Sheares Bridge and Army Half Marathon

11 September 05
Venue: Esplande/Padang
Time: 5:45am
Distance: 21km

Finally the dress rehearsal for Full Marathon(Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon) is here. Organised by the Army and Safra.

Woke up at 4:10am today. Picked up Francis(Seragoon MRT) and Jolene(along CTE). Fastlane and sweetheart, cant make it & they go by themselves. Reach Capitol theatre carpark around 5:05am.

Meet up with quite a few sgrunners, exchange greetings and prepare for the battle ahead. Starting time is 5:45am for competitive runners, am i a competitive runner? I dont think so, so i join the queue for non-competitive runners at 6am. I should have join the competitive runners after sitting down and analysis the event.

Started off at a slow pace, as the folks infront jam the place and anyway it is a long run, so take my own sweet time and run. Today is the weather is good, humidity is high, i have perspire quite a fair bit before reaching the 1st water point about 1km out.

I was running with Death and Francis along until Sheares Bridge when Death met his friend and continue on his own. Francis & myself sort of running on our own, but somehow we are always closed by.

The pace remains to be slow as we move along ECP, Ford Road & East Coast. Along East Coast, went to pee when i see a toilet along the way. The queue is very long, so i join the informal queue at the washing bay to release the pressure. Haha...nevermind very early nobody see lah....

All the while, i am running behind Francis.....taking it too relax i think. Anyway, we last crossed each other after the U-turn sign before hitting the 10km mark. I reached 10km mark in 65:40, which is the training pace i am doing. I was thinking, okay this is a decent pace. Thinking back, in race should i be going slightly faster then training pace? Yeah hor....

Anyway, have to run abit faster leow lah...since it is the return late. It was a good run going back, no puncture like the real run, just keep going. No stress leh today, which is good. Along the way too water breaks as much as i would love to and take the opportunity to walk. Haha...feeling good. Nice to reach Esplande route, which is my home ground, okay have to future open up the pace....

Saw one veteran runner suan a commando for walking, asking him to take out his commando running vest...haha...damn xiasua lah...commando walking....

Looking at the watch, today timing is pretty slow(in term aiming for 2:05hr), and i couldnt be back in time to catch the next 6km wave startoff. Oh well....i finished the run in 2:12 or 2:13, couldnt recall already....anyway, it is better than my SCSM 04 timing of 2:14:40. I just glad that with the slow start, i can managed to at least equal the timing for SCSM. Looking back, i have an negative split for the 2nd portion of the race...which is always good to finish strong.

Immediately after crossing the finishing line, i went across to the start line again. The 6km/12km have started off about 15mins ago. No problem i have to give chase, anyway the ladies should be slow lah. Alamak, the road ahead is jam packed with walkers...like that cannot run leow lah.... anyway taking this opportunity to walk and relax lah...no point run too much. It was a different experience taking the route in the dark and with sun. It is different for those running 21km and 6km walkers. Practically 21km no singing(by the army), the shorter distance there are a lot of that going on. I run and walk the whole route from start to the end. 6km distance took me 56mins...damn jialat, very very slow. It is not possible to run much at all. I dont want to burn myself for weaving through the crowd after just finishing a 21km run.

It was interesting to run with the "company" of commando recruits and hear their singing. Really motivate me to go along with the pace...slow and steady...haha.....

After the run, immediately see sgrunners by the side of the road. Cant stay long with them as i need to meet the rest of the gang up. So i went to the designated end point and meet up with the rest of the folks. Saw Francis, Poh, Jeslin, Agnes and Tracy. Dont see Simon leh.

Later meet sgrunners for photo taking and collect the sgrunners T-shirt...haha...finally.....

I give Death(a lift home), but before that bring Francs, Agnes, Tracy and Jeslin to Macpherson for Prawn noddle first. Finally reach home slight before 11am. Tired and hungry.

As a whole it was a good run...total 21km+6km.....the timing is good, but isnt great, anyway relax lah running is suppose to be fun & enjoyable.