Well, at least it had better be temporary.
This morning, I woke up bright and early to take part in the Singapore Marathon along with 29,999 other insane runners, two of whom were Popartgirl and the boyfriend. Yes, the boyfriend had risen from the deep recesses of his couch and descended upon the Padang clad in his Nike gear and adidas shoes. Watch out, world!
The staggered starting times was a great idea since it essentially cut the 10km crowd by half. Although there was still a lot of side stepping and zig zag running to push through the people who were walking, it wasn’t as terrible as last year’s experience.
I started out strongly, feeling as if I was pushing harder than I did during the Great Eastern Women 10k run. The first two kilometres came and went rather quickly. The lactic acid started setting in around the 4km mark and I slowed down to a slow and steady pace.
But really, time flies by after the halfway mark and I just kept going, going. When I hit the 8km mark, it suddenly felt as if I had new legs again and I upped my pace. The chills hit me towards the end and it spurred me on to sprint to the finishing line.
My provisional time was 70 minutes, which is a tad disappointing since I was hoping to at least match the previous 65 minutes. But I suppose the huge crowd had made it that much harder to run. I am now paying the price for the sprinting though. Pulled muscles in areas that are so strange and bizarre (ie the right hip and right inner thigh), I can’t walk properly and require Salonpas plasters. Midway, the ridiculously high arch on my right foot started aching and it added pressure on my ankle and knee because I was over-compensating.
So that concludes my running for the rest of the year. NO MORE RUNNING. It’s time to chill and enjoy my Combat, Pump and Yoga classes.
God knows how hard running that 10km is for me, I can’t imagine how the Superb Singapore Fembot Running Machine AKA Topo can run 21km in 2 hours and 7 minutes. Is that woman powered by 200 AA batteries or something?
As for next year, we will see. I had thought that this would be the last race of my life but the runner’s high just keeps me going. On the other hand, the aches and pains caused by the high arch is getting to be quite a dread.
Anyhow. So long 2006, erm maybe 2007!
Yannisms 