Another Sunday, another early alarm.

0345 today, this is getting ridiculous! This time I slept on the sofa so as not to disturb Mrs Strider, and crept around the house very quietly to avoid the dog freaking out and barking at me. This seemed to work out OK and just before 4 I was out the door on my way to collect my usual race partner Shug.

Today we’re off to East Coast Park for the Newton Challenge. 32k, a classic ‘pre marathon’ distance and that’s exactly what we (and most others I suspect) are using this race for, pre SCMS. Today’s plan is to do 5min/k pace steady for the whole race. SCMS target is 3:20-3:30 so if I can do this today without major disaster I know I am ‘in the ballpark’ as the Americans say.

Last time I did a race of this distance would have been 2003, as a build up to my first London Marathon. In the UK, it’s a ’20 miler’ and my memory of that one was that it was freezing (UK early morning in March) and quite hilly.

East Coast Park today is neither of those things. It’s flat as a pancake and it’s hot. I’m on a two-gel strategy today (GU – courtesy of Neil, who kindly stepped in when I realised I didn’t have any at 7pm on Saturday night! – cheers mate 🙂 ), having had a banana in the car on the way over. Shug is going with the Camelbak full of iced Squincher, his race tipple of choice.

Loads of cars on the Service Road, so we end up parking somewhere down by CarPark B1, meaning we have about a kilometre walk up to the start line. Quick bag drop and head for the starting pen. Wow – the starting pen is really narrow and there are already loads of people in it. Shug and I push through as best we can but we get stuck a long way from the front. In fact, so far back we end up in the Second Wave! That’s a new experience for both of us, but the plus side is we spend pretty much the next 2.5 hours overtaking people.

Second Wave flag off is about 5 minutes after the first guys have gone, so probably around 7 mins after the first flag off. Since we aren’t racing today, this isn’t such a big deal, but it’s a good reminder to get there early when we ARE racing.

Flag-off

We push our way through to the start line for wave 2 and quickly we are on our own. Wave 1 back markers are still 6-7 mins up the road, so we have the first 2-3k pretty much on our own. Slowly we start to pick up the wave 1 runners and by the first turn at NSRCC I am recognising the usual people I race against just ahead of me.

Pace is spot on and it seems very very easy at this stage. First gel at 10k. Top Marks for the organisers, Pocari Sweat and Water is Ice Cold at every station. The big lump of Iced Squincher in Shug’s camelbak thumps up and down at the same tempo as our feet (side note – lucky for us, our stride is pretty much identical – so running together is easy – have you ever had to run a long time next to someone with a different stride length to yours? For me it’s one of the most distracting and annoying things ever, I just have to get away ASAP!)

Heading back down the park on the Ocean side, nice breeze – here’s where we start to see the 18k front runners coming through – Lexxus Tan, the F1 coach is leading the 18k and already he seems to have about 500-600m clear space from the next runner.

About this time Ming Ham (official F1 photographer) appears out of nowhere, sprints ahead of me, turns and takes a photo, then disappears again – haven’t seen that one yet – but I am sure it will be great.

Round the loop and back up to NSRCC, we are still working our way through the field, chatting comfortably and holding this 5min pace pretty well (at this time ave pace was 5.05min/k). Into the last section of park up alongside NSRCC and all of a sudden several groups of rude road bikers appear, trying to ride at full pace down the middle lane of the park connector whilst hundreds of runners are in the inside and outside lanes running in opposite directions. This upset me a bit, because it was just unnecessary. 1) they could just chill out a bit for the 1 kilometre of their ride when they have to slow down a bit 2) surely as fellow athletes they could be a bit more gracious 3) its a well publicised large running race, so just go somewhere else if you can’t do 1) and 2). After shouting at the worst offenders, we make the turn at 22k for the last 10 back down to the finish.

Second Gel and second wind, we picked the pace up slightly, moving to 4.55min/k’s from there to the finish. By this point the paths were pretty busy with 18k’ers, but not a problem and seemed to be a day for runners with good etiquette (unlike cyclists!)

I had elected to wear my Mizuno Racing flats as another pre marathon experiment, previously I have done 1/2 mara in them with no problems, but this distance (more like this much time I think) they are not so good. By around 25-27k my feet are starting to feel quite sore, so I grind out the last 5k as quickly as possible to get finished.

At the finish line

Crossed the finish line in 2hrs38mins, average pace 4.59min/k. Excellent pacing, spot on the target and a nice negative split. Felt great throughout and it’s given me (and Shug) a lot of confidence for the coming marathon.

Funnily enough it was pretty much the same time as I did the North Face 25k in, meaning I managed 7k more in the same time on the flat.

Arrived at the race village, caught up with some mates, found out that friends Stuart & Carol won the 32k, Lexxus and Vanja won the 18k and Ben (JRL member!) was 3rd in the 18k as well – so lots of congrats throughout the extended group of running mates I am making here in SG.

Great selection of food and drinks again (more ice lollies) finished off a really good race for me.

I dont think I would do this distance unless I was entering a marathon shortly afterwards, but as an event I would put this one right up at the top of the list alongside North Face and Mizuno Passion Run – really well managed and executed.

Strava Screenshots below show the nice consistent pacing and the negative split

Enjoy your running…..

SinaiStrider

Hi everyone! This is my first post here. I am currently a NTU Year 1 HSS student, really excited to be part of JustRunLah! bloggers.

Recently, I just participated in NTU’s annual X-Campus Run. Below is the review of the run.

The Race

NTU Runners’ Club held its annual NTU X-Campus Run last Wednesday on 15/10/2014. Unlike previous years, the run this year is only opened to NTU students and staff. This could be due to the fact that the school just held the 5tylo-Mile-o Run at Padang during NTU Fest not long ago that was opened to the public, hence this run is designed purely to cater to NTU’s staff and students.

Singapore’s weather had been rainy recently, with showers and thunderstorms in the early mornings and late afternoons. On the day itself, there was a slight drizzle 1 hour before the actual race (at 6.30pm). My lessons just ended and after meeting my friend, we made our way slowly to the Student Recreational Centre (SRC) to the run. Really glad that the rain stop at about 6pm. Though the floor was a bit wet, the weather makes it perfect for a post-lessons evening run. The route this year is also slightly different from previous year, with both the starting and ending points at the SRC.

Flag-off

The race flagged off punctually at 6.33pm, with approximately 300 runners running off together. The first part of the run is flooded with runners like any other event, but slowly it began to stagger off. We ran across the new Hall 17 and 18 towards the back of the SRC, past NIE and along the perimeter of the campus. Distance markers were clear along the way, except that I think they missed out the 2km marker? As we know that NTU is pretty hilly, the uphill along North Spine indeed proves to be challenging for some runners as they began to slow down. But I did managed to continue, telling myself that it is good uphill training. The downhill part that follows was pretty awesome as I opened up my strikes and the breeze makes the run very enjoyable. Ran past Innovation Centre and eventually back to where I started at SRC.

The aftermath

The whole running distance was 6,75km, and I managed to complete it in 33mins. 🙂  The post-run procedures were slightly confusing. I was issued a red bib and told to collect my goodie bag (facewash, sweets, 2 pens and some flyers) further down. There was no queue yet, but I got confused with what to do with the bib. Asked the volunteer at the goodie bag counter and she had no idea. Asked around and eventually was told to return it to another counter for the time to be recorded. Hydration-wise, water and Red Bull was provided for the earlier runners. However, it ran out quite fast. My friend returned 10 minutes after me and there was no more water nor Red Bull.

On the whole, the running route was great and volunteers were friendly. But hydration wise it can be better managed for the runners that arrive later. It was a good mid-week run in school! 🙂

 A Run with a Difference

Compared to many mass running events, the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay is a breath of fresh air.

That’s because instead of runners chugging it out for long distances and simply trying to get their own personal best timing, this event emphasises very much on teamwork and camaraderie between like-minded running enthusiasts.

This year, the race was held on 2 October.

Teams of 10 must take turns to run a 1.6km lap at Marina Bay

This year, teams comprising of 10 runners each, must take turns to complete a 1.6km (1 mile) course around the Promontory @ Marina Bay and the fastest team to complete the distance is announced as the winner.

So that means even though you may be the fastest runner in the pack, you may not win the race if your team members are not as fast as you.

Represented Team Virgin Active at the event

I took part in the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay as part of Team Virgin Active. They had invited me to take part in this event and keen to try something new, I accepted the offer.

Altogether, there had been four teams from Virgin Active at the event. Ours had comprised of bloggers and the staff from Virgin Active’s PR agency, while the other three were made up of staff and members from Virgin Active itself.

Enjoyable race experience

I must say that I really enjoyed the race experience, from the time that we walked down from the Virgin Active office to the race village.

Right from the start, I was mixing with and taking fun group photos with my team members and simply soaking up the enjoyable atmosphere.

Flagging Off and Running

Then when it was time for us to flag off at 7pm that evening, we then took turns to head into the starting pen, with the rest of us cheering on the team member doing the running.

As I was the eighth runner, it was a fair bit of a wait for me, before I would start my lap. I could feel slightly nervous at how long I would take to complete the one-mile course and whether I would let my team down.

A Fun Run

But in the end, I had nothing to fear. Running through the course was pretty fun and before I knew it, I was about to complete my one-mile loop and hand my baton over to the next runner.

I knew that I had given it my all as I made my way to the finisher’s tent and watched the next runner in my team take off at full speed.

Celebrating After The Run

And then, once the last runner had come back to the starting/finishing point, we tucked into a well-earned dinner and some delicious drinks that were provided for us.

Click here to read more about the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay event.

The plan

“I’m not racing”

“Yeah, right”

“No, I’m really not racing – just going to take it steady – threshold training run”

“Yeah, right”

That’s a shortened version of the conversation I had early yesterday morning with Shug. Shug doesn’t understand ‘not racing’, and even if he tried to ‘not race’ he’d end up racing after about a kilometre.

Which is pretty much how it played out.

And so the weekend began. Unusual to be doing a race on a Saturday, and an unusually late 0800 flag off for The North Race 100 Singapore 25k.

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, most of my regular long run routes – stuck together to make a 25k trail race – and part of a global series of events in other exotic locations around the world.

I set off with Shug and Neil (the usual Mount Sinai Striders trail gang). Shug is obviously going to race it – he can’t help himself. Neil arrived back from Hong Kong late friday having been in the UK until 48 hours before that, so he’s jaded and exhausted. Me, I went out Friday night and shared a few bottles of wine with some friends, so I’m not perfectly prepared, but not anything unusual.

Great logistics at Mcritchie from North Face’s events team – bag dropped and ready to go shortly before 0730. Then we had our packs weighed to check we had the 1.5L minimum liquid required and we’re into the starting pen, wave 1. we work our way through to about 10m from the front and wait for the go.

Shug and I had a very loose plan to try to stick to 5-520min/km pace for the first 10-12k then see how it goes, Neil says he’s taking it easy and will be  happy with 2hours30.

Flag-off!

We’re off, Shugh and I work our way through the usual 50-100 people who have lined up at the front but realy shouldnt as we pass the rowing club, but the time we hit the northern trail section of MR we are nicely spaced.

He’s already gone off ahead after about 3k, I keep steady, around 5.20 pace but try to take it very steady on any of the uphill sections, knowing there was a long way to go and a lot of climbing ahead.

Got to Rifle Range Road feeling good, working with two other runners taking turns to lead the group of three. Here I spotted by first 100km runner heading back down the road – massive respect for these guys, it’s 0900 and they are already 5 hours in, with at least that long to go!

Durian Path next, some steep downhill sections, suddenely I am aware of my socks rubbing my heels in an usual way that I know is only going to get worse and also my toes start to feel a bit sore bashing into the front of my shoes on the very steep downhill sections.

Trying to ignore these things I continue, past halfway as we head onto the Green Corridor. Here I see fellow F1 runner Chee, who is doing the 50k and looking good. Also here’s where my game of ‘catch me catch you’ starts with a fellow 25k runner – we pass eachother back and forth pretty much from here right to the finishline – each time getting more friendly.

At this point I have a loose plan to continue very steady until 16-17k, then try to pick it up for the last 8-10k, but the rolling hills of Belukar Trail sap my energy and enthusiasm and I never really pick it up. In fact at this point I start ‘walk up/run down’ for any of the steeper hills, which worked very well (if you ignore the effect it had on my race time!). Again the ‘RR/MR Connector’ section is tough, but I’m delighted to see the Jelong Tower back in Macritchie and I know we’re into the last few K’s.

Round the golf course, past the fitness station and we’re into the ‘back’ section of the MR25 5k time trial route, so less than 3k to go.

At this point I’m running with my ‘pass me pass you’ buddy and we approach a young guy walking, I tap him on the shoulder as we run past and say ‘come on, run in with us’, he picks up and we run in as a three, until my ‘pass me’ buddy decides he needs another short walking rest. So me and my new young buddy run in, he’s french, new to Singapore and on his first race here – we head out of the trail section and into the last 400m, he looks at me and says ‘do you want to sprint?’, and I think, yeah, why not – so we both go at it ,eyeballs out for 400m to the line, which feels great after all those hills. We congratulate each other and then I see Shug, who’s been waiting for me for aout 20 minutes, he tells me Neil DNF’d about 10k in – which is the only bad thing about the whole morning.

The aftermath

My Garmin said 27k, a great run, a perfect hard workout as I start the countdown to SCMS Marathon in December.

I pick up my medal and wander over to the refreshment tent, expecting the usual 100plus and a banana – but WOW, these guys have loads of stuff. Sandwiches, Fruit, Drinks and ICE LOLLIES !!!! Man alive, nothing has ever tasted better in my life than that Ice Lolly and the 3 cans of Aquarius that I washed it down with.

Picked up my bag, had a quick shower at the amenity centre and that was that.

I loved this race, it was well organised, the weather was kind, the route was tough but manageable, the volunteers were great, the directions were clear and the after run service was perfect.

But beyond that I am just really loving these trail runs – somehow the runners are a lot more sociable and supportive – the longer and harder the event, the more relaxed everyone gets – I had at least 5-10 nice short chats with different runners, and it felt great when my young french buddy thanked me for getting him moving on the last 2k – the whole event left me with a warm feeling.

That apart I have two massive blisters on my heels, and two toes on each foot are very sore. No pain, no gain right?

Next Up – Newton 32k. Happy Racing guys…..