Marina Run 2014- My first 10k
Despite providing myself a huge margin (>1
h) for unanticipated circumstances, I reached the venue late for my first ever official
10k. Misinterpreting the starting point to be on west side of Gardens by the
Bay (GB), I was baffled to see no signage boards on the way. With twenty mins
to go, I was informed that the starting point is on the GB East, which was 2.5
k ahead. Few others like me, who did the awful blunder of not looking up the
venue/map properly, accompanied me on my way cribbing about it. Realizing the
time constraints and distance to be covered, I started running at the Marina
Barrage with my bag stuffed with sundry items. Running along with me were the
finishing 5k runners playing with their colourful water pistols, who
exasperated me further by splashing water on me while I was over phone. Already
being a bundle of nerves, I started panting and cursing myself for being sloppy,
but was surprised to see bunches of red tee’s (presumably 10k runners) walking
calmly towards the venue.
Dropping my bag at the deposit counter with just
3 mins remaining, I rushed to join the broadly spread starting point, with time
enough just to catch my breath, and do some warm up stretches. At the 0th
minute, we started walking towards the starting line, and started to jog as we
crossed it. I already felt drained out within the first km – probably due to
the last minute hassles and tensions.. Just to instill confidence in myself, I
reminded myself of all the practice runs I did with Aicha and Joy in the past
months. Practices at Green corridor, Park connector and the mock run a week
before on the same path/time at Marina Bay- all were planned and thought
through by Aicha. At the finish of the 4th km, I was met by
Joy-Sasha who were on the other side of the loop- when I realized they ran with
the second wave of runners, which started 20 mins late(I panicked
unnecessarily!). I continued running at my own speed, slowly getting comfortable
and stable with the breath/pace.
Tired and weary, still running, 7k signage
brought a faint smile on my dreary face. Just then, I heard a voice calling
out- “Uttaaara, Yay! Your can do it!” It was Aicha, who was on her way with
Peter to the half marathon starting point; seeing her waving at me and giving a
hi fi turned the curve on my face into a broad smile, momentarily making me forget
my agony. I felt so energized on being cheered at this point, when my morale
and enthusiasm were flagging.
The run path though seemed eternal, was scenic-
with river on one side, garden on the other, having people of all ages- biking,
walking, jogging, skating and everything-ing.. Drenched in my own sweat, with
my mouth growing drier every passing moment, I strongly resisted the urge to
drink anything at the water stations- wary about potential stomach ache by running
after drinking. Aicha always insisted on having sips of water just to wet the
mouth- which I’m sure would’ve made me feel much better. During the last
kilometer, I saw most of the people walking, which was so not motivating and
defeated the purpose of a “run”. Despite the sore leg muscles, I kept running
at a slow pace and soon we saw the cheer leaders shouting “Fast! Fast! You are
almost there”. True enough, I crossed the finish line within a minute, when we
were handed over the “10k Finisher Medals”- did feel a unique sense of achievement..!
With the results out, I was ahead of 69% of the 10 k runners, and finished in a
good timing.
Marina Run, celebrating its 3rd
birthday, comprised of novice student coordinators, and wasn’t the best organized
run- it took atleast 15 mins of queuing
before I could get the fruits and drinks into my system! Having just a single
baggage collection counter resulted in a flooding of those counters. I-Joy-Sasha were just on time to meet and wish
Aicha- Peter & their friends before they started their half marathon, and
they finished in an awesome timing!! I walked back to Bayfront MRT, which wasn’t
very close to the venue either, so in all I did around 16 k in those 2.5 hrs,
Sigh! Without losing much time, I crashed into Pushpa aunty’s house with a
short notice checking their availability. I couldn’t have been happier that day-
when I had the awesomest dinner cooked by Aunty, followed by long session on
Aunty’s automatic leg massager machine- provided a much needed muscle relaxation
that my legs craved for.
Sincere thanks to Aicha for motivating me to
challenge myself with two fold distance run, it would have been impossible without
you and your trainings! Looking forward to running more :-)
