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!
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!
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