CBD Run on 28 Nov`06 (Tue)

Littletigger had kindly arranged for the SCSM Trifam pacers to come down to CBD run -- a chance for us to get to know the respective target-finishing-time pacers. We were encouraged to talk to the pacers and find out their strategy during the marathon. fennel gave me weather update @ CBD ard 5pm+ -- sunny! Wah, such rare chance to have a non-raining day for running! So I relayed the good news to tktan and head on to Tanjong Pagar. Arrived ard 6.45pm and a big group of 40+ runners already gathered there. There were abt 20 pacers -- forming group of 5 for the 4, 4.5, 5 & 5.5 hour finishing time. DR & DO were very nice to look for the 4hr pacers and introduced David to me -- David's strategy is to start off with 5:30min/km pace and then maintain 5:45min/km pace. Sounded good to me :) OP came in his matching white running top, red shorts and new red-white adizero shoes! The pacers led the runners towards Marina South -- part of the route for SCSM. Hmm, felt strange running behind the pacers and had to control my pace -- guess I was used to have ample space during my runs. As we turned off from Maxwell Rd to Marina South, babumouse and me decided to run on the road instead of the uneven pavement. With no hindrance, juz let go and ran @ my comfortable pace -- oops, the gap grew between us and the pacers! As we were unsure of the route, we slowed down for the pacers to catch up. Re-joined the group but ran ahead of the pacers (wanna have more space) -- David teasingly said that I was the pacer for the pacers :P tktan caught up with me to check that my legs were ok -- hmm, I was feeling good (later, he told me that I seemed to be limping from backview and he was worried that my calves were acting up like last Wed). At the steamboat area, some of the pacers via off to the toilet. CW led the group from here -- was running alongside tktan, gentle, babumouse, fennel, DO, Terence in the front pack. As we turned off to the jetty, it was familiar ground to me and I started to open up my stride and overtake the pacers. The rest followed suit -- think we disrupted the pace of the pacers! After the u-turn @ jetty, some of the pacers started to speed up and we all chiong back to Tanjong Pagar MRT. Wow, that was a shiok run! Later found out that we were running at avg 5:10min/km pace for 9.5km! *faint* tktan didn't get drafted by the group and ran @ his comfortable pace *clap clap*.

After everyone came back, we took a group pic with the pacers and adjoined to dinner @ Maxwell market. tktan and I became "lost sheep" -- found no one after changing to dry clothes and too hungry to walk to Maxwell market. So we settled for dinner @ Golden Cafe (opp Tanjong Pagar MRT) -- had seafood ee mee and fried rice. Gonna rest for a day and do more run before complete rest till D-day! And it's carbo-loading time -- give me lotsa rice, pasta & potato!

P.S. David cautioned me about my pace and to drink @ every water station -- if not, I will feel the effect @ 35km onwards. My initial plan is to skip the water station till 10km mark -- wanna save time and run faster before the sun comes up. Well, since many seasoned runners have strongly recommend to drink @ every water station, guess I will heed their advise :)