Considering I had just recovered from the flu bug, I was a bit worried. For one, my body was still weak since it had been taking quite a pounding for the past 2-3 weeks. Secondly, I haven't run in 2 weeks to help recover...needless to say I wasn't in the best shape to take on 50km of running, or 12 hours of pounding feet on the pavement for that matter.
On Sunday morning at 7am though, the bunch of us gathered inside the NB Scape store to embark ourselves for one heck of a run. Some of the runners that came along included Edmund, Din, Jacky, Dave, Chua, Jasmine Tay and Ping, who had completed 25km at The North Face a day before!
We started out with a quick warm up, and shortly after, we were off!
Our first stop was to the Esplanade, that was a breeze, 10% completed in no time...it was where we met up with Edmund who gave us a short briefing about the challenges ahead before we continued our way towards the Marina Barrage.
Jasmine Chan brought along a friend, Aaron whom had only ran 15km before, and so at the 15km mark, we stopped to congratulate Aaron for reaching his last PB.
We proceeded and stopped at the food centre along ECP for lunch. By the time we had reached there, it was only 17km tops? We had been running for almost 3-4 hours now...you can see this is obviously a super slow run with breaks and chit chatting.
Not being sure what to consume that wouldn't compromise running, we went for something simpler...I had porridge and coconut juice, most of the runners did, some of the more experienced ones just whacked the good stuff, pork knuckle and the works, I think they've been so conditioned that their bodies could take the load and still keep on running!
At this point after our food, I was plagued with a really bad case of hiccups...it was terrible! I must have had it at least 4 times during the entire run...four times!!!! The one that came after lunch was the worse, cause it meant while brisk walking for the first 10 minutes, I couldn't digest anything cause it kept coming back up...by the time the runners started to move off, I was still struggling to keep food down! Eventually it did but man what a pain in the butt!
More treats came in the form of pineapple popsicles made by Daniel from NB who stopped by to see how the runners were doing, it was a really kind gesture and a pleasant surprise for everyone!
By the time we had reached back our turning point to Katong, it was pretty late...time stamp was 3pm on my phone.
It wasn't that far to Katong, so we ran off and were there in about 15 minutes or less.
Drinks awaiting us at the Katong outlet, and we even went down to breadtalk to carbo up a little. Some of the runners even took it to the next level and went for Katong Laksa!
Not wanting to risk another hiccup session with laksa in my mouth, I went for something dry this time round, nasi lemak...I didn't eat the whole thing though, just half a packet...I wasn't hungry, I just needed the fuel, and since it wasn't a race, why eat gel pack? =P
The next surprise came when we bumped into Kartono who was midway through his own run that evening!
Seeing us was a pleasant surprise for him too, and hence he joined in together while we made our way to Novena.
It was pretty late by the time we reached Novena Square, probably 7pm. We were almost done, just 3-4 more KM to go and we would have completed the run!
By the time we got back, Kee Wee was there to great us with more refreshments, 100 plus and grapes!!!
The run was overall an exciting experience, I couldn't have asked for more! I was lucky to have an external battery pack as back up and by the time we were done with the run, both my internal and external batteries were exhausted!
Overall, it was an incredible run, done together with incredible people, which was incredibly fun. My feet are sore but it was worth the 12 hours. Thank you guys!
The next set of photos are images taken from the dinner that evening after our run.
2 comments:
Yay! Congrats! You are now an ultra marathoner!
Thanks! At that pace though, I think anyone can achieve it! lol
Post a Comment