Reviews on Marathons participated and the experiences conquered
This was a postponed race from 2020. Was really looking forward to it then as I promised to join with my Indonesian running friend, Jusuf, whom I met in Tahura Marathon at Bandung. We had always wanted to meet again for a race in Indonesia and when we finally wanted to do this, Covid hit in 2020.
I have been very reluctant to write this one, because it was very painful experience. Another reason was that this year, I did it with a person whom I really respect and I felt I had dragged him down the wrong way in this one. After last year’s attempt, I have been thinking seriously, do I really want to do it or let it go? In the end, seems like I just cannot let it go and signed up again.
Took me sometime to realise I never update about this one. I signed up for this major’s virtual edition. Got confirmation and was really excited about it.
To celebrate my 42 birthday, I just did a simple full marathon without much planning. Maybe I am so used to running in Singapore, it really did not bother me much do run longer distances here as I know logistic wise it will not be that bad, and one thing for sure, there is always a public transport waiting for me if in any case I wanna give up.
The idea of going to the USA since my last trip in 1997 to New York, where the Twin Towers were still alive, was really surreal. Having balloted the Chicago marathon and getting the ballot, I decided to go and also make a trip to New York at the same time.
Hafa Adai… Meaning hello in the local micronesian language in Guam. To speak the truth, I had never thought of running this marathon. The name Guam only came to my knowledge when I was studying in Japan and tons of Japanese love to go there during summer holidays, as well as holding their wedding ceremony.
Coming back to race in this event was because my friend, Alice invited me to go along. We are kinda like “loner” runners and prefer to go around alone. But we somehow managed for this race. Although some hiccups of not really knowing where I left my race belt, I decided to go ahead with the long never used Camelback hydration pack.
The first road race for the year, joining this race was a last minute decisions. The race registration was opened since September in 2018, but I did not know about this race until I got so fed up of my timing in Berlin and I began to search for races in Asia with IAAF qualification.
This is the 2nd Major so far. I balloted this race for 2 years, and last year because of the extra 1000 charity slots, I was able to join the race being a first come first serve slot. Although many people do spend a lot of money just to get a slot in the majors, for me I feel that having to win the ballot is more meaningful and also partly because going to the majors mean major spending, so whatever that can be saved should be saved.
This is my second time running this race for FM, and thank god to say I managed to squeeze into the podium again. The weather was humid and hot with heavy rain just the night before the race. Being a place that I hardly want to stay too long because I am neither a shopper nor a foodie. But Hatyai has its charms in many other ways.