I had two mishaps in this marathon, one right at the start of the race and the other right at the end. In between, God sent an angel to help me.
I needed the angel, partly because my training for the marathon hadn�t been too good. I started the training too late. My training began when I did some rigorous calf raises with weights, an exercise which I had not done in a long time. This turned out to be a mistake. Both my calves became extremely sore for more than a week. This delayed my training while I nursed by damaged calves. Just as my calves recovered, I came down with a cold and cough, further delaying the start of my marathon training. Thus, the longest distance I covered on a single run was only half a marathon. And I did that only twice. Despite my lack of training, I felt that I could still finish the marathon.
For motivation, I watched the movie Chariots of Fire on DVD the day before the marathon. Eric Liddell is one of my running heroes.
21,000 runners registered for this marathon, which was a record number. For the first time, registration was closed (3 weeks) before the official deadline for registration. This angered many runners, some of whom complained bitterly in the newspaper forum. Fortunately, I had registered early.
This marathon did not start well. After covering just 50 m, I tripped. The record crowd was huge. There wasn�t much room at all to maneuver. So I tried running at the side of the road. But it had a little contour where the tarmac ended. When my foot stepped on the contour, I lost my balance and tripped. Fortunately I managed to regain my balance and so I did not fall completely. But my left ankle had been hurt. I continued running, hoping that the pain would subside soon. (This brought my mind back to one of my marathons in Honolulu many years ago, where a similar thing happened. In that marathon, my right ankle hurt slightly for a few miles, but I managed to finish the race.) Fortunately, this time the pain subsided after just a few minutes. So I carried on running, feeling relieved, watching my steps more carefully from then on.
This was one of the most demanding marathons I had ever run, primarily because of the extreme heat and humidity and the record number of runners. Singapore had always been hot and humid. But on this day, the heat was particularly intense. There was hardly any cloud cover. I had heat exhaustion during army training deep in a tropical jungle. And I had no intention of having the unpleasant experience again. So I was careful to drink enough water. I did that though I was worried that I might be drinking too much water and bringing my sodium level to a dangerously low level. To counter the loss of sodium, I drank as much isotonic sports drink as I could. Such isotonic drinks were available only at some water stations. After the marathon, I noticed that I was sunburned all over. The chances that I would get skin cancer had just risen up substantially.
At about the 19 km mark, I saw a runner on a stretcher, being lifted into a St. John�s ambulance by medics. I could only see his lower legs. Couldn�t tell his age or race. He may have succumbed to the heat. I hoped he would recovered soon. This was the second time in a marathon where I saw a runner stretched off to an ambulance. The other time happened in a Honolulu Marathon. I hoped that the same thing wouldn�t happen to me.
If that should happen, I would not be able to finish the marathon and acquire the precious finisher's T-shirt.
The other reason for the increased difficulty in this marathon was the huge crowd. It was so crowded that I sometimes bumped against other runners or vice versa. I ran well over 42.2 km. I started too far back behind the huge pack of runners at the starting line, and I had to maneuver a lot just to overtake them, not just at the beginning of the race, but throughout.
At the 36 km mark, my legs were completely fatigued. The last 6 km would be a very long 6 km. I needed a last big push to finish the race. At this opportune time, God send an angel to help me. The angel was in the form of a cute-looking pretty lady of about 21 years old. She asked me if she could run along with me. I eagerly replied �sure�.
She must have noticed my struggles and had seen that I was moving along at about the same pace as her. We chatted as we ran. Jane was an accounting student from the Singapore Management University. She was wearing a Navy blue SMU tank top, just like some of the other runners. She explained that she came with a big group of her schoolmates. Many of them had already finished the race, while some had dropped out. We started talking about accounting when I told her about my education in Business Administration in Hawaii, where I took two accounting classes. The subject then changed to running and other sports. She was very active in sports. Besides running, she also played basketball and soccer. She was a Christian too, and so we talked about the different churches and their beliefs.
Running and chatting with her really helped me a lot. Time moved so much quicker. My mind was diverted from the increasing pain and fatigue in my legs. Before I even realized it, we had moved past the 37 km mark, then 38 and then 39.
But Angel Jane said that both her knees were hurting. She had to stop for a while. She insisted that I went ahead without her. I reluctantly did so. But before that, I gave her my web page address and she promised to check it out. I hope that I could keep in touch with this angel. She was friendly and sweet.
Now I had to complete the last 3 km on my own. The last 3 km were long and hard and slow. But I staggered on, with just 100 m more to go. I should now finish the marathon safely. But no, I was foolish enough to get into trouble again. At the finishing point was a huge electronic clock. I noticed that the time was 12:28 pm. I wanted to beat the 12:30 pm time. Before the race, I had told my mom that I would finish at 12:30 pm and I wanted to have the satisfaction of meeting that timing.
Before starting out long distance running, I was a sprinter. I was my primary school�s 400 m champion back in 1976. I had always enjoyed feeling the wind as I sprinted. And this was possibly my last marathon. Why not finish it with a sprint? So I foolishly went on a full sprint. It felt good. But when I had only about 10 meters to go, my legs and my left glute muscles hurt very badly. I might have pulled several muscles. (My memory went back to a 100 m race in 1997 in which I pulled my right hamstring muscle. The injury lasted till this day).
After crossing the finish line, I limped to the side of the road and collapsed. The pain was agonizing, especially on my left glute. But I wasn�t concerned about the pain as much as the possibility that I had pulled several muscles. If so, my running life would be in serious jeopardy. I lay down and rested for a while. I thought of calling out one of the St John�s medics. But what could they do? Then a lady runner came over to me, she pointed at a certain direction and said that my mom had just told her to tell me that mom was waiting for me. Because of the tight security (in this age of terrorism, maybe a suicide bomber would blow himself or herself off along with several marathon runners), only runners were allowed in that area. After a few more minutes, I gathered enough courage to try to stand up. Slowly I did so. I felt that the pain was almost gone! Thank God. I could walk again.
Thus I finished my 10th marathon. It felt good. There�s nothing magical about the number 10 though. It was just a round number. But still, I felt that I had reached a milestone. And once I had reached this milestone, I would be thinking if I had run my last marathon. I don�t think that my longsuffering injured lower back (3 slipped disks) can hold out much longer.
I had two scary adventures during the race. It is interesting to note that one occurred at the start and the other at the finish, the first occurred within the first 50m and the second within the last 10 m. I was similar to a passenger jet in which the take-offs and landings were the most dangerous times during the entire flight. But in between those two mishaps I needed help too, and God responded with angel Jane. |
