Run & Raisin 2012

There shall be shower of blessing. But unfortunately, the shower was more than that and it put a damper on our spirit as we woke up to heavy rain. A group of us have volunteered to help out in the 2nd Run n Raisin and were looking forward to it. So we were a bit kinda dispirited when the rain did not stop. Our meeting time was pushed back from 6.15 am to 7.00 am and yet when 7 am came around, it was still pouring. Will the race be called off?

The volunteers waiting around in the rain

Our group role was to man the 10km u-turn and the water point there plus help out in road marshalling along the stretch next to NSRCC. All of us in our bright yellow tees were ready and we hoped the race will go on. We were told by the representative that the race would be postponed to 10am. We were left wondering whether there will be any runners left by then if any had turned up at all?

The full contingent

At about 9.15 am, I called the rep again to reconfirm the status and was shocked when he said the race had started! Oh gosh, the guys from the timing chip company was still setting up the gantry, the drinks were not set up yet and no marshall had been deployed. Very quickly, we summoned everybody who was taking shelter in NSRCC to their respective stations while a few of us made a quick dash to the split junction along the jetty. In my heart, I knew we will going to be too late and true enough, we soon crossed path with the first lot of fast runners. Hopefully the rest had got the drink station ready!

The rain had slowed to a drizzle by then and it was rather cooling. The 700+ 10k runners had whittled down to probably not more than 400 + but there was still many familiar faces among the runners but with such a small crowd, our stint soon came to an end. We did have fun and I am sure the participants did as well despite the rain. Pity the small number of participants though. There are simply too many races nowadays and small charity races like this will find it more and more difficult to attract the numbers.