7 Sleeps to go

With only 7 sleeps to go to the Singapore marathon, I have been reflecting back to the first marathon I ever took part in almost 30 years ago - it was the Rotorua marathon and I was scared to death!  

I had joined the Auckland YMCA marathon club a few months prior and turned up bright and early every Sunday morning to join their build up to the Rotorua event. I remember one of their 20 mile runs which went out to the airport and back from the central city and I was so exhausted afterwards I despaired at the thought of having to run a further 10kms on marathon day.  Then the night before the marathon there was a dreadful storm with hail and high winds and I sat crying in the bathroom wondering what had possessed me to sign up to such an event and what was I thinking having told people about it - now I had to start!  It really was a monumental moment as I had been a couch potato for most of my life prior to entering the marathon.  Unfortunately by morning the weather hadn't  changed and I lined up at the start of the marathon with a rubbish bag over me to protect me from the hail stones and high winds.  And then we were off. It felt quite surreal.  I plodded along in the dreadful weather conditions and did ok until the 32km mark (3 hours 30 minutes) and then hit the wall as we all hear about.  It took me an hour and 41 minutes to wade the last 10km to the finish - but you couldn't wipe the beaming smile off my face for days to come despite the awful stiffness that plagued me the following week.  It was a huge milestone for me.   A few months later I ran a 4 hour 12 marathon in Hamilton and went on to do a number of other marathons including London and New York - what a great way to see a city and one day I will break that 4 hour mark (but not next week).

So nearly 30 years on I still don't know what possessed me to enter this event as the marathon distance really takes its toll - I haven't had a great build up but there are many years of miles in the bank and many lessons learned along the way.  I have also had the great pleasure to run in many cities in the world, London, New York, Denver, Chicago, Washington, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Wellington and Auckland, so I guess it makes sense at some strange level to line up and take part in one of the biggest events in Singapore along with nearly 25,000 others.  

The Singapore marathon starts at 5am next Sunday 1 December (that's 10am NZ time).  I guess there are only a few things left to do - both these little gems seem appropriate today...

and......

Until next week.....