Singapore marathon
One more completed. That's it
1.12.2013


Summary

Finish time: 3:40:xx
Ranking: 177 / 1xxxx
Pace: 5:xx min/km
Weather: 25 C, 100% (source) (26 C, 95% for the first hour)

Splits

  5k 10k 20k 25k 30k 35k 40k
Total time 0:21:12 0:45:35 1:35:48 2:03:11 2:31:37 3:03:37 3:29:37
Pace 4:14 4:53 5:01 5:29 5:41 6:24 5:12

Race report

This time I was travelling with "the manager". We started the preparations by having two days "low-level camp" (törkeän paikan leiri) in Bangkok. Mainly motivations were to adjust to the heat and time zone difference. And to the culture. The manager was overwhelmed by the heat already - referring it to as sauna - although this was just the intermediate step in the adaption.

We arrived Singapore Friday and went directly to the Marathon Expo located near the airpor. This part went organized smoothly. Here the manager also realized the slight difference of the weathers in Bangkok and in Singapore. Both are like saunas: Bangkok before you pour water on the stones; Singapore after you have done it (as described by Thomas).

After accomodating ourselves to our luxorious Peninsula Excelior hotel, I went to a short jog of 6 km. Meanwhile, manager Jukka got the wheels rolling and managed to hire a bicycle (nice work!) and some other less useful staff that were not going to help much for the marathon but at least to make the manager look cool. Saturday morning we took short excursion around the Marina Bay to study the logistics and how to find the way to the flag-collection point. The manager was more worried about how to find the way to the East Coast Park and whether his knee would allow him to bicycle all the way. I knew these parts were not going to be any problems and tried to emphasize the importance of getting familiar with the Marina Bay and Padang logistics.

The last two nights I slept from 9 to midnight, but not for the rest of the night. The adjustment to the time zone difference failed badly. In the race morning, I left to the Orchard Street around 4.00 by walking as the hotel was not conveniently located for getting taxi. I squeezed in the the start area as front as possible already 30 min before the start. Meanwhile, the manager was still doing final tunings for his bicycle with all the gadgets that he planned to put on it. I decided to keep the energy gels with me (wise choice) and just carry them by hand.

The route went downhill at first and it remained flat throuhout the end. The starting rush cleared out after first km and my pace was good for the first 5 km (4:14). However, I just could not find the relaxed pace and felt tireness thoughout the race. No clear signs of problems otherwise.

In the East Coast Park manager catched me with his bicycle and followed all the way from Marina Bay with the usual mumble bumble, which was this good because it took my mind off the race and from spotting the kilometer markers. The race between 25-35 km was just boring struggle. At 30 km I gave Jukka the remaining energy gel (unwise choice) as I wanted to swich Mopsi online. So far it had been tracking off-line for saving battery. That energy gel I never saw again during the race.

When we reached Marina Bay manager suddenly stopped to adjust his flag and bicycle. That was the last time I saw neither of them during the rest of the race. Obviously he had forgotten my logistical advises how to get to Marina Bay via the shortcut, and reach the flag-giving point before the runner. Soon after that the route merged with that of the half-marathoners, and later with the masses of the slow 10 km runners-&-walkers. This part was quite annoying and the organizers seem hopeless for being able to solve this problem despite it is well known for years. Anyway, it gave me some adreline to run faster despite the slowing traffic.

Finishing time was 3:40 and it is clearly my worse run ever since my first marathon year 2005 (3:53, 4:53, 3:50). No clear reason for the slowness, others than bad sleeping. My ranking was 177 out of 10.000++ runners. Missed also the flag. Sub-par performace both by the runner and the manager.

Ok feeling about finishing the marathon, already my 8'th in Singapore. Overall: one more marathon completed, that's it. Due to the organization not getting any better, I decided that I will run two more in Singapore and then start to find other places in Asia to run. Shanghai will be top on that list.

Top-10 results by categories

Students

Two of my students were running as well. Orson's team completed the Ekiden relay (5:00) but not as good as last year (4:00) due to several minor incidents. Thomas did his second half-marathon with time 2:03 aiming at completing full marathon in May 2017 Joensuu, just after his PhD disseration. :-) At the very same day, Qinpei completed her first 10k in Shanghai with time 1:15. Until now, my students' achievements on running (official competitions): 
42 km
Olli Virmajoki  3:50  St.Petersburg, June 2011
Mikko Malinen   4:30  Helsinki, July 1995

21 km 
Thomas Ho       2:03  Singapore, December 2013

10 km
Rahim Saeidi    1:06  Joensuu, December 2009
Qinpei Zhao     1:15  Shanghai, December 2013
Who will be next? Joensuu marathon May 2014 perhaps? :-)

Post race thoughts

After the race I recovered quite fast, clearly had not poured all my energy on the streets of Singapore. Usually I don't do much during the next week but this time I was already up to 40 km / week. This made me also decide the Paris-London dilemma: I have been registered to both but did not know which one of them to run. Answer is now both. At least it should be strong enough reason to run slowly in Paris and then see how well can I can recover to do London one week later. Looking forward to April 2014 already.