New Bug Really Run

Went for the New Bug Really Run on National Day morning, led by Bug...who else! The start point was the Esplanade. There were some 25-30 of us, including many SAFRA runners such as Teck How and Freddie, new SgRunner faces such as babumouse and SteerPike, and regulars such as Brokie, Divey, Dream, IMD, Ronnie, Tintin, Cokiee, DO, Daisiki, Teelee, Tekko, Patrick, SV, Cheow12, Sotong, Realrunner, Ripley, Cosmic_Wind, cfred84, kops21, fennel, doraemon_red, etc. Osama was also there, but it has been quite a while since I had last seen him.

Route for today's run. Click on image to enlarge.

The whole group of us went along the Bay for about 2 km, then turned into Nicoll Highway for another 2 more km. The group quickly split up into two sub-groups, with the faster group moving at a 5.30-5.45 min/km pace. I was with the faster group. We moved onto Middle Road and then Bencoolen Street until we reached Park Mall (6-km mark).

From there, we went along Clemenceau Avenue, crossing Clemenceau Bridge, and then proceeded along Havelock Road, turning left near the Riverview Hotel. It was at this point that Alvo and Meteor joined us for the run :) And it was also around here that our pace picked up significantly, to about 5-5.15 min/km. *pant*

Going past the Outram MRT Station, we proceeded down to Cantonment Road. By this time, the sky was already getting darker and darker. When we reached the junction of Maxwell Road Food Centre (about 9.5 km into the route), it had already started to rain.

The weather was wet and cool, which felt great to me. But being careful not to slip, I decided to slow down my pace. Hence, while the others raced ahead, I steadily made my way together with Divey and kops' friend along South Bridge Road and crossed Elgin Bridge (11-km mark). kops met us there and passed us some isotonic drinks. Thanks kops!,

By this time, the front runners were no longer in sight. From Parliament House, there were a number of ways to get back to the starting point. At my warped suggestion, Divey and I decided to run to the Esplanade via the Citilink :) It was cool running underground, past the shops and leisurely-strolling shoppers :) Totally surreal and awesome! *thumbs up*

Divey and I emerged from the underground at the exit near the Esplanade, and met up with the other runners at the end-point. My footpod registered a total distance of 13 km, but this included my running on-the-spot in circles while we were held up at the traffic junctions. On GoogleEarth, the distance recorded was about 12.5 km. The entire journey, including all the delays, took about 1 hr 20 mins.

Later on, thelonelyrunner met up with us at the Esplanade basement carpark to pass us our SgRunners running vest and shorts. They look fab! =) But he was not feeling well (the flu), so he declined joining us for lunch. Thanks, Penghulu, for meeting up with us to pass us our purchases despite your illness!

We lunched at the Marina Square Food Centre. I had a set meal (a cup of kopi-O, two hard-boiled eggs and some kaya-cheese toast) and a refreshing glass of iced Milo. Ultraman and Seal joined us for lunch too.

During the lunch discussions, I realised that I would really, really like to go to Angkor Wat for its half-marathon this December, and also try out the half-marathon in Hong Kong next February. Now, what I need to do is to engineer a way to get my leave approved...(",)