Monday, September 02, 2013
I took part in this year's annual Army Half Marathon and I must say that it was a unique experience!
It was my first ever 21km run, accompanied by my friends and platoon mates (okay, mostly near the start point, I sped away after that), other army units, friends from other units, people from another generation, old people, tall people, clowns, spandex-wearing sex appeal oozing people and spandex-wearing fat oozing people.
It was crowded and I felt really amazed being a part of this event. The experience for me was mixed, there were periods of frustration, tiredness and joy.
The Esplanade bridge was packed with people when the race was flagged off so i started from the back of the pack, around the last quarter of the running contingent. It took approximately 10mins to reach the start point, whereby reaching it, people start to jog! It was painfully slow progress for people who truly want to run as there were so much obstructions. I had to keep signalling and weaving between people.
You might say that I might as well start in front if i wanted to run. I had a friend who did that, he arrived at the start point 30mins before the flag off time of 5.15am. He said it was less congested, but I arrived at Esplanade bridge at 5.16am, so arriving there 30mins early is a no go.
Considering that there were so many people, organisers should have flagged off runners in waves to reduce congestions.
Speaking of congestions, there were plenty of them in this race, particularly the one at the end of Gardens By The Bay East leading to a narrow park connector. A 6 men wide lane lead to a 2 men wide path. No surprise that a choke point would occur. When I reached that point just after a water station, I was forced to a grinding halt. Stopping my running momentum like that really peeves me off. It took a good 10 mins to go through that point which felt as if I were queueing up at a gift redemption counter at the Singapore IT Fair on a weekend.
Everyone was running on a 2 men wide path after that, so I had to run on grass and pebbles to get ahead.
The running path should never be this narrow.
My encounter with some Ironman cosplayers did cheer me up a bit as I ran on. The misting station, performances by drummers, cheerleaders and fire jugglers did lift my spirits (was a bit disappointed that there was only 1 misting station). The run was on a quicker pace after the route in the park.
As I ran along the route back into the city, I felt as if I were a gazelle in a herd of other fellow runner gazelles, running down an endless stretch of road. I've never felt this sort of serenity in a long time. As the morning sun rose, the city skyline glistened and its skyscrapers mirrored fiery orange light around.
The water stations were adequately placed. I only took 3 cups for the whole race. Most of the stations offered water though I would have preferred them to offer 100plus instead. Only a few stations offered 100plus to replenish our body salts.
When I finished the run, I was given a finisher tee, a medal and a can of 100plus (yay).
I voraciously gulped the drink and felt really hungry afterwards.
Me and Pc Weng Hong went to check out the booths later and got a SalonPas plaster each and several vouchers. Regret not checking out the yoghurt ice cream booth :C
My friends and I later went to Macs for breakfast. Still feeling hungry, some of us later went to Meidi-Ya to buy some energy drinks and went to Tanpopo for some delicious fried pork cutlets.
signing off.
Call Of The Wild at 1:20 PM