at 4:30am to hold my bag and see my off, and the other at 7:30 to see me cross the finish line.  Now that's a true friend.


My wonderful support group!

Overall it was a very calm race and quiet race with small groups playing music every few kilometers.  The 70,000 participants consisted of all the army members (Singapore males are required to serve two years in the service), tens of thousands of the fittest Asians, and a few random fit expats scattered throughout the crowd.  In the previous 3 big races I've done, there have been every age, shape, and size running the half or full marathon.  This crowd was pretty uniform which was interesting to me as an American.

Sweat soaked but happy that I'm not hurting this time!

Results:
Time: 2:37:38
6145th place out of 13221, 46% of runners finished ahead of me
828th place out of 1708 women, 48% of women finished ahead of me
I was ahead of 54% of male runners (that's right fellas, watch out!)
In the final 3K, I passed 133 runners and 53 passed me  
It was the slowest race but I felt the best.  I'll take it! :)