The Sun Is Going Down...

By Frank

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Sundown Marathon 2008 official banner. It says it all...

The sun is going down and when it does on 31 May 2008, I will be running my second marathon of the year being my fourth since I started running. The battleground for the Sundown Marathon 2008 will be at Singapore starting and ending at Changi Village. What makes this marathon unique from others is that runners will be running at night. There will be 2 categories which is the 84KM ultra marathon and the 42KM marathon. I’ll be taking part in the marathon and will be starting the race at 11.59pm on 31 May 2008.

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The race route...

My preparation for this event has been fast and furious. With only 9 weeks in between KLIM08 and Sundown Marathon 2008, I had to plan my training the smart way. Time isn’t the one thing that I have as there were many road races in between these 2 major events. I had completed 2X5KM races, 2X10KM races, 1X15KM race, 2 half marathon races and 2X30KM runs, one of them being a night run, all leading to Sundown Marathon 2008. Been racing for almost every week. And most of these races that I have participated in, I managed to outdo myself in achieving a new personal record. I’m feeling very good now even after the recent RMAF Half Marathon 2008. Things are really looking positive. My fellow running friends are expecting me to do a time of 4:15 at Sundown Marathon 2008. Although I guess it’s pretty possible with my current form now, I’m sticking with my own target of 4:30. I don’t want to set myself a target too high only to fail at the actual event. To shave off 31 minutes off my best timing is just too high, although possible. So basically, I’ll be very happy if I’m able to meet my own target, and it be a bonus if I can meet my friends expectation of me. Therefore to achieve this, my strategy will be to pace with Choi and Jamie for at least half the distance, hopefully in a time of nothing more than 2 hours. From there onwards, it's negative splits all the way to the end and hopefully there won't be any walls waiting for me. Sounds easy, but it won't be easy doing it. But one major advantage I have this time is that I'm going into this race with 100% fitness. My previous 3 marathons are all met with health issues leading to them. I had diarrhea and hemorrhoid during KLIM07, fever and total loss of voice during Singapore Marathon 2007 and chest discomfort during KLIM08.

Besides the races, I’ve always trained during the weekdays. All the running I had done after KLIM08 till yesterday including the races I participated in all totaled to 324.33KM. Been kind of rush, but I’m glad I managed to run some quality runs. I ran from Tuesday till Thursday with additional resistance training during Monday, Wednesday and Friday. All these has helped me maintain and improved my fitness level.

I had spent much time in other exercises too such as plyometrics, core and stretching. Pylometrics has given me the edge in races I have participated earlier, and I hope to gain advantage from it especially during the mid section of the race. As for core training, I hope to strengthen my core muscles as I had a very bad back injury before. My threshold for a marathon is the 30KM mark and I hope by strengthening my core muscles, it will help my posture to go further. And finally stretching. I paid extra attention to my hamstrings and calves. Reason, my hamstrings has always been tight and I need my calves to perform the pylometrics. I can now feel the effects of these three exercises I have undertaken. I just hope on the actual day, nothing fails me.

And so, with only slightly more than 3 days left to the big event, all I can hope now is for the best. I pray nothing happens and I together with the rest of the runners will safely reach the finish line. In the meantime, stay tune for the report…