This morning I successfully defended my Sundown Ultramarathon 84km title in 8h 46min (first lap 4h 9min including poop stop), about half an hour faster than my 9h 14min timing last year.
I achieved my goal of going sub-9h and the win was just a bonus. Am so happy that all my hard work paid off!
But I couldn’t have done it without the pushing from the amazing women’s field. The top three runners all ran sub-9. Yong Lai Chee was runner-up again, this time just two minutes adrift!! According to organisers, only four minutes separated each of the top 4 runners at about the 60km mark. Super close race.
Let me try to recollect how the race went. Gun went off at 7pm, a big pack of runners shot off. I decided to have faith in my training and pacing and not follow their pace. By 12km there were a bunch of women in front of me, Mika Kume, Dr Tan Swee Kheng (both of them were flying), the eventual third-placed finisher and another lady. But I believed that if I ran like I did in training I would eventually reel them in. First I passed “another lady” at about the 14km mark. Then I caught up with “eventual third-placed finisher” soon after and I kept pace with her but she and her partner had a very undulating pace and I eventually let them be. I caught Mika and Dr Tan at about the 21km mark and stuck with them for a bit and was ahead by the narrowest of margins at Bedok Reservoir, but then I had to poop and so from second spot I dropped down to fifth spot (yet another lady had entered the picture). Out of the porta-loo I caught Dr Tan almost instantly. But it was only in the last 8km of the first lap I managed to reel “yet another lady” and Mika in. I think I was second heading into the second lap.
Onto the second lap. To my good fortune I managed to pace a guy for nearly the whole stretch from Changi to the 19km (61km) turnaround at ECP (just before Big Splash). That really really helped. We didn’t exchange a single word though.Thank you whoever you are!! I caught “eventual third-placed finisher” just after the 21km (63km) mark near Victoria Junior College. Like last year I was faced with a decision to stick or sprint-and-drop. She was already going at a slower pace than I was so I just trailed her for about 300m or so. Then at the water stop she (not carrying any fuel/drink, like most other women… I was) stopped for water so I took my chance and put my interval training to good use and attacked. It was about 5min long I reckon, I kept looking back to check where she was. I kept an intense pace for the next 5km or so just to make sure I dropped her good.
With the lead and about 20km to go I kept reminding myself not to get ahead of myself. I wasn’t getting any updates on where the others were so I couldn’t afford to slow down either. So I just kept trudging on. I imagined I was running home (my Pasir Ris home is very very near where we run by and I’d done lots of training miles of those roads so I was familiar with it). I counted 100 steps again and again and again, just to take my mind of the distance and pain. I smiled and waved at the volunteers, who were generous with their cheers. I thought of all sorts of things except the finish line and winning.
With 6km to go I finally got an update. Second-placed lady (Lai Chee, who had moved up the field impressively) was 1km back. I immediately picked up the pace. All the hill work paid off as I powered up the Pasir Ris/Loyang hills. The hills didn’t feel nearly as hard as last year. With 1km to go (or so I thought, it was actually nearly 2km cos we had to do a new detour), I was told I had a 1.2km lead. I eased up a little. Thank God I didn’t totally break into a stroll, because Lai Chee came bursting past the finish line as I was still catching my breath!!
I got home about an hour ago, took a nice warm shower and am gonna hit the sack. We have to attend a friend’s leaving do on a boat later in the arvo, and then it’s Terminator in Gold Class at night. And a massage at Physio Solutions at 9am tomorrow before heading back to work.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes and support. Every comment on this blog is much appreciated. Thanks also to Damian for being my #1 supporter and best friend (he was at the race as long as I was!!). Thanks to Hivelocity and adidas for putting together a good race, and all the volunteers who helped out. Congratulations everyone who did the race! Thanks Nike for the gear, H-TWO-O for the drinks, Oakley for the sunglasses (didn’t need them in this race though) and Physio Solutions for the massages. And thank God for helping me to win again.
Pictures, you ask? Need to get Damo to dump it from him digital camera. Hopefully the organisers will have some too. Patience, my friend. :-)
51 Comments
Congratulations!
congratulations! have a good rest, and celebration. :D
congrats & well done! ur training regime has paid off! keep it up! i improved on my personal timing for 10km too….:)
hey lynn, congratulations to you too! what’s your next race?
hey may, thanks!! i can’t seem to fall asleep though — too tired and too much caffienated energy gels.
hey janelle, thanks much!!
this is a sgrunners member here.Once again,congrats to your first ranking in place this year!You must have put in a lot of training into race preparation =D
If you can recall vaguely at the area before the bridge with steps to bedok town park,i was with another 2 forum members there
congrats on defending your title and setting a new record! must have been real sweet to run sub <9hr as planned.. have a speedy recovery. up next qualify for kona…??!
WELL DONE!!! i was trying to find the results from ST breaking news and the sundown website before i tried your blog haha. congrats! awesome feat!
CONGRATULATIONS babe! so happy for you! i got pictures!!!
hey karl, i don’t remember anyone other than the girls i tried to chase!! haha. sorry! but thanks for cheering!!
hey nur, thanks!! yep really good that it all went as i hoped it would. qualify for kona again? that’s tougher than winning sundown. :-)
hi val!! haha trust my blog to be faster than ST breaking news on this story!!!! my scoop :-)
hey where were you?!?! i only remember you at the start line!!! haha cool send me the pix if you don’t mind!
congrats boss!! i rem you wrote a v inspiring article post-win, abt your discipline & trg for last yr which i didn’t get to read (away in europe for hol) but my colleagues told me abt it cos they were all in awe of you :) and guess what, with a sub 9h, you can’t use watching the LOTR trilogy as an analogy for the time taken anymore! :p
YAY ! wow congratulations ! (:
GOOD JOB !
Congrats on defending your title as well as improving on last year’s timing. Smart racing indeed. Now, if I find it hard to push myself for my 30km training run tomorrow, I’ll think of your race story. Well done again.
Hi was the guy u paced till the 19km mark running topless? If he was, that guy would be me. I would like to thank you instead :) I’m avid reader of your blog - I saw your goal timing and decided to follow your pace because it corresponds to mine. First time attempting the ultra, therefore was uncertain about the appropriate pacing.
Congratulations! Sounds like you had a great race!
hello! congratulations on defending your title! (=
Hi Jeanette,
the frist thing i did this morning was to brouse through your website to catch up on ur Sundown marathon and i am really happy you won!
I am only just amateur recreational runner i suppose, and i was thinking if i could train for my first 21km run in Dec! But the thought of it can be alittle daunting!
You really inspire me! Mental and fitness, you have it all! How did u do it??
Nontheless Congrats! :)
Congrats! all the training pays off! :-)
thanks su!
Hi, sorry nope the guy I paced till 19km on the second loop was definitely fully clothed :-)
Though I do remember a topless guy for the first 19km of the first loop. I think it wasn’t really 19km. You and some of the other gals went off and I just kept at my own pace!
Hope your race went well!
thanks xy! it was excellent! but super duper hard. am so tired now.
hi anon, thanks much!
hi pearlyn,
thanks for your well wishes! i’m really happy i won too!
hey, i’m just an amateur recreational runner too. i kept telling myself during the race to enjoy myself like it were any old training run.
i think the only time things get daunting is if you make it out to be. so just set your heart and mind on your first 21km run and go for it! i truly truly believe we are only limited by our mental strength.
i don’t know how i do it! i think it’s because i’m very tough mentally. i kept telling myself during the race there’s no such thing as pain, even though my legs were failing on me from about 40-64km.
let me know how you get on with your first race!
hi kev,
thanks! am happy to be able to provide some inspiration for your running!
good luck with the training run! what are you training for?
hi jean,
thanks much!!
hullo boss!!
thanks! thing is, i haven’t watched the LOTR trilogy before. and i believe i’ve seen a couple of the flicks but i’ve never stayed awake through anyone of them.
as it is, i slept through terminator today. :-)
congrats ultra woman!!
thanks much!!
Love the write-up! So that’s how it feels ploughing through 84km….Congrats again and enjoy the win!
Well done on your win - I take it you found the right way around the course, unlike my husband who was leading the Men in the ultra by a good 15 minutes or so and was taken over 3k off course by the lead bike who didn’t know the course and even stopped by the security guard a the the pit stop and refused entry!
Hi Kate, yep I knew my way around the course because I did it last year (and last year I knew my way around cos I practised the route several times before the race).
Sorry to hear about your husband — did he bring it up with the organisers?
Thanks Meow!
He most certainly did! He will also be writing to Adidas to complain. He has run 22 marathons and claims this was the worst experience he has ever had, all that training and the lead bike doesn’t know the way (at one point they led him through a restaurant!) - what a farce!
hey jeanette, next race will be the Shape Run in July.. will you there too? :)
hey jeanette, congrats to you!!!…
Congrats! You’re such an inspiration :) Now, you deserve a great big treat and more!
hey esther,
thanks!! big treat? i bought myself a ben and jerry’s t-shirt yesterday, does that count?! :-)
hey sheila, thanks!!
hi lynn,
yep i’ll be doing the shape run. but i definitely won’t be a contender or anything — 10km is too fast for me.
hi jeanette, your determination and hard work is truly amazing and inspiring for all women out there.
congrats on your win, you deserve it! :)
hi sheena,
thanks much!
Thanks for your reply Jeanette!
I am awed by your mental determination, its really inspiring! I gona bear in mind that yes, how true it is very often we are only limited by our mental strength!
I did the Saucony 15km run recently, however i made a hard decision to just complete the 10km route instead! My legs just could not carry me further and i finished in 1.20hr imagine! Really bad timing!
Can i ask u if for a 10km run, is there any proper training regime i can follow? I have since sign by for another 10km run,hoping i can better my timing and perhaps finally proceed with doing the 21km marathon end this year? :)
Am often caught in the dilemma of you know, endurance vs speed training, i cannot seem to balance both aspects :(
Cheers!
hi jeanette,
many of us here have been inspired by your determination and i have been reading ur blog regularly to keep myself motivated and disciplined in my running.
I do share the same sentiments with Pearlyn…on the endurance vs speed… will be great if you could share some tips :)
Jeanette, Congrats & Well done! U’re my idol!
hi strawberry,
thanks! about the idol thing though…. i don’t wanna be your idol! inspiration — ok!! idol sounds like i’m aaron kwok or something. defo not ever going to reach any heavenly status ever. i’m just a girl who likes to run. :-)
Woah, congrats on your big win, Jeanette! V inspiring :)
Thanks olimomok!