Sundown Half Marathon 2011

In the 1st SD, I did 10.5km and it came with Adidas vest, finisher tee. After that, no participate as the fees were always expensive. This year, it cost me less, thanks to USports. But the vest sponsor is now NB and no Finisher tee, even for HM. Pity.

I took the chartered SMRT buses from EXPO, paying $1. 45-50mins to reach. On the way, saw the 10km runners on Aviation Park Road. Looking a masses of joggers & walkers between 1.5km and 3.5km of a 10km route felt funny.

I had time to read my novel, eat my snack bar before my 8pm HM start. Didn't take much photos to preserve my Hp battery.

The event start - wah....so many 21km participants. The MC was loud and noisy. Hee hee.

Along the route, I start a good pace with walking the first 2.5km since it was as fast as the people jogging or plodding steadily infront of me due to the people  jam. Good to conserve energy.

It was really humid. Along Aviation road, I felt sweat on my arms. I see runners passing me glistening with sweat. I was hoping no one would faint from excessive sweating & loss of salts. Hydration was alright. Water and 100Plus alternated around every 2km along the 21km route.

I jogged between the 3km to 6km. Even number means got hydration point. From then, i was thinking, after drink, walk 1km and jog 1km. Too bad by the time I hit 9km, my hamstrings tell me 'no'. It was basically fast walk from 8km. surprisingly, nowadays a lot of people, male and female can walk as fast as my fast pace. It amazed me but good to walk along with more and more people as the distance wore on.

At the 10km mark, I got my water and queue for toilet at the pair of portable loo. Took so long. Must have waited about 5mins in the dark and then gave up. 1km later, drank my 100Plus and queue at another pair of portable loo with only 1 lady queuing. After that done, felt much better. I think the cup of coffee at 1pm during lunch has a greater diuretic effect than expected because I've never experienced going to loo before, during and after a run event even though I've also done 21km and 25km before. Next time, no kopi on race day.

Then i jogged a bit until my hamstrings protested. Then it was the long walk from 13km to 21.1km. Must have over-taken quite a lot who were walking slower than me as some definitely suffered cramps. I just wanted to finish it and rest my tiring and aching legs.

I walked all the way, ignoring the student volunteers urging people to run a little bit more. No way I want to cramp up and collapse just before the finish. That would be a real waste. The pain I feel in my ankles, knees and the tight hamstrings mean if I try a run, I'd be really risking it. I stopped to take photos before crossing the finish arch. Crazy, huh? Even took photo of the Athlete's welfare area - where they distributed 1 can of 100Plus, 1 bottle of mineral water, Finisher medal and 1 banana.

Overall, I think I completed 21.29km in 3 hour 17min. Wasn't great. But less than my personal cut-off of 3:30. Way beyond my PB of 2:52 at AHM 2010. Endomondo recorded the route, lap times and avg pace: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/12087865

Happy with the event even though there were warnings that this was a Hivelocity event and previous years had many complaints from bus transportation to race logistics, etc. But I doubt I would sign up again. Without the reduced USports fee, it would be too expensive, although race fees for all events are rising.