SHEARES BRIDGE RUN & ARMY HALF MARATHON ON 11 SEPTEMBER 2005 BY LIM FANG HAU (POSTED ON PM 25 BLOG ON 12/9/2005)

This was my worst half marathon since started taking part in races. The race started at the Esplanade Bridge in Singapore, the starting point for Singapore Marathon 2004 in which I ran the half marathon category. There were more than 5,000 participants. According to Shirlyn Tay (“ST”), most of the participants were members of the Singapore Armed Forces, being compulsorily asked to participate.The race started at 5.45 am. After running for more than 6km and passing through the Benjamin Sheares Bridge with the distance of approximately 2km, I reached the East Cost Park. From there my body started to feel something different especially at 8km mark. I felt overheating in my body and the weather from the beginning was too humid with no wind blowing at all. This was totally different from my usual training and running races in other places where I could experience some cooling effect of the morning breeze before experiencing the heat from the sun. There were too many runners having the same standard like me. I found myself difficult to set a fast pace as I was running quite close with the large pack of runners. The distance was quite close to each other. The route was narrow in the East Coast Park. East Coast Park reminded me of the cycling experience in October 2003. At that time, I cycled the entire East Coast Park with a mountain bike.My body kept producing the sweat and I felt something was not right in this kind of weather of high humidity. Normally, my body will start to feel the effect of overheating if running under the sun but at this time the sun has yet to rise at 6.30 am. I just continued running until reaching the 10km mark before turning. At that point of time, the Deejay announced that 9 more km to go. I was puzzled as my watch showed 56 min+. I could not be running for 12km under this time as I was following the distance marker closely. Based on my usual pacing, I covered more than 10km. Later, I saw the marker of 11km and I was blurred weather to follow the Deejay announcement or the distance marker ? I just continued my run. Later I my mind as blurred, as I as running in an unfamiliar route under the humid weather condition. I just could not focus running properly. My 15km split time was 1 hr 33 min+ as I was not sure weather this was the correct distance marker. At 16km mark, I started to hit the wall and I had to walk and run towards the finishing line.The race was well organised with 17 refreshment stations. This was like running a full marathon. After the race, I only realised that runners need this much of water due to the humid weather condition as runners tend to lose much sweat before the sun rises. After 16km mark, my body felt quite heavy and I could not run in my usual pace. I finished the race with a timing of 2 hr 23 min 29.52 sec with a finisher medal and a certificate. The cut off time for the competitive event was 2 hr 45 min. The organiser must have known that runners will be struggling with this kind of humid weather. Although, I did badly, I did not regret for not running in Putrajaya as I will treasure it as a learning experience of running under the humid weather condition for the first time. This run serves as a preparation for my Singapore Full Marathon. Part of the route, especially the East Coast Park will be used in the full marathon in December 2005. Please do not expect me to hit sub 5 hr for the Singapore marathon. This is not Songkhla. It is going to be very tough running under the humid weather condition and under the scorching sun in December as the race will start at 6 am. I’ll be happy if I can finish the marathon under 6 hours.