2011 Sundown marathon

Sundown marathon: Fourth year running, and for me, it was back to the 42km event after last year's ultra. The route waas the same as for last year's, so there were no surprises other than the earlier start time (10 pm).

Highlights and lowlights:

Being stuck in traffic for 1.5 hours in spite of boarding the shuttle bus at 8:20pm. I had never missed a start before and it was a strange feeling seeing the competitors running while sitting idly in the bus.

At least, I didn't have to deal with the crowd and could go at my own pace.

Saw SC at the start line, but he was faster. Managed to catch up with him only after 2 km or so. We ran together for a while but lost him after the water station. I usually went for the third or fourth table as there were too many runners.

Managed to maintain my marathon pace of 6:45 to 7:00, with walk breaks at every water station. They were spaced 2 km apart (more or less). My HRM went haywire as usual (note to change), and my plan to run at 145 - 150 bpm had to be replaced by pace.

At the half way point, my garmin registered 2:33 hours, slightly behind target. Managed to hold pace for another 4 km, and then it starting going downhill. I gave up looking at my watch and just going by perceived exertion.

It was 32km when we turned into CCR, the so-called dreaded stretch. Time to pick up the pace, and I managed to go back to race pace albeit at much elevated HR. All those training runs with hard endings allowed me to sustain a second wind.

Started counting runners (IN's strategy) between water points. First it was 100+ runners and then it was 200+ runners (nett). Runpix showed that over the last 11km, I overtook 499 runners and 41 overtook me. The fun ended when we turned into Aviation Road. It was getting hard for me to maintain, and I guessed I started too soon.

Managed to finish at 5:16:07. No PB but third best timing overall. Actually this was my best timing for SDM. Overall, I am pretty satisfied given the limited training I put in and that my last marathon was almost 18 months ago.

For the record, my position overall was 1654 (22% ahead), men - 1460 (23% ahead), division - 52 (26% ahead).

Did a post race evaluation with coach today, and the next focus would be to run off the bike. Back to training. :)

MBH did her third half marathon, with a time of 3:41:09, a respectable time given even more limited training. Well done!

Truth be told, we are gettting a little bored with the route and the traffic jams to and from the race venue. So this year would likely be our last SDM for a while.

But then, who knows?