Sickness and injury are the twin nemesis of all runners.  Once you are hit with either of these, it takes humility to accept the slowdown and focus on recovery and rehabilitation. This happened to me recently, and I entered this Pocari Sweat Run 2016 with a half-rehabilitated knee.  Here was my journey.

Race Pack Collection

The REPC was scheduled to be on 16 and 17 July, a week before race day.  I vaguely remembered experiencing a long queue time last year.  This year, I went on Saturday after lunch to pick up my race pack.  When I arrived, this was what I saw:

The queue snaked all the way from the atrium to outside of Novena Square.  There and then, I had to decide to stay on or come back the next day.  Still feeling upset that I wasn’t able to collect my race singlet due to a shipment problem, I gave up and decided to head home. When I returned the next day, it just took me a mere 5mins to get my race pack. Kudos to the organisers for ensuring that the queueing time was drastically reduced.  I almost sweared that I would not sign up for Pocari next year for the ‘bad experience’ but their service recovery was excellent.  They gave me an ASICS shoe bag in place of the singlet. So, I was an appeased customer!

Race Day

For those of you who have been following my postings here and on Instagram (@twtwriter), you would have known that I reported my knee injury during the OSIM Sundown.  This Pocari Sweat Race was already registered long before the injury so I just had to run; just thankful that it was only 5km. Prior to race day, I have been exploring various methods to rehabilitate myself so that I don’t have to take NSAIDS (Non-Steroid Anti-inflammatory drugs) to stave off the pain.  I also strengthened my quads and hamstrings; basically the muscle groups that worked my knee.  These rehabilitative exercises had helped to prepare me for this day.  I set myself a target of no more than 35mins (although my PR for 5km is 27mins)

Taking a ride from a friend, my son and I arrived at the race village at the Float and made our way to the starting pen (including the mandatory visit to the potable loos first of course) after a brief warm-up.  En route to the venue, it was drizzling and every runner was hoping the skies would clear before 6pm. At around 5.30pm, the clouds thankfully cleared and the temperature dipped to 25degC to give us a cool start to this edition of the Pocari Sweat Run 2016.  The 5km runners were flagged off first.

After asking my son to run ahead of me, I strategised by doing a 5min jog+ 1min walk to ensure that I did not over-stress my knee and and maintained some decent momentum to last the distance.  It was a humbling experience to run/walk in this way throughout the 5km; particularly so when runners began to overtake me when I was doing the 1min walk. I had to resist the urge to change my strategy and pace. I stuck to my 7min jog pace throughout and it worked fine.

The weather was so awesome that even my run/walk routine was rather enjoyable.  I increased the pace slightly as the distance increased. The hydration point for the 5km was only at the 2km mark and I gulped down just one cup of Pocari.  I overtook the pink balloon pacers and was ahead of them from mid point onwards. Since it was a short race, there weren’t many cheering parties.  The route was also mixed with many other non-racing runners and weekend folks enjoying the sights of Marina Bay.  The sea of blues along the entire route was quite a sight to behold.  Even those who did not manage to get this year’s race singlet donned the previous year’s apparel just to be one with the rest of the blues. Everyone seems to be very happy, partly thanks to the cool evening.

Nearing the last stretch of the route, I spotted the orange balloons who were the 35min pacers.  I was trying to spot them so that I can be sure of doing 35mins.  The last km saw the climb up the road next to the helix bridge and many runners slowed to just a walk; this was expected as 5km run usually comprised of not-so-seasoned runners (except for that few elite runners at the starting line-up who were vying for a place on the podium.)  I found myself opening my stride up the bridge as I overtook the orange pacers.  Applauding and thanking them, I went on to complete the last 5km in a reasonably good pace. Running through the finishing arch, I saw my gun time was about 34mins.   When I checked my GPS watch, this was what I got (unofficial results) – which was a pleasant surprise considering I was still nursing a recovering knee.

When the official results were released (the next day) my nett time was about 33:56 which exceeded my set target.  However, what’s more important to me was that it was a easy run; giving me hope that I could be recovering well from my injury (discounting the fact that I was wearing a knee brace and took walking breaks along the way.)  I still think an overall 6:45min/km was a decent pace.

Post Race Recovery

After crossing the finish line, I picked up my Pocari drink, banana and the finisher medal. This year, they did not give out any finisher tee but instead provided all loyalty runners with a Pocari windbreaker jacket.  After the run, it’s warming down time and photo taking. Unfortunately, most of my running friends were in the 10km category so I took a couple of photos with my son, Austin and went home happily.  He, incidentally, finished a full 5mins ahead of me, and he didn’t train at all – the advantage of being young and strong!

When I went home to count my medals, it was the 17th that I had accumulated since I started joining races in Dec 2014.  Then, I chose the blogging name “Beyond55” and now this race marked a new milestone for me.  Even though I am nursing an injury, I continue to be optimistic to make a full recovery to run better (not necessarily faster).  I have learnt from this recovery process that running for the long haul requires strength and not speed. I have also realised that to run strong does not mean running often or covering longer distances, it is about getting myself adequately prepped and trained to be a more efficient, versatile and stronger runner.

Looking back over the last 2.5 months of rehabilitation and recovery, there are many lessons (shall save that for another post) learned. I know I am on the road to recovery. Although my knee has not regained its full strength and function, I am still glad to run this 5k pain-free at a slower pace.  The runner in me wants to go further and faster; sign up for more races and resume normal training, but I have to say no to the inner voice.  Having experienced the pain of injury; I am not going to compromise on the recovery process.  So I am going to go slow; but I am going to be stronger – eventually.

Stay tuned for my next post 🙂

This is in fact a joint collaboration of blog by me and Francis and the reason will become obvious as you read through.  Two Saturdays ago, I had queued for 40 minutes in a very long queue running from outside of Novena Square snaking down the stairs into the mall to collect the race pack.  So I was looking forward to the Pocari Sweat run in some ways…

And that Sunday, Francis and I had completed our aquathlon at OCC.  I wrote about the small mishap with the bird shit falling into the plate of curry I had.  In the blog, I happened to say if it was an omen of something to come.  Actually, that day, when we were walking back to the car park, I suddenly found I was hindered in my steps somehow when I walked.  Then I realized my slipper strap had broke.  I still didn’t think too much.  I went back and when I was trying to pour myself a glass of water, I fumbled uncharacteristically and broke the glass.  I thought I was just too clumsy somehow.  (It was only later days when I reflected and wondered why all coincidental incidents were so ‘coincidental’…)

After taking a short nap, I went about my usual stuff on weekend.  So I gave my mum a call just to check if she had taken her dinner at around 5.30 pm.  She didn’t answer her call.  I thought she might have gone out with my other brothers.  A few minutes later, a stranger called me and said that my mum had had a fall and she was bleeding profusely.  Any thought it would be a scam was broken when I heard my mum’s voice.  The kind stranger had called an ambulance.  I said I would go down immediately, but it was still a distance, basically, from North to near Central.  Anyway, to cut that long story short, my mum was admitted to SGH for observation after being in the emergency ward for close to 7 hours.  I stood mostly for the 7 hours at the emergency ward waiting for her examination to complete.

With God’s blessings, there were no internal bleeding but she had fractured her facial bones near the eyes in a few places so she had very swollen eye and possible long term effect of sunken left eye.  It was about 2 am before I reached home.  The next morning, I drove to fetch her back home and made some arrangements, staying with her most of the day and the following day.   I went for a 3.5 km run on Tuesday evening but found I was very low in energy somehow.  That night, the fever started and the coughing got worse.    I ignored both, thinking it was just the usual flu.  I took some of my son’s medicine, after observing that his and my mum’s coughing mixture just issued were the same.  Anyway, by Friday, I found that my fever was not subsiding – usually it went away when I finished a day of panadol.  Temperature reached a peak of 38.8, but was usually at 38.5 degrees celcius.  I decided to see the doctor on Friday.

Earlier that week, my running friend Chia had suggested I DNS for Pocari Sweat Run.  I had said I didn’t know how to DNS.  At the back of my mind, I was thinking that if I consumed the medicine by the doctor, I would be fine.  The doc agreed that I must have picked up a virus while at the hospital.  At the same time I did mention to the doc that I was planning to run a 10 km race.  She was a young doc and she was wearing a mask when she replied that ‘don’t play play, the virus can attack the heart, and you can die, so don’t run’.  I knew she was smiling behind her mask as she said this.  I smiled back, but I was thinking if my fever is gone, I would still try.  How can I DNS ?  She also said if my fever didn’t subside by Monday then she would have to test my blood for dengue.  Nighttime, I took temperature and it was 37.1, so I was very optimistic.  (Incidentally, the cough mixture was also the same – Singapore clinics had the same supplier.)

Unfortunately or fortunately I don’t really know.  I woke up on Saturday morning feeling in the worst state possible, still feeling feverish and weak.  Temperature above 38 degrees.   I didn’t want to let my bib go to waste.  My friend Chia already proposed  Francis to run on my behalf on FB.  He was willing.  I called him and asked if he felt ready to run because I knew he didn’t train recently for any race other than last week’s.  He said he would come down and take over the bib.  If there was a proper process for him to take over, I would have followed but this was last minute.  I was a universal blood donor type so anyone taking mine would still be quite safe.  Just as precaution, I told him to change the NOK information on the bib.  My last words to him that day was ‘enjoy the race’.   And so the following is Francis’ review of the race itself.

Pre-race – When Chia suggested over facebook that I take over the slot from CL aka KenJoe as he was having a nasty fever, I was pretty ready despite the fact that I’ve only been running only 5km for last few weeks. – So when CL text me on Sat morning that he is not able to run, I am more than happy to run on his behalf. Since he wasn’t feeling very well, I decided to pick it up from him at his place so that he can have ample rest. – I went for a swim on Sat morning and did some body workout in the gym that morning in anticipation of the 10km run.

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Actual Race – 5.30pm: I arrived at the floating platform at 5.30pm and noticed that the 5km participants only just started to gather at the starting point. So I decided to walk around the vicinity and waited along the starting route for the 5km race to start. Took my energy gel half an hour before the race as a routine (advice by CL in fact and I think it did help). 6.00pm: As I know that Chia will be running the 5km, I was also hoping to get a snap of him starting off the block, which I did and sent it to him right after that! 6.05pm: I started to walk towards the starting area and there was a bottleneck at the entrance area where the checks are happening to ensure that only runners with tags are allowed to enter. It took me 10mins just to get into the starting lane (refer to photo on FB). 6.15pm: Fitness First Instructors lead a warm up session, however it was so squeezy that no one hardly participated other than those in front I guess. The MC also introduced the pacers and I was hoping to follow at least the 60mins pacers (orange balloons) and stay in front of the 65min pacers (Pink balloons).

6:30pm onwards: Finally the race started and as expected, the path is pretty narrow at the beginning, so the start was a bit slow but I did my best to try to run my usual pace by overtaking on the right side and sometimes running on the grass. As a side note: I didn’t run well during my Sundown 10km in May as I stopped and walked for about 1km. This is partly due to the lack of training (due to an injury) and I wasn’t feeling well that evening too! Furthermore, I did not take any energy gel for that race, thinking that the energy patch that I’ve bought will do the trick, but unfortunately it doesn’t work for me. 2km Mark: So this time, I am determined not to stop and to run my usual pace. I started well because I started about 100m from the starting block, I was really motivated when I saw the pink ballons (65mins pacer) and I managed to run past them around the 2km mark! 5km Mark: The next target was to catch the 60mins pacers and at around the 5km mark, I managed to catch a glimpse of them. However, I wasn’t able to catch with them as they were too fast for me no matter how hard I tried! So my next thought will be in trying to avoid the pink balloons(65mins pacer) and oh boy, that really motivated me to open up my legs to run harder (may not be faster though!).

It was also interesting to see a gentleman running in full business suit and he was much faster than me by miles ahead at the opposite end of the returning route! Along the way, I was really happy to enjoy the Pocari energy drink at least 4 times just along the 10km distance. In fact from all my 10km races so far, this race had the best drink frequency and I think it really helps! 7km: By the time I hit the 7km mark, I took another energy gel (as my usual routine) and that provided the boost for me to complete the rest of the distance I believe. I also saw a pair of runners (both male) running together with their hands looping together with a sting. They called themselves the bonding runners so as their shirt said, and are running for a good cause. My immediate reflection is “You will never run alone!” 9km: I was pretty tired at this time but somehow I pressed on since I’ve come this far. Furthermore, I kept telling myself that I have to be ahead of the 65mins pacers, so I should’t stop. The last lap was a tough one, esp running up the bridge before making the U turn back into the floating platform. Finish Line: I made it and yes, the pink balloons are still behind me! I made it in 1 hour and 1 min. Not my personal best, but considered the lack of training, I am pretty happy with the result. My thoughts at that time went to CL, So I decided to dedicate this run to him and posted the timing on the Facebook. I hope his will be back to his usual best and start running again! – end of review by Francis.

And I’ll end this with a final thought for this week.  Running is a journey.  In this journey, running can also bring you connection, to friends and to people whom you will get to know better.  Francis had earned the nice medal and thank him for stepping in to help  when needed.  I get to know both Francis and Chia better through running.  I also got re-connected to another ex-colleague when she participated in another running event that weekend.  Running is also about living.  Today I may need to rest…  But I live to run another day, will you join the journey too ?

About Pocari Sweat Run 2016

It’s the 5th Pocari Sweat Run and the slogan for this run is: Run to the moon. Which is because after this run, the total distance covered by the runners for the Pocari Sweat runs all these years is the distance enough to reached the moon. And the first thing that comes to my mind is the quote: Love you to the moon and back. So maybe that’s the slogan for the run in a few years time when the distance covered by the runners is able to make it back to Earth? There are two distance runners can choose to run, 5km and 10km. I’ll be running 10km and hope that I can complete below 1 hour 10 minutes and that means 1 hour 9 minutes and 59 seconds and I’ll be happy! And thank you Just Run Lah for the race slot! Join Just Run Lah team of bloggers for chances to get free slot for some of the races!

Race Entry Pack Collection

We love our customised personalised race singlet so much! ? Thank you p_ease! There are two designs we can choose from to be printed on our race singlet and we can print on both the front and back of it with our own text too. Luckily our race singlet are not affected by the delay as some runners are unable to get their race singlets in time for the race. As this is the first time July and I participates in the Pocari Sweat Run, we are not entitled to the jacket that is given free to the Pocari Sweat run loyal runners. We collected our race entry pack on the second day of the REPC and there is no queue at all while I heard that some of our friends had queued for more than 1 hour on the day of REPC! ? There is also a photo booth where we can get our photo printed out in astronaut suit, it’s so nice!

Race Day

It’s Saturday and I have pole class. Last week due to Mizuno Ekiden run, I have to sacrifice my pole class. But it’s totally worth it! Enjoyed the run with friends! ? Sometimes I really dread to skip pole class because it means I will missed out a lot. There is make up class, but that instructor is too hardcore so I’m actually scared to attend her class! ?

After pole class, headed to Starbucks to meet my friends for something light before heading to the race venue at The Float together. The flag off time for 5km is at 6pm and 10km at 6.30pm. The race route is the usual scenic one running through many tourist attractions: The Float > Esplanade > the Merlion > The Marina Bay Sands > Gardens by the Bay > Marina Barrage > Gardens by the Bay East. The u-turn point is already at 6km mark so the way back is shorter, turning towards the finish line after Gardens by the Bay and through Helix Bridge to go back to The Float.

Once we reached there I saw Jasmine Goh, she is one of the elite runner who really motivates and inspired me a lot in running, and she really encourages me to be better in running. I always feel very inspired and motivated after talking to her and congratulations on her podium in the 10km category! ?

As we were still early, after some photo takings and chit chat around, my friends and I were there to see the 5km runners flag off. After the runners do a very cute warm up with the Pokemon music, they were flag off on time. Then we head to the start pen for our turn to be flag off. I’m seriously glad I did not feel unwell as it is so packed while we are waiting to be flag off. Usually if I stand too long in a particular place without any movement will cause me to have near syncope. It’s some sort of fainting spell which I think is because I’m anemic. I didn’t join the the Pokemon warm up because any movement will cause me to bump into anybody ? I can’t breathe and it’s so stuffy. Taller people will get fresher air I think ?

Justina and July is flying and I lost them very shortly after flagged off. All of my friends are motivating and inspiring me in running. Although Justina is unwell, she still manage to finish the run in 53 mins! ?????? I’m more of a leisure runner and they are the chiong type ?

I didn’t stop at any water point again and July says I should start drinking water in runs because we need water so we will not be exhausted. Which I think is true as I’m really exhausted. Maybe it’s like same logic of those F1 racing cars, after some distance there is a need go to the the pit stop to change tyres, add fuel to carry on to go fast? I was actually hoping to end below 1 hour 10 mins by following the 65 minutes pacers but I lost them since the beginning near the Marina Bay Sands as was slowed down by the bottlenecks. There is really too many runners in the this run and some of the paths are quite narrow where runners will just bump into one another easily.

The run is good till the last 4km is quite stressful for me because I was still hoping I can chased up the pink balloons but it’s too far away and not possible with my pace but I really hope to complete before the timing I have set out for. When I’m at the helix bridge, I can see the finishing line and I look at my time, I still left with only 3 minutes to the end point if not it will be a time that is more than 1 hr 10 minutes so I pick up my pace and chiong. I crossed the finish line at 1 hr 9 mins 50 something seconds ? Still it is within what I had set out for and its my PB! I’m happy! But I wonder is it that for the runs I didn’t push myself hard enough so I always run at 7mins pace, a manageable pace for me where I’m not struggling to catch my breathe. Only minutes before the run I finally get myself a Garmin watch, hopefully with this watch, I can track my heart rate and speed more accurately and improve on running.

Seriously happy to receive the bottle of super cold bottle of Pocari Sweat when I finished the run. My friends had already completed their run long before me so I looked for them in the race village. There were so many nice photography spot especially the giant can of Pocari Sweat ? And I simply love the medal! It’s really nice!

After run of course must eat! ?

Shape Run 2016

As July and I didn’t sign up for shape run, we decided to go for a recovery run around the area to support our friends who are running. We didn’t really check out the route but we have an estimation of the route and we were actually hoping at first to be back at the finishing point to welcome our friends back. We thought that the finishing area should be around the Float too. We start out from City Hall MRT station running towards Padang then towards Esplanade. Just nice when we are at the Esplanade running towards the Float and wondering whether we have run at the correct place because we see no runners at all when a cyclist cycle pass saying: First runner coming back! We were wondering first runner? We are getting excited and it’s really the first runner of the 15km category running pass us in the opposite direction. I felt really lucky and awesome to see these elite runners running and they are still going strong when they had already ran at least 13km. And we started to see more runners and we are getting more excited and alert because we will be seeing our friends shortly as Justina and Sabrina are also running the 15km category. And after a while we really saw Sabrina and Justina at somewhere near the F1 pit building and we u-turn back shortly after them running towards the finishing point. Thank you RunningPics for the picture of July and me enjoying the Shape Run ?

While we were near the Fullerton hotel, another cyclist rides pass us and this time, they are opening path for the fastest runner of the 10km category. And it’s Vivian Tang, she is really impressive and fit and that she gave me a very strong impression as I remembered her from Ekiden run. I was there in the 2nd runner pen waiting for July, the first runner of my team to come back. Vivian Tang came back as the first women runner of the first runner in the Mizuno Ekiden Run last week ?

When we were running near Bay Front, nearing the finishing line, we spotted many boyfriends and husbands around the area waiting and supporting their girlfriends and wives to come back from their run. We can’t stop feeling that how sweet are they right! ❤️

Sometimes runners out there is really there to motivates and inspires other runners and for them to look up to. While July, Sabrina and I went to Starbucks for breakfast, Vivian Tang came in and we manage to get a photo with her ?

And thank you Sabrina and July for accompanying me all the way to Queenstown to get myself a new pair of running shoes ? I’ve fully utilise my pair of new balance running in it for more than 800km and it’s torn already too ?

SHAPE Run is Singapore’s first all-women race and it has always been a yearly event for me except for the time that I was studying overseas. I’ve participated in the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2015 editions and I had fond memories of these events.

[Photo Top: My past SHAPE Run memories]

What I excites me to join SHAPE Run every year has got to be the event tee and the goodie bag! I always love their run tees as they give you that girlish sporty feel and they are super pretty! The goodie bag are always filled to the brim with freebies and not just flyers and coupons!! This year is no exception! The run tee is a cute turquoise green with pink wordings and the goodie bags are filled with goodies that every lady would find useful and essential. Check out my photo below!

[Photo Top: SHAPE Run 2016 Goodie Bag and race tee]

PRE-RACE 

[Top Photo: Pre-race group photo around the event site]

This year is the first time I’m taking part in the 10km category as compared to other years where I just participated in the 5km. This year’s event was held at the Marina Bay Event Space and the flag-off for the 10km category was at 06:45 hrs. As with all early flag-offs, all of us had to wake super early and  take a cab down to the event site! We reached the event site at around 05:50 hrs and we had ample time to eat our breakfast, hydrate ourselves, drop our bags off, snap some wefies and use the toilets. I think among all the SHAPE runs, this is the best event site! It was spacious all around and super convenient to access.

[Top Photo: Pre-race group photo in the START Pen]

We promptly headed for the START pen at 06:15 hrs. It was really nice to have a familiar voice, Charmaine Yee, from my all time radio station, Kiss 92 FM on stage welcoming everyone! Love the energy that she brings when she is emceeing! 15 minutes before flag-off, Charmaine handed over the stage to Joeson Yeo from TRUE Fitness who conducted a simple aerobics warm up session! He was very engaging and both me and Cheng Yee were instantly reminded of our gym exercise class days. We did the warm-up routine with energy but it was a tad squeezy at where we were standing but still we enjoyed the warm up! As soon as warm-up was done, Charmaine took to the stage again and introduced the flag-off party and we were promptly flaged-off on our 10km route!

ROUTE

[Map courtesy of SHAPE Run 2016 website]

This years route was a familiar one for me because this is one of my favourite places that I would do my weekly workouts. It’s a really scenic route that brings you past our awesome Singapore skyline, Gardens By the Bay, to our Marina Barrage area, next to Gardens By the Bay (East), and back to the Double Helix Bridge, past the Floating Platform and back to the FINISH area! There were definitely a few small slopes but it was all good! There were no bottlenecks for the first 8km but after the Esplanade, it started getting crowded as all the race categories were heading back to the FINISH point.

The weather this morning was fantastic and water points with both plain water and H2O were sufficiently distributed all along the route which made it very helpful to participants as Singapore has a humid climate!

POST RACE

I finished the run event with an unofficial timing of 1 hr 15 mins (See photo above)! Medal collection was really fast and smooth! I really like the design of this years medal! At least it has some colour as compared to the other years (See photo below).

Once we have cooled down, my friends and collected our stuff from the baggage counter! We just walked around to check out what the vendors were offering and took some post race wefies!  I must say that SHAPE has one of the best after race expo!

CONCLUSION

Overall it was a enjoyable and well organised run event! Great job SHAPE Singapore and Esprimo! I’m just looking forward to the official results and race photos by the various photography groups! Till my next race review, congrats to all the ladies on completing today’s event!

Singapore’s first all women’s race celebrated its 11th year this weekend at Bayfront Event Space and I was very excited to be part of it!

As well as the 5km and 10km races, there was also a 15km category, which I decided to go for.  15km is a great distance to bridge the gap between a 10km and a half-marathon and as I usually opt for 10km, I wanted to challenge myself.  There was also a 1.8km Family Run.

Race pack collection was a breeze – no queues and the staff were lovely.  The race pack itself was awesome – some seriously good swag – and definitely worth far more than the race registration fee, which was reasonable to begin with.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be woken up by the alarm at 4am, but I was relieved to see that it wasn’t raining, given the recent bout of pre-dawn thunder and lightning storms.  In fact, the weather was perfect for running – temperature was cool and pleasant for my 6am flag-off.

The 15km route took us past Marina Bay Sands, along Gardens by the Bay (South), Marina Barrage, Gardens by the Bay (East), past the indoor stadium and Singapore Sports Hub, Millenia Walk and Merlion Park, allowing us to take in Singapore’s picturesque city skyline.

Markers along the route were clear and well-positioned, as were the several hydration points.  What I really liked was that the volunteers cheered us as we went by and were so encouraging.  This can make a huge difference when you’re tired and flagging and wondering what on earth you are doing up at this ridiculous hour!

Another well-deserved shout out to the fantastic pacers. I tagged along with the 1:40 gang for the first 3-4 kms, until I looked around in dismay to realise that I’d lost them.. Not a balloon in sight!  Undeterred, I picked up the pace and soldiered on, only stopping to help a runner who had tripped and fallen over.  Hopefully she is ok and managed to finish her race.

I rocked up (ok, almost threw up) at the finish line in 1:34, according to my trusty Garmin and was delighted to see my husband and daughter there to welcome me home.  I felt fantastic!  I was pleased with my performance, considering I was on antibiotics for a kidney infection (cue the violins) so I didn’t have a target time in mind.  My helper, Olive, ran her first ever 5km race and nailed her target time of 30 minutes.  She loved every minute of it.

The Shape Run was extremely well-organised from registration to race pack collection, to the main event.  The race village was buzzing afterwards and we hung around for a while to soak up the atmosphere.  I was in selfie heaven!

Would I participate in in next year’s Shape Run? Absolutely – it was an amazing experience!

After doing the last 3 races in as many weeks, (10, 15, 10 km), this was the 4th consecutive race with a difference.  I was trying out this inaugural Blueseventy Urban Aquathlon at Orchid Country Club.  This was the second time I tried an aquathlon, the first was with Nila Aquathlon Intermediate Race (500 m open sea swim, 2.5 km run).  It seemed so distant and back then I did 36+ min.  Now it was 400 m in the swimming pool and 3 km run.   I started swimming again more regularly just about 3 weeks ago or so due to time constraints and only in the condo pool.

One good thing about this race was that the venue was rather near my home.  Collection of race pack was also held at the Country Club.  The pack itself was still value for money in my opinion, as we got a pair of goggles and tri-shorts from Blueseventy.  It came with a blue swimming cap which I think is pretty standard issue for aquathlons.

I was meeting my friend, Francis and so set off early to reach around 7.05 am though the race was to start at 8 am.  There we queued up to collect our bib number strap and tied it aound the ankle while the volunteers tattooed the numbers on our arms and legs.  After a quick shower, and donning our caps, we queued up to start.  Each swimmer dived or slided down into the pool, 5-10 seconds apart, and zigzag fashion completed 8 laps.  As I was slower, I got a head start but my friend ‘swoomed’ past me (swim and zoom combined) in no time.  I felt good despite the lack of practice and then ran to the transit area where we had to put on a tee and shoes/socks.  Less than 1 km, and I had to stop to tie my shoe lace which had come loose !

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The race was pretty short and we enjoyed it while it lasted.  Water was provided at the transition area and energy drink at the finishing point.  I collected the finisher medal with some satisfaction.  Timing was released the following day.  Did 34:06, now if I didn’t stop to fumble with my shoe lace ? !

Had a good breakfast and catch-up with my friend.  Just as I finished my roti prata, suddenly something dropped from the trees right into the curry plate.  I think it was output from a bird in the trees…  Luckily I had finished my breakfast, otherwise .. Talk about timing (and omen?).  We moved to another safer spot soon after and continued to chat.

The race was a good experience overall.  I do think it is a good introductory race to running and swimming.   The distance is fairly comfortable for beginners, I would think.

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Thoughts over the weekend: Run as best as you could, given the situation.  Live to run a better run (or even swim) each time.  Running is Living…