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.
Downtown scene
The London Virtual Marathon came about also because of Covid 19. I guess if the Covid 19 is here for good, we will have to live with virtual races from now on. The Abbot Marathon Majors page has also included a Virtual tab too.
Race Day
Met Shafiq along the way
Me and my Bib
I do not prepare much for marathons these days although I have not been doing it as frequent as I used to before Covid. At times, I miss doing that going overseas for races, enjoying the rest and relax after a hard run.
Running light was my strategy and also faster in the beginning while going slower towards the end. I guess the ultra runs does help in improving my stamina to last beyond 42km. As the race need to be recorded in the London Marathon Virtual App, which will only open at 7am on 3rd October.
To make it even simpler, I decided to just start from my house up through the Green Corridor and to the CBD area. I ran up to East Coast Park, along the way I could see many people wearing the bib. They have probably received it in time as mine had came late. I did print one small bib myself but I thought running around with a bib might seem ridiculous. But it seems like the norm now as I saw many doing that.
The process
Saw Richard Koh
As usual when I run marathons, its usually fast in the beginning , kinda slow in the middle and relatively consistent towards the end. I almost forgot how it felt like to run a road marathon. Was glad I had this revisited this time. The weather was very hot by the time it hit 9am and super humid. I was planning to end the race around 11 plus am, and true enough it was a 4hr 30min marathon. Although not very satisfied, I was glad I still could run. I had not been pushing myself since the Covid started because I kinda lost the competitive feel. Since everything is mostly Virtual, I did not have the motivation to go all out.
Saw Antonio and Patsy too
Took a little pit stop at the Zion Road hawker centre before I turn back towards the West. When I reach back to Bouna Vista, I realise I had around 12 more Km to finish up and that was why I looped over at the One North area. It was good to run there on a Sunday as the traffic was light and no office crowd.
The result checker
Finishing
The mdeal and finisher tee from London
I finally finished on the Green Corridor to Jelita. I got a passer by to help me take my finisher photo and stopped the London Marathon Virtual app. Managed to upload a more decent picture for the app too. As I slowly walked back, I kind of felt good because its been a while since I ran a marathon with some sense of urgency. I guess it is till the next race again.