Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Singapore Marathon , a painful experience

this is the day of the year I will always remember.. my last race of the year had to end up in disappointment....

Early in the Sunday morning.. I woke up at 3 am to do my stretching... then proceeded with having a slice of raisin bread and a banana...went to Alvin's house to catch a ride to the race starting point...

At the race starting point, I started to fear... I started to ask myself. Can i really finish this race alone.. all alone.. without training... I only knew that I have not been really training for this race... Mr Guy was expecting me to finish this race in 3:48hours or slower.. because my weekly mileage was only maximum of 25km.. I had been focussing on training my speed... yup... but worries are worries. At the starting line, I have to focus. So i took off my steps as the race started!

down 10km into the race.. I saw a familiar face.. i remembered him as one of the fastest marathon runner in Singapore ... 4-5 years back.. Ernest... I used to see him training at Tampines stadium when I was training with my first coach then... Ernest came up to me and said that he did not train for this marathon. He did not plan to go fast.. then he said .. "ok let's run together...!" haah i smiled and then just ran along... he paced me for the next 20km... he was keeping track of the timing.. he told me that we were working on a 3:4o hour pace.. I was glad though... but i knew that I had to slow down after the 15km mark... my legs were aching.. i could feel my thigh muscles moving and on the verge of cramping... I made it a point to run lightly and slowly... This slowed down my momentum. In my mind, i thought to myself... It must be due to the lack of training.. But my determination never fails me.. I always had a way to finsih the race even when My body dun allow me to do so... I pushed on... and ran... down into east coast park.. I was running relatively ok... and I saw my teammates... Mr Guy's students..they were cheering for me at the 20km mark.... and i was obviously happy.... then at the U-turn point, I told myself, I can finish this. I dun wanan walk, I dun wanna crawl back, I wanna run back. Even if i collapse, i will want to collapse after the race. Giving up any time now means giving up my myself. I told myself there are people waiting for me at the end point.. Of course..predicted that Jd would be there right after he completed his 21 km race...

and at the 32 km mark.. I was super surprised.. I saw coach.. Mr Guy.. he stood right at the 32km mark to cheer me on. I remember him saying this "ok sumiko, you have 10km more to go.. start now.." i nodded and sped off.. I felt that my legs could no longer listen to the pain but listened to my mind instead... my mind has instructed my legs to move on, dun stop... and i did... moving on.. Ernest was lagging behind because he asid he could not keep up.. I then sped off.. ironically, everytime i run a marathon... I would be speeding up only after the 30-32km mark.. funny... but maybe i need a long time for my body to warm up ahah...! yup!... I ran and ran.. and i met a caucasian who said to me "the race begins now..." ahah i laughed and replied "yeah.. the race begins right after the 32 km mark"...

at the ending point, i saw the big timer at the top... 3:44hours... i was glad.. i made it within coach's expectation ... I realised that my legs were not listening to me anymore.. it was painful and sore... really painful... I had to limp... but nevertheless i was happy enough i had finish the race...

then the unexpected happened... my friends were telling me i came in top 1o and so we waited for the results...

the board at the padang had only posted out the overall results.. which meant the women's category had only the top 20 names... and that includes all the elites... they did not post up a list of the local winners... the local winners were under the closed / singapore category...and we waited very long for the results...

after waiting long enough, i approached the information counter to check why it took them so long.. then the lady who attended to me told me they had no intention of postning the local results. then i questioned her back... "if you do not post the local results, how are the winners supposed to know whether they have won. Even the top 3 people would not have known they ae supposed to go up onto the stage to collect their prizes. AS for the 4th to 10th placing, non of the winners would have known they have gotten the prize. and you do have a notice to inform the 4th to 10th placing winners to proceed to the hotel to collect the prize from the time allocated. And what was the time? " I was super mad... Standing there not to gather info abt my results, but also was helping my other club members to gather their results. Then she said she will call up the command post to check.. she did and i say i will be back in1.5 hours after lunch...

after lunch, JD accompanied me back there.. it was already 1:30pm... and guess what. The lady who attended to me said the results were not ready.. it was already 8 hours after the race had started and the results are not ready! and she called up again to check and then the command post said they would print out soon... she asked how soon.. they did not give an answer.. by that time, the padang was almost empty.. the early finishers had gone home.. after waiting so long for the results... and because I am the assistant competition chairman of Mr 25 , i had the responsibility to wait for my team's results.. and i knew that because there was an appeal in the team event results, i had to wait... but seriously after waiting for so long, i decided to make my way home. I asked her what time is it appropriate to collect the prize at the hotel. SHE SAID 4 to 6pm.. JD heard it also...and i said ok...

i went to the hotel at 5:20pm.. only to see one friend... Lai Chee.. she went there to collect her prize money.. she was also told to collect at 4-6pm but then the officials had all went back!we called up and they said collection time was from 3-5pm.. we were shocked. And i said its ok, but I need to see the results so i can arrange the time to collect the prize money.. and guess what My name was not listed in the top 10, not to even say the top 20. I realised that the timing of the 9th and 10th position of the ladies local event was slower than mine.. and i could not even find my name listed on the top 20. Then i thought, haiz.. must be some errors.. Disappointment ran through my mind. I was not angry, but rather i felt kinda cheated.

First the person said results will be posted, it did not happen
Second, there was no way for me to check whether the results was wrong. Appeals to amend the results had to be sent in1/2 hour after results were posted. BUT BECAUSE NO RESULTS WERE POSTED<>
third, the lady asked us to be there at 4-6pm when it was actually 3-5pm.. wasted trip down by cab.
fourth, to date, after emailing the in-charge on Sunday night about this issue, I have not gotten any response or reply.

The prize money of 100 dollars imay not be as important as the timing. I need to timing to qualify for my next marathon and to get sponsorship.

To some people, winning 100 bucks is a small thing. To some people, 100 dollars is nothing. But to me its everything. It allows my sister to had her 3 meals taken care of. I cherish money very much.. to some people 10 cents seems a small amount, but to me.. it means more than everything. Because after losing someting, you learn to cherish something even more...