I entered the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) way back before I committed myself to this challenge, but I knew it would be a good reminder of just how hard it is to run 42kms in one go, so approached it as a bit of a ‘warm up’ event for the ’12 in 12’ marathon challenge ahead.

I’d had a reasonable lead-up to the event, with a couple of 30km+ runs under my belt and generally had been sticking to my training plans. This year the race was an evening event, starting at 6pm, so I had the day to rest up a little (as much as Iris would let me) and focus on my carb loading. Unfortunately a bit of an upset tummy during the day hit me, so I focused on getting as much rest as possible before heading to the start line with Becky who was running the half marathon event (at 20 weeks pregnant!).

My goal was around 5hours 30 minutes and I had seeded my start group accordingly, starting with group “F” which meant waiting for the pros and groups A – E to begin before our gun finally went off about 6:45pm. I had a good run for the first 21kms, enjoying the atmosphere and the people in crazy costumes (I was determined to beat the person in a full Darth Vader outfit), before slowing down a bit. From around 30km I was reminded why this marathon thing is something that is an actual CHALLENGE and not something that everyone just does, slowing to more of a walk/run combination for the final 10kms of the race.

Nonetheless, I still managed a smile as I crossed the finish line a little slower than my goal, at 5hours 50 minutes:

After a few days off, training began again and time to really start planning this thing… here’s to the road ahead.