Three Hill Run on 7 Jan`07 (Sun)

Safra MF runners were doing a 30km 3 Hill Run, with additional loops in Kent Ridge Park, Labrador Park and Mount Faber. Decided to join them for my first LSD of the year -- would skip the additional loops as dun wanna ramp up my mileage too fast. Wah, a big group of runners gathered at the clubhouse when I arrived at 7am -- happy to see familiar faces like fennel, cosmic_wind, DO, DR, Bug, cokiee, BR and SV. With some delay, the run finally started at 7.30am. Kumaran n Bug lead the way and I gave chase -- wah, they were FAST and I soon lost sight of them along Depot Rd. Ran solo along Queensway towards Portsdown Flyover. Heard someone shouting "Oei Oei, this way" from behind -- oops, one of the Safra runners thot I went the wrong way as they turned off to the railway and I was going straight. Paiseh, later heard that he had to chase after me to get me on the right track. I sticked to the route I was familiar with -- went straight and climbed up the stairs to Portsdown Flyover. At the traffic junction, crossed path with DO and we ran together briefly to Kent Ridge Park(KRP). DO got a little lost and ran up a slope instead of turning left to Science Hub. I chased after him and lead him out after a slight detour. Joined up with fennel who emerged from Science Hub and ran up the slopes in KRP. While the rest continued the extra loops, I ran on to exit via Pepys Rd -- saw Kumaran waiting for the rest and told him I was heading to Labrador Park.

After the jumps on/off the pavement @ Pasir Panjang Rd, I saw the troupe of Safra Tampines runners exiting from Labrador Park -- waved to Bee and suanxing. The heat was getting to me and I could feel my CPU heated up. Increased pace as I was looking forward to the shades and toilet break. Did a loop along the perimeter of the park and gulped down mouthful of water from the water cooler (trying to conserve some water in my camelbak for the last hill). Then embark on the hill climb up to the Olive Restaurant. On my way out of Labrador Park, saw some Safra MF runners running in to start their loops.

Entered the last hill, Mount Faber(MF), from Morse Rd. Didn't know Kumaran was behind me and he shouted "this way this way" -- informed him that I was running my own route (their route was to run to Harbourfront and enter via Kampung Bahru -- wanna avoid this stretch). As I slowly crawled up the hill to top of MF, met many strollers coming down and they cheered me on :) Did half of the MF loop and proceed to run down, passing Jewel Box. Saw Kumaran and he was walking and uttered that THIS slope was killing him! Cheered him with "the end of the slope was near"! The last stretch to the clubhouse was nice and shady -- so happy to complete the 3 hill run of 18km in 1hr 44min!

Emptied my camelbak and did my warm down stretch with Safra Tampines runners. Stomach felt upset and went to toilet to clear the system. By the time I got out, fennel, DO and DR were back. Waited for 1hr+ for majority of the runners to come back. Collect our bags and brought out my Japanese goodies to share -- corn coated with white chocolate, Royce's apple chocolate and black sesame cookies. As I had an appointment for DTM, need to rush off -- didn't join the gang for lunch. fennel joined me for beef noodle lunch at Harbourfront before going on shopping spree.

P.S. It took a bit of getting use to running with camelbak and under the heat! Good training and I did enjoy the solitude while running thru the 3 hills -- smell-flower pace and watching people. Haiz, gotta start from square one for running upslope -- crawl like a snail! With the KL hilly 30km juz 2 weeks away, better throw in more NUS hill run next week.

Distance : 18km
Time : 1h 44min
Avg pace : 5:49min/km