Ultra Endurance Level Achieved

It is 1st week after 60km ultramarathon. And it is 1st time I was completely free from DOMS, no muscle soreness at all, no interruption of training. I completed 9 training run this week, total 129km in 14hrs, longest 30.7km. It was a successful race strategy to stop at 60km. I gained barefoot running experience without sacrificing training continuity. And also tested my safe long run distance. I could put my self into at least 60km long run in my training session. That is essential to ultra training: I was able to carry on 100miles weekly mileage and 38miles long run. It is beyond most average ultra training requirement. I'm confident to complete 100km ultra soon.
Let's get back to my current focus: Sundown marathon less than 2 months later. I'll continue my weekly mileage building up to 200km. Continue to improve Yasso800 speed, currently at 3:20 per session. Continue to improve 30km long run pace, currently at 6:30/km. Most important, my MAF speed, last week at 5:43/km, this week over 6min/km due to high cortisol level after race. I wish MAF reach below 5:15/km so it will be confident to run a 3:30 marathon. Wish me good luck!

Twilight Ultra 2014: A Testing of My Barefoot Running Edge

I finally gave up 100km plan on Twilight Ultra last month because I didn't think I could extend long run to 60km within 1 month. So it became a part of Sundown marathon training run. I set target to 50km to avoid impact on next day training. The pace should be close to my longest run in Jan, ~7:30/km. Anyway it would be my longest barefoot run.

The ultra is about recovery and wearing out. When to wearing out is irreversible and reach to its end, the game is over. For me the muscle recovery, hydration and energy refill are reversible because I spent sufficent aerobic training time to bring up fat recovery and fat burning ability. At lower intensity workout, my muscle is not easy to wear out and carbonhydrates are conserved. That is why I could run almost 100miles a week while keep my leg refreshed. Even interval training were recovered within 12hrs. I'v done at least 3 doubles a week and soon I'll be run 30km perday. The only irreversible thing is my barefoot soles wear out. It have been stronger and stronger as barefoot mileage accumulates but still limilted by the longest run I'v ever run. I could not imagine I could run 100km with longest run only 43km. In my experience, the longest run should be at least 2/3 of race distance.

The race started 7pm Saturday evening, I'v loaded my stomach with 250gm pasta at 6pm. I had experience in running with stomach full so it was not a problem to me. The only thing is I had to slow down my pace to ~8min/km pace due to blood stream diverted to digestive system. It took me more than 3 hrs to empty my stomach. And once emptied I could run below 7min/km pace. I only got my first refuel at 30km mark with 2 slice of peanut buttered bread and one cup of hot milo I brought. Hot milo made my stomach felt refreshed. In contrast to cold drinks, the cold chilled body but tortured stomach, too much cold drink might induce vomiting. The refuel was right on time and I set off with brand new body after 10min break. Though pace was slowered down again but soon I picked up 7min pace. I planned to refuel every 15km. I was steady till I went to 45km mark for 2nd refuel. It was a bit late than last. Before that I was thinking to challenge myself with 100km again but after this 10min break I doubted. My pace was not as easy as before. I needed to keep me focused on running form to ignore the pain in the soles. The west strech of the course was very dirty and unfriendly to my soles. Small gravels stuck on my soles and tried to sting/pucture me. After 55km mark finally came the wall, two big gravels hurt my left soles made me decide to finish it. The last 5km I was running on my edge and finised strong in time of 7:58. Now I climbed to 60km peak, 2/3 rule worked and was safe. So 100km is just next to it! If I was free from DOMS, I could repeat this 60km long run any time I like in preparing for 100km race. Just keep watching.

Sunday afternoon I was able to went out for a recovery run. 6.5km in 8min/km pace. Quads was slightly sore but not a big deal. 

Barefoot Going Beyond Marathon: My First Step

25 Jan 2014, day 0055, 25C, cloudy, windy.
It was strange despite I felt sluggish past few days. When I got up and began taday's long run, I felt geared up and decided to going longer (42km+) than planned (38km). The good condition might come from the sound sleep (I woke up at 8am, had 8hrs+ sleep, not as I did previously that only had 6hrs sleep); and good breakfast as well: roasted oats soya milk porridge and a slice of toast with peanut butter. Later I discovered that I ran so comfortable with these foods, not any gas generated in my guts. It should be included in my ultra racing meal.
I started at 8:40am, doing loops in Pasir Ris Park. My form was perfect and felt effortless. Weather was great and wind was strong so that I was almost sweatless. I plan ran 5hrs+ so I ran back home for refeul after 3hrs, with a cup of milo and another slice of toast. Told my wife I would not have lunch at home and went back to run. The rest 2.5hrs was tougher: my barefeet were wearing out and the sense of pain was becoming more and more significant, partially due to quads and calves wearing out and landing becoming no longer lighter. I had to be focus to filter the sense of contact from the stingy pain for each landing. And command the body to stay in correct form. At noon the temperature rose to around 30C, and sun also came out from clouds. Some part of the road became hot. All these was what I need to take care in the late part of an ultra race. The only thing I could do was let my brain dictating the run. My brain would judge the terrain and road temperature and compare with previuous experience. Then tell the body that it would not hurt except the sense of pain. The whole body then gave up protection action that going to deform my running form and get back to track. That was what going to happen in the later part of a ultra race. My mission was to practice more of this part, let body gave up the natural protective reaction and retain good running form. At the same time, prolonging distance of training run, not only let body and mind familiar with the situation, but more importantly, let brain gain experience of judging the situation if it is injury free when there was signal of pain. As many ultra training plan stated, long run was the most important in an ultra plan. And it was even important in barefoot ultra. From now on, I'll increase my weekend long run as long as I could recover in 48hrs. Today was the first step, my barefoot long run went beyond marathon distance, to ultra. The distance clocked should be 43km (not as shown in watch, that was due to inaccuracy of footpod in first two hours, I forgot to turn gps on), duration 5:40. I wish the record grow in the following weeks.

Running Diary, day0028: MR25 Cross-country Ultra Marathon race report

I completed my 2nd ultra: 6 laps of MacRitchie trail (63km) in 10:42. Though it was my longest workout both in distance and length, I finished it in much easier effort than previous one(5 laps). It might be because of greater mileage accumulated.

I strictly stuck on my plan: flat and down slope jogging, up slope walking. First 3 laps I was a little bit faster: 1:40 each. Later 3 laps I ran with Safra club mates and each in 2:00. Because of no running up slope, my calf was freshy even after run, my core, glutes and upper body was also relaxed. Left knee had been uneasy during lap2 but soon relieved. The only problem was my quads, maybe they were my weak point, maybe I hopped to much down slope. After 3 laps, slight soreness came. After 6, it tasted like DOMS. It would be my next focus for ultra.
I ate a lot, hydrated a lot. Only lost 1kg weight. That was within my expectation: my body had tried to generate over 200Cal per hour by busying digesting the food I prepare. The vegan food worked. The only problem was I got gastric disorder (went to toilet after each lap) after lap2. I reckoned it because I comsumed yam and papaya: too much dietary fiber generating too much gas. Next time I should avoid these. Sushi and green bean paste& soup were best, bread had been demonstrated last time. They were all candidate for the next ultra.
I prepared 3 pair of shoes for the race. But finally I only wear VFF Seeya with Injinji toe socks throughout the race. I used to train trail with VFF Treksport and felt pain each time after 2 laps. This time I had plan to wear Seeya when feet were fresh and change to Treksport after 6 hours. To my surprise, Seeya had much better feeling than Thicker-soled Treksport. I did not feel any pain even after 4laps. So I stuck on Seeya and not even change socks. The near 11 stress test shown thinest soled Seeya the more qualified trail running shoes against traditional wisdom. I thought it might be due to more Seeya's more flexible soles made it more suitable for barefoot runner: one could recruit more foot muscles during each landing on the uneven terrain, as I had trained during barefoot running. The more thicker and harder soled Treksport weakened the ability of my foot, just like another traditional shoes.

The FB link to the photos by a lot of supporters and me:

Moving To Ultra, My 7th Marathon, Or a LSD

It's my 4th time paticipating in annual Singapore marathon, and 7th marathon.  Training was interrupted by work and family issues. I lost my peak performance after achieving PB in September's Army Half Marathon (1:38:11). And a serious flu I got two weeks before race made it even worse. Sekiya Ryoichi's autobiography saved me from deep valey. I got inspiration and adjusted my goal.

Sekiya's philosophy is simple: good time arrangement among family, work and running. Run as much and as easy. Good timming achieved after sufficient time on running acummulated. In a word: run as much as you can manage. The only key to train more is run slow, so slow is not a shame. I gave up sub4 plan and decided to run it as a LSD and continue to train immediately after race. That day my two daughters were also run kids category. So I arrange with my wife to meet them at Esplanade Bridge after kids flag-off. I should only run a 5:15hrs marathon and get there by 10:00am. 

It was a shame that I got up late and hurried to start line 25min after flag off, without eating anything. The situation became more serious: it meant I need to run a ~4:45 marathon with empty stomach. The good thing is: it was right on my MAF pace zone at the time (~6:30/km). and I had SAFRA running club supported in East Coast Park (where I fueled 1 banana and 1 sng bao, another sng bao after turning back). The weather was great, I had no problem maintaining a 6:30/km pace, even had the luxury going to the toilet for 6min (same toilet as in year 2012 Sundown and 2011 SCMS). My barefeet also didn't encounter much problem. Road condition was still sucks in Marina East, and after Gardens By the Bay. I could run faster than last time  because of increased barefoot mileage. I met some barefoot runners along the way, two Indians, one from Malaysia "Bare with me" running group, and two from "Singapore barefoot minimalist" running group who wore their signature Tee. They all ran debut barefoot marathon. I encouraged them and moved on my own pace.
I arrived Esplanade Bridging at 10:00am sharp. I tried to call me wife but no answer. I waited at Anderson Bridge, watching other parents and kids running by for 5min. I finally reached my wife and She told me they were rejected to enter the course for late coming. I told them to wait for me and I made my way to the finish line.

I hurried collecting the medal and Tee, and made my way to Esplanade Theater. I later found my family in the bridge. Till then I had been running for 5:09hrs, all together 45km, long enough LSD.

Later we were able the get into the course with the help of one warm heart road Marshall. Both kids was happy because they can run and win medals. Me too, and my best part is cross finish line again, with Feican. My annual marathon goal accomplished.

It was a good long run. Not much stress to body. I even planned to run most marathons as long run except the one I pursue for PB. Now my target is ultra, run slower and healthier. 

The statistics said I passed 1686 runners at last 5k, and only overtook by 93. I think the 93 were that 5min I wait in the Anderson bridge : )

Before we enter the course, we cheered for the runner in Esplanade Bridge, took some photos. They can be found in my Facebook: Face book album link

My happy family day!

Losing Peak Speed, My 4th J P Morgan Corporate Challenge

My running career started from preparation of J P Morgan 5.6km race in 2010. And I got improvement in PB each year (2011, 2012). This year it came to an end. Though I still ranked 1st in my company with more seasoned runners joined this time, I only clocked 24:40, fell 2 min behind my last year PB (22:59). Ranked 231 in the entire field, compared 97th in last year.

Despite the slightly longer (~100m) in course and hotter weather (30min earlier start than before), The top 1% runners seemed to score equally well as before.
I was managed to start near to the front and started slow (from below chart you might found it the slowest start ever). It did not help. I could not speed up to 4:00 pace after 1km mark as I planned, and I could not even keep 4:10 pace, degraded to 4:30 at last, end up with 2min slower than last year. More shamefully, the heart rate was insanely high and it should not come from a runner claimed training with MAF method. It was out of my max heart rate!

Split      -2011 Pace    -2012 Pace  -2012 HR    -2013 Pace  -2013 HR
1km        4:01                3:57              182bpm       4:37               185bpm
2km        4:03                3:52              190bpm       4:13               189bpm
3km        4:09                4:09              189bpm       4:21               191bpm
4km        4:33                4:23              187bpm       4:20               192bpm
5km        4:42                4:20              186bpm       4:32               193bpm

I could only attribute this to the temperature, the heat of the course that burnt my soles because I ran barefoot. I could not pump up sufficient blood stream to the leg muscles and use most to cool down the body and soles... I knew that was not the only reason. I was losing my peak speed, as a result of aging when I entering my 40s. Last month SAFRA inter-club road relay already shown a sign: I could not clocked sub-4min pace in a 2.4km run. If it was 3 years ago, I could do it in a 7.5km course with only 6 month after starting to run. So it's time for me to turn to longer distance, and ultra-marathon as other mid-aged runners did. Bye-bye speed, I'll get it in longer distance.

Meta Sprint Aquathlon 2013, My 2nd try

It was my 2nd time join the race. Because of good experience last year. Despite no training almost a month during CNY,  I brought more cheer leaders to give me power, here they go: my two princes.

The course was same as last year, except the the first turn of running course pulled back a little, made it shorter by ~200m, measured 4.84km, according to my Garmin305.

The swimming course was same. 2x out and 2x back made 750m. Thanks to organizer to upgrade to uncle group (40-49), I could start in early waves (wave 4). The tide in Palawan beach was low at that time, but already higher than last year. This time I tried to use open water sighting every 5~10 strokes, avoided wasting effort in zig-zagging. I don't think I improve my speed a lot since last year. But TI sure save a lot of effort for me. So I didn't felt sluggish as I crawling from the water. I scored 21:18 for swimming leg, compared with 24:04 last year.

Despite gasping at the beginning of the run, I soon recovered and both breath and stride became relaxed. I listen my body and ran in an average 4:40/km pace, HR~177bpm. It was right in my 5k HR zone, according to Jack Daniels' formula. I made this even pace till the finish line, finished in 22:33, compared with 23:58 last year. My final ranking was 106/207 finishers in the age group, better than last year's 123/189 (30-39 Group).

One interesting thing. When I was about to leave transition. The official found I wore no shoes and want to stop me. I hurried off saying "it's OK, I'm fine with it", leaving the worried official behind, saying "it's rule, you can not run without shoes!" I don't think they were going to DQ me and deprive the joy from me. But I was surprised when the official finally caught up with me after halfway U-turn and informed me he's going to record my bib number for "leaving transition without any shoes". I said I was fine with it and already violated this rule last edition. He didn't get me out off the course and let me enjoy, what a nice person.
The post run session was playing an celebrating with my daughters in the beach. The race left me only relaxation, family fun, nor even post run muscle soreness. It was amazing.


Thanks Tekko volunteering photographing the race, some of the photos credited to him and "Running Shots"
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A New Start: Singapore Marathon 2012

My 5th marathon, 3rd Singapore marathon, 2nd barefoot marathon. Clocked a PB (4:24:40) after 1.5 years MAF and barefoot practice. I finally found the way of comfortably running a marathon, and in barefoot.

The route was similar to previous editions, only the stretch in Marina South different. I was quite familiar with the major part and run barefoot through in several events, including my 1st barefoot marathon. I'v planned to slow down between 30km and 32km mark due to road condition, and 1km up slope after 38km mark. But never expected to walk through 1+km between 36km and 37km mark exiting Gardens By The Bay. The road is not yet a road and still a trail. My had not enough budget in this stretch, and cost a lot before 5km mark. I was 9min slower than my target timing. Despite this, I ran a rather even pace and could even charge 38km mark bridge and dash last 2km to finish. The training really improve my stamina, endurance. I had no diarrhea as in last two marathons, I felt no hungry throughout the race and ate only 3 "Sng Bao" (a local flavored ice tube) provided by SAFRA running club (I joined the club at the race expo of SSBR&AHM) supporters at 16km, 26km and 35km mark. I was going to eat the banana get from 30km mark until I was too boring walking between 36km and 37km due to the bad road condition. I did not even care where the gel station was. All I had been carried is just a bottle of water. It kept me hydrated throughout. 

My feet was perfect after the race, much tougher than last time. Last time I got a blood blister, this time it was clean and refreshing. Thanks for the 2400km mileage, and also the 100km peak week seasoning. My 4 years old daughter also joined the race for Kids Dashing, she finished 750m in barefoot. So proud of us!

1 and half a year, I was searching for the key to succeed a marathon. I sacrificed my speed, ran slow to improve my aerobic capability. Too run slower, I even kick off my shoes to run barefoot. It worked, I became injury free and more immune to "hitting the wall". I had thought marathon full of misery during my first  two marathon. But it had changed. Marathon is totally leisure and enjoyment to me. 1 and half a year, I back to the start (last time my PB was 4:27 in 2011 Sun Down Marathon) with smiles, strength and confidence. Next time you will see me fly, very soon...

3 Races In A Month: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

I registered 3 races in October: Swim For Hope on 6th, New Balance REAL Run on 21th and Newton 30km Challenge on 28th Oct. They really exhausted me out and I ended up with only 5 runs, totally 77km that month. These were precious experience for me: I had break through in swimming by finishing a 10km swimming marathon, set 2 PB in running, and learned that more races spoiled the training.

Swim For Hope was a annual event raising funds for Children's Cancer Foundation. The organizer, SAFRA Tampines intended to break the record raise S$40,000 in the event day. 1 lap (50m) $1, it should be 40,000 laps from 9:00am to 4:00pm. It finally recorded 21,898 laps and I contributed 204 laps, or 10.2km, S$204 to the CCF. I was proud not only did a good deed, but also break my personal record in swimming. I finally conquered swimming marathon (10km) in a time 4:53:53, after practicing TI for 10 months.

New Balance REAL Run was a annual running event famous for its beach part. This year the 21km route included 2km trail 17.5km road and 1.5km sand beach. The trail part is actually loose sands and I had no problem running on it as warming up. And the road part was best for barefoot and was where I accelerated to overtake. When I reached the beach part, I had already reach my top speed ~4:30/km. I tried to run along the tide and avoid to weaving among the 10km walker. I finally record my PB in 21km, 1:50:56 (rank92, MO4152). The sand sacked my feet and I end up with 2weeks calf strain (not recovered even in Newton Run).

It my 2nd time to join Newton Run. Last time was 2 years ago and I recorded 2:52:51. Most people joined Newton Run for their Singapore marathon rehearsal. I joined just to use up my U-sports 2012 credit. With the stiff calf, I managed to finished in 2:48:22, rank 260/1508. I ran a little bit slower than my target timing (2:45) but still made a PB. The ranking was not so good because the participant were most serious runner. I could get much better ranking after casual runners diluting the pool. (Workout detail)

Weekly Mileage Reaches 100km

After 1 year barefoot running, slowly my weekly mileage increased to over 100km. Last week I completed 101.2km. And it was not achieved at the cost of next day training.

http://www.dailymile.com/training?group_by=week&workout_type_id=1&field=distance_in_miles
To achieve this, I have been made myself comfortable with 7 runs per week without rest since this August. There should be no speed works until I made myself adapt to the training style. Every run was aerobic (under MAF heart rate) so that stress was minimized. And there turns out to be large stress cushions under such training loading. That is, may MAF pace improvement stopped around 6min/km; and even when I violated 10% rule, increase weekly mileage from 60k to 100k, I still stayed injury free and even without DOMS after 34km long run. After all, I found it goo way the increase weekly mileage while staying injury free. And by this I could increase my yearly mileage to over 4000km. The only thing I need to figure out is how and when to incorporate speed/hill workouts in it, let me do with cautious and stick on 10% rule.

SAFRA Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon 2012

This was my third time participating in SAFRA Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon, and 2nd time ran in barefoot. I have been using this traditional event as my annual 21k time trial because of it's good organization and sanctioned distance (although last year we thought is was over 0.7km shorter). One week before race a strong haze hovered over Singapore's sky, with PSI and PM2.5 both rising over 50. Fortunately a big shower cleared all this away the night before the race, bringing also a cool weather.

I woke up at 3:30am and reached The Padang around 4:40am and had my bag deposited very quickly because there were plenty of NS men at our service. But I surprised to find long queues in front of mobile toilets, maybe due to insufficient toilets supplies this year. I gave up and made my way to the Esplanade Bridge starting point. This year the organizer reserved a passage for "seeded runners" (elite runner I think) to get to the front of the starting line. I joined the less privileged runner in another long queue to move onto the bridge. In the past I could use the pavement of the bridge short-cut to the front, but this year it was blocked. I had to stay about 200m away from the starting line and later it took me 2min to move past it.

Flag off was punctual as usual at 5:15am sharp. 1st 2km in Robinson Road Shenton Way was same as last year, the parade moved slowly and I took it as warm up at a pace of 6:43/km. There was pauses at each of the turning point, no matter in the road or PCN. After 3km we turned to Marina Bay Boardwalk passing through newly opened Gardens By The Bay. But in the dark we could see nothing. The running experience was much better in the PCN leading to Marina Barrage, compare with previous "Marina ST- Marina- Place- Marina Mall" route which was a part of transportation line for Marina East/ South construction, dirty and rough. After 5km mark we moved to Marina Barrage, it was already 31min and I could move no faster then 5:45/km pace. The following 3km stretch of PCN at Marina East was also narrow. It would took more energy to weaving among the people. I avoided to do so and slowly overtook people, through it was 30s slower than my target pace. I was not the only impacted one, at 6km I overtook 2:00 pacers, they also fell behind their target timing a lot. I kept it to 8km mark, then I start to pump up to 5:15/km pace, on the meadows beside the PCN of Tangjong Rhu.

When I reached 10km turning point it was already 58min. Good news is we were back to the road, and the crowd was smaller after 1hr's overtaking. Very natural. The I decided to push a little bit and geared up to 5min/km pace, even when climbing up Tanjong Rhu Bridge. When we turned from Mountbatten Road to the wide, straight and flatten stretch of Nicoll Highway after 12km mark, very good for overtaking. I sped up to 4:50/km, and decreasing by 10s/km every 2km, while other people were getting slower and slower. The speed fun was interrupted after turning into Kampong Bugis at 16km mark, the road surface was so rough and even though it was down slope I decelerated to 5min/km pace. The 1km stretch tortured my soles but it was alright since I had put 1800km+ barefoot millage on them. The bridge in Kallang Riverside Park at 17km mark was so narrow (a pedestrian crossed bridge in a park, what do you expect? ) later turned out to be the most stringent bottle neck, after the massive 21k and 10km runners merged together. I was lucky to pass without delay because most runner had not been there.

Then we were again away from the main road, ran on Marina Promenade along Kallang river. Through I didn't like the pavement, I kept 4:40/km pace. At 18km mark, we turned into F1 track at which I was astonished to find all asphalt gone, only gravels left! It was quite different to that I ran J.P. Morgan 5.6k in Apr. I wondered if it was next week's GP F1 night race requirement. The 2km track was real challenge to my barefoot. I'v anticipate it to be rough base on previous experience, not expecting it to be so worse. I did not reduce cadence, just change mid-foot landing to "whole-foot" landing to ease the impact, my pace maintained steady without deceleration. The ultimate torture was over in 9min, at 20km we turned into Esplanade Drive. I started to sprint, pace increased from 4:30/km to 4:10/km. I also turned the tempo trainer (YAMAHA ME55BK clip on metronome) which help me to maintain 180/min cadence, striving for a free run. Before entering Pandang, I noticed my average pace reached 5:16/km, I almost hit my target pace, and also meant I would get a PB this time (Last year I ran 1:52 in 5:19/km pace, though it fell 700m short). I finished in 1:51:15, based on my Garmin305.

The distance was accurate, my watch shown 21.11km. I believe the course was sanctioned on IAAF criteria, as the organizer claimed. I think my last year timing should be 1:56 had not been the course falling short. So this year I'v improved by 5min. Thanks for the MAF training I dedicated since last December. My boy was comfortable throughout the race, starting in a slow pace with prolonged warming up, speed steadily increase to the end of the race. And my bare soles were also seasoned and could deal with tougher surface, without blisters and worn out. I hope I could ran into 1:45 next year.

Timing chip tight on Nathan ankle band

The medal was nice too, compare with last two years. I notice there was a mark of "ELM" on it, same as Standard Chartered one, very good design and quality.

Official timing was out, 1:51:13. The Runpix analysis shown that I had passed 295 runners during last 5km, second to another runner who passed 303. Both us ran a reverse pyramid scheme. I was forced to because the human wall, what about this guy?

Appendix:
Running statistics: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220384722
Run pix analysis:

Keeping The Saw Sharpened: Waterway PAssion Active Run 2012

10th Jun 2012, The first running event Waterway PAssion Active Run was held in newly opened Punggol Waterway. I registered it not only because it was near my door step, but also I knew the organizer was the famous grassroots running enthusiast. They didn't fail us, the registration fee was cheep, only S$23 under PAssion card, and goodies were quite good abundant. I have been toured either by running or by cycling around the waterway before. And I also arranged a walk through when the route was  fixed 1 week before race. I was quite satisfied with the 10km course they designed, scenic, no traffic interruptions, and least bridges. It implied I could possibly set a PB here.

Though I just finished a marathon 2 weeks ago, I felt fully recovered already. I did rest very well and carried out just enough cardio workout (jogging with my wife at 8~9min/km pace) during the days. I think my peak performance could maintained till the race day. Good news was the weather of the race day was cool, the sub 45min target became much more achievable.

The race was flagged off at 7:30, I tried to move closed to start line. As usual, all runners were burst out at beginning. When I read my pace to be ~4:00/km on Garmin I slowed down. The 1st km was heading to the Waterway Park from Punggol interchange. After entering the park there was a big down slope, there I just keep my stride but increase cadence according to the declination, no acceleration nor braking. Soon I was in the 2nd peloton after the elite runners. The course was barefoot friendly, mostly asphalt, only few with tiles (the uneven tile surface made my soles uncomfortable). When I began to maintain a steady 4:30/km pace. I runner whistled at me when he roaring by. It was Barefoot Pua, my colleague and veteran elite barefoot runner, who inspired me for barefoot running. He said he was running home and disappeared in the front.

At the bridge (4km mark) I began to separate with the peloton. My climb was much better than before, made no speed loss. I overtook a VFF runner before 5km turning point. Barefoot Pua was there cheered for me. He had finished his morning run and ready to go home (he lived around but not participated in the race). More runner slowed down after halfway due to stamina loss. I had no difficulty passing several more. And before 8km mark, I overtook another female elite runner, Sumiko Tan, who ranked 4th in Women. Then came the big up slope at the same place we ran in. I still had enough stamina to climb the slope without loss of speed. The cost was I could not sprint in the last km. The young guy I overtook at the slope rushed off and finished before me. I felt my self quite old/ Sigh.

The system clocked me 43:38, it was a new 10km PB. I did it and proved that I was still in the peak even after a marathon. I was ranked 42 among 569 participants in my category. I was surprised by the level of this race, normally I should rank within top 30 in the entire fields for the small running events like this (~2500 participants). But when I looked into the top 10 finisher list I knew why, the top Singapore runners were all coming: men we had Lim Kien Mau and Foo Gen Lin (both ~33min), women we had Qi Hui (aka Ann Date) and Vivian Tan (both ~38min), they all latest local event winners! If Mok came, it would be more like an national championship : )

I took some pictures (album1, album2) when I waiting for my friend ti finish. And the race was supported by a lot of volunteer photographers, everybody got a bunch of pictures to memorized the hilarious moment. I would give two thumbs up for the race, a truly grassroots, runner oriented event, could not be better!

I also found my image in the race report by Run Society: http://www.runsociety.com/2012/06/11/waterway-passion-active-run-2012-sunday-communal-fun/