the naked eye: Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009

So ar... we just got back from the weekend trip to Singapore, or Stinkipore as nicknamed by an ex-resident of the island nation. Something about it being stinky when it rains, and it rains quite often in the island....

Anyways, we were there for the weekend for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon. This was the first Stand Chart Spore experience for my sister and the husband. They were both doing the half marathons, so we had flown in on a 7.45am flight with Tiger Airways on Saturday.

I've never been so tired in my life, having to wake up at 4.30am (after only just about 4.5 hours) of sleep, having to get dressed and then catch the airport taxi cab to the LCCT. I was so tired that I actually fell asleep sitting on one of the chairs while the rest of them were waiting in line to check in. When I gained consciousness, they have moved about 10-15 feet in the queue, and were not even looking behind to check on me - HUMPH!!! How did they know if I was just taking a (super) power nap or had actually passed out from exhaustion and lack of sleep?

Grudgingly, I got up and joined them in the queue.

I seemed to have regained some little bit of energy from the power nap. The flight was uneventful. Arrived at the budget terminal of Changi and Yen was told by her friend that the race packs collection place was actually near the airport... not in the Durian area, like it was done in previous years.

So, after asking around, we took the free shuttle bus service to Terminal 2, and then caught a bus to the Singapore Exhibition Centre to collect the race packs. Yen's friends, whom we had bumped into upon arrival at the airport, were also headed there, but they decided to take the MRT instead from Terminal 2. We got there first - Nyeh! :)

When collecting their packs, I told them to check their chips and make sure that it was their chips... You don't want to run a race and then later can't find yourself in the official results. That would suck.

After that, we took a cab to Scarlet Hotel, a boutique hotel in Tanjong Pagar, where we were staying. Our rooms were not ready as yet, so we asked the concierge if there was a Yakun Toast nearby. We walked in the direction he pointed us in, but there was no Yakun Toast in sight. grrrrrr! So we ended up taking the MRT to Somerset and went to Killiney Kopitiam instead. As we were walking from the MRT, it started to rain, and got very heavy very quickly - see! Hence, Stinkipore!

During this whole time, I was already so tired, like I could just fall asleep on the spot, you know that jetlagged feeling - ya, like that. After eating at Killiney's and waiting out the rain, I asked to go back to the hotel to sleep, but the husband veto-ed that.... and said, "you can sleep in KL".... grrr, so okay lar. I soldiered on... husband had to go get a reload card for his prepaid mobile, and then we had to go to the bank. Oh - we had to go to the bank because we were going to deposit a $1,000 bill into the cash deposit machine and then withdraw it out in smaller notes - imaginative way of getting small change? It was an imaginative way, except, it failed because the cash deposit machine would accept only up to $200 bills...

Fast forward to the following day - husband woke up at 4.30am, got dressed, I was in and out of sleep, but at one stage when I awoke, he seemed to be watching tv all dressed up in his gear - maybe he was all ready.

After they left, I finally woke up at about 7ish, started packing up our bags... then washed up and got dressed. At 8.30am, headed out towards the Padang with sister's boyfriend - good choice, Chris, on the jumping into a cab! We got to the finish line about 2hrs 15 minutes after the start of the half marathon, which should be enough time to catch either yen or husband, assuming they're really good, considering they hadn't been training for this run!!!!

Neways, they finally both came in.... not at times they were both aiming for, so won't reveal them here. But I had a really good time watching the marathoners finishing their run at sub-4 hours. Love it! Love it! They are awesome! I'm going to so do a full marathon! The MC's did a great job welcoming them back at the finishing line, calling out some of their names too! Awesome - can't wait!

Below are some of the snapshots taken while hanging out at the finishing line.