Gold (East) Coast Virtual Marathon 2020

The Gold Coast Marathon is well known for its smoothness and good weather.  Thus many of those whom want to achieve their Boston qualifying will like to take an attempt to get their ticket there.

I had never been interested to go for this marathon being that it simply attracts too many Singaporeans to go and achieve their Personal Best there. Maybe its just the feeling of being loner and dislikes of going to crowded races.  But that being said, I will probably go there one day out of desperation to get Boston Qualifying.

So the Tortoise group started a post on going for the Virtual version of the GCM ( Gold Coast Marathon) since the pandemic started, all races had to be cancelled because of its high potential to transmit this disease.  As I am writing this, I cannot help be feel this Covid 19 is like some sort of movies… When the pandemic started, just like a perfect movie start where lives changes.

Virtual Series

The virtual races sometimes pose a lot of question marks, and I bet there must be people who take this opportunity to game the system.  Basically for virtual races, you just need a sports watch or hand phone with app to log down your activity and save it.  After which, you need to load it up into the organiser site to gain your vitual completion cert and for some, there are even entitlements sent to you. Well for me, I just simply use my Garmin 645 and the Garmin Connect app for all the sports activities.  So far for the road portions are pretty accurate, but swimming can get a bit haywire at times, maybe that is due to the changes in strokes.

Having signed up for the GCMvirtual race, I originally wanted to do just a HM, but I thought, everyone went there for a full marathon, I should just do it.  Ever since the last marathon in Chicago, I have never been seriously training or thinking about doing a PB.  Definitely not for this one too, since its going to be in Singapore and there is no good support except myself.

Race Day

 

So I just picked on random Sunday and make sure that I do not have any plans on that day.  So on 12th July, I went ahead with my plan, supposed to wake up at 4am but I woke up at 5am instead.  Kinda late for a marathon in Singapore, I knew I am going to suffer later. But I just took a “let it be” mentality.

Luckily I did take it seriously to prepare my race gear the day before.  So I was at the “start line” 5:30 am.

Route

Singapore may be small but it is still possible to do even an ultra here , usually by loops.  I thought of East Coast Park as my top choice as it is a long stretch and I will not have to be bothered by traffic lights and cars.  So from Ulu Pandan, ran towards the CBD.  The pace was quite okay going at 6min per Km.  I did not want to kill myself as I has having a very bad left leg recently, especially for the planta.  So I decided to take it slow and good.  Anyway, most of the races I did in the past, I always wanted to challenge myself and go for the fast timing.  It will be a good time to step back and take a rest.

By the 6km mark around Dawson area, it started to rain.  Was glad that I had planned for wet weather, so the important items like mobiles and ear phones are water proofed.  As I reach the Robertson quay area, the drizzle stopped.  It was quite interested to be by the Singapore River wee hours in the morning.  there were many other runners at the hour with cyclists too.  From Robertson quay, there is no worry about traffic lights and stuff as it is all well connected by underpass to the MBS and Barrage.  Evntually leading you to Gardens by the Bay East and the East Coast Park.  So that was what I did , but the weather was getting hot, and unfortunately sunny.  Being a Sunday makes it even worse as there are many people around the East Coast Park.  Since some are just there to chill out, blockage was unavoidable, but it was not too bad since there were lanes marked out for cyclists and runners.

East Coast Park

There were many changes to East Coast Park and there were many new eateries and nice cafes around.  Though the pandemic is not over, people are still very excited coming out.  Maybe due to the lockdown period.  The park was packed with family, youngsters and oldies.  There were even some people swimming in the sea.

I decided to stop at the National Sailing Centre and as I was running towards there, I saw Joey! Its been sometimes since I caught up with her.  I was so happy to see her and we took pictures together.  I made a U turn after the Sailing Centre, near to the public toilet.

The weather was getting really humid hot and sunny.  I know there is no way I can go fast already, and besides I was really feeling a chill out mode.  So I started to walk run walk run all the way back to Gardens by the Bay East.  This time I did not go back to the barrage but went to the Stadium side instead.

Kallang Riverside Park

By the time I hit the Kallang Riverside park, I was left with 3 km more.  I thought of running to Arab St to this restaurant called Ottoman, a Turkish delight.  I was kinda craving for something very sweet and also heard about the Turkish Coffee there.  But as I was running along the Park, it started to rain heavily, pouring!  So I had to abort my plan and stop by the nearest bus stop.  Luckily, I already hit the FM distance.  Standing in the bus stop drenched with another Indian guy waiting at the bus stop.  He must be thinking, what is this woman doing all drenched with a hydration bag.  Well for me, I kinda felt accomplished, my first virtual Full Marathon.