This time my wife joined me for this race, but she opted for 10km. She has not been running for a while to nurse an injury. I was really happy to see her running again.
The 21km started at 5:30am sharp. Route was a hilly one with a long and steep climb just before 10km mark and many other gentle slopes. See the route and elevation below. This was the actual route the runners ran in the race and it was slightly different from the published route.
The 21km route and elevation map. The actual distance was only 20.59km according to my Garmin.
With all the hill trainings, I could tackle the hill with much confidence and some speed too. The steep and long climb at km 10, gave me the chance to overtake some strong and younger runners and I made full use of it.
This was a good run for me as I managed to finish in 1:42:30 (unofficial gun time) for 43rd position in Men Open.
At the last 1.5km including the long steep climb, I average about 4:30/km pace but still was overtaken by Lionel Lee and Michele Tan. I tried my best to catch up but couldn't. I think I have to train harder to even get close to them.
Anyway, after my run, I quickly collected my finisher T-shirt and medal and put them in the car before I went running (barefoot) in reverse direction to look for my wife.
Photo courtesy from Tey Eng Tiong. Finally I found her in the middle of the slope of the last hill climb. I paced her back and she got a medal for her first run of the year.
Pacing with my wife. Photo from Tey.After she finished her race, we didn't stay for long as we have to go back early. However, I managed to see a few friends that I didn't see for some time in this event.
Overall, race management was good. Got finisher T-shirt, enough refreshment, timing chips, lucky draws. Areas of improvement were traffic/runners control especially towards the end, wordings on the medal were not clear, route was changed (under 21.1km) and start time for 10km and 5km were changed (with notice with bib collection).
Until the next race, do train hard and stay healthy too.
