Singapore marathon
10th time
6.12.2015


Summary

Finish time: 3:38:27
Ranking: 155 / 8973
Pace: 5:11 min/km
Weather: 26-28 C, 94% (source)
Results

Race report

Completed my 10'th Singapore marathon. Tightness took away the pace, hot weather wore out the runner, and lack of long runs topped up the extra minutes at the last kilometers. I started further back in the field just to take it easy and not to go too fast too early. I then experienced more traffic during the first kilometers than usually when getting closer to the front row. The positive side was that I kept passing others which gave a confidence boost throughout the race. My pace, however, was not exciting: 5:00 min/km predicting 3:30 finish. I know I can perform better than this but I decided not to focus on time but just kept on running whatever the time.

The scenery sun rise and the city view at the other side of the Bay Gardenrs would have been worth a picture or few but I had decided to focus on running and not hussling with the phone. I had no aching or such problems but the tightness in the hips area simply kept the leg movements relatively short keeping the speed moderate. I do miss the times when no such limitations, since achieving something timewise is quite rewarding. This autumn I made my personal best in 10 km (38:18) so I know in a good day the speed is still there. But not today.

Around the half way I catched 3:30 pacer group, passed them, and kept on going. I was thinking whether they would catch me later but I never saw them again. I suppose the group broke down later. My own timings for the first 30 km were (5 km splits): 24.59, 25.24, 25.24, 24.36, 24.26, 25.31. The last split was little bit slower but after getting an energy gel I picked-up the pace again. Official timing (after the race) showed 24.43 min for 35 km but the road marker was in different place and my wrist watch recorded 26.25. This was discouraging and I think I mentally gave-up here gaining 7 mins on the top of the predicted 3:30. After 37 km, I felt really exhausted. Probably jointly due to the hot weather and my somewhat lazier training (too few long distance runs). I was pretty much worn out.

Splits

Dist    Split   Pace    Time            Rank

5km     24:27   4:53    0:24:27         690
10km    25:11   5:02    0:49:38         431
15km    25:36   5:07    1:15:15         356
20km    24:35   4:55    1:39:51         289
25km    24:29   4:54    2:04:20         234
30km    25:31   5:06    2:29:52         202
35km    24:43   4:57    2:54:35         182
40km    30:36   6:07    3:25:11         171
42.2km  13:15   6:01    3:38:27         174

After math

Overall feeling is that no matter how many marathons or how fast or slow, it just keeps on being tough. I went through the list of my all 34 marathons trying to find out "relatively easy" ones but could hardly spot any. Eventually I selected these three: 
   
13.4.2014 London         3:08:46   2155 / 35864
7.10.2012 Chicago        3:11:17   1686 / 37455
25.6.2005 St.Petersburg  3:53:33    199 / 393
My first marathon in St.Petersburg I really ran slow at the start ending up relatively easy finish compared to my expectations. London was one only week after Paris so no expectations, and surprisingly, my energy last w/o problems to 38 km and I even made 8 min better than in Paris! Afterwards I can now conclude that it was one of the most pleasant marathons to run. Chicago I think I also did not push too hard and made it rather effortlessly.

Summary

What next? This year I had low motivation for marathons and did only two. I plan to do more in 2016 and started to collect potential places. So let's add Amsterdam, Bali, Budapest, Dublin, Great Wall, Jungfrau, Medoc, Reggae, Reykjavik, Rome, Venice and Wien to the Santa's wish list. Hope one or two of those will be delivered with few additions. To sum up: below is the list of my Singapore marathons, basically every year since 2006 expcet 2008 when I prioritized New York. Maybe more in future, maybe elsewhere. We will see. :-) 
4.12.2005  Singapore               3:50:27     245 / 4809
3.12.2006  Singapore               3:14:55      75 / 6588
2.12.2007  Singapore               3:12:03     103 / 9704
6.12.2009  Singapore               3:14:19      87 / 14258
5.12.2010  Singapore               3:24:04      73 / 13296
4.12.2011  Singapore               3:28:21     129 / 15343
2.12.2012  Singapore               3:20:11      72 / 12922
1.12.2013  Singapore               3:40:56     176 / xxxxx
7.12.2014  Singapore               3:30:58     115 / 13451
6.12.2015  Singapore               3:38:27     155 / 8973