The last race of the year..

This morning's Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon was my final event for the year. When I woke up at 4.10am, I was still thinking whether or not to run this race as I haven't really been training for it due to a minor burnout I sustained. SMSes on my handphone from friends wishing me the best tilted my decision to the other side. I decided to just run to complete.

The day couldn't have started better with me stepping into a muddy hole on the way to deposit my baggage. The whole place was a mud-fest! As I was supposed to meet Jonathan to follow his pace (he wanted to do a 4hr 30min run), I quickly deposited my bag and went to search for him. The place was a mess and to cut the long story short, I failed to find him. Hence, I went to the start point to wait for him, hoping that I will see him coming down the stairs doing his trademark 'hand on bottom edge of shirt' stunt. That too did not happen. However, he manage to spot me from a multitude of people and we began the run together.

I held up well with Jonathan until the 13-14km mark when I felt that he was going too fast; he was not going at the pace for our targetted time. I decided to be dropped by him. So the majority of the race was done alone. 2 thoughts fought for dominance in my mind then - to go faster to try and hit the timing or to just maintain a slow and steady pace to complete the race. I succumbed to the 1st thought which was a bad move as I haven't been training for this race. At the latter part of the race, the consequence of my wrong decision was made evident. It was really pretty painful in the last 10km. I even walked abit (something I always feel strongly against).

As I had loads of time alone during the run, I pondered about what my boss in army told me, "Sports is war in peace time." What a succinct description. I think he is right. Just take a look at the Olympics, and you will see countries like the United States and China battle it out for top spot. The latter even famous for training schools who take children in when they are very young, training them for just a particular event. 'Athlete harvesting' if you ask me.

So during the race, I came to realise that I did not perform well in any of my races this year! I think I lack the knowledge and discipline on how I should prepare for a particular event. I always finish a race thinking that I could do better. Thinking about if only I trained earlier, harder, was more focused. The thousand and one 'if onlys'...and I totally dislike that feeling! Next year, there will be more races, and I seriously hope to do well in the majority of them.

I also realised that in my life so far, I have always been a very impatient person. I could think of many instances where my impatience cost me to fail in a situation, like the bad decision I made during the race! Another example was a very big mistake that was also made due to my impatience, not once but twice. I think that was and still is the biggest mistake of my life. I hope that as my life unfolds, it will no longer be...I thank God that He revealed this to me today about myself. This is really something that has to be addressed and changed.

I continued walking/running until the this last 1km, where I met my soccer senior and medicine senior, JR and Jega. We completed the race together. I did the marathon in a time of 4hr 38min, Jonathan did it under 4hrs. =]

Finally, my learning point from this marathon: I have to make use of this marathon to catapult me into next year's training for my races. I have to learn to be disciplined and to be patient. I want to give all that I have and do well. That is the best feeling anyone can ever have.

"Now you have to go through hell, worst than any nightmare that you ever dream; but in the end, you know you'ld be the last one standing." - Coach Duke to Rocky Balboa before the latter fought Ivan Drago