Cleared my 2007 IPPT window period today. Glad I didn’t get that pass with incentive like what I’ve got my previous year. Not that I’ve actually taken IPPT at other camps or even the Safra gyms, but I come to appreciate the route at Maju as well. I always like doing my IPPT in there, the running route there is very much better and flat.

Good thing it didn’t rain today, recalling my last 2 desperate visits the previous year being always pouring with rain and last minute cancellations of the 2.4km run, but not this time round.

As usual, the station which always pulls my result back will have to be my standing board jump, the only one with 3 points. I did one jump in Mizuno wave creation 8, giving 221cm, but other 2nd jump in my Asics DS trainer gave that additional few centimeters to secure my silver at 225cm, besides haivng double the incentive just like my active days. This goes to show how shoe length can play is shaving off the cms, in my case wear smaller light weight racers and switch back to your larger cushioning shoe for the remaining stations.

I am still surprised how did I jumped so low today, 230+ was not a problem for me before, strange. It may be borged, but I won’t blame the electronic IPPT machine for giving my such low scores, after all a bad carpenter blame his tools.

I like to always talk about and emphasize that, standing board jump is all about technique and nothing much on muscles explosiveness, despite what it’s defined technically to test. Actually knowing the right way to launching positions your feet on the landing have up to 70-80% more effect than muscular strength, which the average physically fit person will have more than enough of. The best way to train to to keep jumping. Generally I do that midway my long runs in the park, so your body will get it’s locomotion and sync more adapted when you need too, contrary to doing it only once a year for many…

Mmmm Silver, come to think about it, I will still get a silver even if I get 5 points for all stations, as a timing of 9:45 and below is required for Gold in the army. Getting Gold for your napfa in school at the same standard will only give you a Silver in the army!

And now to restart the counter for the new year!

Here we have it, the 2nd official international marathon in Singapore for the 2008 season. Part of the Uniquely Singapore experience starting from the city to the west north up to Mandai. From what I see, the run will be rather scenic and cooling around the water catchment areas (mandai) so be prepared for a rather nice run away from the city wilderness.

However, due to the start/finish in the city (Bugis) be prepared to run along crowded city routes at the end with possible Deja-vu(s) of incomplete road closures just like Sheares Bridge Run AHM 06 (brrrrr!). Nevertheless a welcome to the many marathons lined for our running calender this year!

Event Details
Date : Sunday, 29 June 2008
Eligibility :No qualifying times required. Everyone is welcome!
Race Categories : Open to all runners, in-line skaters & athletes with disabilities of all ages
Start Times: 4 am or 6 am (different waves of start times depending on best marathon times of participants)
Field Size Limit: 10,000 participants (from Singapore and overseas)

Categories
50km Ultra Marathon
Full Marathon: 42.195 km
Half Marathon: 21.1 km
2km/5km/10km RunTeam (6-8 participants)
Kids Marathon (below age of 13 years old): 1 km which is run on Marathon Day ASEAN YOUTH*

*To promote an exchange of youths among ASEAN. Promising youths from ASEAN will be given travel and accommodation awards to come to Singapore for the Lion City Marathon and vice versa for Singapore youth.

Invited AthletesInternational elite athletes will be invited and sponsored to come to Singapore to conduct marathon clinics and to participate in the Lion City Marathon. This will assist our local athletes to step up from national to international level.

Entry Fees
Will be announced in due course

Race Route
The Lion City Marathon aims to attract tourists to discover Uniquely Singapore. Hence the marathon is held in conjunction with the Great Singapore Sale, Singapore Food Festival and the Youth Festival. The marathon course is designed to showcase Singapore抯 places of interest in the West and in the North. Start and finish will be at Bugis Junction (open field opposite Raffles Hospital and Bugis MRT). The route will go by Esplanade, Fullerton Hotel, Singapore Cruise Centre, World Trade Centre, Singapore Maritime Showcase, Sentosa, Mount Faber, Cable Car Station, Har Par Villa Dragon World, Ming Village, Singapore Science Centre, Japanese Garden, Chinese Garden, Tang Dynasty City, Jurong Reptile Park, Jurong Bird Park, Kranji War Memorial, Mandai Orchid Gardens, Singapore Zoological Gardens/Night Safari (Ah Meng will be cheering for you), Boat Quay. Route will eventually be certified by the Association of International Marathon and Road Races (AIMS)

Registration
First-come, first-served basis. Online and in-person registration will be available in due course. In anticipation of overwhelming response from local and overseas participation, we encourage you to email info@lioncitymarathon.com to express your interest.

Race Pack Collection
Race Entry Pack can be collected at the Fitness for Life Expo at Bugis Junction from Thursday 26 to Saturday 28 June 2008 on presentation of photo ID and confirmation card. Participants will receive a special Race Entry Pack which consists of commemorative singlet, Race BIB number, a championChip (returnable) and heaps of other goodies. All finishers will receive a Finisher抯 medal and a Personalized Race Certificate.

More Event Info

Behold Singapore’s first marathon for the 2008 season! And looks like Formula 1 is not the only one racing at night for now! The route will take on the spanking new East-North park connectors with 42km under the belt in one loop (hint hint) and 2 loops for the 84km ultra marathon.

It had been time that we get a decent non-repeating marathon route around Singapore Yea! Only time will tell whether hivelocity will organize a good event up to runners expectations, especially the crowd and baggage collection area (hint hint).

“Take part in the event as an individual in the Marathon category or take on the challenge of the Ultra-Marathon in the first ever night marathon in Singapore.”

Race Details
Date: 31st May 2008
Distances : 21km, 42km, 84km
Start Time: Early Morning- Varied (To Be Confirmed)
Venue: East and North East, Singapore

Categories

Runner’s Entitlements
Each participant of the Sundown Marathon will receive:
-Athlete’s Circle Visor
-More coming up shortly…

Each finisher of the Sundown Marathon will receive:
-A Sundown Marathon Finisher Medal
-A Sundown Marathon Finisher Certificate

Registration
Online Registration (Credit Card payment)

In Person (Cash and Cheque payment)

Bulk Registration
Gather a group and take part in the Sundown Marathon together. For bulk registration enquiries, please email to info@hivelocity.com.sg.

More Event Info

Guess I just caught the Christmas bug a little earlier than usual, nevertheless Merry early Christmas greetings everyone! it’s the season to be merry now with greetings and a happy new year to come! It’s all parties, Christmas gifts, cards and the spirit of giving now. Man do I love this time of the year…

I believe it’s also the time again to reflect on the year’s happenings, achievements and make our upcoming resolutions. And better don’t let be the all common “aim to lose weight” or “exercise more” or “earn more money”, well if one of your resolutions is the “be more creative”.

On sporting events, there are quite alot of runs coming up next year. I am already planning my 2008 calendar with the most interesting thing being 3 marathons coming up for the year of 2008 contrary to a single official one this year! Will it be interesting:

Inaugural Lion City Marathon 2008, 29 June 2008 – Mandai Area, Distance: 42km
Sundown Night Marathon 2008, 31 May 2008 – Singapore East Park Connectors, Distances : 42km, 84km (2 rounds)
Singapore Marathon 2008 (Date December 2008, Day TBC) – City and East coast

I would like to run more these weeks, but didn’t do so much of the the last week mainly due to projects piling up (besides the weather as well) and of course, having to rush my final year project for the SP 2008 exhibition and open house in the white main Tentage as well. If do, do pop by the Singapore Polytechnic public open house from the 10-12 January to say hi and try out my Final year motion simulator project in action! In the meantime I need to get some rest over tomorrow as my hands are all sore form all the metal work over the last few days (despite it being a school holiday). But man did we make lots of cool stuffs!

Wishing Selamat Hari Raya Haji going to all our Muslim friends out there, and enjoy your public holiday tomorrow everyone!

Well the rain had been continuously pouring down these days, the weather is great but dampened are always my planned runs in the evening, which always so coincidentally pours around my usual 5-6pm running periods. The mornings though are much drier and pretty much cooler as well, only that I have have to be in school at that time or simply just can’t wake up early enough to see my weekend mornings.

Set another well… personal feat last Saturday with my longest non-hydrated run. Well though it’s nothing something to brag about considering that I might actually be a fool possibility killing myself running myself dry.

But maybe it’s more of a personal challenge of seeing how far I can go- with lots of pre-run hydration before the run, I actually managed to run a full half-marathon without any experiencing any signs thirst or discomfort at all (possibly an excuse of cutting myself off from waterpoints during races). Come to think about it, elite runners seldom hydrate, only with about 1-2 points for a full marathon.

Back on my run, so I was like running at the 16km mark and it was like “hey why not explore the new Alexandra park connector quote leading up to Queensway?” before I know it I was covering 18km when done. Then it was like “so why not just bump it up to 20km and beyond for the full 21km?”.

It’s a thrill to run in such cold whether now, you will never ever feel very tried or encounter excessive perspiration these days, it’s always cooling and windy throughout the run, nice, minus the rain… when it does when you least want it to.

Was around the esplanade area yesterday, I never thought that I would myself back at the hot spot so soon as I was very much recovered and walking around normally. The area was left very much in the shadow of the big event the day before, with barricades still lined all round the roads, alone excavator doing roadworks in the park and empty tents left bare and to be stripped by the contractors around the area. A contrast to the bustle before.

Reading on the post marathon report on the papers, it seems that our defending champion, Amos Tirop Matui (Bib No.1) from Kenya was a bit disappointed with an alleged group that blocked him around the 36km mark, widening the gap between him and the leaders of the race. It was also around that distance where his very own pacer, Elijah Mbogo felt that he could push on and finish remainder of the race, completing in a record 2.14.23 and a full 2 seconds ahead of his teammate at 2.14.25.

As the rules allows, Elijah was a fully registered participant and is fully liable to be paid the full winning sum of $25,000 despite his pacer role in the race. Amos didn’t lose sorely as well, despite being the the favorite saying he will claim his title back next year, taking back the 2nd $15,000 prize money. As it goes, unlike in Formula 1 there can always be the winners where we least expect it, or let be the underdog like Elijah who initially saw himself as no-one but just a pacer in his homeland, well that didn’t stop him from winning his second lifetime marathon.

The marathon pavement hazard?

Singapore durains

Camera test

Anyway back to this entry, being out at the event area again was also a good time to fully test my N95 8GB with the scenery around the area, with some neat shots and at the same time recap some of the happenings which I left out in my previous marathon race report. Anyone remember the stoned pavement nearing the finish just before the esplanade bridge underpass? I think that was one of the biggest hazards having to run on, your feet can be caught the stones or you can risk and ankle sprain there. The rubber mats covering the tiled pavements didn’t fully cover them all at well, as elaborated in the photo above.

Update!
- Race results are out! (select your category from the link)
- Marathon Photos (coming soon)

The Standard Chartered Marathon (SCM) was on this morning and this year’s race is no exception, considering the last race for the season with Stand Chartered as the title sponsor. You can’t deny that 42km is not an easy feat but that didn’t stop a total of more than 40,000 runners from signing up for today’s event.

Early morning
There are a large variety of transport options, despite the absence of bus and train services early in the morning. You can make your way to the venue by taxi, private transport (carparks in the area are open 24hours) or by official shuttle service (pre-booked) at the race expo ($3) or paid on the spot ($5). I personally took the 4.30am shuttle bus at Delta Sports Complex and technically you can even board the bus even without showing (or having) your ticket! Baggage deposit was rather disappointing, which I will touch on in a later part.

Marathon route terrain & weather
The marathon route is generally flat throughout and takes roughly the same route as last year, so I won’t touch on much about that, the lane width for most parts of the race are adequate and wide, even at the east coast areas, making full use of both the biking and pedestrian walkways for the 2 way traffic.

Finish line

Route up to finish

Old supreme court

The weather for today’s race was excellent- it did not rain yet it was constantly cooling and windy through the wee mornings, even up to about 8am plus. That helped much in preventing excessive water loss for everybody in the early part of the race. I personally did not perspire much at all till the Sun came up fully at around 9am.

Waterpoints & Route facilities
Very commendable are the water points this year, there are always ready cold ice-mountain water and 100-plus at every water point, don’t ask me how they do it even with no visible chillers, ice or freezer trucks in sigh, only ice boxes of stacked mineral water, yet it’s always cold when you need it. We runners also can appreciate the organizers in stationing additional water points in critically hot sunny areas along the route (such as the kallang route towards national stadium), it goes to show how flexible can they be.

There are 2 portable pottys stationed at every waterpoint, which came as a welcome for all runners and not having to “hold up” to the known toilet areas along the route (e.g. east coast park which is remarkably not packed with runners), guess that really did lighten the toilet queues through the race. Deep heating stations are aplenty this time as they are manned by the SCM volunteers themselves, contray to Deep heating own staff members. There is only one powergel station this year, manned by powerbar themselves. There are banana kiosks at the 20km mark and many more nearing the finish, largely notable by banana peels all over the place which didn’t post much of a hazard. The spray tunnel tunnel came very much as a bonus to many, but not that the mist can actually reach/cool you down physically at all or directed away by the wind.

Baggage deposit/collection
The baggage deposit in the morning was terribly long, with queues snaking from the tentage all to the underpass. And mind them it’s not exactly fast moving at all. It’s not as if I had to put up with the queue myself but I believe many started the race late after having to put up with the it. Having a single main line actually acts as a bottleneck and not utilizing the other pens who are waiting at idle until the earlier pens are all filled, they should have dedicated independent queue lines to each pen based on the runner’s tag number so the lines will be more spaced out and accumulated. Another confusing thing is the need for another printed tag number on top of your bib number, is it really necessary?

Baggage tents

Refreshments & rest tent

Massage area

The organisers also made a mistake in condorning so much of the baggage area off, making it very difficult to access the area. The long pre-race toilet queues are exceptional as well, but you can still make use of the toilets in the surrounding areas (I used marina square), provided if they are accessible and not locked.

Post race events and facilities
Complete your race and be greeted by an array of tents and carnivals at the Padang. There is nothing much for adults which the exception of massage (the massage was great! 1st time going for it) and large admin/rest area, but for kids there are lots of play areas, not to mention large walking spheres, bungee and “spirit of marathon” painting competitions. There are also performances by various school military bands, not to mention face off between the run-aspirator performing teams at the stage (the percussion drums team clad in green were the champions).

Children art booth

Stage performances

Kids play area

We have a winner!
With the exception of a few hour delay for results and prize presentation by the organisers, congrats to our SP’s 10km relay team for coming in 3rd for the Mixed 10km Relays!

3rd on the podium

Our winning team

10km mixed 3rd medal

So how did I do?
Personally I found this year’s marathon very relaxing and enjoyable to run especially in the early part of the race (<25km), but my timing this year did not say likewise- it is in fact 15mins slower than my last year’s timing of 4hours 40minutes. I did not walk as much this year and kept to an average pace of about 9.5km/h for most parts of the run. I think the greatest thing I lack from LSD runs is speed, which could actually improve my timing further.

Looking at some factors which could possibly slowed me down, I did stop by a visit to the first aid asking for plasters, but was offered vaseline by the auntie there instead for nipple abrasions (duh) which I found out when applied in generous amounts works wonders! I did not visit any toilets at all but chatted with few old friends along the route, so give and take for the considerable longer times.

The thing which really bugged me is a cramp which came up at my right quads at the last 2km when I was picking up the pace, it’s disappointing knowing that the finish is so near, yet you have to force yourself to stop and walk/stretch before picking up the pace again. Overall I cleared the line at about 5hours guntime, so my actual timing can be around 4:45 to 4:50. My calibrated distance measurement read 45km+ when I crossed the line, could straying off track for stretching and not cutting corners really turn in more than 42.192km?

In a better light, the other wonderful thing about this year’s race would be my shoes, never before I’ve ran more than 20km without a single blister at all (not to mention blackened toenails too)! Now I come to realize that my Mizuno is a perfect fitting shoe for me. My previous DS trainer for last year’s race, though very much lighter was very cramped at the toes, not suited for my wider foot type.

Nevertheless I was a finisher, and I guess that is what most people are more than satisfied with! I left the place around 1.30pm and there are still a handful of runners still finishing the marathon, amazing!

Weight for thought
Last but not least, to go with the SGrunner’s line of “running away the weight” here are some interesting measurements I’ve recorded prior and after the race Oregon Scientific Body analysis Scale, who says you can’t loose weight by running? Here’s the prove from myself!

I’ve never got below 10% for body fat before, it goes into saying that even with a week’s of gull glycogen store it won’t stop the body from going emergency into the fat stores to sustain the calorie requirement. Whats more I’ve crossed my 1000km mark for this year!

>> SCM 2007 Photo Album

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Tomorrow is the big day for all running the event held at the all prominent Padang and Esplanade. Let it be another finish in your pocket or a first for many as well, this year’s race will be hopefully be better and more memorable (in a positive manner) considering it’s Stand Chart last official year of the season as the title sponsor. This will be my third officially registered marathon to date and my biggest run of the year to date. I ran last year’s race at 4hours 40mins, so I am looking to either maintain or better my run time this year.

My Race Strategy
Since I will have my running computer with me, I will be able to gauge my pace throughout the whole run rather than doing on-the-spot mental calculations base don elapsed time and distance from the markers. I will keep to 10km/h for the first 15km before going down to 8-9km/h for 25-35km, which is usually the most mentally hardest “mid-way” zone (so far into the race to give up, but yet still not anywhere close to finish).

I will fully adopt the run/walk tactic over this distance and replenish most of my fluids at this time (a good gauge is to drink every 2-3 water stations and NOT to feel thirsty at all- the slightest feel of thirst is an indication of dehydration). I will “store up” till the 35km mark and pick up the pace to 10km/h for final finish for the remaining kilometers. It is known that this method is faster (and less demanding) than a continuous slow jog. My target finish time is a sub 4hour 30mins marathon.

Some race admin pointers to take note for those running:

• Baggage deposit will be far at the war memorial corner, in front of raffles one link, leave your baggage tag on your bib.
• The route will more of less be the same as the last, with the exception of this year having fewer powergel stations
• Kilometer markers are on at every 1km
• The U-turn will still be at the rather scenic lagoon area at east coast.
• Water points every 1.5km
• Deep heating “squirt” stations every 3.5km after 7.5km mark
• Padang finish past the esplanade
• SGrunners photo taking session will be on at the Centotaph

Remember to bring some spare cash & your NRIC just in case (touches wood) for identification purposes. Some other good items to bring will be a small roll of black tape which can be rather invaluable when bundling up blisters (and ummm nipple abrasions) which can pop up at any time. I would be running wiht my Mizuno Wave Creation 8 which is a rather good fitting shoe for me I can say- 15-20km runs and no blisters at all (tested on this year’s AHM) think my previous Asics DS-trainer I wore last year was quite ill-fitting at the toes sprouting blisters at the 25km mark. I hope to go blister free this year, just stay clear of spilling any watre on your shoes and you will be fine.

I can picture myself in less than 24 hours time man! doing the part of the greatest race on earth and feeling great after that 42km. Now all I got to do is to actually sleep before 10am tonight and wake up 3.30am on Sunday without feeling shitty.

I will get my race report up after maybe possibility resting throughout the rest of Sunday.

Wish all a good race tomorrow and take care!