Well decided to save money and so I left home early to take bus 196 all the way from Buona Vista and alighted at Marine Parade Road, just before the bus turned into Bedok South. Read about the shuttle bus services but wasn't that keen coz I was away for a long while. I have not been to Stadium Station so I wasn't that comfortable to try that, and also that I read that the drop off point is Siglap Link, which I don't think it is near enough to the race venue.
First time I arrived at a race venue so early, it was natural to try locating SGRunners booth. I always look forward to catch up with old friends during races, especially that I have not been that active in the forum and also in group runs nowadays. I was lucky that there was a booth, and thus got the chance to catch up a bit with Tiwazz, Teelee, Sotong, Kelly and Charlotte. Left my belonging there with them as well. Haha.
My plan was to start in Wave 2. Wave 1 is supposedly for elites. The plan backfired. The ushers only let a handful of runners to go in Wave 2 before pushing the rest left to Wave 3, 20 mins later than Wave 1, 4:40pm. This will be very important later.
So the race started. Let's be honest. I have been enjoying life so far in Germany, the extra food entitlement and the beers which is cheaper than soft drinks. It is natural that I gained a little bit of weight.
And this race I was trying something new. Remember that I was saying that I didn't want to bring my watch along. As I didn't want to be bogged down by timing, which was happening in the past few races that I was doing.
The plan went well actually. It is all about listening to my own body.I didn't bother whether I was too slow or fast. I just keep going. I really enjoyed it.
The only time that I see the clock is at the 12km mark when I passed the finishing point. Not fanastic timing. 1 hr 35mins. But it was within my own target. I wanted to complete the run within 3h 30mins. But I know that I was slowing down drastically due to lack of training. So I decided to lower my expectations a bit by coming back by the cut off time of 4 hrs.
Then I bumped into Jonathan, who is also from my YEC after the 2nd U turn point, somewhere after 16km. We started to catch up with each other on some YEC matters. I parted way with him near 18km, as he is still nursing his back injury so he wasn't going that hard.
But then when I hit 19km mark, I wasn't allowed to carry on straight and was diverted left instead to join the returning runners after they have done the loop of 3km. I heard from other runners that kana the same fate, that it was around 7:40pm, 3 hrs after the start of wave 3. Given the race cut off timing is 4 hours, it was too early to cut off i guess.
I do admit that I have slowed down a lot by then. But 6km in an hour. I think is still achievable by many runners.
So since it was DNF, I decided to wait for Jonathan and "run" together for the last 3km and do some further catching up. Haha.
In the end, I crossed the line at 3hrs 40 together with Jonathan, minus that 20 mins becoz i started in wave 3, there is 40 mins more to spare before the cut off time. I think got enough time leh for me to do that loop.
Haha just my luck. Maybe the talking took me a bit of time, but from what I read in the forum, they start diverting as early as 7:20pm. Haiz. But I enjoyed the conversation through, I have not get to meet up with the YEC guys while I am away.
Anyway a big special thanks to Teelee who waited for me becoz of my belonging. Really paiseh.
So the conclusion. It's confirmed. Today's event is the longest race that I would have for the year. Haha. I know my limits. I am not going to toy with another FM for now. At least not so soon.
I am thinking if I should go for the "Grand Slam" - I already got the FM, HM medal. I haven got the 10k medal yet. Hahaha. Either that or HM. Shall make the decision by tml i guess.
Well you must learn how to crawl first before you can walk.
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