Inter Constituency Road Run 2008

Another year another Inter Con Run. This is one race that I don't really like but have to do to support my constituency and help make up the number to form the team. The inter con race is a team event whereby each constituency can field a maximum of 8 male runners in the open category, 4 each in the Men Veteran and Women Open. The best 4 timing from the Men Open and the top 1 runner in the Men Veteran and Women Open will count for placing. This year fortunately I managed to get 2 more runners from the rank of sgrunners and our team manager managed to get 2 more ladies and 2 more men. More importantly, he got 1 very young guy so we were all hopeful of getting a better placing than last year. Me - I was shortlisted to run in the Men Open again despite being old enough to run in the Veteran.

One thing I don't like about this race other than the short distance (this year 5.6km for Men Open and 4.9 for Men Veteran and Women Open) is that it is flagged off at 4pm in the afternoon! At that time, Bedok Reservoir where the race is held each year is totally devoid of shade and hot like hell! So I was wishing for cooler weather and boy did I got my wish fulfilled! At 4pm when we were supposed to be flagged off, the start was delayed due to the stupid nonsensical checking of IC (yeah they checked every participant i/c before the race can start!). By the time they were ready to start, the sky started to turn dark and it started to pour at 4.15pm. The race was delayed and at one stage it looked like it was going to be postponed - so heavy was the rain. Everybody mood got dampened by the rain. I was staring at my North Face and wondering how I was going to run in it and keep it clean yet at the same time I was not looking forward to a postponement. Finally, the rain eased up and we were flagged off at 5.30pm - 1 and a half hour later!

With so many runners now in our group, the pressure was off me to do my part not to let the team down and attempt to get a good timing. Leave that to the younger guys. Gary and the young boy had disappeared and I could see Zco and the other guy in front. Teo the teacher was running next to me for a while before he too went ahead. So with 5 runners in front of me, I relaxed and was contended to run at what I think was a reasonable pace - not too fast and not too slow although at one stage before the start, I was actually contemplating doing a jogging pace to avoid getting my shoes dirty:)

The young boy actually beat Gary (first time he lost to somebody in our group!) and the other as expected finished in almost the same order that they ran at the beginning. I finished in 27.38 or thereabout which I think was surprisingly pretty good considering the wet ground and the disincentive to run. Sometime I surprise myself ha ha!

BC was the first one in our group to finish in the Men Veteran and the 2 young ladies that Gary found came in almost together. M like me had decided to rest her legs for tomorrow race and let the young ladies run in front finishing in a slow 26+ compared to 22+ last year.

Again we got $10 each for our efforts - hmm like that consider pro or not?

Will I be back next year? I seriously hope not. This is a team event and being short is not the type of run that I can do well. The young runners are all so fast finishing in under 20 minutes! Because it is a team event, it will also be unfair for the other team member if I don't give my best so it is real tough for old fogey like me to do this type of race. Time to retire from the team... team manager are you listening?

A sneak preview of the photos taken mainly by my daughter. Balance will be uploaded onto Picasa soon.

23 July 2008 10:00PM
Photos finally uploaded here