East and West Running: Strangers In The Night......(Nomi's 1/2 Marathon)

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Strangers In The Night......(Nomi's 1/2 Marathon)

Nomi says,

There we were, thousands of runners gathered at the site of the recent Sundown Marathon in Singapore. And well, except for Joy and Lulu and maybe a few other acquaintances that might have been there, we were literally strangers in the night, all gathered for a single goal...to finish a race, may it be 10kms, 21kms or 42kms.

One reason that we come all the way from wherever we are to run the Sundown, is that the race is very well organized. All traffic is cut off from the race site. Registering just prior to the race is so efficient and barely takes 5 minutes. Plus if the organizers state that there is going to be water stations every 2kms and hydration fluids every 4kms...it will be there. So one can literally just run without a water bottle or even a camelbak.

But, boy was it hot and humid. There wasn't an inkling of a breeze and it was just heat emanating from the tarmac. We were oozing sweat even before the race started at 8pm. For the half marathon, the start off time for the participants were staggered. Those who expected to finish before 2 hours started first, followed by those at 2 hr 15 mins, 2 hr 30 mins and so forth. As usual there was the countdown to the 'blast off' and with a loud blare of some fog horn sounding like thing...the racers took off.

One thing about this course is that it is almost flat. So, it's a very good first race for newbies. Plus it is so well organized that one would be put off future races due to bad organization. The only downside is the hot and humid weather. It really tires one out fast, and you feel like you've run 10kms after only 1.
Throughout the race, i sort of paced with different strangers. If someone was running my pace, i would just follow behind for a few km, then move on to the next person and so forth. Joy was waaaaaaay in front of me and Lulu was somewhere in between. So i ran with strangers and it did help. There was tall , slim bald Indian guy; tall portly silver curly haired Caucasian guy; 2 slim , fit young Chinese girls, super fit 40 something petite lady....and thank you to all these people who helped me stay focused, put one leg in front of the other and just ran....

During this race i choked down a power gel (it tasted really bad) every 50 minutes or so and it really helped. I didn't feel as tired as the last time i ran a half marathon and at every water stop, i poured water over my head and arms. It was really hot and at 10kms or so, i could feel a bad headache coming on. Like my head was going to burst out of the hat i was wearing....However, running this time was easier that the first half marathon. This time, i didn't feel like my joints were going to disarticulate at 18kms, and i had run the distance before so it wasn't that bad.

During the last 2kms or so, parts the path back to the finish line on my side was pitch black. And the full marathoners had started off on their race on the opposite lane. There were these huge stadium lights acting as a backlight for these marathoners. At that point of time i was tired out, probably hypoglycemic and these runners on the opposite lane formed bars of shadows on my side giving it a strobe light kind of effect which was surreal. I felt like i was running, but not moving at all. Towards the last 800m or so, i was running, literally sprinting with this wonderful lady in a pink T shirt by my side. We knew that we were almost at the finish line, so we ran as fast as we could, encouraging each other towards the finishing line. We didn't know each other, never saw each other in our lives, but in that race it didn't matter. There was a spirit of camaraderie and we had a single purpose and it was to finish the race, in good time.

This year i discovered that there were actually statistics for all the runners, and this is mine. I enjoyed this half marathon with my girlfriends and hopefully we will run a full one next year:)