Mizuno Mt Faber Run 2008

2 races in consecutive weeks. This time it is the Mizuno Mt Faber race, a 10km race starting from Bukit Merah up to Mt Faber.

The crowd this year was noticeably smaller probably because it coincides with the Anlene 1 mile race at Orchard Road. Unlike last year, the race was more organized this year. They started off the race in 2 waves catching everyone by surprise as this was not announced prior to this. The Men’s Open was flagged off first but a fair bit of ladies and veterans runners went along. We, meaning the Ladies, Men and Ladies Veteran were flagged off 15 minutes later and it was good because it gave us more space to run unlike last year where we had to walk almost to Henderson Road before we could start running.

Our objective like last year was just to enjoy the race and not to go all out. Not that our ‘go all out’ is going to take us anywhere though even if we want to However, when I saw the small crowd, I told M I think she have a chance of getting a top 10 if she can do about 55 minutes. So we changed the game plan and she had to follow my pace. The first 5 km was fairly smooth and we took about 30minutes. I reckoned this was good enough as thereafter it was down slope and easier to run at a faster pace. However, like everything else, it didn’t go according to the script and M started complaining of ‘gastric’ at the top of Mt Faber and refused to go faster. Actually I think it is stitches but you don’t argue with a lady who is already feeling stressed. As all guys who have ran together with their spouses, girlfriends will testify, don’t say too much to them, not even words of encouragement especially when they are pushing hard cause you are likely to get your head chewed off. That is what I kena when I keep telling her to go faster, to keep up with me as I see the minutes ticking by. At the 7km marker, the time was 39mins so I figured we were still on target for a sub 60 finish but she got slower and slower or is it the distances became longer? Anyway, we crossed the finish line together in 1 hour 02min and 52 secs. A bit of a disappointment I thought as I was sure she could have done it within 1 hour especially with the good weather.

We had gathered with the rest of the sgrunners runners for photo-taking when out of the blue, heard the MC calling her bib number. Have the lucky draw started already? Instead, to our surprise, M had actually come in 9th position and managed to walk away with a medal, a Mizuno voucher for $150 and another Ice Power voucher of $50.00. Actually she and the 8th position winner was a bit embarrassed to win considering the sort of timing they had but hey the field was small – not their fault. So all well’s that end well. And hopefully this will serve as a encouragement for her to train to run faster.

 

 

 

Nike+ SportsBand - The distance shown was 10.91km but me think it is just about 10.5km.