Dec 3 (Friday Night)
Watch Mr. Incredible @ Midvalley – second time. Still as funny as the first time. Love Edna Mode.Dahlink!
Bought some bread at Bread Talk for breakfast in the train. They ran out of flossy buns. Darn!
Had a strawberry sundae at McDonald. There was some commotion caused by a young guy with some elderly people. Not my problem. Continued to indulge in my strawberry swirl. Strawberry sundaes made me happy and forget about the world
Boarded the train – Senandung Malam. The only senandung (serenade) I heard was the noisy chatter of a bunch of annoying Indian who were on their way for an architectural study visit to Singapore. Reminder: To pack earplug next time.
Train left for Singapore approximately 10:30pm.
Had fallen asleep despite the bone-rattling movement of the train
Dec 4 (Sat)
Awakened by some noisy kids. Loathe them. Arrived at JB. Malaysian passport were checked on board. Noisy Indians awakened and their chatting seemed unstoppable.
Got down with luggage into Singapore checkpoint. Long queue there. Filled up the immigration card. Was not offered one board. Decided to take some cards for future use.
Reached Tanjung Pagar train station. Took the bus to Chinatown for breakfast. Tan, CL, Amy decided to have bak kut teh for breakfast. Not my bowl of Teh! Don’t think I can ever choke on that stuff. Went to a café called “Kopi and Toast” for some what else but Kopi and toast and two ½ boiled eggs. Yummy!
Took the MRT from Chinatown to City Hall. Walked through the Citylink Mall to Suntec City. Got distracted by HMV. Almost walked into it but managed to pull my legs out of it and continued walking to Suntec Mall. Saw many people passed by, whom I assumed runner with the Sg Marathon as they were carrying the elegant dark blue new balance shoe bag. Hurried my pace.
T-shirt and race pack collection was well organized. Got mine in a jiffy. The only interesting booth at the expo was the New Balance. Bought 3 pairs of socks at SGD10.
Cheap I guess.
Checked in into Marina Mandarin at noon. Kinda fancy.The atrium was breath taking.
Top 5 Reasons I love to stay at Marina Mandarin (MM) for Singapore Marathon
1) Suntec City is practically at the doorstep. Suntec houses Tower Record and Blue Max DVD store.
2) MM is linked to Marina Shopping Mall with linked to Cineplex and funky looking Marina Food Loft.
3) MM is linked to City Link Mall which in turn linked to City Hall Interchange.
4) 5 min stroll from Esplanade, starting point.
5) Great view of the Marina area – Can see the Merlion doing a projectile vomit into the sea. Hahah!
Unpacked my stuff and had a light lunch of pita bread with tuna spread.
Then, I went out to do the
5 things that I shouldn’t be doing on the day before Singapore Marathon:
1) Spend hours browsing books about running and yoga at Borders
2) Walking up and down Orchard Road looking for a magazine to redeem some goodie bag (It seemed to be a good idea then to look for the SGD2 Chinese magazine in exchange of a Nivea Men Toiletries Goodie bag)
3) Spend hours looking for a Six Sigma book in Kinokuniya for a colleague
4) Spend hours at HMV and Gramophone flipping through thousands of CDs and VCDs.
5) Watch a 3 hours butt-numbing epic movie like Alexander the night before the run. (It seemed to be a good idea at first but then my legs couldn’t be stretched, adding to the tiredness. The movie was the bigger (epic), longer (3 hrs) and uncut (no censor) version. Seem them all – Alexander bed romp with his butt naked wife- Roxane, homo kiss between Alexander and some Indian male dancer and Colin Farell’s posterior. Was impressed by Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of Alexander’s mommy, bewitching with tongue-rolling accent and her fondness of snakes. Sexy this!
Arrived back to the hotel at about 11:00pm. Gobbled up a McD Savoury Beef Burger I bought earlier. No pasta party this. Went to bed with my tired soles. Regret! Regret! Regret!
Dec 5 (The day has come)
5 Things I did right for Singapore marathon that I might do it again next year.
1) Eat 2 whole meal pita with peanut butter. Never felt hunger or acid reflux. Drink load of 100 Power plus.
2) A relaxing bubble bath in the tub with lavender soap the night before. Love this aromatherapy shit.
3) Leg Muscle rubdown with analgesic balm before the run. Reminder: Wash hand properly after rubdown. Do not touch scratch the groin area without washing the hand. Ignoring this reminder might cause some fiery consequences.
4) Chewing gum. (Is this still illegal in Singapore??) Keep my mouth moist and my breath fresh. Haaaaaahhhhhhh!!! Smell that? Heheh!
5) Stopped at 10, 20 and 30km to make my Power Gel shake. Don’t really like to suck on the sticky sweet goo. So I squirted a pack into the cute 2Tang 250ml mineral water supplied, closed the cap and shook the bottle as I ran. The 2 Tang bottle is cute and practical for running as it fits in the palm and enable running while drinking.
Was at the starting point quite early at about 4:45am. The girls were nowhere to be seen. Walked up and down the Esplanade. Slowly moved to the back where the slow runners were – 5-6 hours pen. Saw a guy wearing a huge birthday cake suit. My vote was for him to win the best dress entry.
I followed the crowd, jostling down the street after the blast off. Not able to run at all at the start. Stepped on the timing mat while U2’s Beautiful Day was playing in the air. Great song to start the day.
I have got nothing much to report on the run except that I took my own sweet time to “baby jog” and took photographs till 33km where I completely hit the wall. Then, I did the Big Walk all the way back to the Padang.
5 Things I love about Singapore Marathon
1) Highly well organised. Effective and efficient. I have nothing but praises for the organizer. Good traffic control. Drinking stations well stocked. So far the best marathon I have ever run. I only ran two so far but my first marathon; KLIM 2004 was light years behind Singapore Marathon. I still can’t forget the traumatic experience that I was made to wait under the hot sun, queuing up to return my timing chip and get back my cash deposit after running 42km in KLIM. Hope these people can learn something from our neighbour.
2) Great carnival like atmosphere – spunky cheerleaders and fun expo.
3) Scenic route – skyscrapers, beaches, park.
4) Motivational sign boards along the way. Keep the spirit high.
5) Very nice finisher medal and T-shirt.
After completed my run, I dashed back to the hotel to shower and check out. Returned to the Padang to collect my medal and finisher tee. Had a bowl of yummy beef noodle at Marina Food Loft – a great place to chill out and grab a bite. If you sit outside, you can enjoy the scenic Esplanade area.
Left Singapore at 3:30pm from the Golden Mile Complex which pratically can be known as Thailand in a mall. Took the express bus back.
I discovered that one of my middle toenails has turned black. Soon it will fall off. Same thing happened to me in KLIM 2004. I guess my feet are not made for running marathon heheh. It will take 3 months to grow back, just in time for the KL International Marathon 2005. :)
CLICK HERE FOR THE AMAZING SINGAPORE MARATHON 2004 PICTURES
