My first race after 3 months and I was totally unprepared for it. Though I started the race cautiously and slowly running behind M, I was still struggling for breath in the first 2 km. My past 3 months run had been mainly short runs of not more than 6km and even those were at very slow pace of around 7min and it was a struggle for me to try and keep to a sub 6 pace. Nevertheless, I pushed on and managed to catch up with M before eventually moving in front. Still it was a torture but thank God for the drizzle and cloud, that somewhat made it manageable a bit.
Around the middle of the route, my Sportsband showed a 4.7km but I had missed the 5km and the watch showed was 31mins + so I figured I had slowed down to a 6mins pace. But the objective for this race was not to get a PB but to ease myself into a proper running mood so I continued to run at the same pace. Around 6km, the energy came back or maybe the body had warmed up sufficiently but I started to feel much better and even the many slopes no longer seemed so intidimating.
And then rounding a bend I came to this beautiful sight of a giant field with the finish line and most important of all, a long downhill slope leading to it. Whoowee, what a sight for sore eyes. I eventually came in around 53mins + which was a big surprise as I had mentally prepared myself to finish in about 60mins.
This must be the best organised run I have ever taken part in. The buses to and from Expo was plentiful. The route was well marked out with clear big distance marker. Water point was adequate with both plain and isotonic drink. At one point, they were even giving whole can of it away. At the finishing line, there was a carnival with free food, Andersen ice cream, milo, and free games and we walked away with many many souvenirs. Including the race kit which came with a nice vest, there was a further goodie bag at the end. This was the final haul:
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