Real Run Trial at Sentosa

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed at 6:20 am, and got myself ready to leave the house at 7 am. I had arranged to meet Sukaimi (The Lonely Runner) and the other sgrunners at 7:45 am at the carpark behind the Sentosa Visitor Arrival Centre for the New Balance Real Run Trial Run. I have not run in almost three weeks, and certainly have not run 10-km at a competitive pace since January. On the one hand, I was very concerned I might not be able to complete the entire training session. On the other hand, I was glad for the opportunity to practise my running before the actual Real Run on 28 August.

When I reached the carpark, Sukaimi had not yet arrived. But he soon drove in, and it wasn't long before all the other sgrunners showed up. It was a good turnout. I met Penguin, Balasing, Brokenrunner, Kops21, CyberKinetic, Taz, DO, plus a whole load of other folks. It was cool :)

The run began at 8 am, and I got off to a slow and comfortable start. At around the 1-km mark, I began to pick up speed and settled into my regular 5-min-per-km running pace. At the 5-km mark was Tanjong Beach. The stretch of sand was only about 500m, and I soon hit the pavement again. At the 6-km mark, the running route branched out onto the golden sand of Palawan Beach. Here, the sand section was about a kilometre. In total, there was much less sand-running this year, compared to last year's route (~3 km?). Perhaps this is due to the extensive beach reconstruction works in Sentosa currently.

At the Rasa Sentosa Resort, the route took a sharp turn away from the beach, and before long, I crossed the 10-km finishing line at Cinemania. It took me about 54 minutes to finish the course.

I thought this practice run was far easier than last year's run. I guess it was because today, the sand was still firm along the beach, since there were far less runners present for the trial run. On the actual race day, the whole beach is going to be pounded by thousands of pairs of feet, and with all the sand loosened, it will be extremely exhausting to run on. Ah well...I will need to work on the mental aspect of running, and psyche myself into persevering through all the sandy portions of the race route!

Anyway, after the run, the sgrunners all went to MacDonalds at Harbourfront for breakfast. There, I learnt about MR25's requirement for membership: run under 25 mins for a 5-km trail route in and around MacRitchie Reservoir. The next time-trial is on 7 August. I hope to participate and qualify...even if it means joining the 'snail' category of the group!

Sgrunners at the start of the Real Run Trial