Mizuno Mt Faber Run

My first race since the op. Initially wasn't sure whether I wanted to do this race since it involves a lot of slopes and slopes at the moment is still a no-no for me. I was tempted when Molly and Michelle signed up and resisted but when an opportunity for a free entry came along, couldn't tahan anymore and signed up which was why I only got my number tag last Thursday.

The aim was to just do a slow jog and complete - just enough to 'earn' the finisher t-shirt. Reached there quite early and sat there waiting until bum and legs went to sleepZZZZZ.

At 7.30am the race still haven't start and we were standing around chatting with some of the guys from sgrunners. At 7.45am, saw the red flag moving around and before we could move into position, the horn sounded and the race was on! And there we were still right inside! There were simply too many people and M and I walked the first 500 metres before we found some space to move to a slow trot. Continued at this pace for like what seems an eternity. There was no road closure - only Cisco guards stopping traffic as and when required.

On to Henderson Road - it was uphill, slope so early in the route hmm no good. Turn into Henderson Industrial park and than back to Henderson Road. By now could not see anybody I know - guess all of them had flew far ahead. Continuing the uphill trot along Henderson Road, towards the turn to Telok Blangah Rd - ha finally somebody I know - Kelvin the supervisor from Running Lab Velocity. He seems very engrossed in his music and so didn't disturb him.

On Telok Blangah Rd itself, we were forced to run on the sidewalk. The crowd and the narrow sidewalk with its many kerbs and breaks made it very difficult to run. But luckily this was a short stretch and soon we were into Morse Rd going upslope to Mt Faber. I liked running upslope so picked up the pace a bit. Molly fall behind and I ran up all the way until the water point at the top. Amazing Ben was there. That guy is incredible! He chiong all the way to the top and than stopped to take photographs! Going downhill, a lot of runners were literally flying down the hill but mindful of the hard impact, I slowed down tremendously. Soon, Joy a regular runner at the RL Thu Night Run and than Molly overtooked me. That shook me up a bit. Wah I was really going slow!

At the bottom of the hill, caught up with Molly and from there on, decided to run with her. We overtook Joy and continued I think at a 7min pace. At Lower Delta Rd, started to be interrupted by the traffic stops. Counted 5 altogether. Since we were going so slow, the stops didn't affect the rhythm but what was annoying was that it allowed the crowd to build up and make running more difficult especially since along most of the route we had to run on the pavement. I guess that is the disadvantage of running at the back.

Finally saw Jalan Bukit Merah but was dismayed to find that we had to run down to Alexandar Rd before turning back to Henderson Rd. And I thought I could go and claimed my t-shirt. Anyway, we finished together in a time of 1:07:25, which works out to roughly 6:45/km pace - my slowest time ever for a 10k race but still I am satisfied since the aim was just to complete, get the t-shirt and get lost. At the end point, almost all the sgrunners gang were there lining along the pavement taking photographs and cheering on the runners. Thank you guys!

Surprised to bump into little sister there with YH. Didn't know she was coming. YH was fast - coming in about 45mins (by his estimate) and that from someone who according to him got conned into coming by his wife.

Next week there will be the New Balance Terrain Run at Bedok Reservoir. Already signed up. This one again going to run at tortoise's pace since I still can't visualise how they can squeeze 1000 runners + weekend joggers + cyclists into that teeny weeny path there.