New Balance Real Run 2009

This is the last race of the year for me. Originally, wanted to do 1 more race - hopefully overseas in December but the plan frizzled out so this is it.

I've always enjoyed doing this race - from the time it was held on Sentosa to now at the Changi Exhibition Centre. A lot of people complained about the long run back along Aviation Road facing the hot rising sun. Yes it is tough especially after doing 13km of trail, road and sand but it is part of the experience and which makes the Real Run so different from the many other road races that is available nowadays.

Ever mindful of getting my ankle sprained again, I approached this race with no high expectation. No need any PB, no choning - all I wanted was to run a good race and enjoy myself. Of course, I set a small target of finishing just under 1:30 so that I won't take it too easy.

M and me, we started at the back and crossed the start line 2mins 22 secs after the flag off. With that in mind, I ran off at a slow and steady pace so I wasn't surprised when M overtook me barely 10 mins later. No problem. The same thing happened at the practice run 2 weeks ago and I managed to catch up eventually. The plan was to take it slow on the 4km trail, pick up speed a little on the road, slow down again on the beach and then chiong back to the finish. Throughout the run, I keep checking my watch to ensure that my 2 mins buffer was still there and I wasn't too far off the mark.

These are the splits:

1 km: 5:21 Trail

2 km: 5:37 Trail

3 km: 5:45 Trail

4 km: 6:04 Trail

5 km: 5:32 Aviation Rd

6 km: 6:18 Coastal Road

7 km: 4:39 Coastal Road

8 km: 5:17 Coastal Road

9 km: 5:36 Coastal Road

10km: 5:28 Coastal Road

11km: 5:24 Coastal Road

12km: 5:46 Beach Park

13km: 7:25 Sand

14km: 7:15 Aviation Road

15km: 6:11 To finish

Okay so things didn't turned out exactly as planned. Maybe the distance marker is a little off but I certainly didn't do below 5mins/km. The trail was fairly easy to run. In fact, I found the park connector very difficult to run as it was too crowded and I thought I did fairly faster the last 2 km but oh well. At the end, I still finished as expected below 1:30 although based on gun time was just passed the 1:30 mark.

Somewhere along the run, I thought I was hallucinating when I thought I saw a lady in bikini top. Shouldn't she be on the beach? In fact, I wasn't hallucinating and I caught up with her at the beach! ha ha and she turned out to be Fia from the Punggol Runners.

Back at the finishing line, I waited for M to turn up only for her to tap me from behind. She had finished in front of me! Bravo! That was something I didn't expect considering that she has always been a lazy runner and tend to take things easy. To cap off her performance, she managed to clinch 8th position. The prize presentation was only for the top 3 position so I think she will be expecting some cash in the mail soon.

The starting route to the trail - running into the sun rise

The goodie bag, which came in the form of a messenger bag, a t-shirt, 1 Nature Valley bar, 1 100Plus, 1 Eagle Brand rub, 1 NB 30% discount voucher and some other brochures.

GE Women 10K Video

This is a little late but hey better late than never.

A Good Decision - Nike Lunarglide

It was a dark and stormy night. Okay it wasn't that dark and the rain had almost stopped and it was early evening but I like the phrase so ... Anyway, this was Thursday and the RL TNR but I was feeling nuayed this week and with the wet ground and evil looking sky AND my rotten luck this year, chances are I would likely slipped and injured myself so decided to potang the run and go kai kai instead.

So there we were just walking around in Raffles City. Of course as with every shopping expedition, the first stop was the sports shop at the basement. Went into the Sportslink outlet first. Their 25% discount offer was still ongoing. They had the greyish white and blue Nike Lunarglide and at 25% off, it cost only $142.00 but it wasn't what I really want. Yes I was still searching for my elusive Lunarglide. However, the shop displayed out front had the Lunarglide in the new color - dark grey with red or yellow trimming. What the hell - no fish, prawn also can. Went back into the shop but was disappointed when told that the discount was not applicable to those newer models.

Walked a few more steps and next to it was another Sportslink shop. The earlier one only carried Adidas and Nike products, this one had the usual Sportslink stuff. Saw the Brooks Launch but again they didn't have it in my size! Is it really that difficult to get a size 12 shoes here in SG?

And then I saw it. A pair of Black and Orange on display - and it looks big - was it? Yes it was a size 12! I can't believe it! After trekking through the whole of Queensway and Tampines 1, to find it here of all place and the best of all - the 25% discount was applicable ~ which made it cheaper than at Queensway.

Photo from i2runner and with a very powerful review to boot

The timing is just fantastic. I am going to retire my TNF Arnuva Boa this Sunday and to have my final replacement pair found at this time. Wow! Now I can't wait to try it out and hope that it is not 1/2 size too small!

Date of Purchase: 5 November 2009

Purchased from: Sportslink Raffles City

Cost: $142.29

Worn in Races:

20.3.2010 NTUC 350
27.6.2010 KL Marathon
12.9.2010 SBR/AHM 2010
5.12.2010 Macau Marathon

Retired 29 Mar 2011

Total Mileage 546km

GE Women 10k 2009

Once again for the 2nd weekend running, I got up at an unearthly hour not to run but to kapo in other people's run. But this one today, got no choice otherwise kena.......

Anyway, today was the 3rd instalment of the GE Women 10K Run and this year I have 2 female in the family running. Yes the Princess has been conned into taking part in this and I must said despite her laziness in training, she surprised me by clocking under 30 mins for the 5km fun run. (She still too young to take part in the 10km). M did another normal race - not fast not slow. She need to cross this hurdle to get to the next level but I guess laziness runs in the family so we shall have to be contended with mediocre performance.

The GE run was as per the past years well organised by ESG. Reasonably good goodie bag, no long queue for the drinks, baggage, no human jam and there were free Swensen ice cream! What else can a lady ask for?