Almost Halfway-fallout Marathon

The AHM is finally here! But gone as soon as it arrived. Contary to the title the run was rather smooth sailing and I survived the run much better than I expected. There was a point where I almost fell out though. Hahaha.


I woke up at 430am to the ringing of my phone from Desmond calling. Somehow the alarm I set at 4am failed to wake me up from my deep slumber. Slept only at around 1145 the night before. Looking back I am really thankful for the uneventful and safe run! Hahaha. There's my 'blessed' number tag on my running singlet resting on my increasingly protruding belly.


After 3 slices of plain bread and a cup of milo, I was off! Am really thankful for the lift that Cheers gave. His dad picked me up from the mrt and drove us right to the venue. Neat. Saved me at least $20 I reckon. Thanks Cheers! The area surrounding Esplanade and the Padang was already full of people by that time. Cheers deposited his belongings and there was just enough time to do a quick warm up and join the crowd at the starting point.

It was drizzling ever so slightly and the grounds were wet. Hahaha. One of my many excuses for not stretching adequately.

A candid picture of Cheers standing up after securing his shoe laces. Not sure if you guys can see the 'batman' electronic tag woven between his shoe laces.

After a quick stretch we pushed our way to the starting line and this is about as close as I could get. I supppose I was about 20-30m from the front. I didn't manage to catch Desmond and Kang. But I heard they were way infront, no more than 5m from the start! Hahaha. But it was not as bad as last time when I was stuck right at the back and had to walk for the first 3km.

The pre-run photo.

Yup. Check out the people behind me. Stretches as far as the eye can see. I heard its a record turnout this year but I'm not too sure about that.

The emcee was shouting himself hoarse to get us really excited and high. Well at least I think we woke the residents of Fullerton. Way before 630am. Hehehe.

And the air horn shouted and we're off!

Its the usual crawl at the first part of the run as there was not enough room for so many people to run off at the same time.

The usual route led us to the Benjamin Shears Bridge and I took a blurry photo of the Singapore Flyer along the way.

If you're thinking I must be crazy running and shooting photos at the same time you are right! Hahaha. Apparently the other guyzos thought so too. Along with many others along the way that gave me weird stares whenever I whipped out my camera to take a photo or two. Well the total tally? I took about 60 pictures that day for the event. Of which about 10 are super blurry and another 10 are usable-fuzzy. Hahaha. The nike pouch at the front was irritating and was extra weight. Furthermore the taking of pictures slowed down my timing. However I felt that having something to laugh back on next time would be priceless!

Ok back to the run. After hitting the ECP and cutting through Fort road area, we turned into East Coast Park and it was then that I saw the first runner running back from the mid point. He was probably about 13km by then while I was a mere 7km? Madness! I don't know about this year but I heard that last year's winner came back under 1hr and 10 mins.

I felt that the water points set up by the different units this year were pretty boring. Except for the water point set up by the Support unit. They had those distributing waters decked out in mismatched and hilarious superheroes suit! Those that resembles 'Flash' (doubt many watched Flash last time) the most but in many colours. Neat! Wanted to take a photo with them but I think I'll probably block the way on the narrow running tracks of the park. So rather than risked being stampeded I thought its wiser to just take the drink and carry on running.

And the amatuer band invited by the AHM committee to play at East Coast to encourage us were really good! For the short performance I was able to hear enough skills from the drummer and the lead singer/guitarist. Amazing! Sure would like to know which bar they play at or something.

Thats Cheers running like a hyena. I almost could not keep up and lagged at many times. WHY YOU RUN SO FAST???!!!

I stepped across the electronic mat at the 10.5km mark and 'u-turned' at about 1hr and 5 mins. Decent timing by my yardstick.

The sign reads '14KM' and tells us that we entered the area of the run carved out by our combat engineers. We ran towards the end of the part and based through the jungle through a path created by the engineers.

They call it the 'Expedition trail'.

Super ulu area. I was amazed by the pains the committee took to create this new route. It was really a scenic run and the trees provided a cool morning jog and plenty of fresh air.

We ran towards the end of the jungle and towards the Marina barrage. And the lovely sea view welcomed us.

Thank God for the wonderful cloudy and windy run and for holding back the rain just for the run. The weather was excellent.

The city is in sight! Here I come!

I see the barrage!

We're the first to run across it!

The entrance to the barrage that will lead us straight to DXO. Amazing route!

The views from the barrage!

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I was having a jolly good run till about this point when fatigue starts to really set in. Worse still I suffered from a muscle cramp and had to walk for about a kilometre or so. Hahaha. But I was still trying to get a decent timing so I endured the pain and went as fast as I could. At about 17km I told Cheers to carry on without me though he was really kind to slow down his pace. At least I can take photos and jog slowly without slowing him down. The run really brings out the best in Singaporeans. You're constantly encouraged by those who overtake you, egging you on. I also see some Singaporeans stopping to help those who have fell or offer their muscle ointments. One man even stopped and gave an NSF who was suffering from severe muscle cramps a stretching and a massage on top of providing cooling gel.

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At about the 19km mark, this lady in red and white singlet in the middle of the picture overtook me. And the back of her singlet read 'Follow me to complete the race in 2hrs 30mins'. It was the time I set for myself for this run. I was shocked at how much time I spent lagging behind and was determined to complete the run under that time. So I overtook her and made sure I was infront till the end of the race. Heh.

Finally the end is in sight!

Here's my unofficial timing, counted from the moment the airhorn sounded, not when the chip registered our commencement time at the start line. The official certificate with the final time will be sent to me. So I suppose it will be 2hrs 27mins??? Hahah. Almost 20 mins slower than my last time but who cares? I'm just pleased that I did it within the timing I set for myself.

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A very tired me with Cheers after the race. We were totally soaked in pespiration. HAHAHA. I took the mrt home after that. And NO I didnt bring a change of clothes. WAHAHA!!! K la i'm not a public menace everyday. Just that day only. Honest! And there were probably thousands who did the same thing. I wonder if they disinfect the trains and City Hall Station after services that day. Haha.

The tons of NSF, forced, erm I mean 'highly encouraged' to take part in the run that day.

Cheers sure had a good first AHM I reckon! Very decent timing too! Good job bro!

I finally get the finisher medal this time, and not just a lousy certificate. Curses! If not I'd had two! Hahaha.

I managed to catch up with the SIM guyzos too! Kang was the fastest at just above 2 hours, followed by Desmond not too far away.

Good job guys! Our multiple training runs paid off! Hahaha. Though I wished I had the chance to run the 16km prep before this.

My muddy Old Balance and sweat soaked pouch. Had a crazy time washing those 2 back at home.

So that concludes the coverage for the AHM. And I'm just really pleased that I didn't fallout. Woohoo!

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God is good!