Army Half Marathon

The D-Day is here. Alarm rang at 3am. Snoozed for 5 minutes and off I jumped off from my bed.

Took 2 slices of bread and a glass of lime endurance drink, did some stretches and off I go.
After placing my bag at the desposit counter, I head off to the start point, on the way bump into Ripley. Being early, I was close to the start point with Ripley. Gun start at 5.30am sharp. Off I go, at a slow pace to warm up. Things look good as I move on to Cross Street, South Bridge Rd, then Maxwell. Tigger ran past me with a "Pace yourself properly hor". I responded with an "Orh...ok". Off he go. I see that the Sheares Bridge is right ahead of me. Quickly change gear to small/fast stride. Next, bump into Joanna. Acknowledge her and we OTOT on our pace again. I must say that after a few attacks on Mount Faber, conquering the Sheares Bridge seems to be much much easier. Not much effort needed :)

Check point at the entrance of ECP after Ford Road. Hmm...Am satisfied with the timing. Doing good, still going strong. Hit the 10km mark at 1:06. Being a first timer in a 21km run, I am pretty conservative, not knowing what is ahead of me. I maintain a steady pace. That stretch of ECP seems to be never ending. It took quite a while to finally cross the U-turn point. Still within the targeted time. I make an attempt to stop at all water point which is 2km apart from each other.

It was smooth sailing all the way till I exit Ford Rd towards Mountbaiten, although engine is slowing down. Check point again, I'm still within the targeted time :) I'm such a slacker, head off to the next water point at 18km mark and slowly and steadily I slack for 1 mins while sipping thru the cool 100 plus. 3km more to go!!! I'm getting excited. I'm not going to change any gear as I'm already feeling satisfied that I can be at 18k mark at this hour. Still trying to slack a few seconds with just 500m ahead of me, will be whack by Tigger if he knows that..haha.. Ah well.... hold on to it, 300.....200...100m to go!!! LOL!!!! Finished at 2.31 (or maybe 2:32). I'm feeling satisfied. Doesn't matter on the timing, I don't expect much as a first timer. Most importantly, I finished in good form with a smile on my face :)

Time checked: 8:02am. Hmm..Not bad not bad... But I must say that the ending point is very squeezy. Still prefer the padang. No choice but to head in to exchange my long awaited medal :). Yee Hwa showed me where the 100 plus water point is. It is full of crowds, sweaty people...Eeewwwwww :( I told Yee Hua that I'm going to wait a while. It's so d*** crowded there and I'm going to collapse with all the body heat. Nice of her..squeeze herself into the crowd and get me a can of cold 100 plus. Thanks Yee Hua!!

Tried to spot for JC among those red safra running vest people. I was just 10m away from him but because it was blocked by a barrier, I have to take a long long way to get to his end. Wave at him a couple of time, he seems to be so engrossed with the rest loh!!! Finally, after some hide and seek among the crowd, we managed to catch up for a short couple of seconds before he went for his photo taking session.

Next check: Be at the Explanade bridge at 8.30am for phototaking session with Sgrunners. By the time I collected the medal, it was 8:20. Slowly make my way to the esplanade bridge. A number of them already gathered there. It was nice to see familiar faces. Lingering around, followed by a group photo.

Overall, it was a nice race. Route is excellent. Water point of sufficient. It's really not as tough as I thought. I'm definitely going for the next one. That's for sure :)
Camera is under repair, cannot flaunt my medal yet...hehe....