Correr, correr...

Had a good run today with Tiwazz, Ronnie, Roonz, Daisiki, Charlotte, Babumouse, TKtan, Alvo, Meteor, Teelee, cfred84, Run3, Doraemon_Red, Cokiee and dasher, and *surprise* we were later joined by Alecchua along Orchard Road! :) Although Fennel, BH Lee, Alan and Tintin were supposed to come, they had still not yet showed up at SMU by 7.15 am. And so, rather than waiting indefinitely, I kicked off the August 2006 BG Run.

I had underestimated the distance of the loop inside the Botanic Garden, so by the time we emerged from the Tanglin exit, we had covered almost 5 km, instead of the originally planned 3 km. There were quite a number of visible changes in the gardens, now that the renovations of many sections were completed. While we were inside the gardens, we had managed to keep to a nice 6.30-6.45 min/km pace.

We continued on our way, doing the Minden-Ridley loop (at a much faster pace of 5-5.15 min/km) and stopped to buy drinks at the petrol kiosk near Tanglin Mall. Then, it was a straight road all the way until we reached the Istana (about 10 km). We crossed the Istana Park, and went down Clemenceau Avenue until we reached Liang Court.

By this time, we had split up into two groups. As the second group had not yet caught up, the faster pack went ahead first with the Liang Court-Kim Seng Bridge-Liang Court loop. We crossed a number of bridges in the process, including Ord Bridge, Pulau Saigon Bridge, Jiak Kim Bridge, Robertson Bridge and of course, Kim Seng Bridge. Then we stopped for drinks at the 7-11 near Riverside Point. Dasher, cfred84, TKtan and Babumouse are very strong runners, so I had to push myself really hard to keep up with their pace. *pants*

Meanwhile, the second group had arrived at Liang Court, and then proceeded to do a shorter loop along the Singapore River in the opposite direction. Eventually, all of us (minus two) gathered at the 7-11. The faster group had covered about 15 km by that point, and the second group, about 13 km.

But there was no sign of Charlotte and Alecchua. After waiting for about 10 mins, the rest of us decided to go on. We also agreed to cut out the remaining stretch along the Singapore River, since we had already done our "extra" 2 km inside the Botanic Garden. So, we went back towards SMU. We figured that since Charlotte was familiar with the route, she would probably be able to run back with Alecchua on their own.

We kept to a 5.30-5.45 min/km pace for the most part of the return leg, though we had to stop at virtually every traffic light! The last 2 km up Nassim Road was very exhausting, but we all did well :) And conquered it! It was good to see Balasing at the end-point.

For the faster group, we had covered about 20 km in total, and it had taken us 2 hr 30 min. The second group had gone about 18 km. *Well done!* Later on, Charlotte and Alecchua showed up at the end-point. They had been waiting for us at another 7-11 at Liang Court, which explained why we had not seen one another! *grins* Mystery solved!

As we were stretching (well, some of us) and cooling down, Teelee shared with us some of his 100 Plus. Thanks Teelee! :) Then, we had a quick shower, and went to Food Haven for breakfast. I had a cup of apple-lime juice, two slices of watermelons and a cup of iced horlicks. *Shiok!*

Cokiee said that I've lost muscle mass. *chuckles* I guess that can't be helped since it's race season and I'm running much more and for longer distances during this time of the year. So I'm bound to get thinner. But hopefully, I won't lose too much. It's very difficult to pack muscle on later. :p

And today, Tiwazz passed me my SgRunners running vest, which is SO cool :) I love the design!

Can't do the GoogleEarth Plot for today's "actual run" route, because my PC is down, and I don't have GoogleEarth installed on this machine... :( *sigh*