ASICS Relay 2017 - 2nd year running, a new PB

Colleagues rallied to sign up for this ASICS relay again this year, as it was a pretty fun event last year. I signed up gamely, because I am meant to clock mileage (gasp) and this year, I ran with a different team.


With the experience from last year, I was more prepared with my diet through the day. In the morning, I had my usual breakfast then headed out for a short volunteer stint. By the time it was over and I met up with the family, it was time to go for lunch by the time we headed out.


We ran an errand of picking up the race pack for YOLO, had this pretty nice ramen (Nagi), and I bade farewell to the family as they headed home to rest pre-class; while I had the afternoon to myself. Knowing that I had the run, I devoured all my carbs from the ramen bowl, which I know would come in handy (carbo loading FTW).


I was truly tired, and I decided to head to a safe haven to rest - my office. It didn't make sense for me to go all the way home, as my race was nearer to where I already was; plus I was well-equipped with all that I needed; and so that's where I spent my afternoon. I was so tired that after arranging some seats for best-possible comfort, I fell asleep. I needed the nap and it actually felt pretty restful! I took my time to get ready for the run and at 4+, I made my way. It was just a few train stops away.

Race village sighted

It was such a crowd! We had a rough meeting spot and by the stipulated meeting time (530pm), not everyone had rocked up, so this was the group that made it into this first shot.



The earlier ones

D, C and I were first runners so we left our stuff with the rest and headed to the start pen. Flag off was at 6pm.

Start pen

And.... off we went! I was kinda pumped (slightly) because after running sub-60 last year, I was kinda hoping to do it again. I was also trying out running in a face with my new race belt (Fitbelt) and newer set of shoes.
Happy to share that I did it! According to my Nike app..

Fastest 10km recorded - woot!

To be honest, there's may be some untruth to this because
1. I did stop to have water on several occasions
2. I did walk on some occasions - 2 were due to slopes and fatigue, 1 major stretch was due to a human roadblock in a bottleneck area of the race.
3. I had to jog slowly on 1 occasion where I nearly came to a stop clarifying the race information with the marshals - it was not clear which item was meant to be passed on to my next relay runner
The app stops if I come to a standstill which doesn't take into account the true run wholly, but given that I did put in decent effort to run when I was running, I'm quite happy with my performance. The weather was lovely, sunset was a quick descent due to the pending rain and I got caught in it the last 1km, so I'm quite lucky. The rest of my team (esp runner #2) got more of it, so I can't complain.

Helpful colleague who prepared all these - our personal food/hydration point

Here's one of all of us runner #1 post-race

Running log has been sporadic, but I do have this record from last December. It's been a love-hate r'ship with running these past few months, primarily because of my training (inserts weh weh face); but it all adds up to my personal strength and experience. So, all good!

Race village - pretty lit

Another run, another record, another lesson to self. Checked!