The Accidental Marathon

Early morning 2nd December 2012, I lined up with 17000 runners of the full marathon in front of Mandarin Hotel Orchard Road ready to run the Standard Chartered Marathon - for me, the 5th time. Over the years, the start point has moved - for the better. Orchard Road was decked with Christmas lights and street walkers pranced around with fairies. Nice!

I trained for a total of five weeks for this event. The ultimate goal is still Tokyo in late February and I had been diligent with the Hal Higdon intermediate 1 program. My longest run prior to this was 18km. Rather than pound Sudirman on a 20km run for that weekend, I thought that the SCM would offer welcomed variety. I would do a half marathon and then stop. I ate a hearty breakfast, and with no idea of the route, followed the thousands that were ahead of me - down Stamford Road, looped around town, front of the Esplanade, down Nicoll Highway, and into the ECP. I stopped at most drink stops for a sip and walked a bit. The first 10km was difficult as breakfast was still in the stomach. The next ten was a little tiring.

Then something happened at 21km. I felt completely fine and so I went on. And the km started to disappear behind me. 22, 23, 24, 25 flew by. I felt no pain. Not even a twinge of cramp. I walked at 26km just to make sure I wasn't pushing it. I crossed 30km with a smile on my face. It was not until the 33km that the fatigue started to kick in. Running across the barrage and into the Gardens by the Bay was a little painful. But not as painful as the long ascent up the Sheares Bridge at the 36km-37km point and facing the many walking half marathoners. A loop back in front of the flyer, and the finish line was in sight. I came home in a gun time of 4 hours 53 minutes. Amazing. Learnt that one can finish an accidental marathon with five weeks of training. And why I felt no pain? Endorphins are amazing and in my case, they need a half marathon to kick in.