Running Across Asia's Longest Bridge (& more)...: The Big Day

There's nothing like waking up at one o clock in the morning to run forty two kilometres after a full day of teaching. Fortunately I had finished a 1.5 litre of 100 Plus during the course of my three lessons to hydrate my body before the run and eaten enough food to satisfy a very hungry man. Therefore it was a very light breakfast of a small (free) McDonald's cornflakes at Natalie's apartment and then a walk over to the marathon start line.

I also tried a blister prevention spray after deciding not to tape or plaster my toes/feet and would totally recommend it! I had blisters in my half marathon a few years ago and a few small ones in my training runs but after spraying on 3 separate layers, I managed to finished with no blisters! It's like using spider's cobwebs to coat your toes/sole and the shoe will grind against that instead of your skin.

Here is the start of the men's marathon. Can you spot me?

No?

That's because I completely missed the start of it! That was despite getting to the start line early. I did some stretches and was sitting around in a nearby tent waiting for the announcement for marathon runners to get the start line but all I heard was 'please make your ChampionChip is securely fastened' and 'the Chief Minister will arrive soon.' I wasn't panicking as I saw lots of other orange vests around but decided to wander to the start line at 2.25am because I wanted to get a good position.

It was rather surreal at the start line as I saw one of my college football players, Viet, and his girlfriend there together with two of his friends who were running. One of them looked at me and said, "you've got a full marathon number on," to which I replied "yes." He then said, "they've already started," at which point I felt like a complete idiot and got going! It turned out all the other orange shirts sitting around in the tents were half marathon runners waiting for their turn to start at 3.30am!!

I was very glad that I had familiarized myself with the route otherwise I would have felt like an even bigger ass starting late and asking for directions. I caught up to some other runners after a minute but got a small twinge in my left quadricep that I had never had before! However I had committed myself to my race strategy of a 6 minute run and a 1 minute walk for the first half of the race and abided by this which meant that the twinge didn't get any worse.

The first ten kilometres of the marathon was very interesting as there were people of all ages, sizes, races and shirt colours running behind, alongside and in front of me. Some people had backpacks with bottles, some people wore belts containing gels and others had loud tickers which they were obviously supposed to keep in time with. I had hoped to spot some of the runners that I met on Facebook but a combination of night darkness, lack of spectacle wear and several hundred put paid to that idea. However I did spot the pale skin tone of one of my college footballers, Norman, ahead of me which gave me a target to achieve in the race.

I felt very comfortable up to 10km and according to my friend's watch reached that distance in 50 minutes which was a lot faster than I anticipated. However it turned out that some of the distance signage were not accurate but I was quite happy at the time! However I did feel a little heavy as I started up the bridge - probably no thanks to my 10pm dinner of TGIF Jack Daniel ribs and small mountains of spaghetti!

However whilst the running was going well and the distraction of looking at my watch every 7 minutes kept my eyes and mind ticking over, I felt it was very quiet. So after running up the slope of Penang Bridge for a while I decided to engage in my first marathon conversation with a random runner about why his vest was maroon whilst everyone else got orange. It turned out that he couldn't fit into a regular one and thus opted for the fat/muscular version. I also remember telling him that he was on course for a 4hr 30min time when he said he was just aiming to finish under 6 hours. It turns out that he was right and I totally underestimated the cumulative effects of running!

I broke ahead of him but not before both of us saw the leading Kenyans pass us on the other side of the bridge going down! Several minutes later another pack of Kenyans burst past us from behind - they were the mere half marathon competitors! I had spent a lot of time thinking about running form and decided to imitate their arm pumping, low stride style for a while to get a bit of speed going before I came across Norman, the KDU student (and fellow footballer) I saw right at the beginning of the race.

We decided to run together and had a good long chat about football, college, his previous year's run, his girlfriend's attempt at a half marathon and P.I.S.S. (a football team...!). He also pointed out various other runners he knew that we overtook/miles ahead of us. Whilst I found it was really good to talk and run with a friend, he found the walk breaks even more encouraging! Sadly I had to break from on the crest of the return leg of the bridge as I was desperately seeking a toilet to pee and had to climb over a concrete barrier to get to it. After waiting for a minute and peeing in the dark, it was back to running where things took a turn for the worse...

Cramp.

It started to come on as I surged down the bridge and randomly commenting on this problem with a half marathon lady runner, I really hoped the walk breaks would deal with this. In a fit of desperation, I also used up my last two remaining gels at this point (roughly 25km) hoping that the glucose would get in my system and 'fix the pain.' It was also the point of unknown for me as I had never run constantly for so long before and I had no idea how my body was going to react to such an ordeal. It decided not to react well.

I was desperately waiting to overtake the 30km signboard but it either never came or I was being truly blind but the cramp along every muscle of my legs did come. Both quadriceps went first, then the hamstrings before the calves which meant my 6min run 1min walk strategy became a walk walk only strategy! I was incredibly grateful to an uncle for loaning me his spray from his pouch to partially relieve my cramp but despite the pain, I found I could keep walking at a fairly fast pace. I passing Tesco at this point too and I was tempted to just turn left and go home as it was fairly nearby!

However I decided to continue along the Coastal Highway and having driven along it many times to work knew that there were 3 bridges to come. It was all about gritting your teeth at this stage and after the initial pain, I found I could do a little bit of jogging. However another runner and myself did come across an old runner who was literally lying down in the middle of the road - who told us he was fine after we inquired about his health. I did stop at the next medical stop to ask for help for the first time - and they gave me something that felt like Deep Heat which I rubbed vigorously under my lycra pants!

Sadly that wasn't the miracle cure for the constant cramp so I had to continue with the walk/jog strategy until I reached Maccullum Street where we were given a Powergel and got our 32km time recorded. I asked for another Powergel but the volunteer was being really strict and refused to give me another one! We had done over 30km by this stage - did the man have no sympathy? I managed to hold onto a water bottle, which I passed to Norman as we had to double back onto the same road.

And then it wasn't too bad. It appeared that my legs had got their second wind and they were able to do some running again - one of my friends explained that my body had decided to switch fuel resources and were now burning off something else hence the extra energy. After smearing some more deep heat on myself at the same first aid station, I managed to get a comfortable pace and was thinking about a 4hr 40min time. However it appeared that the organisers had got the signage wrong and it wasn't 7km to the end... but 10km!

But then came the most interesting part of the run - talking to people! I had been searching for a bit of company for the last 2 hours (after Norman on the bridge) and it appeared that people were willing to open up after fours of pain! I chatted to a bloke who came over from Canada and had run over 5 marathons in his life and then we were joined by a Singaporean, Boon - who was running his fifth marathon of the year! The chatting and sharing of marathon experiences (or just listening in my case!) did help us to dissipate the pain before Boon and I decided to kick on for a quicker time. I completely missed the newly revealed 'runners' statues' during that section of the run too!

Green shirts soon became my bugbear over the last stretch of the course. We were swamped by the school quarter marathon runners and wasted a lot of energy weaving between and around them - which you would rather channel into a straight line run. By this stage I had also left Boon behind and was running quite quickly (after a minute walk break!). I was clapping to myself in attempt to keep my energy level high (which incidentally got people to move out of my way too!) and was urging myself on by muttering to myself. When I got to the final left turn, I ended up talking to a random schoolboy who was going quickly and challenged him to a sprint finish over the last 800m or so! I just about managed to do it although I think he disappeared from my sight and into the crowd, 100m after the roundabout!!

If you look closely in the photo, my face is blowing out a lot of air because of that sprint finish! I neglected to look at the time so I had no idea what my finish time was and I had reset my stopwatch after I crossed the line too!! But it was a great feeling to finish!!!