New Balance Real Run

I got up at the unearthly hour of 0350 hrs this morning and hopped into a cab to go down to Jurong East MRT interchange to catch the $5 shuttle bus to Changi Exhibition Centre for the New Balance Real Run.

The 10 km run commenced at 0730 hrs, while the 15 km run, in which I participated, commenced slightly later at 0745 hrs. The first 4 km was on trail, followed by 10.4 km of road (mainly along Changi Coast Road and Aviation Park Road) and about 0.6 km of sandy beach. The sun was mercilessly hot, and I was baked nice and dark by the time I finished my race (about 1 hr 27 min).

I surprised myself by my time of completion. I thought I would have taken around 1 hr 45 min or even 2 hrs. But somehow, I managed to keep up the willpower to push through with the run, particularly the last 2 km which was dreadful under the heat.

My lap times are as follows:

4 km - 0:20:40
8 km - 0:42:48
10 km - 0:54:55
15 km - 1:26:32

Thankfully, I managed to avoid dehydration by replenishing my fluid levels at 3 of the water points during the race, and also by consuming post-race: 4 x cans of 100 Plus, 1 x bowl of Mee Hoon Kuay soup, 1 x bottle of winter melon juice, 1 x bottle of mineral water, 2 x cups of soya bean milk and 2 x bowls of lotus and chicken soup. :D No more throbbing headaches! :D




Update as of 23 October: The results are out! My official net timing is 1:26:11. As a rough order of estimate, I was ranked #335 out of 2100 runners in the Men's Open category who completed the race (according to gun time). Hooray!.