Mizuno Mt Faber Race 2009

Third Mt Faber Race. After the last 2 where we walked and jogged our way together to the finish line, this time round decided to each run our own separate race.

Reached there quite early at about 7am. Wow they were serving HTO. Bravo this must be a first for a local race - serving isotonic drink even before the race begun. But from here on, it was all downhill even as we ran uphill.

At 7.15am M went to the mobile loo. I was contemplating going as well but backed off when I saw the queue. And then all off a sudden, the MC announced the race was going to began and before we knew it, it was on. And M was still not back yet! I reckoned they started at least 6 mins earlier! Geez what a screw up!

Just before the start of the race, was talking to Neyton who was doing his maiden MF race about the lack of road closure and to avoid getting caught at road junctions and then wham barely 1 km into the race at Henderson Road, was stopped by the auxiliary guard stationed at one of the road junctions while the traffic was allowed to pass through. What the **%#&#_! Fortunately for me, thereafter managed to avoid getting caught in the other junctions but M was not so lucky. Not only did she started late having to dash from her queue in the toilet line which was a fair distance from the start line, but she got caught in 3 stoppages.

Stopped at the first drink point to have a drink. Great they were serving HTO again. The road up Mt Faber was cordoned off for us so there was ample space to run until Mt Faber Loop where again we were forced to run on the narrow pavement. Going down was just as bad. Although this time there was no railing to stop us from going onto the road, there were many tour buses going up and forcing us back on to the pavement.

Anyway the target for this run was just to improve on last year timing and if possible do it below 1 hour. At the 5km mark, yeah finally there was a distance marker, the watch shows 27:41mins. This was somewhere up nearly at the top of MF and I knew I was; barring any really unforseen circumstances; going to make it below 1 hour since the rest of the route was downhill and generally flat. Managed to avoid the stoppage at the 2 entrance and exit to the AYE running at a steady pace before finally crossing the finish line at 55:16mins. Great - well within target.

At the finish line, they were still serving HTO. Having have enough of that, tried to ask for plain water but they didn't have that! This was really a first for a race!

That said, I think this will be the last MF for a long time to come. 3 times should be good enough for memory.