Rong's Blog..: Race Review: Terry Fox Run 2015 (8th Feb)

This is my first race of the year 2015 and also the first time I took part in the Terry Fox run. I was looking for a suitable race to sign up and since this no frills run came up, I decided to go for it instead of Safari Zoo Run so that I can run a longer mileage (Safari Zoo Run only had the 6km category on the 8th).

I only found pictures of the race from Running Shots, went through the five albums many times and finally found this. I was not even the focus of the camera in this picture but this is the best I could find.

It is the first time I'm taking part in such charity run, there is no bib and no timing chip, we just signed up online, paid and collected the Tshirt to take part. On the morning of the run, I met up with my friend W and we took a cab from Bishan to get to the start point at Big Splash, East Coast. We were still early and went to the nearby public toilet since I had to answer nature's call. There were runners streaming around the place in their blue Tshirt but overall it was not as crowded as the usual races.

Selfie with W after the run, glad to have found a kaki for my races!

There was no bag deposit service, we left our belongings at the volunteers' area although they told us that they will not be responsible if anything goes missing. It is really more convenient for running if I have a vehicle as I usually need to deposit my bag somewhere while I'm running. Unlike other races where I would rush to get to the start pen or the corrals, I stood around chatting with W and only moved forward when we were about to flag off.

Soon, we were off and I started running at a comfortable pace, glancing at my Garmin from time to time. East Coast Park is familiar ground, and as I ran from Big Splash towards Bedok Jetty, I remembered how it was like when I was running Newton Run and SCMS last year. There was still quite a number of participants for 10km even though the race was less crowded than usual, and there were always runners in front and behind me. We ran past the new stretch of shops and cafe about 1km away, the old area where McDonald's use to be, the chalets, the lagoon area, the slopes where I fell many times when roller blading (the elevation did not look that bad when I'm running)... I was surprised that there were volunteers handing out water after the 3km mark, there was no issue finding water or toilet when at ECP, that's why I reckoned its a good venue for having such no frills run. I did not take the water as I felt that I was not that thirsty, probably I would not finish the whole bottle and I had to carry the remaining water with me or waste it.

We asked a nice kid to take this pic for us

Glad to see dear old Milo van

After we reached the hawker centre and ran slightly more, it was almost 5km and I was anticipating that we will make a U turn back towards Big Splash. I was following this younger girl for quite a distance by then, she had a consistent pace and motivated me to push on and not slow down. I sped up to close up our gaps whenever she sped up to overtake people, and I slowed when I found myself right behind her. I found myself running at a pace faster than before (6 min+ pace) and a glance at my Garmin showed that I can possibly get a pb, therefore I did not stop even at the second water point where bottled water was given out again after the 6km mark. However, my pacer slowed to get her water then and I had to finish the last 3-4km on my own. As I was approaching the finishing line, I already realised that the total distance was shorter than 10km as recorded in my Garmin. In order to clock the entire 10km for timing sake, I ran out onto the path again to finish the final 100m. Yeah, a pb was achieved, 1min faster than my previous record! It was the first time I had ran an entire 10km without stopping at all.

Tea sponsored by Starbucks

I was not expecting anything after the race since it is a no frills run, definitely no medal and finisher's item. However, I was pleasantly surprised when there were volunteers handing out cookies, iced water after the finishing line. As I walked further in, there were bananas, and queues forming up for Starbucks chilled tea and a Milo van, I guess all these were sponsored and I was happy that people were willing to chip in to do so. The atmosphere was actually warm and lively, everyone was chatting happily after the run. I took a banana, retrieved my bag and went to queue for the iced milo while waiting for W who had finished the run. We went back to the Start/Finish line to get some pictures and headed to town for breakfast after we were done.

Overall, it was a good race and I will definitely be back again!