Singapore marathon 2007
Nice and warm
(2.12.2007)



Race story

Nothing interesting to report really. The race started 5:30 (half an hour earlier than last year) but I got enough sleep. First 1½ hours was in the dark and only the rest in the daylight. I planned to run at relaxed pace without any time goals. The first timing after 5 km was 22:46 (over 4:30 min/km) indicated too slow, and heart rate only slightly above 150, only slightly higher than my regular long training runs.

I aimed at making a steady run and get into top-100 as last year although there number of runners had increased by 50%, and the number of elite runners were informed to be 60. Making C-class result (3:05) would be a bonus and a new personal best, but I decided just to run without any serious time goal this time. Just to run and to see where it takes me. Find below views straight from the hotel balcony over the marathon venue at the Esplanade Park.


The temperature had stayed between 24C (lowest at night) to 32C (highest at day) all week, and so it was in the race day. It became a beatiful sunny day but the temperature never climbed too high during the first 3 hours, and I did not have any big troubles with it.


The route was the same as last two years. The start was at Esplanade drive over the bridge towards Raffles place, first looping around the Marina Park about 12 km. At the first turn-point (7 km) I tried to count my ranking but since failed to see the leading pack my rough estimate was somewhere around 150. The route then returned back to Esplanade and Theather district and continued towards East Coast Park for the second loop. Sorry, I don't have any pictures from the East Coast Park but as find below pictures from Sentosa island as a replacement. Smile


During the race I wasn't in a mint condition but had no problems with dehydration. I stopped for drinking water a lot, about every second water station. I took the first Gel Pack somewhere at East Coast pkway around 15 km when a Dutch runner offered me one of his Gel Pack (2xcoffeine). The organizers had their supply at 26 km, and then I took my only own at 35 km.

The second turn around was at the end of East Coast Park, and I could see the leading pack of 6 African runners a few kilometers before the turning point. The rest of the runners were following either alone or in smaller groups. I tried to count my location and ended up somewhere around 140 when I reached the turn point. Find more pictures from Sentosa for entertainment.


At any point of my race I did not feel any big difficulties although it was not my best race either. My heart rate was rather modest (155) compared to the previous marathons (162-165). I did not need to count the final kilometers, and I was familiar with the route already. Maybe I could have taken the last kilometers faster since I seemed to have some energy reserved left.


Most of the time I was running alone. After the half marathon point, I started to catch others despite my own pace become slower towards the end (the two halfs being 1:34 and 1:38). The pace of the others degraded even more and only a few faster ones passed me. For my own fun, I tried to keep count the number of people I passed or who passed me. I estimated finishing somewhere around 97 but actual position turned out to be 103 our of 9704. This time I was the best Finnish runner.



My one person support group got lost in the venue and I had to take the final sprint without the Finnish flag this time. Maybe that is why I felt like I was flying. Smile Anyway, hope the flag will find its way on the spot in time next race. The camera man meanwhile found out many kind of creatures during the days in Singapore.



Race facts

Finish time: 3:12:03
Ranking: 103 / 9704
Average heart rate: 155
     
  5 km 16 km Half 31 km 37 km 40 km Full
Total time 0:22:46 1:11:27 1:33:51 2:19:28 2:48:05 3:02:11 3:12:03
Pace 4:33 4:25 4:29 4:33 4:46 4:42 4:30
Heart rate 151 156   155 153 158 155

Digital evidence

AVI Video
(84 MB)
3GP video
(4 MB)
Certificate
of the race


After the race

Before the race I joked with collague that I just might make it to the top-10 in Singaporean category if I changed my nationality and collect the last price reward (100 SGD). This would make me already part-time professional, a tiny part but anyway. Since the registration fee with early bird rejoiner was only 44 SGD, I would actually made a profit out of it. However, I missed this speculative spot by about 15 seconds and would have ranked only 11'th. So I therefore decided to keep my Finnish nationality, after all, I was the best Finn even though there were no reward for this category. Smile

Update: Only now I have realized (1,5 years later) that I was actually ranked 8'th in the Veteran series, and had been rewarded the same 100 SGD prize after all. Ok, now to think about it, yes, I turned 40 in November that year so I guess I was eligible without realizing it. I was assuming that age limit of 50 would have been applied since there are lots of reasonable 40+ runners around.

Rankings
Prize money