The Infinite World

Yuki Kawauchi achieved his 100th career sub 2:20 marathon at the 51st Hofu Yomiuri marathon on 20 Dec 2020, Sunday. He finished 2nd position with a time of 2:10:26. Congratulations to Yuki...!!!

I went to run at the Yio Chu Kang stadium for the first time since 5 April 2020. I covered 3km or 7.5 laps in 14min6.1sec.

I did a short run of 5.57km in 33min10.7sec on 23 June 2020 Tuesday. The run was around Far Horizon Garden , THK hospital, Nouvo, Castle green and Sp. I completed a little over 3 Laps.

Yuki Kawauchi came in 1st at the Boston Marathon 2018, 16 April, in 2 hours 15minutes 58 seconds, the last Japanese man to win was in 1987, Toshihiko Seko. Amazing race for Yuki, the bad weather win it for him, as he is not afraid of the cold weather. He is really becoming a legend, his 79 sub 2:20 marathon! He breached a gap of over 90 secs and won by 2 minutes 25 seconds over Kenyan Geoffrey Kirui.

Started my run this morning at 7.09 am sg time, from Yio Chu Kang Road just before junction with Ang Mo Kio Ave 4.The first km was slow at 7:11 per km. I ran pass YCK Mrt station, then NYP along AMK ave 5 to buangkok green. It was a really a struggle today for me, legs was feeling heavy and I ran at a slow speed just to get in some mileage. Although I was slow today, none of the subsequent km exceed 7 min. The 2nd km was 6:42, follow by 6:50, 6:33, 6:31, reached the 5km mark in 33min36sec. I entered the Sengkang park connector around the 6km mark, from here I was able to run faster and managed to get down to around 6 min or low 6 min. But mostly hovering around 6:20 per km. My aim today was to get back to running longer distance of up to around 20km. I reached the Punggol Waterway point around 1hr 8min 56 sec, aroun 10.52km, this is where I turnaround to head back to where I started. All went well until I came back out to the start of the park connector, the heat was getting t...

Training has not been going well for my marathon race on 4 Dec 2016, mileage is too low. I will definitely has to take it easy for the run, will hit the wall early. Just has to push on no matter what happen on the day itself. Will try to prep myself mentally to fight against my weak body and I am targeting to finish with 5 hours 15 minutes. I plan to run the 1st half much faster than the 2nd half, probably 2 hour 15 min vs 2 hour 45 min.

Completed the Newton 32 km run this morning in 3 hours 48 min 52 secs.  Started out the 1st km in 6:34 and picked up speed to 6:12, 6:02, 6:15, 6:02, 6:06, 6:08, 6:08, 5:55, 6:00, finished 10km 1:01:25. Slowed in the 2nd 10 km to about 1 hour 5 min and finished 22km in 2 hour 22 min. The slow down was expected as my training has been up to about 20km only. Muscle cramps started about  23 km returning from East Coast going into Marina East, had to stop and stretched the thigh muscle a number of times. Completed the last 10 km in 1 hour 28min plus, full muscle cramp near the last 100m of the run. Clearly, a lack of mileage clocked ! Luckily the weather was kind, could have been an even less ideal condition. Wondering how to tackle 42.195 km on 4 Dec 2016!

I actually had enough training based on my personal running history over the years. I am just a very ordinary runner who always dream of breaking 3 hours in the marathon. I took part in a total of 11 marathon but only 3 are under 5 hours. So you can tell I am a slow runner, who dream big. Prior to the race, I logged about five 3 hours run, and maybe about five 2 hours plus run and a series of other 10km or more runs. This year, I clocked 4 hours 59 min 27 sec, 12 min 1 sec slower than 2014. The main reason is because my body won the battle against my mind, I was so overwhelmed by the tiredness of the body and I walked a little too much. The fun part of the race is the last 10 km when your body is extremely tired and it's ready to just give up. This is when your mind take charge and start to remind you that you should not give up. Last year, the muscle cramp started around 26km of the race, this year managed to delay it until I reached 30km. From this point onwards, I had to ...

Covered 28.31 km this morning, 1 Nov 2015, in 3hr2min57sec. Hope to cover at least another 3 run of at least 3 hours prior to SCB Singapore Marathon on the 6 Dec 2015. I will try my best to achieve at least a pb of 10min faster than last year 4hr47min26sec. 

Today, I was on another mission to complete a 2 hours run again. I started slow as usual, and completed the 1st km in 6:39, but I started late at about 6:40pm so that the weather is cooler. As the run carry on, my pace increases to about just below 6 minutes per km. The late start did make the run a lot easier, you get into rhythm without having to have the heat slowing you down. Although it's cooler, the temperature of about 30 degree Celsius still caused the body temperature to go up as you run faster. I just hang on to a sub 6 minutes pace till the last portion of the run. My pace drop to 6:20 plus for a uphill portion and eventually slow further to 6:40 plus towards the end. Completed the 19.53 km run in 2hours 21seconds, without any water intake. 

Went out for a early evening run at 5.10pm, the weather was very hot and I could feel my body temperature raising rapidly. Started very slow at just below 7 min per km pace, and slowly settled down to a 6:10 to 6:20 min per km pace. Tried my best to stay at a consistent pace of around 6:15 per km, as my aim was to run for 2 hours. Although the weather was really hot, I found that by running at a consistent pace, I used up my energy more efficiently and did not feel tired so quickly. I ran without water intake throughout the whole duration of the run. A good run today as I finished the run feeling strong although I could feel my body temperature getting a little too high. Finished the 19.28 km in 2 hours 6 seconds, averaging 6min14sec per km pace.

The recent leaked documents seems to imply wide spread doping in athletics at world class level. The question everyone will be asking now, " So who is not doping ? ". It is bad for athletics, anyone who run fast will be suspected of doping at the coming World Championship in Beijing. Maybe in the future, all athletes should be made to eat natural food and plain drinking water, or eat food and drink stuff available in the public rather than special diet which they prepare on their own, which might contain special ingredients. This is the problem of science coming into the athletes' training and diet.

Reached the stadium at 5:58am this morning, initial plan was to start running at 5:30am and run for 2 hours. Anyway, started to run and it was cooling in the early morning. The problem is that I always mis-judge the pace when I run when the sky is dark, my first lap was 2min40sec, way too slow. It took me a while to slowly warm up, in fact, the first 4 laps(400m each) were all completed over 2min30sec each. It was just difficult to run fast early in the morning, ran the 5th to 8th lap all around 2min29sec per lap. Ran the 9th lap in 2min28sec and the 10th lap in 2min25sec. My plan to run 50 laps of 2min24sec each vanished. The next 10laps was completed between 2min20sec to 2min27sec. I wanted to run in an environment where I can ignore if there was any rough uneven ground that I might trip over or looking out for vehicular traffics or concern of hard surface which might cause injury. This is why I choose to run in a stadium sometimes. The next 10 laps were ran a little faster as the s...

Just completed a 3km run at the stadium, 7.5 laps of 400m each. Clocked a time of 13min56.132sec. I have no actual plan in mind before the run as it was already quite late when I reached the stadium at 7.30 am. The 1st lap was completed in 1min57.270sec, followed by 1min55.189sec, 1min55.205, 1min53.907, 1min52.846, 1min51.649, 1min45.000sec and the last 200m in 45.066sec. Almost every lap was ran a little faster than previous lap except the 3rd lap which was slower than the 2nd lap. My personal best for the 3000m is 13min1.5sec achieved more than 20 years ago,  I will need more training to run a faster time.

I registered for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 6 Dec 2015, Sunday. Last year, I clocked a personal best of 4 hours 47 minutes 26 seconds for the 42.195km. This year I am setting a target of 4 hours 30 minutes, which will translate to a average time of 6 minutes 23.93 seconds per km covered. Its not a fast time but it will take some consistent training starting now, the main aim will be to make sure the body can take the constant pounding over the 4 and a half hours.

I managed to run 51min4.109sec for the 10km or 25 laps run at the stadium on 10 July 2015, Friday. It's almost a minute faster than what I did on 8 July 2015, but I believe I can still go faster. Just need to learn to push my body a little more with each run, the mind is in fact much stronger than the body.

I ran another 10km or 25 laps of 400m each, at the stadium on 8 July 2015, Wednesday morning. I did managed to reach the stadium a little earlier and started the run at 7:06 am but as usual without much of any warm up exercises. I managed to average 2min5.83sec for the first 24laps and ran 1min41sec for the last lap for a final time of 52min1.866sec. It was about 14 seconds faster than my last 10km run on 3 July 2015 Friday. I considered this a good run as I had been away for 4 days on a short holiday and had not run during this short period of time. I actually find that my body can take the beating and I could have done at least maybe 51min30sec, but during the run my mind keep thinking its a difficult task. This constant thinking probably held me back from running a faster time.

Started my run at the stadium at 7.09am Singapore Time. Initially my plan was to run close to 2min per 400m lap and try to achieve a new PB for 10km or 25laps(pb 50min21sec). Usually, I do not do any stretching or warm up, except the short run from my house to the stadium, about 400 m or so. So today, as usual I found the early laps were difficult, extremely slow moving, averaging about 2min6sec per lap. Unfortunately, it did not get any easier or faster with lap, I kept averaging about 2min7sec lap. Around 7.40am, the sun was up and the temperature started rising, I just kept the laps going. I only start to speed up at the 23rd lap, 2min3sec, 24th lap 1min59sec and last lap 1min39sec. The final timing 52min15sec. Well, with every run, I learnt something, I am comfortable going around 2min7sec for 20 laps. So maybe next run, I can start 15min earlier and do better warm up and try to average 2min5sec for the first 20laps and try again for the PB.

Achieved a new PB of 27min9.635sec on 29 Jun 2015 for the 5.6km run at the stadium. People might wonder why I run such odd distance ? Well, its because I used to take part in the Annual JP Morgan Run here in Singapore and train for the run at the stadium. This is a run that take place every year in several cities the company operate in, including London, New York and a few others. My PB for this JP Morgan Run on the road is 25min23sec in 2008.

Covered 10.17km from Yio Chu Kang/Lentor Ave junction to Yishun Ave 1/Orchid Country club, in 58min8sec, on Saturday . I always find it so much harder to run along walkways beside roads, as here in Singapore, other than running in parks or at the standard stadium, you have to run on walkways along the road. These walkways are made of concrete and its not very conducive for running, its often use by cyclists or people with electric bicycle. These people normally assume runners will give way and they never both to stop at all. I can never achieve good time when I run on such walkways or routes.