Marathon Post-Mortem

It's been just over a week since the Marathon Singapore and I thought I should put down my two-cents worth.

The run was not too bad and the route was interesting. As printed countless times in the papers, the merging with the half-marathoners and 10km runners for the last 5km of the route was horrible. Nonetheless, I managed to complete it in 5 hours 16 minutes, or an improvement of about 40 minutes over my former personal best. I estimated that if I had managed to run the last 5km at a fairly leisurely pace of 7.5km/h instead of walking with the crowd, I would have finished the marathon in about 5 hours, give and take a minute or two.

Still, I am very happy with the way the marathon turned out and hopefully the organisers will attempt to fix the merging problem next year and choose a route with more shelter. The run through Marina East was a killer. On my part, I should carefully look through all the route maps to figure the merges and pace myself accordingly. If I had realised the route was to merge with the lower categories, I should have run faster in the earlier part of the marathon and walk during the merged section.

And a tip to all future endurance runners: attempt to walk home (or at least about 5km) after a race even if you are absolutely tired. I've done this trick twice, previously at the Army Half Marathon and both times, it really limited the extent of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). On Monday, there was minimal pain and I could walk as normal. On Tuesday, there was absolutely no pain and everything was as if I did not run a marathon just two days earlier. What makes this more amazing is that I did not take any painkiller.

So there you go, my two-cents worth on this year's StanChart Marathon Singapore.