A look back: TNF Singapore 25K

I gotta tell you, its really hard to find a single event to cover while I recover. I knew that I would not be doing much running during this 6 months following the 2nd surgery. We are also planning our move back to Florida in July.
I have been involved in so many great, memorable and well run events in late 2012 early 2013. The North Face Singapore 25k is an event that also included a 50k and a 100k. It is the longest competitive event I have ever done, period. A half-marathon is 21K, so this is longer than that.
Prior to this though there was....
Chung Ling Cross Country: I was not a runner in this, I was the photog. The race is open to those of Chinese descent only and has been going on now for 56 years!! I love the tradition of this race and the venue is the High School of the same name, one of the oldest schools in Penang (1917). Really cool to be involved in a tradition like this.

Larian Hijau MPSP 1/2 Marathon: Not a great race especially after the timing of my Australian Half. Lots and lots of friend though, which always makes any event much more fun!

















Delta Eco Night Run: Youth Park Penang Location, about 1.5 miles from home. Lots of friends, really cool medal, challenging course. Rox and Brenna could come to the race and watch as it was a night race.

Adidas King of the Road Kuala Lumpur: Nice course, Cool accommodations, a hotel/mall combo. The Mall had a small ice rink that was hosting an ice hockey tournament the same weekend. One of my better runs at longer than 10K distance. Oh yeah, there was a cow...

Then came this North Face Run.

I was nervous about the distance and even more concerned about the race start time. 7:30AM in Singapore it like 85 degrees already. I thought that spending time in the shade it would be better...I was wrong. I had no goal for this race other than finishing, hoping to finish under the cutoff (4:30). I did much better than that at a 3:27 finish. This was the first race where I had ever worn a hydration pack, it did not work well for me, I have one bad shoulder, and it started to bother me pretty quick. This was the first race that was really a struggle for me physically as well not only with the discomfort from the pack, I was not ready for the physical challenge of the heat, difficult course conditions and my physical difficulty following a downhill stumble early on. I discovered a need to use sodium replacement during a race and that despite the face that HEED from Hammer nutrition works really well for me. It is not a good idea to try a product (even if its from the same company) during a race having never used it before. So with the sodium loss, mild dehydration due to the heat, hip pain from the stumble and the cramping that came up around 21K....I REALLY struggled. I was not happy with my overall time, but with as much difficulty as I had in this race, I was happy to finish at all.  This was a great memory for me because it was the longest distance I have ever done and despite problems I was able to push through. Good times!! Run Happy