Sat Morning Run with Running Department

This morning I went for a run with Running Department, finally their exploratory run is in the North! It felt really convenient to have the run just two MRT stops away, I comfortably reached there within 30mins and did not have to worry about being late.

Although Woodlands is really near, I've not ran in the area before, except for inside the stadium itself. Actually part of the route was really near to Sembawang PCN and I could have continue the run from there, but I did not want to risk getting lost.

Snapped a pic at Woodlands Waterfront

After we gathered at the Stadium, there was a short briefing and we were off. We reached Woodlands Waterfront which was really just opposite JB after 3-4km, the view was really nice there and we stopped for a group photo.

After the rest point, I tried my best to keep up with the group, running at a pace of around 6.30min/km. It was really stretching my limits but I could handle it well at first, catching my breath with relief whenever we reached a traffic light for a brief stop. There was a very high slope after the Woodlands Waterfront area and the stretch of road was accompanied by lorries from the industrial area. I would say that it is not a very nice area to run (except for the Waterfront area) itself as there was also a lot of traffic and motorcycles zooming past the area after Woodlands checkpoint. I will not really think of exploring the route on my own as it did not look very safe running at the industrial area alone, not to mention all the exhaust fumes.

We passed Republic Poly around 7km-8km mark, I started to feel that it was straining to keep up with the pace of the faster runners. After Republic Poly, we were running along a very sandy path for quite sometime, I slowed down a lot and we finally hit a very steep slope where I practically had to stop and walk up that way. Fortunately, there was a toilet rest point just ahead and we stopped for a brief moment. We turned and went down the way we came, going down slope this time and everything. My legs were feeling like jelly by that time.

I felt much better after we had those breaks, although I'm still slower among the whole pack, there was only 1-2km more to go. I was really glad to catch the glimpse of Causeway Point and the bus interchange after we ran a bit further, the end point was near!

The final mileage on my watch showed 11.6km, it was my longest run this year and also one of the more challenging one.