Kevin and Iris in Kuala Lumpur

So this will not be all about the Singapore marathon but a lot of it will be. So if you want you can skip over the d3tzils of my first foreign and first tropical marathon and get right to pictures and words about the rest the time Iris and I spent in this little island country.
Okay so everyone is still reading right? It would be kind of rude to just skip over part of this blog post. Okay let’s get into it.
1. General thoughts on marathon:
It was hot. Like reel feel of 104 degrees with a ton of humidity hot. Like 1 degree north of the equator hot. The race started at 5am to try and beat the heat which only slightly work. At the starting line most people were already dripping in sweat before they even started running. Second General father race course was kind of boring. I had hoped that running through a city I was not that familiar with it would be a much more interesting course. Lots of buildings to see lots of neighborhoods to discover that sort of thing. But kilometer 11 to about kilometer 31 was all inside the spark call East Coast Park or something like that. At first it was very pretty. There was a nice view of the ocean and the massive number of cargo ships rounding the coast and heading towards China probably. But that was entertaining for probably about half a kilometer. Then it was just hopped. The sun was out and it seemed no matter what’s direction you were heading it was right in your face. While the expo was very well organized I thought that the water stops were just pure chaos. They were every 2.6 kilometers which was nice but until about 11:35 or so you had to wait for water. Very surprising giving how well organized everything in the city is.

There were some great views of the city, but usually they were on back roads that were booooooring otherwise.
2. What I did wrong:
For one thing I ran only on a treadmill during in my training. For the most part this was due to the haze in Kuala Lumpur that made it  unsafe to even be outside let alone run outside. But obviously not running on pavement hurt me during the marathon literally and figuratively. My feet hurt the most and I am in danger of losing one of my big toe nails soon I think. Would not be the first nail I have lost but still sucks. I wore all black…yeah that was stupid. I wore the black shirt because my plan was to get rid of the shirt after the race. Iris and I flew to Palau Langkawi after the race for a few days of tropical relaxation (blog post to come on that later for sure) so the black shirt was old and past it’s due date. Also, no bloody nipples, or at least none that anyone could see. But yeah, once that sun came out it sucked. Food and energy wise, I was done by mile 15. I did some serious speed walking for awhile before just walking the last two miles. I was empty completely. I have had races where I need some fuel later on, but never have I been this empty. There was no opportunities for calories other then gu’s and other gels, which are a good little pick me up but are not the calories I needed on that back half.

But I finished. That is all that matters in the end. This was number 7 or so. I honestly have lost count. Let’s see….three Richmond marathons, one Insta classic, one Chicago, one Virginia Beach, one Singapore. So yeah 7. I honestly did not know that until I wrote it all out like that.

So the race was in Singapore, in case you have not been paying attention. I think I speak for Iris and myself when I say that we love Singapore. Love it. It is much more expensive then Kuala Lumpur but it is cleaner, things run on time, and just has a lot of stuff going on at all times.

First stop was Lau Pat, one of the older hawker stall centers. We have been there before and we liked it so we went back and got…the same thing we got last time. Fried carrot cake! It’s awesome!

And of course since I was running a marathon the next day, lots of other carbs!

There are things to do in Singapore other then eating of course, so after eating breakfast we took a boat tour of the Singapore river. To call it a river is kind of generous I think when talking about an island country that is kind of small. But still, a lot of great sites to see.

 

So yeah, that was that. To bed early, the marathon, then a quick lunch, and on to the Gardens by the Bay. Iris might want to say more about this later. Also it is late and I want to play video games before I go to bed, so I will just leave a few nice photos up. Oh and this: The giant trees serve as exhaust and power for the giant greenhouses in the garden. And they look cool. And they are vertical gardens too.

Obviously I cannot just mention that they were celebrating Christmas at the Gardens and not show you some pictures!

Well that is all for now. There is a lot more to come, including Langkawi, a few videos from Singapore, and a new “How to lose weight in Malaysia” post!

 

Jumpa Lagi!

 

Kevin