Army Half Marathon 2008

Woke up at 0330 in the morning. Was targeting to compete the run with no injury and sub 2 hours. Have my prerace breakfast which consists of breads and ham coupled with a cup of hot milo.

Reached the Padang at around 0530 and was searching for familiar faces in the vicinity. Managed to find Cheow from sgrunners as we waited for more familiar runners. The sky started to rain for about 15 minutes but stopped just in time for the race.

The race started at 0630 and the esplanade area was soon filled with Half marathon runners. As i reached the initial stretch of ECP route, i could see quite a number of Foreign Army (Mainly Indian and Thai Armies) runners on their return route along ECP. I wonder when can i achieve their running pace....

Planned to finish the 1st half of the race within an hour but could not find the 11 km distance marker in order to calculate my pace. As i moved along, i saw Alber from the Safra Mount Faber running club. Decided to follow him throughout the rest of the run. Took out my one and only powergel for consumption at around 13 km. I had to slow down at around 14 km as i felt that my stomach was "yelling" for help. Was pondering whether to continue the run or take a break in the toilet. Had to choose the latter after seeing the extremely long queue at the toilet near the ending route of ECP and knowing that i won't be able to continue to run after the toilet break. Fortunately, my tiredness overshadowed my stomach-ache.

The route from the ECP to Marina Barrage was undulating and soft as i struggled to maintain my pace. Felt that the ground was absorbing my energy. Managed to catch Brokierunner from sgrunner at one of the water points and followed her till Marina South where i started to increase my pace. As expected, the Marina Barrage provided the runners with beautiful scenery. I upped my pace at the last 500m as i could imagine myself as Usain Bolt running in the Olympic (Caught the Olympic fever). Hopefully, i can get perfect finishing photographs as i almost come to a standstill near the finishing point in order to pose for the many photographers.

Crossed the finishing at around 1 hr 55 mins +, which was similar to my previous AHM timing. Saw Dreamrunner at the finishing area as we waited for more sgrunners. As usual, we had our group photo taken at the Cenotaph.

SgRunners AHM 2008, Courtesy Amaranthine

Will be looking forward to the Standard Chartered Marathon training in the coming weeks!