Endurance Events - Fad?

I remembered my first marathon. That was Standard Chartered Marathon 2002. During that event, it was crowded but not as it is these days. Apparently, endurance events such as marathons, biathlons and marathons are getting very popular. It has come to a point where organizers seem to need to close application deadlines early. So what's this recent appeal of endurance events? Is it a fad or is it for the long run?

One reason for the recent popularity is due to more people becoming more health conscious. There are so many posters, newspaper articles and magazines constantly bombarding people on the importance of health. Also, there are so many gyms out there advertising aggressively it seems impossible to ignore this craze.

Another reason is the increasing number of such events available to the masses. OSIM Triathlon only started like 4 years or so back. Standard Chartered Marathon started in 2001 I believe. Before that, there were running events and stuff but not so much as that of today. With so many events available for participants, and the pretty aggressive marketing, there are more chance to participate in such events.

So are endurance events a fad? In my humble opinion, I don't think so. I think for every endurance event, there are plenty of first-timers. For instance, for Sundown Marathon, on the bus ride to the starting line, I was in a bus full of young guys. They all seemed like army boys. Very peculiar in the sense that they all have short haircuts, the Sundown Marathon singlet and black shorts. Sort of like a uniform. Haha. Well, it seems to me that many of them are first time participants. Out of so many first timers, there are bound to be repeat runners. So with more repeat runners every year, there will always be an increasing number of participants.

Also, as locals become more affluent, there is a shift of focus on their needs. In this Organizational Behaviour course I took some time back, there is this term called Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The gist of it is once you have satisfied with your basic needs such as housing, food and other stuff, you focus more on your social needs and your need to feel good about yourself. Completing endurance events and training and participating are means of doing that.

All in all, I think endurance events are not a fad. As our society progresses, more people will become interested in such events. So my advice, sign up early for the events!

Sundown Marathon - What went Wrong!

Sundown Marathon was more than a week ago. So with a clear head now, let's consider the negatives and positives of the race and hopefully learn and remember from the experience.

Positives
I think one of the positives was the trial runs my friends and I did. Oh I remember cursing and swearing at how long East Coast is, and how long Area C is. Boy am I glad I did those few long distance runs there. Those Friday nights were not that futile after all. During the race itself, East Coast actually passed by pretty quickly.

Another positive I took was the distance covered during those trial runs. We ran a couple of 21kms. I think that helped a lot in the conditioning of the muscles. Come to think of it, had we not covered 21kms and did constant 12-15kms, cramps would have set in at an earlier stage.

Negatives
One big negative I take away from this is the lack of preparation for the second half of the route. What happens after East Coast? In particular, the distance between East Coast and Bedok seemed never-ending to me. It seemed that the distance markers seemed particularly far away after East Coast. And that sucked a lot!!!

Another negative was the preparation for the marathon. Six or seven weeks before the marathon, I would say I was pretty well-geared in my preparation for the marathon. During that time, we did a two half marathons already. I think that was really good. Given the time of six weeks more, we could have increased that distance and could have conditioned the muscles more. However, trips away from Singapore severely limited the time I had for training and I think that has hindered a better performance for the marathon itself.

I think I could have better prepared myself for the marathon had I kept myself well-stretched. The week before the marathon, I did minimal to no stretching at all. And those times when I did stretch, my muscles felt really tight. I purport that this could be one of the reasons for the cramps during the race itself. I believe keeping the muscles well-stretched could have alleviate or even eliminate the issue of tight muscles. Oh well, hind-sight is always 20-20.

Well anyway, Those are the good and bad points of the marathon. Now let's try not to repeat these mistakes. Now here is what I would like to do:
1) Clock more mileage per week
2) Do longer distances
3) Stretch more
4) If possible, do a run through of the entire route

Next up, Gold Coast Marathon. Point 4 is out. Crap! Let's hope I can do more of Points 1-3. Fingers Crossed!

Bum

I am so lazy right now. Last week, I ran a grand total of 5km! And that was on Monday to assist in my recovery for Sundown Marathon. Besides this wonderful fact of not running, I have been eating a lot as well. Recent trips out of Singapore resulted in plenty of chocolates and other junk food brought back. Many of these end up in my belly. Ah.. Life is so good. But knowing me, the lack of exercise and plenty of sinful food has led to me getting really lazy and the once mascular frame of mine is now a fat blob! (yah right) Haha.. But seriously, I think I have to start training once again. Dang. And I feel so lazy.

Anyway, here's the plan for next week.

Monday - 12km
Tuesday - 6km
Wednesday - 15km
Thursday - Rest
Friday - 10km

Giving a grand total of 41km! That is what I hope to achieve next week. So I've put it down in writing. Let's hope I manage to do it. Let's hope it's not like last Friday where I got all my gear, got on the bus to school but decided not to go to the gym in the end. I'm such a bum. Dang!

Sundown Marathon Summary

5:02am. That concluded my 42.195km of suffering. Come to think of it, I felt it is not as good a timing as I have hoped. Sighs. Slower than my personal best even though I have trained pretty hard for it. Today I will recount the painful events of the inaugural Sundown Marathon. :P

The event started at 12 midnight and there wasn't that many participants as that of Standard Chartered Marathons. So that was good. My friends and I managed to squeeze ourselves into the 3:30 to 4:00 hours starting block. For those who have never participated in a marathon before, there are blocks with timings to allocate runners based on their abilities. Well, we managed to squeeze into that block and Boy I have never felt so out of placed! Haha.

The start of the race was alright. Plenty of room and I managed to start running from the Starting Line. Everything was okay. Perhaps I started slightly faster than I normally would have. I think this could be due to race anxiety. Did this affect my race? I'm not so sure but I doubt so.

Next, we ran through Coastal Road. Surprisingly, Coastal Road was not as boring as I thought it would have been. Yes it was slightly monotonous with never-ending lights but I had the luxury of having company in the form of my friend's dad. He sort of accompanied me for like half of Coastal Road. That helped in keeping the monotony manageable.

Moving on, it was the lovely East Coast. The 3 half marathon runs really helped and East Coast seemed to have passed pretty quickly. At the 20km mark, I was running slightly less than 2 hours. If I am not wrong, it is going to be one of my best half marathon timings ever!

East Coast ended at the 22km mark. Next up is the park connector to Bedok Reservoir. This particular area I felt was terrible. There were overhead bridges and the distance between distance markers seemed never ending. In addition, there were areas which were not lit. This made running quite unpleasant. Slightly after the 24km mark, I could feel terrible things happening to my legs. I was feeling the treat of cramps! Crap! So around 25 to 26km, I had to start walking. Crap.

Anyway, ever since then, everything went downhill. Not literally but everything looked bleak. I kept with the tactic of walking for two lamp posts and running for 6 to 10 lamp posts. Somehow each time I tried to run more than 10 lamp posts, my legs take over and I will feel a slight twang in one of the muscles. Then I have to walk. It's pretty demoralizing. And it is always at this moment in time I ask myself why do i put myself through such torture. I tell myself that this is the last marathon ever. Then I recall that I have signed up for the Gold Coast Marathon. Crap! Not the last marathon yet. Sighs.

Well Bedok Reservoir came and went. The next landmark to look forward to was Down Town East which meant that it's slightly more than 6km left. Down Town East took almost forever to come and when it did, my muscles was giving up on me. Right then, more and more people were overtaking me. What a rubbish race. So much pain then.

Loyang Avenue soon came. This was followed by the memorable Hendon Camp and the lovely Netheravon Road. Much as I tried, the muscles kept cramping up. It feels like someone is grabbing my calves and my thighs. What a terrible feeling. Soon, we came near the jetty and that meant less than 200m more to go. I really did try to complete running but I think I walked much quicker than when I ran. Haha. Well, 5:02am. Race ended. I collected my medal and the t-shirt. It always feel good to have the medal and the t-shirt. Well done to myself and my friends. All of them finished ahead of me. Including my friend's dad. Well done friends. I just hope that the Gold Coast Marathon would be much better than this. Fingers Crossed!