My 1st Pacer Experience, SSBR& AHM 2014

My 5th AHM will be no PB. I joined SAFRA AHM official pacer group. I also don't want to push shorter distance limit if I could not run marathon in 3:30.
It had been 3 months training till race day on 31st Aug. All together 84 pacers in 4 groups: 2hrs, 2hrs15min, 2hrs30min, and 2hrs45min. I belongs to 2hrs. The group was huge, and once we trained in East Coast Park, runners from other running club were quite a shok They suspected we would block the way on the race day.
The training was enriched by experience Tampines club trainer Ashley Ng. He arranged most training routes and they were benefitial. But the logistics was full of hiccups. There was no water supply during 1st training run. And pacers could not get apparal, bib, timing chip during race Expo. And worst of all, we were asked to assemble 3:30 for final briefing but the person in charge didn't show up, and no ballooms to be allocated to each pacer. We were astonished there like soldiers without general. Finally Ashley took over, gave the whole team bruefing and lead us to the starting line.
The race atmosphere took the unhappiness away once we enter the course. We took photos, warmed up, and after flag off at 5am, we were on the journey. It was much easier than expected. Though it was packed with runners, we still managed to move in a reasonable pace (just 10~20sec slower than target pace, that is my pattern), and well kept formation without blocking the way. My barefeet had no problem with the course because I had run it many times. The temperature was not high but a bit too humid, like this June's Sundown. I was all wet after 5km, that was rare in me. As runner became less we could speed up to our target pace. I took a camera but found it hard to took good at low light and such speed, totally different to that I was in MR25 Ultras, not a good idea.
When my watch clocked 1hr we passed 10.5km, slightly falling behind. It was extremely humid, just like Sundown Marathon in June, I was all wet. Two running friends used to follow me at the start, but now one is missing, the other came across cramp at 16km and also slowed down.
As for the other runners, we could hardly been spotted in the darkness without ballooms, unless they purposely followed like my two friends. I saw some posted on forum that he didn't see any pacers, and other said he followed Team Fatbird pacers--he obviously messed up with unofficial pacers. Team Fatbirds were awesome runners, they took pacer jobs in many local races and had good popularity. I knew one of my colleague, he was TFB pacer, privately pacing his friend to achieve 1:50 in this AHM. He might be messed up as pacer because of his own and TFB's popularity. The only advantage was our group size, around 20 pacers in our 2hrs group. It helped some freinds find us. Wendy, one of SAFRA veteran, caught up with us half way and followed throughout. I don't know how many managed to. Because most runner tended to start fast, so there were few could catch up like Wendy did. And most were near fatigue when we caught up. The only thing can do was inspire them, pushing them was useless and harmful. 500m before finishline, some runners began to dash, it was danerous. So I shouted out "keep your pace, don't sprint". I think it should be also be included in pacer's field manual.
When I saw the finish line, it read 1:59 something. We were on target. Later I checked my official timing, found my gun time happened to be 2:00:00 sharp. I was so happy to get it ti conclude my first pacer job. We ran almost even pace, slightly slower start and a bit faster finish, perfect!
Some thoughts after race.
1, A big pacer group will not cause congestion if well organized.
2, Ballooms are mustbe.
3, Pacers need team building activities to get aquainted to build up mutual trust. We found some pacer running on his own pacer without following the group. And some pacer dropped out while others were totally unawared.
4, Team manager is the most key, he decides the success