My 1st 21km/Half Marathon..

Recently, there have been so many deaths surrounding exercising males.. one fellow died during the Osim Tri.. a relay participant from the swimming leg.. apparently, he was suppose to be pretty fit, was a roadie as well and done hundreds and hundreds of Km, and has been preparing so hard for the swim leg.. CEO of some german telecon company, member of chinese swimming club.. well.. dead... apparently, heart cannot take it.. ironically is, his wife said he started to exercise more aggressively because he wanted to live longer... yeah right...

At the end of the day, I will say this.. I train hard, in the hope that I will have the ability to keep up with my young children.. it would always be good for them to see, that they father is a strong, fit and fast man.. I have to be careful to instill in them, that their image of a father is someone who will also be there, dependable, strong and quick.

Therefore, it is still a balance for me, that I should train and still be a father! No point in spending so much time training, that you are missing from the family!!

As usual, parking the car was not a problem at all... Thackral building. But this time round.. more cars! Need to make a mental note.. for the Stand Chart, better start earlier!! Car park fees was $6.45... apparently, if park before 6am.. consider 1 day.. then 7am is another day... awwww shucks.. additional cost.

Usual starting point.. Esplanade.. this time, didnt bother to take pictures.. and the surprising thing was that the flag off was even more lax.. the first couple of hundred metres and I was actually feeling strong.. no strain or pulls or feelings of weakness.. was surprise because I don't run in the mornings, although I do rides in the morning.. correlations?

In any case, less 2 mins of running (pace around 9km/h) a left turn and we were all heading for the AYE/ECP. With all the shrubbery on the left, many of the male runners were leaping over the metal divided to do their watery business, can't understand why so many.. I hope I never have to be in this situation!! 3 km... and the bridge was insight, legs were healthy, heart and lungs still ok... and pace.. wow.. still alittle fast.. (9km/h) towards the slope there were more people pushing foward from the back... I was very tempted to up my tempo.. but I held back.. my strategy was to up the tempo alittle when I am half way up.

Well not exactly halfway up, I decided to up the tempo... a quick check 10km/h... and I was slowly peeling away from the crowd, there were fewer 'overtakers', I didn't slow down at all, apparently, all that training on Mount Faber has really paid dividend. Stride by stride, I started to surge ahead dropping at least 10-20people every 20-30 seconds. Even on the downslope it was pretty alright...

At the base, when it was flat running again, I started to feel alittle strained.. tired. Around the 5.6km mark, I slowed to a walk.. I reasoned that phychologically, all my training on Mt. faber meant that I stop at around 5.3km, so in order to not recuperate for the rest of the distance, a slow and rest would do be good. I was pretty discipline with the walking distance.. not more than 100 metres and I was jogging again.. I was pretty adamant to keep the timing under 3hours, and that would mean that I needed to keep my speed above 7km/h.