Weather was good. Cloudy in fact which means I look silly in the sunglass. But no choice blind as a bat without the eyewear so got to keep wearing it.
Our wave (10km Men & Women Veteran & Junior) started off together at 8am. Initial target for this race was to attempt under 50mins. Have been feeling good and concentrating on short run so felt target was achievable. However, spirit is willing, body is weak (or is it the other way round?) couldn't find the energy to chiong all out so ran at a steady 5+min pace instead. At the 5km distance marker, time was 27:06min so the sub 50min was out. But decided a PB was still achievable so pick up the speed a bit. At 9km, the watch showed 50:35. Awww shucks there goes the PB. Saw the tents coming up, ran faster a bit and realised it was still not the end. Have to run some more up the road towards direction of Bedok Jetty. But hey, behind me, all the runners were turning. Stopped and listened to an angmoh argued with the marshall that it was the end. The marshall was insisting 10km u-turn in front. My watch already showed 55+ so I knew I had definitely covered 10km and the distance was wrong. How far was the u-turn? Should I continue to run or turn back? What if there is another checkpoint in front?
Really didn't know what to do. Everybody was turning into the finishing bay. Heck, if I continue, I will be slower than those people behind me. In the end, decided to turn back and finish in 56:39. I reckoned I ran about 10.5km. Wished I had my Nike+ SportsBand with me. Found out there is no checkpoint in front so my time will be official. No DNQ. but what a screw up way to end what was otherwise a very well organised race!
M came back in 1:02m which by her standard was pretty slow. She had ran until the u-turn nearer to Bedok Jetty. Based on that, the distance should be around 11km.
The race is getting too big to be accommodated at East Coast Park. It was difficult running with so many people. Had to continuously weave in and out to overtake the 10km runners in the earlier wave and than on the way back, the 5km fun runners. Was forced to run on the grass verge many times.. On top of that, the cyclists, bladers were also all over the place. Maybe the organiser can consider moving it somewhere else. Overall other than the hiccup at the end for the 10km (understand the 15km distance was in fact slightly shorter), the organisation like last year was impeccable.
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