BOSTON MARATHON 2016

It has been about a month since I completed Boston Marathon 2016, in its 120th edition. These were the highlights for me.

I met my team-members at Changi Airport: Coach Lexus and assistant-coach Zhi Yong

It felt good the second time round. My first was in 2014, Boston Strong. I managed to qualify after one missed opportunity in 2011, in the Hong Kong Marathon.My next BQ came in 2013 and 2015, both earned in the Gold Coast Marathon in Australia. The climate suits many Asian marathoners as it is cool, but not cold. Plus, the course is a fast course.

I missed the BQ-within-Boston by 2 minutes with my 3 hour 32 minutes and 4 second finish. With each year's cutoff hovering just under 3 minutes, I was off by 5 minutes. I was pleased  that several of my friends from Singapore earned BQs, which was done under slightly warmer conditions this year. I was pleased my injuries healed before the race, having suffered a sprained left ankle and suspected calf sprain/tear. With my BV Sport compression-socks and lighter Mizuno running shoes, I cleared the 42.195km in decent time.

We met CRO of Runners World - Bart Yasso. It was a real treat to meet the creator of the Yasso 800's

I held back on the first 10km, as it was mostly downhill. This year had more women participating, and I was gladly 'out-chicked' by this wide and deep field of great runners of all age-groups. My last 10km was hard, as I heated up a little and had to hold back. Although I was stronger on the hills this year, the do sap the legs. I improved a total of 16 minutes over 2014, and moved up the top-31 percent of the overall field. for that, I am grateful for the three-run-sessions per week I had with my new running group, F1Runners and the JRLAcademy of runners. The diet of interval-track sessions, strength-endurance were adequate to give me a very good Return On Investment (ROI) on my training. The rest of the time I spent on strengthening my body with cycling, swimming and circuit-training/kettle-bell training.

I applied what I learned over the years in my book 'Clocking Your Boston Qualifier: Run Less; Run Faster', and so was assured by my wisdom gleaned from experience and experts. In fact, one of my interviewees in my book - Andrew Cheong - earned a strong BQ of 3:26. He is a proponent of FIRST, and runs three key workouts a week: one long, one tempo, and one speed session.

It was a richly rewarding second outing to Boston, and the magic of this race never ceases to amaze me throughout the entire point-to-point course. The spectator support was generous and encouraging. For the first-time Boston marathoner, there will be many memories to relish over.

I hope to return in 2017, and qualify at the end of this year in cooler climates.

While We Wait, The Hours Are Ticking…

We spend a significant and unimaginable amount of our time and lives waiting in queues and for others. Waiting can be described as longing, anticipation, patience, whiling away the time, killing time and awaiting. In some cultures, waiting for your clients is an expectation and you accept that it is conventional and traditional. Waiting might also be a part of the ritual of business concourse, for we justify it with the phrase ‘it is well worth the wait’. Indeed, all good things come to those who wait.

Singapore Blade Runner - he ran mano a mano with the rest of the competitive 10K field. A prominent face, next to Adam One-Armed Runner in the running community he was a Cheerleader.

Sometimes, waiting can be too time-consuming and we plunge ourselves into impatience. We hurry things up, as well of others. We impose our timelines upon others so that they may proceed with haste and a sense of urgency. We rush, expedite and accelerate others so that we can change gears and attain higher efficiency. Invariably, we risk making mistakes and jump to conclusion for we fail to attain full comprehension. Be mindful that you do not do it often.

Outside of work, I have enjoyed a full month of racing, researching and reading. I had raced in the adidas King of the Road (KOTR) 10-miler (16.8K) Run, Singapore Bay Run (21K), 2XU Mega-Tri (long course) and Yellow Ribbon Prison Run (YRPR). I earned personal bests in the first two, and a narrow miss at the third installment of the 10K Competitive YRPR yesterday. The official results showed me in 44th position with time of 44:44. What are the odds of that? Coincidence - I think, not. I also assessed my triathlon fitness at last week’s Mega-Tri and am clear where I stand, and have useful data and discoveries to apply to my twelfth Ironman race in New Zealand in March next year.

With Alvin Ho & Derek Lau (back on home-leave and this race) minutes before the official flag-off.

I will be signing up for Boston Marathon 2012 in a few hours’ time, and hopefully, I will receive good news in a weeks’ time. The new, multi-tier, system of registration does make it fair for faster runners to qualify as priority. It just makes sense, and encourages better attempts at BQs in the future. At 10.00pm Singapore time (Boston, Monday 10.00am) I will register with a few of my buddies including Melvin How, Andrew Leong and Vincent Yang. We will have till 25 September to register, and we will know our results by 28 September. The only peeve that BQs have is that some of these qualifying times were set on more challenging courses and climates. Unfortunately, there is yet to be a complex system of measuring handicaps. Well, first things first for we will assess if the new multi-tier, performance-based, meritocratic approach works better than the frenetic, free-for-all, online applications in the past.

Photo-credits: Run Events, Sky Ronaldo (Singapore Mad Runner), Tey Eng Tiong