Gold Coast Marathon 2011 - Race Day

Sun 3 July 2011:
Woke up at 5.15am so that we have ample time to do all our pre-race routine... I had almost 8 hours of sleep, which is more than my normal sleeping hours as I usually have 6 or 7 hours max... Felt refreshed and all set to tackle the race ahead...

As part of our warm up, we walked from Surfers Paradise to the Start line, Southport, which is about 2.5km... The cool morning makes me feel nice and refresh but Collin was feeling a little bit cold... But he felt much better after 15minutes as our bodies have been woken up by the cool air...

Tourist, tourist...

Alamak... only can see "ST"

We reached the Start line with 30minutes to spare... started to wander around and decided to play "tourist"... hehehe... here are some of the pics from the Start line...




We then make our way to the back of the 4hours 30mins pack... and surprise surprise... we found Singaporeans among the starters...


These are the guys and gal from team "Run to eat"... There was also a big contingent of  runners from "Team FatBird"... I am actually amazed by how running has evolved and gain such popularity back in Singapore...

The chit chats continues... And before we know it, it was 7.20am and the race has started... we slowly inch forward and had started started running as we began to cross the start line... There were about 5000 runners and the atmosphere is fantastic...

Collins hopes to achieve his PB in this race... with the preparation and the almost perfect weather that GC has to offer, I am pretty sure that he will be able to do it... He seems to be really relax and enjoying the race... As for me, I am just aiming for completion...

We were snapping pictures along the way and was doing 6:30 pace for the first 5km... as I do not want to hold Collin back, I asked him to go chase that PB while I slowly enjoy the race...

Following are some pictures I took along the way... I also managed to capture the lead pack (ok, camera skills need more work...) on their way back after the first u-turn... it is really amazing how these people run... they look like they were floating on the air... Not long after the lead pack has passed, I saw a familar face ran past... "aaa... I know this guy leh..." He is non other than our Singapore very own elite, Mok Ying Ren... His bib displays "MOK" clearly in large font and his race number in a smaller font underneath it... Check out his result and pics and videos here... MOK Ying Ren Result

Here are some of the pictures that I captured along the way...

Running crowds...

Sumo supporter

The crowd was very supportive and encouraging... especially the Japanese...

Gold Coast seems to be a place Japs likes to visit... they were a large number of Jap runners and they even have Japanese commentary...

I kept hearing "Ganbatte! Ganbatte!" all along the race... Almost feeling like I am running in Japan...

My Brother!!!

Japanese supporters

Oh yes, did I mentioned that I was running a marathon while snapping away on my camera?  I took about 30, but Collin oh my goodness, took around 100!!! and he ran faster than me!!!

After GOR, I kinda regret not having a camera to capture my journey... hence this time, I have it with me and was trying to capture as much memories as possible...

Got time for a photo shoot?

Are you kidding me?

Collin even bought a waterproof camera just for this race...

Time seems to fly past when you are having fun... That is true... I was enjoying the sights and sounds along the race and I couldn't remember how painful it was for my knee... until I reached the 31km mark...

Made it past the first U-turn at 15.5km

Oh, by the way, I have to do the run "4mins and walk 1min" strategy after 10km... my right knee is just not coming to the party... shortly after 15km, I can no longer run properly and I was now power walking, with occasion short bursts of running... sigh... have not even reached the halfway point yet... press on... dig deep... mind over body... Come On!!!

270m to go!!!

CHEONGSTERs... Proud finishers!

Struggled along the next 2 hours... before I knew it, I have passed the 5hours mark at about the 39km mark... 3km more... let's finish strong I thought... tried to lift those legs to run but not, it is still not happening... continued with power walking...

5hour and 17minutes later... I can feel the Finish line nearing... Once again tried to finish strong by running across the Finish line, but my right knee had other ideas... Nevertheless, crossed the Finish line at 5hours and 18minutes... My new PB!!! http://tiktok.biz/goldcoastmarathon/2011/m1140/

Collin crossed the line an hour earlier... http://tiktok.biz/goldcoastmarathon/2011/m1147/ I gave him an hour of warm down while waiting for me...

My take on the marathon next...