Real Run - Training Log 24 July 05

New Balance REAL RUN actual day is on 28 August 05 . 6km road, 1.6 sand, 2.4 trail.

A group of sgrunners decided to take part in the training run provided by New Balance. Well nothing feel better than get to know the route of the event isn't? Since the car is back, in time for me to make a trip there. This will be my first outing with the sgrunners.....;)

I reached Sentosa around 07:35am at the visitor arrival carpark and the carpark is almost full....which is abit unusual....i thought going to be a small group of runners, maybe 1-200 the most. It turnout mecham likes 500 or more....;)

I waited for the rest of the sgrunners to gather at Sukami's car. Saw a few of familiar faces and glad to see so many new faces taking part in the training. One thing for sure, next time i shall park the car at the gateway carpark as it is nearer to the finishing line. At least i can hop in and dash home after the event.

Promptly around 8am the event started. This is a training run, everyone take it easier, no dashing like mad from the gun. I had a 20km run yesterday, should not be running today. Anyway what the heck, just run slower then. I started off slowly with baby steps...at least that is how i feel and the rest of the sgrunners just slowly moved further away. The only person i can spot making a dash at the earlier stage is brokenarrow...maybe the speed is too slow for her.

I take it slowly on the road, i know it is slow as i feel slow, and my body is not able to rise up the tempo. Anyway, relax lah..... Every 500 metres there are a signboard that tells the distance, maybe except the last 9.5km mark since i didnt see it, which is good as we know how far we have run or how much LEFT that is to the end. The route have quite a few bit and pieces of uphill and downhill. Nothing very drastic, but nevertheless make me panting for the first part of the run. I slowly catch up(or is it the other way round) with Penguin at around 4km mark. Chat with her for a while, telling her i cant stalked her from behind any longer as i need to move ahead, asking her to stalked me instead. I guess she doesnt fancy that and wanted to be the ultimate SLOW runner among us....hehe....

At 5km mark we hit the SAND !!!! Hello...isnt the sand suppose to be at the 6km mark!!!!...anyway this is a good thing about running the actual route during training, so that there are no surprises on the actual day. The SAND isnt as bad as everyone is telling me....;) Sure or not so tough meh...seems quite okay leh....abit soft at times, but still good to run on lah.....maybe it is my experience running on pebbles at Bedok Reservior that is making this easy?

The SAND stop at 5.5km mark...hmmmm....short changes on the SAND part??? Proceed to run, by this time the engine have warm up and is ready to push on the speed. I take a quick look at the watch it is 36mins or 30+ lah...ok...based on current speed i should finish just a few mins after an hour...which is okay given yesterday run.

At 6km, we hit the SAND again...this time round, we go almost 1km(7km mark) before hitting the road once more. Ok, we are more or less finishing the SAND part !!! as we are running along the beaches....i keep wondering if another part of sand awaits us further ahead....;)

Finally reach Rasa Sentosa before we head into the jungle trail(8km mark). The SAND part is abit short of 1.6km i feel. As i entered the trail there is a slightly up slope and my mind tune back to Macritchie Reservior route for inspiration and expectation mode. Hmm....it never required that. Apart from the initial 30metres up slope, the rest are pretty flat, just zip-zap along two walls of greens(what kind of trail is this?). Hit out of the trail around 9.5km(didnt see the signboard) and headed straight to the ending point and hit the "tape" at 56mins and 31sec.... not a bad timing i feel for a relax run....but kind of feel short for the distance though....

I dont think i will go for anymore training run for this event anymore. The $2 per car entry and the distance travelled from home, doesnt warrant another try. Today experience will give me some idea of the route and hopefully i will get better timing next time round....;)

Anyway, good workout. Get to meet a few folks and hope to catch up with everyone soon again.