Singapore marathon 2006
Nice and warm
(3.12.2006)

Facts before the marathon

Before the race

To run Singapore marathon again was an easy choice. The route is beatiful, the race is well organized and has pleasant atmosphere, and I was going to Singapore anyway. This year I registered early enough, long before finalizing my travel plans.

I was accommodated in hotel Swissotel Stamford, which was strategically well located for the marathon. My room was at 31-floor (in a 72 floor building) with view directly towards the marathon start/finish area! Since I had not chosen the hotel myself, and I wondered whether my host had selected it by knowing my marathon plans or by other reasons. Anyway, I was happy for the choice just because of this reason. Though it was not a bad hotel by any other means either. ;)

Below the ground level there is a huge and classy shopping complex (Raffles place) including restaurants and shops of all kind. It's organization is rather 'Chinese' in its complexity (difficult to find routes) but the style was modern mixture of Western and Asian styles. A real shopping heaven or hell, depending on your attitude to shopping.



It is common belief that Finland is a clean, but Singapore goes even beyond this. In Singapore, life is very controlled and smoking is prohibited for 1000 S$ fee, eating in metro is worth 500 S$, and so on. I used to eat Subaway sandwich as breakfast and eat it in the back seat of taxi when going to the institute. I guess that was allowed as the driver never complained, or nobody just caught me on doing it. :)

My race preparations did not include anything special besides the usual carbo loading. I had adjusted myself to tropical weather for almost 2 weeks already, and spent lengthy discussions at the roof level coffee place in the institute with good views to the harbor. :)

Race story

Brave but exhausted runner reached the finish line at 3:14:56. If the race is divided into three parts, the corresponding times were:
14 km: 1:03
28 km: 2:07
42 km: 3:13
In the early part of the race I was trying to find out the correct pace. If I went faster the heart rate measure got wild showing over 170, which forced me to slow down in order not to go too fast too early. Once I reached 14 km I was 3 minutes behind the 3 hours goal, and estimated pace was about 3:10. I was satisfied with this and felt that I could not speed-up enough to reach the dream goal 3 hours. At the 15 km I passed the start line where the 10 km runners were just preparing for their run and cheered for them and vice versa.

At the half marathon location I had good feeling and the time (1:35) was still predicting 3:10 finish time, which would be my new personal best. When I reached 26 km sign I errorneously read it as 28 km and for a while, thought that I had really improved my pace and was starting to dream that maybe I could reach 3 hours anyway. At that time I also started to push little bit and reached two guys that had passed me at the 21 km point.

At the real 28 km mark the realism hit me again. I anyway calculated that I was still at my record pace and could do 3:10 but started to little bit worry that I might not reach it if I slowed down too much. Then I just wanted to throw away any time estimations and enjoy the run, and did my best to keep the pace and not to worry about the time.



The last 7 km or so I just tried to maintain the pace even though it became more difficult and warmer. My collague Tomi, his sister and parents were all supporting me near the orchestra building something 500 m before finish line. I got the Finnish flag from them and run with it through the finish line at 3:15:10 (gun time). But as I had crossed the starting line 15 seconds after the gun, my official net time was 3:14:55.

This means that I made new record by running 4 seconds faster! One second improvement per supporter. :) My total ranking was 75 of 6588 in mens category, and 94 overall. So I had not broken the 3 hours dream boundary but I had made new personal best, and ranked in top 100.

Race facts

Finish time: 3:14:55
Ranking: 75 / 6588
Average heart rate: 155

After the race

After the shower I found my clothes as a leading trail towards the bathroom. I then made a quick visit to downstairs shopping mall to buy something to eat and drink, and then went to swimming pool for the rest of the day. The weather was cloudy and once small rain drops started to bomb my body, I went to a Spa located in the hotel, and repeated a loop sauna --> cold water pool --> Jacuzzi.

After sauna I returned back to the pool area to get some lunch there and doing nothing except writing post cards. In the evening, I went to the 72th floor of the hotel to see the view from the bar. Next day I checked out from hotel, and went to the institute with my luggages. After some paper work, and a short visit to Gym, I went to airport and headed back to Finland. The marathon was nice ending for the Singapore trip.


Another story from the race (Jaakko Kero)