Singapore Sundown 2012

Singapore "Sun-downpour" thanks Chun How Lee for that!

OK, so there have been quite a few races in my running history, and out of all of them this is the race that scared me to death...I was truly concerned that I would DNF, as it was I was satisfied with a time far below my normal timing. So here goes. Arrived in Singapore on Saturday, mid morning for a midnight race, it was actually 12:30 but who's counting. I Love Singapore, I really do. its modern and clean, and everything you need is easy to find. I needed to pick up some hammer nutrition stuff and I wanted to see the "lay of the land for Brooks shoes." I also had to pick up my race kit, so i grabbed the MRT to the location given for the race kit pickup, only to find that it had been moved. Ok, that's the other thing, the MRT is on par with NY, Boston and Philly for convenience and route prevalence, its just 1 million times cleaner and safer. Anyway, so I went back to the hotel and walked down to the race venue, picked up my kit, extremely nice folks working the tent, helpful and friendly. Then I decided to head back to the hotel which was literally a stones throw from the race site. I had heard about a mall called velocity, that was supposed to be all sports stores and may have carried Brooks shoes...they did, but not in prevalence. It was a good distraction before a good meal and a good nap. My good friend Thuan, who has become a regular weekend training partner; along with the I-run folks, had sms'd me that we would meet at the site around 8:45, and we picked a spot...stupid me though I chose to leave my phone in the hotel room, and we could not connect until around 10:00, when the 10k was going off...I got to connect with him for a bit, before i lost him and his friends again. It was almost time for our race to begin so I decided to walk over to the meeting area for the 2:30 finish time...yes that's right folks 2:30...I was not going to push it and race time temps were already in the high 80's with 80% humidity...I found the people waiting, to be very friendly, and dressed in my Brooks ID gear (figured it was a night race and neon yellow was a good choice) I think they thought me out of place in their corral...I had to explain my predicament, which i am tired of doing to be honest. We headed for the start line and off we went...with the mob of people it took almost 10 min to reach the actual start line. I had the pleasure of running with a few of the folks I had met before the start, which was nice, as the group dwindled though it was just myself and another person. We stuck it out for most of the race until my hip really started to cramp, around mile 10.5...So i waved her on as we were making sub 2:30 time. I had to walk quite a bit of that last 3 miles or so, until the skies literally opened up, and with the pouring rain and thunder and lightning i decided to run out the last 3/4 mile, pain or no pain...ended up finishing in 2:36 by the race clock and 2:28, by my garmin...so either way I was well within the time I wanted to stick with...and it would have been better if not for the huge amount of walking i had to do in the last 3 miles. So I finished, i met some fantastic people who are now part of not only this blog but a big piece of my return to running. i was sorry not to have at least started the race with my friend Thuan, but was happy to know that he did well. This was a great event and I hope to return to Singapore, hungry and in better shape, when the "North Face 100k" cranks up in October. Thank you Singapore...I Ran Happy!