A "Doromamire" Full Marathon- Cambridge Boundary Run

Last Sunday was the Cambridge Boundary Run. It was a full marathon race (42.195km or 26miles) and was opened to the public. Almost 200 runners participated. They had a half marathon too. As you may have expected, the majority went for the half instead of the full. I did the half too. Am still training for the London Marathon, so better not stretch the mileage too quickly.

All marathons should have a half-marathon event! I still remember once at the KL International Marathon when they scraped off the half. Participation was disastrous.

Registration

The run, as the name suggests, is a loop run around the entire Cambridgeshire county. It was sponsored by KPMG. Let me extract an email from CUH&H with a bold marketing pitch for the run :
"After the run, if you look in any direction your eyes will not be able to escape a section of ground you have raced over."

The start and finish was at the Sweat Shop in Coldham Park, about 6.1miles away from where I stay. So, there was a bit of travelling by bicycle.

The run started at 10.30am. I was telling Shunji that if Malaysia were to start a marathon at that time, people will curse the organisers and their moms too! But here, it's the perfect time to run. Not too cold, not too hot and not too dark by the time it finishes...just nice, as the Japanese put it, "choudo-ii".

Shunji, Me and Ulrich

I started the race with Shunji. We were pacing each other. We were chatting, so it was pretty relaxed. He was telling me about a half-marathon that he just completed a week ago and his timing was 1 hr 28mins. Good gracious, what the...and he told me he was not satisfied with his timing. I thought for a moment that I was running with a "Little Khoo" (o yes, is he still in the Pacesetters scene) now who's obliging my pace. But he did say that his knees were hurting.

Miles! Miles! Miles! I sort of gotten abit mixed up since coming to the UK. Distance is in miles. Water station was at the 6th mile and another at the 10th. I thought, not too bad. O wait, but when I realised that it was meant to be at the 10th km mark after conversion, I realised it wasn't that near after all. Thank God for the cool weather, but I didn't feel thirsty anyhow. In fact, my body was dry and only the forehead was sweating. Abit unusual for a half-marathon competition. I thought I never sweat during trainings and it's banal. But this is a competition. Now that's unusual.

Shunji slowed after the 8th mile (approx. 13th km). I think his knees were giving him problem. There was an unspoken understanding that I should move on and I did. I forged ahead and went for the 10th mile water station.

It was a little unusual that they were serving Mars and Snickers bars as compared to PowerGel or Bar that I was more used to back home. Banana is common though.

The route was undulated with long straight stretches and patches of marsh. Yes, marsh! I was really cursing my way while clumsily rampaging through the overgrowns and a series of muddy patches.

"Damn it! Never trust these Cambridge people! Why on earth did they have to choose this route of all...goodness sake...blah blah blah...". You know when you are running low in blood sugar, you tend to get abit anxious and start to think (or curse, like in my case) alot.

I sighted the finishing line and there were three runners in front. I made a dash and overtook them all. Oh, how kiasu I was. That's why my timing and theirs were only seconds apart. But look, the position differed as a result of that! Haha...!! My timing was 1hr 45 minutes, on the dot.

Truncated results to show my position

There was a bus at the finishing line waiting for us. We were not allowed into the bus with our dirty shoes. So, we stocked them all up in the bus luggage compartment. All of us looked worn out and ermm...abit funny wearing only our pair of socks! Shunji came back at 1hr 48 mins, which wasn't too bad considering that he ran on a pair of injured legs. But hey, I beat him too! Yay!

No shoes please!

Aftermath of the run

I was telling Shunji that the run was extremely kitanai (Japanese for dirty) but Shunji said that a more appropriate word for this race was doromamire which means muddy.

Finisher T-shirt sponsored by KPMG

Since KPMG sponsored the race, each runner was given a finisher T-shirt. Size M or S? I spreaded out the sample T and thought, hey S suits me. I guess that's the first time in my life that I donned an S size T.

Top 3 full marathon finishers

Full marathon runners didn't have to take the bus because the finishing was at Coldham Park itself. No PowerGel, am sorry. Fair enough, but we had lots of bananas, Mars and Snickers bars. There was also a team of masseurs in the centre waiting for worn out runners. I had a massage too.

High5, similar to the PowerBar's version of Endurance and Recovery drink

Joe came back after the full with a time of 3hrs 25mins, together with Ulrich. These guys are good! They went through the same marsh patches and yet accomplished a respectable time like that.

Joe Stevic with a bloodied nose, pushed his way to the finishing line at 3hrs 25mins.

But I must talk about Joe. He really caught my attention. He had a bloody nose on his 8th mile mark and continued running with Ulrich to the finish line! Can you believe it?!

Shunji would be leaving Cambridge for good end March. He is a visiting Professor from Shimonoseki University, Chugoku Japan. I'd be missing a running partner once he's back. We used to have two Asian runners in CUH&H most of the time. Shunji and I. Now that he'd be leaving, that leaves me the only Asian in CUH&H. And maybe "doromamire" would be the last new word that I'd learn from him in a doromamire run....