Gold Coast Airport Marathon 2011 Report (Part 2)

Congratulations to Singapore’s top-2 runners and triathletes, Mok Yin Ren and Ashley Liew for their splendid finish. Mok placed 13^th overall in a fast and fierce field, hungry for breaking the course and world record. A bonus prize money of A$20,000 was available for the taking should either records be broken. The top Australian runner won a bonus for breaking the course record on his birthday - imagine that!

I was pleasantly surprised to see sport-medicine specialist and author, Dr Ben Tan at the start-line. I heard that he narrowly missed the sub-3 hour ceiling – Congratulations to him for his attempt!

A massive shout out to the many Singaporean and Malaysian runners who braved the cold weather in Brisbane to run their 21K and marathons! In particular, we like to acknowledge Team FatBird, including Marathon Mohan, Danny, Charlotte (fifth in the Sundown Ultramarathon) and Winston – some of them completed the Sundown Ultra-Marathon 100K held a week ago. Also, a special mention is made to Wen Long of Safra Running Club who earned a sub-3 hour PB and a Boston Qualifier.

The race-fair was well represented by retailers, distributors, body care and coaching services. You could get assessments of your spinal alignment, or muscle weakness. Marathon Couple (Sue and Andrew O’Brien) were there to speak and autograph their book; the husband-and-wife team completed eight marathons over eight weeks over eight continents. Perhaps the organizers of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon can bring them in for our race fair? Otherwise, you have representatives from Skins, 2XU, Endura, Garmin (with the new watch model), and more speaking on-stage or attending to your needs at their booths. The final booth was raising funds for Japan earthquake victims, and many runners did their fair share of charitable assistance.

The Gold Coast Marathon was well run (no pun), as I expected from the two Ironman triathlons I completed in Western Australia. There was huge coverage of the race, with great spectator support along the route. There was no mad rush for the start-line, as each runner had an electronic card (champion chip) the size of a mini-credit card.

The 21K and full marathon routes did not cross, thus there was no confusion or annoying clashes of a dichotomy of runners. Runners were respectful, and both official and non-official pacers shared their commitment to assist new and seasoned runners along. I like to thank a runner with shocking-pink hair who led a small group of us along, until he bonked on the 32K mark. Up till them he was holding a 13kph-plus pace and encouraging runners along. I will find out and let you know his name soon.

The volunteers were ever eager to help us runners continue; I was one of the few who stood beside them when I drank. They were not in the least bit concerned when I encroached upon their personal space. We are fortunate to have volunteers to ensure we complete our selfish, personal tasks!

The course is, generally, flat with a few small flyovers – demanding on tired legs, if you hit the wall earlier. The cold weather (for us equatorial inhabitants) may lead us to over-dressing in layers; I may have over-done it this time, and felt hot towards the third-quarter of my marathon. Once you are warmed up, t-shirt and shorts/tights would be adequate. We were fortunate to have a relative absence of wind-chill, or else layering up would have been relevant.

The opening, motivational speech before flag-off was memorable. It went something like this: ‘So, you want to be like Pheidippides…run from Marathon to Athens…and died!’ That drew laughter all round, and set a positive and light-hearted approach to our golden quest for metal. I came home at 903th place (out of 5086 participants; and 93th out of 390 in my age group) in 3:32:36 - not a second BQ, but it will do for now.  

Race Report on the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon

By David Chambers (an Expatriate and Ironman Triathlon Finisher)

I drove up from Dubai, a 1.5-hour trip. So I left home at 5.30am armed with coffee, bursting to see all the professionals. I haven't been a spectator in ages so was looking forward to it - hoping to learn.

It was beautiful conditions at the start, with a flat warm sea (why some wore wetsuits was only for a faster swim-time, I think). A nice two-loop rectangular course, nice sandy beach start, extremely well organized transition area. The transition changing-area was in tents with hangers for all bags (bloody good); nice mist-showers as you came up out of the water before transition. It seemed all very well thought through in an idyllic setting next to the Emirates Palace (7-star hotel costing a billion dollars and 1km long).

Good swim course for spectators, excellent toilet facilities, etc. A family of 5, mum dad and 3 kids did the sprint - all competing for bragging rights, no doubt.

The bike mount – boy, its great to watch and learn what NOT to do! It’s amazing how good we all think we are, then, even mounting the bike it looks like our first time. I noticed we all try to be too fancy, have the shoes fixed to the pedals and then can’t get them in. Dear, oh dear. Of course the girls do it so much better, nice and slow, enjoying the event and far less competitive than the lads. Go girls!

Oh, and everyone just gets to the mount-line and stops to mount - jam. A few thought it through and walked a bit further out, then mounted in clear space. Nice.

All traffic was closed for the bikes on super flat roads with a slight wind. Macca was well down the pecking order when exiting the water, unlike in Kona...

The transition from bike to run was about 3km away, up along the corniche, again fantastic facilities, cafes, toilets, food and toilets. A bit of a walk from spectators but a good time to mix with other supporters! I met Germans, Brits, Aussies, and the usual suspects. By about 9.00am, it started getting hot, perhaps 25-28 degrees Celcius: Nice breeze, low humidity.

The press! Wow. They were all out for a shot of the professionals, complete with helicopter and massive zoom lenses.

Now the excellent thing about this event was that the professionals started first, then the short course and the sprint, but they were all rocked into the bike transition together at about the same time. How’s this, running into transition with the pros? How cool, it was plenty big enough, and what an experience for the athletes. Plus with all the hype, every one gets out of the way and just watches in amazement.

The run course was dead flat, nice, but it was getting damn hot by mid day, they were saying 35 degrees. I met Brownie at a drinks station - What a great polite guy. Standing there - talking to those volunteers handing out the drinks. They asked, 'What would you like?' He said 'Oh, I'm just looking for some iced drink please.' - Yes, he said please. Professionals, sometimes, get a bad rap. Well, he was terrific! I congratulated him on his recent NZ triumph, figured he dropped out, and left him too it. He was way down off the bike, about 9 minutes, I think. At least he made it to the bike transition, unlike Macca. Go Kiwi!

I was most disappointed to miss Macca riding into transition - not sure what happened. A bloody legend! [Apparently, Macca had problems with one of his cleats – Editor]

This is truly an international race, extremely professionally run from what I could tell. I do believe some organizers can’t see the trees from the woods at events like these. T-shirts were 150AED, or about $US45 - from the cost of the whole event, its peanuts and they should work it out with 2XU to give them away! Is that not going to be great publicity? Certainly a drop in the bucket and excellent advertising!

Oh, and it was just dandy to see Faris Al Sultan hopping off the bike and almost pulling his swimming trunks out of his bum! Yuck.

Well next year I'll be up there racing, so will be able to give you a better report from an athlete’s perspective. But a great day, great event!

Train safe.

Photo credit: David Chambers, Canon EOS 550D

Afterthoughts About the Singapore Duathlon 2011

The reality about races is that you have to take it for what it is worth. You sign up, and you race with the caveats. Despite the sad excuse for a race-kit, I made race preparations, and slept for eight hours. I arrived 90 minutes before the race, racked my bike, and greeted familiar faces. I acknowledged Craig Tucker, who was next to me, and reminded him that we both had Elite Bicycles.

Richard Leong, elusively, captured me on his camera while I was running my first 10K. I promised him that he would see his tri-suit design on me in this race. One spectator called me ‘Schneider’ as the company’s name was distinct on my heaving body. I decided to run the first run leg (4 loops of 2.5K) in a conservative 46 minutes, as I did not want to blitz my leg. Already, from the rising heat and humidity, I knew that this race would feel long and unforgiving.

The bike leg caused me the most grief. In the past, this popular bike route tested newbies who crashed and injured themselves taking the curves. This year, the critical area was removed, although that did not remove the jinx. Six loops of the 6K-circuit saw two fallen riders on my first loop. I swerved clear of them, allowing my riding muscles to accommodate the new workload. I found my rhythm and speed at sections of the course, although the headwind met us, straight on, in the first-half of the circuit. I sat on the aero-bars as it gave me brief respite, and compose myself for the slower, crowded sections on the remainder of the loop. I focused on doing all six loops, and not get penalized for miscounting.

My second run of 5K saw me start off with heavy legs; this is why brick-training (back-to-back disciplines) is a critical component of training. However, I soon found them worthy enough to kick out a sub-5 minute pace, overtaking a few of my age-groupers – it was my consolation for a hot day. Up till now, I consumed fluid at each aid-station, and opted to forgo the last two since it would barely matter much. I, gratefully, attempted to sprint after another age-grouper in the last 100 metres although it was futile; the lad had a far better kick at the end. I congratulated him, collected my finisher medal, got my champion-chip removed from my left ankle, and grabbed my bottle of water and 100-Plus. I bumped into my friend, Wan Yang, who returned recently after graduating from an Australian university. We shot the breeze with his girlfriend as we received the incoming finishers. I had another photo opportunity when the trio from Crazy2Tri returned: Reese, Ivan and Lawrence. Hopefully, I may get to wear their group colours at a future race.

I met my Monday swim group, who finished with some annoyances. Most of them cramped on the ride, and my conjecture was that they attacked hard on the sharp turns, and their calves surrendered. I met Muscle Poon and his friend, Alex (who did a 39-minute, first 10K); Poon got a podium finish!

To borrow a quote from Matthew, who did the Desaru 100K-ride today, ‘You got to be happy about that!’ Although I was not fast enough for a podium placing I was glad to race with the big boys. I learnt what to focus on, in my lead up to my A-races.

Have a good week ahead!

Photo-credits: Reese of Crazy2Tri (group photo); Richard Leong (run photo);