So…the morning of my first HM has come and gone. Throughout the entire race, my thoughts progressed from “I just want a sub-3 h” to “3.5 hours is okay too” to “fine, cutting it close to 4 hours is acceptable too, just listen to your body” to “you know what, I don’t care if I exceed four hours, as long as I finish it and get home”. The cutoff time was 4 hours, and I finished at 3 hours 59 minutes (lmao). According to Garmin Connect, I ran 59 minutes and walked 2 h 59 minutes and the total distance was 21.42km (maybe I was weaving?). It started at the Stadium, went down all the way to Bandar past St. Andrew’s School, looped around the jogging track by Tarindak, and went back the same way to the Stadium. By the time I finished, the only people left to cheer me on were the race organisers at the finish line. Here’s how things went:
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Pre-Race & Accessories:
– The night before, I packed my Salomon Active Skin 4 vest with:
+ plain water in one bladder (500ml)
+ 100 plus in the other bladder (500ml)
+ four SiS energy gels (flavours: 2x apple, 1x blackcurrant, 1x lemon & lime. I thought of throwing in another tropical flavoured one too, but ultimately decided it would be tempting fate where mid-race tummy issues are concerned)
+ phone in zippered pocket
– I wore my Garmin Forerunner 55 watch. It’s been my faithful running companion over the years and crossed various milestones with me – my first 5k, first 10k, and now first HM. You could say I’m pretty attached to it. I never run without it because:
+ It alerts me every time my heart rate goes over 175 bpm. The only time I went “PR or ER” during a race was the worst I had ever felt while running (it was over 200 bpm and I couldn’t breathe even when I had slowed to a walk. It was legitimately terrifying). For now, 160 – 170 bpm = keep on running, >175 bpm = coast to a walk, >180 bpm = danger zone, abort mission.
+ It has haptic & sound alerts for walk/run intervals. I go by the Galloway run-walk method of racing, so the interval alerts help to keep my runs structured. Just set the intervals, run when the watch says run, and walk when it says walk. No counting on fingers or checking my watch every 30 seconds needed. (During the HM I didn’t strictly adhere to the intervals, but TBF it was an unprecedented distance and I was completely gassed, so I just consider it a one-time deviation.)
– I started carb-loading 3 days before the event. The day before the run, I ate pastas (yes, plural…Through the lens of retrospective wisdom I see now that it wasn’t such a good idea) and a shepherd’s pie (which I threw up in my mouth at some point during the run. Sorry TMI).
– I only slept about 2+ hours before the event. I was so nervous about the race, I only fell asleep at 12am despite crawling into bed at 10.30pm. I then woke up at 2am again in bed and couldn’t get back to sleep. I eventually got out of bed at 4.40am to get dressed, warm up, eat something, listen to some music, and freshen up. It sucked to be so sleep-deprived, but on the plus side, the next time I run one, I won’t have the same pre-race anxiety keeping me up all night since it’s no longer the daunting, faceless behemoth of a first HM.
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Things that helped:
- I slathered generous amounts of vaseline on the back of my thighs before starting. No chafing, not even by the end of the race. Thanks, running reddit.
- I ate 3 gels, one at the 30 min mark, one at 45 mins, and the third one maybe an hour after that. I didn’t want to wait until I bonked/hit the wall before taking one.
- My hydration vest. Without it, I definitely would not have made it to the finish line just relying on the water stations alone. Once I ran out of my own supply of water, it felt torturous to keep going with no way of knowing how long it would be before seeing the next water station. The added weight made the run five times harder for me, though – it’s so heavy at the beginning. I wish I had done more training runs with the vest to a) get used to the additional load and b) figure out how to pace my drinking so that I don’t run out of water at the worst possible time.
- Not going out too hard in the beginning. I was the first one to go from running to walking, while everyone else was still running. I knew I wasn’t on the same level as the other seasoned runners, so I knew better than to force myself to keep up with their pacing. And, sure, the wheels were already falling off by Km 7, but that’s only because I wasn’t fit enough to begin with.
(Below: Kampong Ayer, which was along the route. I originally planned to take lots of pictures to document the route. After a while though, I was just too exhausted to keep taking out my phone for photos)
Here’s where I messed up:
- I didn’t train enough. Prior to this, my longest distance was 12k. I genuinely didn’t have the energy to do long runs approaching 16k or more on Sundays, but even then, there’s nobody but myself to blame for being unprepared.
- Not trying to find solutions for my overpronated/flat feet. I did do some light reading on how to deal with it, but didn’t really take any steps toward actually mitigating the problem on race day. I didn’t want to spend money on new shoes or stick with my training plans consistently enough to get my feet used to long distances. I just slipped in my orthopaedic shoe inserts and hoped for the best.
Unsurprisingly, cardio was the limiting factor in the first few Kms – after that, it was my feet that were the problem. My thighs and calves were fine the entire time while out on the road, but my feet were in agony and I started hobbling after Km 12. At that point I was going slow enough that I theoretically had enough energy conserved to run in bursts every now and then, but my feet just hurt too much to do that. All the other walkers continued to pass me and eventually disappeared from sight. - Not using enough sunscreen. I didn’t slap on nearly enough and I didn’t put any on my face. Being baked in the sun definitely made things even more uncomfortable than they already were. My face still feels tender from the sunburn. I also started shivering and getting chills as it was getting really hot during the last few Kms with the sun beating down on me. Obviously, that’s not good. I don’t think it’s hyponatremia because I was dutifully drinking my isotonic drinks (lots and lots of it, even though I finished it all before I was done running) and taking isotonic gels, so I’m thinking it was some sort of heat exhaustion. Even after I got home, I was still cold and chilly for the rest of the day. Going back to mistake #1, if I had trained more, I wouldn’t have taken so long running and spent so much time under the hot sun.
- Sleeping only 2 hours the night before a morning race. See points above.
After getting home, I slept for 2 hours straight with my hair still wet from the shower, then ate lunch, and then brought my bunnies to the vet for a scheduled checkup in the afternoon. Bunbun got mad about it and flipped the bowl of apple & hay treats we put inside the carrier with them.
Below: them in their carrier (before someone unceremoniously flipped the bowl)
I’m still limping everywhere I go (thank god for my soft bunny bedroom slippers), and I still feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. I’ve been feeling feverish, lethargic, and weak (not just physically but mentally as well). My mom is so nice, she bought me a little slice of cake from my favourite bakery afterwards. After the vet trip, I continued lying in bed/sleeping well until bedtime.
Reframing The Experience:
Incidentally, I’ve been reading a book on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy strategies, and I’m taking this experience as an opportunity to learn to reframe my negativity and improve for next year’s HM:
– Negative thought: I was angry at myself for placing in the bottom 5 percentile of hundreds of runners – it felt unbelievable and deeply humiliating. Someone a few feet ahead of me who ducked out of the race route to detour to a convenience shop, buy some snacks, and rejoin the race behind me overtook me and finished 20 minutes before I did, like the punchline to a joke. I was taller than most of the others who were walking the rest of the way, and therefore have a longer stride length, all else being equal. How did they out-walk me to the point I was basically on my own in the last few Kms?
> Reframed: Well, I only slept 2 hours before waking up to do 21 freaking kilometres. My energy levels were already compromised before I crossed the starting line. And I was already half-limping halfway through. I’d say it’s almost akin to getting through the rest of the thing with a sports injury – I was so slow that all the other walkers from the back of the pack overtook me and left me in the dust (they weren’t even power-walking – that’s how slow I was because of how much my feet hurt). And those who finished under 3 hours didn’t have to deal with the 9am sun; I had to deal with it for an hour longer than almost everybody else.
With each passing minute I had to finish the race under increasingly challenging environmental conditions. At the end of the day, I still ran for an hour and walked for three in one session – that’s not nothing.
– Negative thought: I felt like my body ‘betrayed’ me because of my flat feet that caused me so much grief. I wish I didn’t have this problem.
> Reframed: They’re still my feet. They have taken me every place I have ever wanted to go in life. I didn’t do any trial-and-error with running shoes to find one that would provide proper arch support. I can’t choose not to invest in properly-fitting shoes and be surprised that improperly-fitting footwear becomes a liability later on. It was another example of my misdirected anger and refusal to be accountable for my own actions (or in this case, inaction). I like my shoes, and they serve me well in the gym and on short hikes and jogs, but I will need something with better insole support for a run this long.
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With all that said, I’m proud of myself for still making it under the cutoff time, even if it was by a hair’s breadth and you have to scroll down to the bottom of the results page to see my name. January 2025 me wouldn’t have believed that August 2025 me would sign up for, and finish, a half. Interesting that I trained so little that it took me four hours to run it, but I had enough grit to run the last 1k and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I got to simultaneously achieve 3 PBs in one day (fastest 5K, first HM time, and longest run). Plus, I finally get to tell people I did a half marathon!