Sentosa NBRR Practice Run 1

Joined the practice run at Sentosa. This will be the 2nd last practice session and I had expected quite a big crowd in view of the last 2 weeks race events. Met Shamrock, Johnny, Sandy and some of the regular runners from Running Lab as well. Alan was there as well but he was not running as he was nursing a fractured toe. The run was supposed to be divided into 3 groups – first group for 10k followed by the 2nd group for the 5k runners and thereafter all the remaining runners. As Roo and her friends had just arrived, GR, M and I stayed back and started with the last group. 8 minutes after the first group started, we were off. All of us are attempting the 10k distance – Roo and her friends are doing that distance for the first time ever.

The lead runner from the organizer was supposed to lead but he zoomed off straight away with the few front runners. I was running alone for the early part – too slow to catch up with the front and too fast for those behind. Reached the 1st km mark and checked that it was 6.41minutes. With the engine warmed up a bit, picked up the speed a little bit and caught up with 3 runners. Just before the slope to the satellite station, managed to catch up with the stragglers from the 1st batch. At this point, I was averaging 5.30 min per km and decided to maintain at this pace.

Passed more and more runners from the first group. Most of them probably started too fast and are now walking – shacked up by the slopes and heat. At the 5km check point before the start of the beach, checked and realized I had taken about 26 mins. Now come the tricky part - the sand. Moved immediately to the water edge but the slope were too steep and kept sliding towards the water. Not wanting to get my shoes wet, I moved up to the softer portion of the sand but it was hard work. Missed the 6km mark and when I reached the 7 km mark, I had taken 13.40mins for the sand portion. Good thing the sand part has been reduced due to ongoing reconstruction work at the beach. Instead we went up the multi-storey car park before going back down again. At the bicycle trail – the part I enjoyed the most – shady and windy and signifying the end – I slowed down to run with the Jewish guy from the RL run. Eventually he asked me to go ahead and I finished the run in 57min. Not bad for somebody who is not supposed to do any running.

Roo completed her first 10km in 1 hour 20min – a big leap from the first time when I ran with her and she could barely do 3km. I guess my ‘lor-sorness’ forced her to run to get away from me. Her friends also did well managing to finish despite not having run this distance before.

I’m pretty satisfied with my running. I felt good overall and there was no problem with the knees and I even felt I could have done faster if I wanted to. Now I having second thoughts again. Should I or shouldn’t I?