With the New Balance run being a 12km route on Thursday, it was the "push" I needed for Sunday.
I was actually down with flu for the past few days but it wasn't really bad and hence I did not cancel my Sunday run...Sunday however, the flu did hit me quite hard. Since it was late to back out, however, I decided to go.
This event was a big one...you could tell from the crowd before the race...it's not Standard-Chartered kind of big, but it was big enough. Calvin, Al and I met up at Millenia Walk to park the car and train over. It was empty from our side of the circle line, but the train coming from Bouna Vista brought along with it runners from the west, and north-east area...gosh the crowd!
Even at the starting point, hordes of people lined up and got ready for the run, it was packed like sardines, which wasn't exactly helping my flu at that time.
Mind the fuzzy pictures above, they were taken while running. Once the siren rang, the "flood gates" were opened and people started to dash out from the starting line. It was packed...full of people, I think the first 1-2km was like a really fun game...how many people can you clear before you get to a steady running pace.
Apart from the distance and the flu, there was one other obstacle which could have been avoided...I was wearing new running shoes.
Breaking in the MT00s took longer than expected. With my Vibram KSOs, no breaking in was needed...then came the Bikilas which took 2 runs to break in, and the KSO Trek Sport which I currently used that took 1 run to break in.
I ran with my MT00s on Thursday and it caused a few blisters...today's run was no different. I had found the spots that needed protection and hence, wrapped them up early in the morning before the run...but alas the sweat came into play and the durapore tape started to shift.
I totaled 8 blisters, but to be honest, only 3 were caused by the shoes, the other 5 were from running barefoot after (oops!)...bo bian, the other 5 were not at "strategic spots" but out of the 3 from the new shoes, one of them was eating into a particular area that was irritating enough for me to ditch the shoes at the 8km mark, and risk getting the other blisters while barefooted. I did managed to put my shoes back on again at the last leg of the race, about 3 km to go.
The run was a great one, the first 11km was fun but I was about to give up...thankfully the turning point at Kallang was a familiar route, which gave me enough motivation to carry on, and by the 13km mark, I was past negative thoughts and happy to finish up the last 2km....which was located at a U-turn point! =\
At the end of the race, they were giving out isotonic drinks and fruits to help runners curb their hunger...gosh the amount of banana peels that piled up at the waste bins was massive!
I admit I wasn't too happy with the U-Turn finishing point...I prefer it when you can view your finishing point at a distance and race yourself towards it...this one had me constantly looking up ahead for a finishing point when suddenly "eh???" there's a U-Turn and not much distance left for you to really push yourself.
Overall though, this was a great activity with friends, one that was very well organized compared to the NTUC U run which had a great start, but a massive jam at the baggage collection point.
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