Tears of Joy and Pain @ Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore...

It was a short and super rushy trip this time around...

But I was happy that I've made friends and managed to meet up with runners from Malaysia and Singapore... Gotta expand the network eyy? ;)

My flight was super early in the morning on Saturday... And I attended the monthly graduation party by Original Bootcamp and post-drinks session after that the night before...

I was thankful that my fellow Wildcats' captain and virgin marathoner no more, Selly, was kind enough to let me bunk at her place for the night...

Collected the race packs around 11am and it was like a mini reunion with the runners at the Expo :)

With Cynthia, Carrie, Dannie, Irwan, Shanaz, Selly and Yim...

Pic credits to Yim (nice to have finally met you!)

Finally met Shanaz after our brief encounter at Ipoh International Run :)

With Shanaz and Selly... We became The Gediks :P

Had to say that the so-called 'expo' for the overseas runners was a major letdown... Nothing much...

We had lunch at this kopitiam place in Esplanade... and of course, Max Brenner for desserts with Shanaz and another virgin marathoner no more, KD ;)

Super yummy + sinful banana and hazelnut crepes

Shanaz, Selly and I went back to Selly's place after our sinful session to have a rest and watched Run Fatboy Run before our carboloading dinner with the Singaporean and fellow Dailymilers... I pretty much slept on the couch when these ladies were watching the movie since I only had about 2 hours of sleep the night before... :P

Shanaz and I decided to check out the adidas store at Cathay Cineleisure before our early dinner to buy some goodies... ;)

We walked to Plaza Singapura and met with the usual and new suspects at Swensens to have our pastas...

Malaysia + Singapore runners!

Pic credits to Asree

We decided to call it a night and my friend Baba was finally dropped off at Selly's place by my penyeri, Nyna since they drove from KL... Baba was doing her second half marathon at SCMS... :)

It was so cute to see Selly making all of these funny 'giving birth' noises in the apartment as she was nervous for her first full marathon... :P

Selly's apartment was located about 2km away from the starting point at Orchard Road... So we woke up at 3am to get ready and walked to the starting point..

On the way.. Pretty Christmas lights! 

Met up with Selly's friends and runners from Dailymile in front of Ion and and pre-race camwhore session ;)

With our Malaysian stickers! Woot woot! ;)

With Agus and Marshal from Dailymile...

They were attempting their first full marathon as well! :)

With Fiki and Selly...

The Gediks... Represent! ;)

I was placed in the orange coloured pen... And we started about 5 mins after 5am I think... The first 10km was pretty much a breeze for me as it was still windy and dark at that time... 

By the time we got into East Coast Park (between km13 - km 30), I decided to learn the art of 'letting go' while running since I didn't want to lose any precious time... And it worked! :P I was happy that I managed to overtake the 5:15 and 5:30 pacers here... Of course that didn't last very long... Hehe... Bumped into Razif and Irwan at other side before making the u-turn at the 21km marker... 

It was a dread running along the MCE Service Road after that as the scorching sun was up and that there was no water station between km29 - km32... Boo!!! Managed to bump into Fiki along this route as well... And this was where my legs started to hurt... And this is when the pacers overtook me... And that's when I knew that my dream to complete this marathon in less than 5 hours was over... Hehe... 

Decided to do the walk-run-walk-jog from km34 onwards and super runner Shanaz overtook me just before we climbed up the dreaded bridge at East Coast Parkway (ECP) at km37... It was pretty crowded for us as this is the meeting point for the marathoners, half marathoners and 10km runners to run toward the finish line at the Padang... We had to zig-zagged our way through them at the bridge as there was only 2 small lanes for us and there were massive traffic jam happening next to us... Poor Shanaz fell when she was trying to overtake runners here...

Decided to walk and run at my last 4km as my right foot was feeling insanely painful at this time... But decided to run with all I've got at my last 2km and managed to stop for paparazzi shots as there were a lot of photographers waiting to snap us runners... Here are my favs from the Marathon-Photos team:

At Esplanade Drive.. Going nuts with the heat!

Happy that the finish line's just around the corner! :)

(So getting this pic!)



Run happy, even when your heart is broken :)

Since our favourite photographer, Mr Tey announced on Facebook a couple of days ago that he will be waiting to snap our pretty pictures just before the finish line... I was so ecstatic when I spotted him and you can tell it from the pics below ;)

 

 Oh, my lioness hair :P

I completed my second marathon in 5 hours and 21 mins (official time) :) :) :)

It was an overwhelming day for me as for the first time, I teared up seconds after crossing the finish line... Too much of thinking and reflecting during the run I guess...

Yes...broken-hearted Malaysian girl boleh! ;)

Congratulations to all runners for completing a tough + super hot weather marathon... :) 

And MAJOR congratulations to my running friends that are no longer virgins in the marathon world... Welcome to the club: Razif, Selly, Agus, Marshal, KD, Izat, Cynthia and Fiki... You guys are truly awesome and I'm so proud of you!!! :) 

 

With 6 new marathoners :)

And I would like to thank all of you peeps out there for your never-ending supports... I am truly blessed and grateful for having such amazing running friends :)