'Learn to love the pain' - Standard Chartered Singapore Marketing team

saw this motivational quote @ the east coast leg of the marathon run and man, that was what I truely found out in this morning's marathon. u really got to love the pain to love the game of running! and y do i say so? it's gonna be a bit gross so just bear with me. before the 1/2way mark of 21km, i discovered i had bleeding nipples (yes, no joke!! and there were 2 red patches on my white singlet!!), had armpit abrasion thru e run such that i had to flap my elbows out while running and groin and scrotal abrasion which i discovered only while bathing just now... not only that, my quads felt like they weight a tonne during the final 10km of the run and my calfs threatened to cramp all e time! 'mind over matter' another quote mentioned... yes e runners who finished it were truely a testimony of the statement!

but wait, before concluding that marathon is a torturous game, i have to admit that I had absolutely no complains about the run and i thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, which took a labourious 4hrs 45mins. there was a good mix of runners from young to old, pretty & handsome volunteers (they deserve credit for painfully opening hundreds of bottles of ice mountain water), an ang moh who kept cheering on and on for 4-5hrs for all runners @ ECP and of course the cheerleaders from the polys, which i gladly shook all their silky hands while running for motivation...haha! other than people, the view thru the run was very scenic too, just that i din have the time and effort to appreciate them... who had?!?!

having gone very hungry before during my training runs, i decided not to let hunger strike again in what i call 'the mother of all races'! before the run, i had loaded myself with 2 powerbars and 1 powergel just before running. thru the run, i was clutching so tightly to my remaining 1 powergel as though it's gonna be lost forever. after finishing that powergel @ the 18km mark for some lost energy, i immediately went to grab 2 more packs again @ the 28km mark for energy 'safety'! gosh, never believed in those stuff till today... yeah, and @ every 2-4km, i would be so happily grabbing an open ice mountain bottle to sip and den pour the contents all over my body like a wet mad man! next comes the fun, i just have to chuck/throw the empty/half-filled bottles by the roadside! hey, it's legitimate national littering day!

towards the last 10km of the run, i thought i was a mad runner and decided to half-sprint towards the finishing. gosh! i totally felt i was possessed as i zoomed past 1 runner after the next. strangely, it was a very good feeling becoz every step was a step towards the finishing line and a step lesser for the run, other than the good old feeling of overtaking pple. however, gd things dun last and i fizzled off 2km from the line and was overtaken by 5 females and 2 ah-peks! it was only @ the last 200m that i decided to sprint for my life again and boy was it shiok to overtake about 10-15 pple even at this last stretch... the sprint was made surprisingly pleasant when i happened to see Daniel Quek and Randel cheering on at the last 150m. kudos to both of you!

omg, i just have to say this!! the kenyan and african runners were so damn fast!!! i was @ the 3km mark when the breakaway pack of 6-8 runners just zoomed past me in the dark @ their 10km mark. not only so, they zoomed past me AGAIN when i was @ my 16km mark and them @ their 35km mark! gosh!!they were so tall, so strong, had such long strides, and so black that i've now decided to call them the night riders (you know, the horses the dark side rode in LOTR??)!! damn, they r my running idols and i just feel like a snail whenever i think about their runs!

ok, it's time to konk out and let my legs rest. tmr i shall wear the black addidas dri-fit finisher's shirt to sch! yay!