Contributed by Mok Ying Ren
Mok Ying Ren in action at the 2012 Army Half Marathon where he finished 3rd in 1:16:56.30 after a 9-month injury layoff. Mok won the 30km Newton Challenge in 1:49:13. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Preamble
East Coast Park, Sunday, October 28, 2012 — I have had a quiet running year. The 30km Newton Challenge was only my third race in 2012! From January to May, I kept my feet off the ground to allow my plantar fasciitis injury to heal completely as well as to study for my final exams.
I started jogging in May and June and was happy with my progress. In August, I did the Army Half Marathon at a comfortable pace to prevent aggravation of my injury and it went well. The week after, I headed to Malaysia with my buddies Sia Chuan Han and Ramesh Palaniandy and put in a good half marathon effort. I chose this 30km Newton Challenge as a good build up for the Singapore Marathon.
A little bit about my life now: I have since graduated from medical school in May and am six months into my housemanship. I am currently working in the Orthopedics Department at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (Yes! The beautiful new hospital in Yishun). I work 80 hours a week, with one night call each week (meaning I work from 7am till 1pm the next day) . Working weekends is a norm which is again why it has been difficult for me to take part in many races this year. For each weekend I am off racing, I have to pay back on another weekend. It has not been easy to run much. But still, I am enjoying it!
Pre-Race
My morning started off with a little startle. My dad frantically woke the house up exclaiming that he had forgotten to set the alarm and it was 4:50am! (I blame myself for not setting my own alarm with the race starting at 5:30am.) The day before I had arranged with my running buddy Sia Chuan Han to get a lift at 4:30am. I switched on my phone and I had eight missed calls from Sia.
I was partly upset that I may have to give my 30km race a miss but I kept everyone calm and went on to change up and at the same time called Sia to check where he was. Fortunately, he was still downstairs waiting for me. My mum quickly made my usual milk shake and I drank it down. I gave my parents a hug and rushed down into Sia’s car at 5am.
Sia’s excellent driving skills brought us to the start line at 5:25am, just 5 minutes before the flag off. He is the man to thank.
Race
It was great to see familiar faces once again, this being my second local race this year after recovering from my foot injury. I met Ramesh, who was the third fastest Singapore in the 2010 Singapore Marathon, and Ahmad, the Moroccan runner who is staying in Singapore now. Ang Chee Yong, who was the second fastest Singaporean at the 2011 Singapore Marathon, was also there at the start line. I guessed that many of the other runners were at the adidas King Of The Road race held on the same day.
My body has still not woken up despite the earlier scare and I was feeling stiff all over, having only woken up 40 minutes ago. There was also not much time before the start of the race to do any warm up. Before I knew it, it was time to start the 30km Challenge.
My goal for the race was to run at a pace slightly faster than my marathon goal pace. Having recovered only recently from my injury, I did not want to risk pushing the envelope too hard for fear of recurrence. To achieve this goal, I wanted to run at an even 3-minute, 40-second (3:40) per kilometer pace from start to finish. With my training partner Jason Lawrence sick at home, I was worried that this goal would be much harder to meet. The week before, both of us missed the Nike 10K due to illness but unfortunately he still could not recover in time to run the 30km with me.
From the gun, I kept my focus and started off at the exact pace, checking my splits every kilometer. Thanks to the race organizers, the distance markers were accurate and allowed me to keep track of my splits. With the aid of my GPS watch, I was able to make sure that I was neither running too fast or too slow. Being the lead runner, I had the privilege of a lead cyclist to help me pave the way. I realized after the event that the cyclist was Christina, one of my training mates when I was a swimmer in earlier days.
At 5:30am the sky was still pitch black and I started to have doubts if I could meet my target.
[…] Prologue It was a challenging build up to the Singapore Marathon. My build up started in May when I started my housemanship after a six-month lay off to allow a complete recovery of my plantar fasciitis injury. I took part in three races during the build up — the Army Half Marathon, a half marathon in Malaysia, and the Newton 30km Challenge. […]