My marathon race — a first-hand account by Mok Ying Ren

At 12km, we entered East Coast Park and we noticed the elite women’s lead pack with their camera motorcycle about 300m ahead. I told Jason,”Shoot, we gotta catch the camera and get on TV!!” I got really excited about the prospect and we increased our pace slowly. At this point in time, our average pace was 3:42/km — it was healthy but about 1 minute off our target pace.

At 15km, I took my bottle again — but this time they misplaced my bottle and had put it on the women’s table! It was funny. I grabbed it and the official started screaming at me for taking the wrong bottle and even attempted to chase after us!! What a joke. We shouted back at him and that gave us an added adrenaline boost HAHA! Our pace increased beautifully. We were still comfortable and in control. However, after shouting, Jason had a tummy ache but I held up the pace.

At 21km, we made a U-turn and we noticed the elite women were just 200m away. We decided we would catch them by the time we ended the ECP stretch. We ran slightly harder but on hindsight, I think we went a bit too fast. The average pace for the last 10km after we caught them at 25km was 3:33/km – that’s an average of seven seconds faster per kilometre and I thought it would come back and haunt us near the end of the race.

Once we caught the elite women at 25km I was ecstatic! I made thumbs up signs at the camera and It was so so fun! Along the way back I also met many of my friends running the opposite direction and the atmosphere was great. Probably that’s why I ran faster too because it was so rejuvenating to hear all the cheering. I guess people were excited to see me running with some Kenyans even though they are women. HAHA!

We followed for 2km but Jason stubbornly went on to drive the women’s train and kept on leading. I told him “Cool it Jace, don’t make them mad!”, but he now denies it and says I am the one who agitated the ladies. HAHA.

Eventually at 27km, I found the pace was suicidal and decided to drop back. By then, the women’s pack of four broke up with only two ladies following the motor bike and two had dropped off.

Between 30km and 35km, I had by then eaten about five gels on my runs and was too full to eat anymore! So I skipped a few but ate the caffeine gel at the 35km mark. It was great and it powered me on till 37km when the dreaded Benjamin Sheares Bridge appeared in my sight! To be honest, till the day before, my friends were still debating if the bridge was part of the course, but I guess we just prepared ourselves for the worst.

Jason went up the 800m hill effortlessly but I was cramping up, probably from the fatigue exerted on the ECP chasing the elite ladies. At this point, our timing was still on time for a 2:35 but after the hill and after the crazy downhill that killed our quadriceps, my legs were just cramping up. It was not wise to push harder as cramping would only make me stop and lose even more time. Thus, it was wiser to slow down to cope with the cramp.

At 39km, the camera which finished following the men came back to follow me! How cool is that? Last year, all my friends commented how terrible I looked on the camera and this year I didn’t want to look that bad, man! So i told Jace, “Hey bro, lets take it easy, my legs are cramping up and it’s shitty here. I gotta smile for the camera!”

Being such a nice friend, he slowed down. I think he also got some good reviews from Pat Butcher, the official marathon commentator, who said how good Jason looked. Damn. I was hoping he wasn’t going to steal my limelight! But it was all really in good fun.

Though my goal of 2:35 was gone now, my 2:38 is still a great 5-minute improvement from last year.

As we turned into the finish for the last 1km, I put on my best smile and finished the race. The atmosphere was good. Though my breathing was pretty regulated, I couldn’t risk going harder or my cramps would have come on.

It was just a great marathon! My second one in my life.

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