By Les Tan/Red Sports
Anne Date finishing her marathon in 3:12:24. (Photo courtesy of Samantha See)
The Padang, Sunday, December 5, 2010 — A calf strain did not stop Anne Date, 30, from finishing as the fastest Singaporean woman in Sunday’s Singapore Marathon where she clocked 3:12:24. Elaine Lim was the second fastest in 3:23:21 while Jeradine Collett was third in 3:24:19.
“I had a grade two calf strain, caused by over training on hills, coming into the race, and I was in the fifth week of recovery. During the five weeks I was unable to train and despite various treatments could not recover fully before the marathon,” said Anne, who is a personal fitness trainer.
“For the first 20km I was running behind Dr Benedict Tan who I believe was injured as well. After that, I overtook him and ran by myself for the rest of the marathon.
“The start point was the only time I was not thinking about the pain in my calf, as I was focused on the race and in my race zone. Unfortunately, from the first step of the marathon, the reality of my injury came back. I understood that this was going to be part of the race for me this year and tried to be mentally strong so that I could get through the race as best I could. I kept telling myself that ‘Mind over body’ is now,” said Anne.
For Anne, doing a personal best time was furthest from her mind.
“With every step of the marathon I was full of fear that it would be my last. I am very happy to just have finished the race — that was my goal. So this year I did not think about a time so for me, just to finish was great,” said Anne who has a PB of 2:50 clocked at the 2008 Berlin Marathon.
The most welcome sight for her at the end was that of her husband.
“At 42km, the moment I heard my husband Phil cheering me on, my heart melted. Knowing that he knew I was going to finish the race is priceless, as we both knew that with the calf injury, it was only 50-50. At the finishing line, I could finally stop putting loads of weight on the injured leg. it was such a relief,” said Anne.
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