Sundown Marathon : account by Winston Tan

I went to the race with a run/walk plan. 8min run with 2 min walk for the 1st 42km and 7min run with 3min walk for the 2nd 42k. The walk break will start after the first 18 min of running. My target isto finish between 13 to 14 hours which I believe is comfortable based on what I have done for my training. Anything under 13hr is a bonus. But things did not goes according to what I hope for.

After just 10km of running, my leg began to feel heavy. At about 20km, I felt some pain in my right quad. At 30km, pain in both ITB. And thing just went downhill from there. I realised that I am not perspiring much. My tri top and arm are still dry. This is when I know the going is going to be tough for the rest of the race because this has happened a few time during my training.

I finished the 1st loop in 5hr38min and started the 2 loop with a 10min walking break hoping that I will feel better after this walking break.
However, I still feel the same. So instead of doing my 7min run and 3min walk plan, I change to run 50 steps and walk 30 steps. This goes on until about the 60km mark when a blister developed under the ball of my right foot which I found out later was about the size of a 50cts coin. With this blister and pain in the bottom of both my feet, I decided that I will just walk the rest of the race hoping to finish within the cutoff time of 14 1/2 hr.

Finally after 13hr28min, I crossed the finishing line at Changi Village.
Even though the going was tough, I enjoyed the race and the "PAIN". At the end of the race, I am so tired that I even forget to collect my finisher medal.

Now I will like to thank a few person.

First of all, thanks to my wife, Chris, and my 2 lovely kids, Yan Ting and Peng Liang, who has given so much time to train for this race. They also stayed up till midnight to see me run passed the route at Tampines Ave 9.

Thanks to my colleague, Kath, who travel from the northern part of the country and joined me in the latter part of the race.

Thanks to Jeffrey and all at HiVelocity for organising the race. Thanks to Yong Seng who joined me for the night run. Thanks to Sharon about Karno book.

Half Marathon. Half Ironman. Full marathon. Full Ironman. Double Marathon.
Double Ironman?


Winston.