45th training (48th) run of 2009

Cloudy, cooling wind at 5:30pm with raindrops.........

I reach the foot of my flat and the rain started. After 1 minute, decided to walk up to the 15th story, effectively 14 floors. Took 4mins. Started 2 steps a time and then, had to step one step a time the last 3 floors. Heartbeat was racing when I reached the top..........and the rain seemed to have completely stopped. Walked down to 1st floor.

Started my slow paced jog. Decided on 7km route with a further 5km or 7km to make it 12-14km.

Sadly after my 2.5km mark, saw a man, 60plus lying on the road under the LRT station. Some people had called SCDF ambulance which arrived as I went passed. These people good enough to direct traffic away from the man lying on the road. He either had a heart attack/stroke and collapsed or someone knocked him. But there was no blood or bleeding. He probably just collapsed. He obviously jaywalked...

Before I reached 4km, the rain started and sheltered at a bus stop. When it more or less died down, started again. Slow, slow. Few minutes gone.

Finished my 7km in 58:45. Slow but rain interrupted pace.

I climbed up to the 15 floor of my HDB flat. One step at a time. 6mins plus. So, 60 stories would take me more than 1/2 hour, if I ever crazy enough to try. See how ;)

Plodders Have a Place, but Is It in a Marathon?

NYT article. Well, I don't think I would enjoy walking a marathon in the sun. :)

October 23, 2009

By JULIET MACUR
Every weekend during this fall marathon season, long after most runners have completed the 26.2-mile course — and very likely after many have showered, changed and headed for a meal — a group of stragglers crosses the finish line.
Many of those slower runners, claiming that late is better than never, receive a finisher’s medal just like every other participant. Having traversed the same route as the fleeter-footed runners — perhaps in twice the amount of time — they get to call themselves marathoners.
And it’s driving some hard-core runners crazy.
“It’s a joke to run a marathon by walking every other mile or by finishing in six, seven, eight hours,” said Adrienne Wald, 54, the women’s cross-country coach at the College of New Rochelle, who ran her first marathon in 1984. “It used to be that running a marathon was worth something — there used to be a pride saying that you ran a marathon, but not anymore. Now it’s, ‘How low is the bar?’ ”
Tens of thousands of runners are training for marathons this time of year. As the fields continue to grow — primarily by adding slower runners — so has the intensity of the debate over how quickly an able-bodied runner should finish the once-elite event that is now an activity for the masses.
Purists believe that running a marathon should be just that — running the entire course at a relatively fast clip. They point out that a six-hour marathoner is simply participating in the event, not racing in it. Slow runners have disrespected the distance, they say, and have ruined the marathon’s mystique.
Slower marathoners believe that covering the 26.2 miles is the crux of the accomplishment, no matter the pace. They say that marathons inspire people to get off their couches, if only to cross off an item on the Things to Do Before I Die list. And besides, slow runners are what drive the marathon business, they say.
John Bingham, a runner who is known as the Penguin, is often credited with starting the slow-running movement, in the 1990s. “I have had people say that I’ve ruined the sport of running, but what I’ve been trying to do is promote the activity of running to an entire generation of people,” he said. “What’s wrong with that?”
Bingham added: “The complainers are just a bunch of ornery, grumpy people who want the marathon all to themselves and don’t want the slower runners. But too bad. The sport is fueled and funded by people like me.”
Trends show that marathon finishers are getting slower and slower — and more prevalent — according to Running USA, a nonprofit organization that tracks trends in distance running. From 1980 to 2008, the number of marathon finishers in the United States increased to 425,000 from 143,000.
In 1980, the median finishing time for male runners in United States marathons was 3 hours 32 minutes 17 seconds, a pace of about eight minutes per mile. In 2008, the median finishing time was 4:16, a pace of 9:46. For women, that time in 1980 was 4:03:39. Last year, it was 4:43:32.
In a debate on the Web site slowtwitch.com, someone posting as Record10 Carbon wrote that more than half of the people at a marathon are just overweight and “trying to get a shirt and medal ... looking to one day tell a story about the saga and the suffering of their 11 minute pace ‘race.’ ”
In response, someone wrote: “Being a participant isn’t bad. Yes, there should be a cutoff on some events. But, what that cutoff is can be a raging debate.”
Race directors often struggle to find the right cut-off time, when water stations are closed, roads open to vehicles and volunteers abandon the course. Some directors, however, avoid that problem.
Runners in the Honolulu Marathon have no limits. Race rules state, “All runners will be permitted to finish, regardless of their time.”
Last year, 44 percent of the field for that event finished in more than six hours — with some marathoners stopping for lunch along the course.
“For every race director, there’s a very fine line between putting on a community event and putting on a race,” said Chris Burch, race director for the Des Moines Marathon, which stays open for seven hours. Last year, it stayed open for eight hours, but Burch found that only 4 percent of the participants needed more than seven hours to finish. In the end, that extra hour was not worth it, he said, because of the costs of keeping the course open.
“It is a huge budget item because you have to pay municipal services, like police, fire or trash, and volunteers have to stay longer,” he said. “But it’s not a simple decision. Those back-of-the-pack runners are income for the event, too, and they’re just as important for everyone. There’s a feeling of ‘I paid as much money as the other people to enter, so I should be treated the same.’ ”
At the Marine Corps Marathon, in the Washington, D.C., area, runners must keep a pace of 14 minutes per mile or risk being booted from the event near the 20-mile mark. A bus looms there, waiting to pick up those who fail to cross the 14th Street Bridge before it reopens to traffic. Those who choose to continue on the open course do so at their own risk, taking to the sidewalks or dodging traffic.
At the Berlin Marathon, where the cut-off time is 6:15, the “slow police” are notorious for lurking at the back of the pack. “If runners aren’t able to finish in the time we put in our information book, we ask them to leave the course and find their way to their hotel, or get in the bus,” the race director Mark Milde said.
The New York City Marathon, scheduled for Nov. 1, will have a field of about 40,000. Last year, about 21 percent of the field finished in more than five hours. The race officially ends after 6:30, though runners are scored through 8:40, when the timing system is finally carted off, said the race director Mary Wittenberg.
Longtime marathoners like Julia Given, a 46-year-old marketing director from Charlottesville, Va., still find ways to differentiate the “serious runners” from those at the back of the pack.
“If you’re wearing a marathon T-shirt, that doesn’t mean much anymore,” Given said on the eve of this month’s Baltimore Marathon, where vendors were selling products that celebrate slower runners. One sticker said: “I’m slow. I know. Get over it.”
“I always ask those people, ‘What was your time?’ If it’s six hours or more, I say, ‘Oh great, that’s fine, but you didn’t really run it,’ ” said Given, who finished the Baltimore race in 4:05:52. “The mystique of the marathon still exists. It’s the mystique of the fast marathon.”

44th training (47th) run of 2009

Don't know why. I was flat after 8km. But I decided since I was on 1/2 day leave on Monday, I'd complete 14km, even with walking. The last 2km was walking due to left nipple abrasion and exhaustion.

Completed in 1:56:45 (Avg 8:20/km). Not a good time. Wat to do? Looks like I'm stuck with being a 10k runner.

43rd training (46th) run of 2009

5km loop. 36min 40 secs. Avg pace: 7:20/km.

42nd training (45th) run of 2009

Will be busy this weekend. Family is having b'day weekend celebration for my grandma's 100th birthday.

So decided I better clock some run since I finished my report and left earlier. But I reached home so exhausted. I had to lie down and rest for 15 mins. During run, even early on, top of my left hamstring didn't feel good and towards the end of the 7km loop, felt that it might cramp anytime.

My last 400m, I decided to go faster with the Newton forefoot running. But 2 stupid cyclists came on the pavement and both wanted to stay on the side nearer the road. They come straight at me and only siam like 5m from me. But both times, I went off the pavement onto the grass. Stupid cyclists!!!! I always have a fear of twisting my right ankle and these 2 jokers made me run off the pavement and land onto the grass since they only siam at the last few seconds. So if they had crashed into me, I suppose they'll say it's my fault for jogging on the pavement.

For the record, completed the 7km loop in 55mins (Avg 7min 51 secs/km pace)

41st training (44th) run of 2009

I feel so tired and weak. Body aches. Might be flu since I had a flu jab on Sat ystd. On Sat, I had my full physical med exam at Alexander Hosp, courtesy of my employer. This year, my right eye is 6/12 instead of 6/18 and my ECG is normal. Improvement or is it because I didn't exert myself physically in the days leading to the ECG...

I set out after almost 2hrs sleep in the afternoon. 5:30pm start. Not much sun. Still plenty of kites flying in the sky. I tried to go slow and consistent. I did feel I had body aches like a flu coming. But I persistent. Plodding along. 1st km at 7:40. 5km at 45min. Too slow. I finished the 7km loop in 55:35, just under 8min/km pace. I decided to do a reverse 5km loop. Feeling of exhaustion set in. Had to walk more. 10km completed in 1hr 19min+. Nothing to be happy about except I can still complete within 1hr 30 cut-off time for some 10km events.

Hamstrings felt tight around 10.5km+. It nearly cramped the last 250m from the end of my 12km run. Looks like doing only 5km and 7km recently meant the hamstrings lose the endurance factor.

Ended 12km in 1hr 36min (Avg 8min/km pace). Satisfactory. But nothing to be excited about. Far from my 10km PB of 1:12. Anyway, this year, my goal was to complete a 21km HM and I have done so. So, nothing to complain or be unhappy about. :)