Pearl Izumi Pure Run 2008 Series 3

Run like an animal. That's the Pearl Izumi war cry. And so I ran like an animal. A sloth. Long hands long legs and yet so slow:)

Okay today was the last run of the Pearl Izumi Pure Run Series. The first run which we missed was 10km, the 2nd was 20km and this last one 30km and all at different place.

Today run starts from Changi Beach Park and goes all the way to East Coast Park Carpark F2 and back. Like the previous run, there was only a small crowd of about 300 runners. The ladies started first followed by the guys 10 minutes later. There was a small number of sgrunners, Mr & Mrs IMD, Sleek, Yamsong, Fruitloops, Zco, Ayin, Eliza, Yankee, Fennel.....and a number from Safra. Michelle and Jun Hong decided to get crash since we had 2 extra ladies bibs. Unfortunately, Jun Hong is a guy. Luckily he managed to swap his bib with a lady who had an extra guy bib.

After last week horribly slow 27k, I had decided I was lucky if I can complete the 30k in 3hrs 30mins. I started slowly at around 7min pace and hit 3km around 22 mins where the first drink point was located. After that started to pick up a little speed but could see that I was like the last few runners. As I was still feeling good, decided to go slightly faster. Hit 5km in 31mins + and 10k just a few seconds of 1hr. So far so good. Was looking forward to the accerelate drink and banana at the 15k u-turn and decided to move even faster. Finally reached the uturn just after 1hr 30m to discover that contrary to what was emailed to us, there was no banana and no accelerate drink. Only plain water again!

Surprisingly, despite the hot weather I was still feeling rather good. Reached 20k at slightly after 2h. Met Eddie manning the traffic light and asked him 'Where is his banana?' before realising that it sounded......... At the next water station, they finally had a blue medicine tasting drink (presumbly the acclerate). The next water station had a yellow colour version which tasted slightly better and thereafter no more. Sigh... they should have served this at 15k and maybe 22k!

Anyway, still running and constantly shifting from fore foot to heel strike to relieve the pressure on the knee, I reckoned I was now looking at possibly finishing just around 3 hours instead of the 3:30 that I was thinking I could do. At the first park after Aviation Rd, saw somebody in blue up ahead and thought that could be M and decided to catch up with her. Unfortunately cock eye me..that turned out to be a guy:( Running alone and after the SAF terminal, saw another person in blue with a cap and from the way she was running, reckoned that must be M. She was about 500 m ahead and it took a lot of effort to catch up with her. Finally caught up with her just after carpark and ran back together with her to finish together. Time for me based on my watch was 3h 06m and that cheered me up no end! Hopefully I can maintain this momentum and do the same at the SCSM.