Build up to Gold Coast Marathon

Just two Sundays ago, a couple of friends and myself completed the Gold Coast Marathon. I will recap the events preceding the event itself such as the gruesome training and my thoughts on the marathon itself.

In all honesty, I didn't train much for the Gold Coast Marathon. Yeah months before that we did train. We did quite a few half marathons at East Coast Park. Then there was a period of time where we totally stopped training. At least I stopped training. I finished school, went for holidays with family and loved ones. As a result, I stopped running and neglected training. For a period of like 4 weeks I hardly ran more than 15km.

Following this very enjoyable 4 weeks of my life, Sundown Marathon happened. Was I prepared? Probably not as much as I wanted. So midnight the horn sounded and I told myself 5 hours of suffering began. And true enough, 5 hours and 2 min of suffering and I crossed the finish line. Glad I finished but disappointed at my timing. Oh well..

Sundown ended on 1 June 2008. Gold Coast Marathon was on the 6 July 2008. A good 36 or so days of training. You would think after the disappointment in Sundown I would kick myself in my butt, pull up my low ankle socks and train even harder! Well so did I. But I didn't. Can't really remember what I did. I spent a lot of time at home. Doing stuff myself for myself. And my good friend whom I always blog about went overseas. No training kaki!!! Best! The lazy part of me was like cheering. No more running. Life was good!!!

Unfortunately my friend came back and sadly reality came back with him. He coaxed us back to running. So I ran with him like 3 or 4 times. Monday was like a 15 - 16km long run. Wednesday 18km long run. Friday was East Coast once again, about 21km. So altogether that made up to about 50 - 55km covered in a week. I don't think I ever did that in my preparation for a marathon. Haha. Amazing.. Then the Monday before Gold Coast, he coaxed me into a "short" run. We came back 1 hour 8 min. Dang.. Was upset during the run cos I was cheated. Short to me means 20min of running or maybe like 4 - 5km. Not 1 hour 8 min. But I get where he's coming from and at the end of the day, I appreciate it. Thanks friend. I should give him a name. Hmm.. From now on I name thee Friend A.

Wednesday soon came and on the 3rd of July, a couple of friends ( including Friend A) flew of to Gold Coast, Queensland Australia.

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!

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!

Less than 8 hours

I woke up this morning after a very weird dream. I dreamt that I was near the starting point with 10 minutes to the start of the marathon and I didn't have my shoes on! So I dreamt that I had to rush home get the shoes then start the marathon like probably half an hour later than the rest of the pack! Crap! Well I was woken up by my sibling. Breakfast was here! :)

Well, now it's past 3pm. 8 more hours to the start of the marathon. 6 more hours to the double marathon. Good Luck Friend! :P Anyway, yesterday I checked my equipment. Running Top! Checked! Shorts with zipper at the bum! Checked! Hard-wired tag! Checked! and Band to put the Hard-wired tag! Checked! I guess I am pretty prepared for the marathon. Except for my shoes and socks, everything else is more or less done. Oh and my gels. Well that one prepare later.

So here's my plan later for the run. With fingers crossed, I would like to complete the marathon running, ie, not stopping to walk at all. But then again, based on my performance for the 21km on last Friday, I think that is wishful thinking. Nonetheless, I will try to run as much as I can and make decisions on the way as usual. Impromptu decisions have always worked for me. :P I guess I will decide how I will complete the marathon when all the pains set in.

I mentioned that I bought two PowerBar Gel and one PowerBar. I'm going to eat the PowerBar after my lunch and I am going to bring the two PowerBar Gels for my run. One of them, hopefully, I can squeeze it into the zipper pocket at my bum in my shorts and the second one I will hold it in my hands. The plan is to eat one after Coastal Road just before a water point. I believe it's the 12km mark. Following that, I will eat my second one at the end of East Coast Park, near the overhead bridge at Victoria Junior College. I believe that is the 22km mark. Lastly, I hope they give PowerBar Gel at near the 30km mark and I will eat that at the 30km mark. Each time I eat, I would like to eat just before the water point so that I can wash the extremely sweet taste off the mouth.

Well, wish me luck. All the best to all my friends running. Run your own race and see you at the finish line! Cheers

Power...

I bought 2 products from Powerbar the other day - Powerbar itself and 2 Powergels. What exactly are they?

PowerBar Performance is an energy bar that provides an optimal amount of carbohydrates to your muscles. At least this is what the webbie says. For the layman like myself, it means it gives you more energy. More energy means you can last longer during the race. I think this is particularly important if you participate in long distance and endurance races. In my previous article, I mentioned something about depleting the energy from the carbohydrates stored in the muscles. I believe that PowerBar Performance basically helps you store more carbs in your muscles.

Well anyway, I bought one bar. Normally, I would have bought the Cookies and Cream flavour. I think that flavour's pretty good. The thing about eating such stuff is that it is very sticky and it is very sweet. And sometimes, taste-wise, it may not be the most appetising treat. However, Cookies and Cream gets my thumb up. The other flavour I have tried was Chocolate. Oh dang that one. Firstly, the colour is like really dark brown and for me it doesn't taste that good at all. In fact, I didn't even finish the bar. I couldn't take it! Haha.. But Cookies and Cream again gets my thumbs up as I said. This time around, I got Vanilla Crisp. I so hope it's as good an experience as the Cookies and Cream. Fingers crossed!

The second product which I bought is PowerBar Gel. I bought two actually. They are satchets of 41g each of different flavours. They are a paste-like substance which again is very sweet. In essence, they are instant energy. You eat them and very quickly some energy is replenished in your muscles again. PowerBar Gel is usually used during race days. For Standard Chartered Marathons, they have been giving this out for a few years now. For Sundown Marathon, they are also giving this out, alongside some bananas. It's pretty okay and I have tried a couple of flavours. Flavours I do not mind are Strawberry Banana and Green Apple. So with regard to PowerBar Gel, they also get my thumbs up. One thing to note though when eating both PowerBar Performance and PowerBar Gel, it is very very sweet. So my recommendation is to have water ready at hand when consuming it. The sweetness is fuah! It's really sweet. So remember, water at hand.

You may say this is an advertising campaign or something. How I wish I am paid for this. Haha. But I sincerely believe that these products have helped me during my races. Perhaps it will be helpful to you. :) Cheers. Three more days. Crap

Final Week to Sundown Marathon

It's May 26. Five more days to Sundown Marathon. Am I fully prepared for this marathon? I would say no. But considering the amount that I have been running, I would say this would have been the most prepared marathon I am going for.

Since signing up for the marathon, I have been running quite often (with the exception of the past few weeks). I have done a few 10+ km runs. I have done three 21km runs. And I have run parts of the route, such as Bedok Reservoir, along Loyang Avenue and East Coast Park. Considering all these, I would say I'm pretty pleased with my runs.

However, considering the distance covered prior to the race, it could have been better. For the past six weeks, with the exception of last week, I have not covered anything more than 10km per week. In fact, most of these weeks, I have not run at all! That is not a good build up to a race of such distance. The five week or so lay-off was felt very much in my last 21km run on Friday where I struggled on the last 6km or so. Thinking about it, I think that though I have trained hard for Sundown Marathon, it is still going to be a very painful marathon. Sigh.

Nonetheless, it's late now. I do hope I can last longer during this marathon. My last marathon, which I have trained quite hard as well, I managed to keep running until the 29km mark. I do hope to run longer than 29km and hopefully, very hopefully finish running the entire marathon without walking. Wish me luck for the race and I wish all friends and participants all the best for the race! including the friend going for the ultra-marathon! All the Best!

Another Tiring Run

It's 1.30am and I just finish my shower after a really late night run. Before the run, I was pretty lazy. My body has been and still is aching from a much needed gym work out the day before. In addition, I have also done two rounds Bedok Reservoir on Monday. Hence my legs were aching like mad. I believe my laziness and procrastination for today's run is very much justified.

However, as I was busy contemplating whether to go ahead with my run, a really good friend gave me a buzz to check on me? He wanted to know if I have already done my run. Dang that friend. Made me feel so guilty. Well he caught me at a really bad time as I was busy searching for stuff at home. So I made my usual excuses and he gave the usual "that is so expected of you" replies and I guess I couldn't stand the goading. Hence, I gave him some assurance that I may go for that run. The probability of me running after that important phone call jumped from 20% to a 70%. So as I said, Dang that friend.

Well at 10pm, I got into the car and off I went to the far end of Singapore - Changi Village. That place brings back so many memories but these stories are for another day. Anyway, I reached at about 1030 and got started on my run along Loyang Avenue and to Pasir Ris Drive 3. This run was meant to be a build up to the impending Sundown Marathon which is now 10 days away. Crap! Well, the run from Pasir Ris Drive 3 then through Loyang Avenue is so called the home stretch for Sundown Marathon. The purpose of the run was to familiarize myself with the route from Pasir Ris to Loyang Avenue so that I know what to expect during the marathon - Where will there be never-ending upslopes, and where I can enjoy the downslopes.

Running alone at night is really different. In a sense, there is this lack of security. It's dark and the vehicles along Loyang Avenue zoom pass you like nobody's business. For me, Changi brings back mixed memories and a little fear due to the reputation of the place. There are still parts of Changi which makes the hair on the back of my neck stand. Say that I'm a Wuss I don't really care. You don't really know fear until you feel that hair behind your neck stand. Well, that said, I didn't really enjoy my return to Changi that much.

After all that's been said, I completed my run. Made my turn just after Downtown East and made my short pit stop or pee stop there before heading back. Note to self and to anyone who cares to listen. It is uncomfortable to run with a full bladder or a half-full bladder for that matter. All in all, I finished my run in 1hr 20min. I went to a webbie to check the distance and that came to about 12.2km. That's pretty good given the fact of my entire aching body and legs.

At the end of this day, I'm pretty happy with the run. Thanks to my good friend for egging me on. Need it sometimes. (please note the word some and not all the). It's now 2am. I'm trying to sleep later as I try to "acclimatize" to the later hours. Have a good night and see you soon. Cheers

Update on Sundown Marathon Preparation

A nice friend sent me a message and asked me how was my preparation for Sundown Marathon. Well today's the 20th of May. Sundown Marathon is on the 31st of May. That makes 11 days left. For the month of May I have officially only ran three times. The distance added together doesn't even make 21km. So my answer to my friend, my preparation for this marathon is the usual, Screwed!

Well this week would really be important. On Friday, I'll be meeting a few more friends for a very long run. Hopefully 21km just as a final build up to Sundown. I hope I survive this Friday. Till then, I hope to update you guys soon. My laptop is down and I have no internet access at all. But nonetheless, I will try to update you guys. Cheers

Long Long Run

Yesterday I went to East Coast Park for a run with two of my friends. A really really long run. It was part of my training for the Sundown Marathon. Hoping to complete and try to do a good time. A friend of mine keeps goading me to beat his timing of 4.34. I would love to do that, but that is not my main priority I guess. Completing safe and sound always is.

We started at Car Park B1, the first car park at East Coast at about 9pm. And we just ran. and ran. and ran. Past Big Splash. Past Macdonald's. Past the Chalet. Past the Seafood eating place alongside the Cable Boarding Place. Up to then, pretty fresh. Still talking to my friends. Bantering. All's good. Past Bedok Jetty and slowly but surely the fatigue begins to set in. But still talking. Then we ran past I think it's Outward Bound Singapore and then some sailing place. That's the last car park along East Coast we ran past. But on we went, continuously pounding on the road. The next landmark would be the chalets of SAFRA Recreation Club I think. This is confirmed when we ran past the entrance of the club itself. Next, we ran past this ulu restaurant called Shore Restaurant. And finally, we reached our turning point. Our turning point is where the runway actually begins. If we ran a little longer, we will hit the spetacularly boring Coastal Road. Sighs. Considering from where we started, our turning point looks very far. Damn far. Too far! haha. Time now, 10.05pm. 1 hour and 5 min of suffering, and that's only halfway. Crap..

So turn back we did and this time round, my two lovely friends were still chatting happily away. Gosh they're fit. Me? Well I'm just hanging at the back, trying my damnest to look fresh and keep up with the pace. Gosh how tired I am. But Car Park B1 is still literally miles away. Sighs. So again, step by step we went. Past SAFRA Recreational Club and to the start of East Coast. We saw a couple of other runners running pretty quickly. Being the pretentiously nice person I am, I clapped and cheer them on. They reciprocated. How nice. I sort of got a little habit of cheering people on when I see fellow runners, especially during marathons when I am suffering as much as them. I believe the appropriate word is empathy. I believe it helps them and it helps myself as well. I feel motivated myself by motivating others. But that's probably just me. Oh well, soon we reached the last car park of East Coast and we stopped for our one and only water break. Time 10:20pm. Why am I doing this?

Alas, our short water break ended and on we went. This time round, my two supremely fit friends are beginning to widen their lead. Every once in a while, they'll turn back and check if I'm still alive. How nice. What great friends I have. Past Bedok Jetty and I tell myself that's like at least 5km left. How'd I know? Well the holding area of the triathlon is always near Bedok Jetty and you have to run towards Car Park B1 for about 5km before you made your turn back to Bedok Jetty. 5km more so I tell myself. Then we had the pleasant distraction of seeing the food centre, the cable boarding place and the Seafood place. Next up, the chalets. By this time, one of my friends decided to take off and off he went, slowly but surely widening the gap between my other friend and myself. Now we are all running alone by ourselves. But he should have done that. No point running so slow to accompany slow pokes like myself. Macdonald's soon came. Again, nice distraction. It takes my mind off the mental torture of why I put myself through this. Now, we are at Area C. Sighs. Area C seemed never never never ending. It never did seem to end. I saw a signpost that said Area C and I so wished that was the last one. But alas, I saw another and another and another. I don't really like Area C.

But soon, not soon enough though, I saw from afar the beautiful lights of our starting point - the toilet at Car Park B1. Trodding painfully to the end point I told myself to push on. Finally, I past the end point. Time now 11.15pm. 2 hours 15 minutes of pain. Gosh. My legs are so soft. But I couldn't stop walking just yet. The cramps are setting in. Crap. Oh this is so painful. Why do I keep putting myself in such pain.

Oh well, the run, although torturous, was pretty good. It turned out to be a little more painful than expected but enjoyable due to the company. I think all in all, we should have complete at least 21 km, at least that's why I let myself believe. I checked my route on this webbie, mapmyrun.com, it says only 10 miles. Unbelievable. I tell myself it's a US webbie and hence not accurate. Anything to lie to myself to make myself feel better. haha. So anyway, I would like to thank my friends for the run. Good run and thanks guys. Next week, after the exams, maybe we can do another. Gosh I can't wait.. not!

Events Events Events

Currently, I am training for one event - the Sundown Marathon. It's a marathon that will last through the night. From my understanding, I believe the marathon will begin at 12am! Well there's another major event for that day. That is the Ultra-Marathon! 2 Marathons in a row! 84km! Madness! Who exactly in the right mind will put themselves through such torturous pain?

Hey but then again, when my dad was doing all his half-marathons and I haven't entered into National Service, I also thought those people who ran marathons are mad! Why pay money to suffer? Haha.. Well maybe one day you will see me participating in this distance. :P Well to my one and only er.. friend participating in this distance, all the best! :)

Well apart from Sundown Marathon, there are other events coming up. Lion City Marathon and Passion Run are two which are coming up quite soon. Right now, I'm not sure if I'll take part in that. Would make a lot of sense to be training for these events as well. But time will tell. And also if the better half of me gives me her blessings. :P

My anonymous friend has been "persuading" me to join him in an overseas marathon. He's looking at going to Australia for the Gold Coast Marathon. The marathon's on the 6th of July and it's really really tempting. But for now, it's still under consideration. Till then, will keep you updated on the events coming up.

Sundown Marathon

Currently, I am training really hard for Singapore's first night marathon, Sundown Marathon! At least, I am trying to train hard for it. It is 58 days away but I'm beginning to panic! For my previous marathons, I have never clocked anything more than 21km and in terms of the number of km covered in a week is usually less than 21km as well. Haha. That explains the 5 hour plus timings. :P

Anyway, I am trying to up my trainings these few weeks as I have looked into my distant future and realise I do not have many weeks left to train. In fact, it's only 8 weeks away. So less the week before the marathon, which I do not plan to train already, that's 7 weeks. Of the 7 available weeks, 3 of them, at least, I would not be in Singapore. Hence, I would not be able to train. If I cannot train, then I will not be able to beat the time of a certain friend! So to beat my certain friend, I have to train my a** off now!!! And right now, my school term is coming to its end with exams 2 weeks away! 2 reports due, one composition and an oral exam and 2 exams to top it all. Life is great!

So later, I am off for a long run hopefully. That is, pending it doesn't rain before my run, and definitely not during my run. I have never run in pouring conditions and I do not plan to start. Fingers crossed! :)

What's up nowadays?

Ever since my days in the National Service, I have tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Through these years, I have taken part in 4 marathons and 2 triathlons. I've participated in the Standard Chartered Marathon since 2003 till 2006 but I took a break in 2007. Well, for these 4 marathons, I only put in considerably more effort in SCM 2006 which I came in at 4:48. The rest of the marathons, I finished in about 5:30, 5:45 and 5:30 respectively. Not that fantastic eh.. haha

Well, right now I am training for Singapore's first night marathon, the Sundown Marathon. I have been training for about 2 months with pretty long runs. In terms of distance, I have no idea how long I took. But in terms of time, I usually run about 40 min to about 1 hour 30 min. The longest I have ran so far is 1 hour 50 min. My personal aim for this marathon is to try to better my 4:48 time and hopefully beat my friend's time of 4:34. :P So hopefully come May 31st, I would be able to make a good time!

For those who have never completed a marathon, I do strongly encourage you to try one. In the past, I would never have thought of trying to run 42.195km. I always thought these kind of people are crazy. Pay money to suffer! hahaha.. I said the same thing at every marathon after SCM 2003. But nonetheless, it has become something which I sort of enjoy. :P So anyway, do try to do a marathon. Take it as a personal challenge. The feeling of triumph at the end of it all feels tremendous. Ask your friends or colleagues who have completed. They would probably say the same. Maybe Sundown Marathon is a little early, but you can consider signing up for the later marathons such as the Lion City Marathon and SCM 2008!

Hope to see you at the race! Ciao