It is my fourth year in this event and as usual it is held at the same location with the same terrain of 4km Trail + 0.6km Sand + 10.4km Taxiway / Road. But due to the nature of the challenging race, it is not really a race for a 15km PB but one which I definitely hope I can do better as compared to the same race last year. The strategy will be to run at tempo pace of around 5 – 5:05 pace and hopefully I can still keep up with this pace along the sand terrain, and with 3km to go hopefully I can still finish strongly to make up for any time loss.
As I was stuck in the long toilet queue so I ended up almost 10 minutes late at the starting line. Did a quick warm up and off I go to do the “catching up”. As most runners were way ahead, for the first 3km it was nice to have a clear path. However I was cautious not to over pace my first 4k on trail terrain, a mistake I make during the 2008 Real Run. It was only after 3km before I was really needed to wave in and out to overtake slower runners, at 4km due to the crowd I was forced to skip the water point, it was fine with me as I was still feeling fresh while I was more than glad to get over the trail, and finally I can run on the roads instead.
It was tiring to find gaps when over taking other runners but glad that so far I was coping well with it. Soon as I passed 12km, there comes the dreadfully sand terrain which I hated most. As it was a narrow and crowded 0.6km stretch I find it almost impossible to keep up with my intended pace. As expected my heartbeat rises with my pace started to deteriorate to 5:31 and soon it was 5:41. By the time I left the sand terrain it was only the start of my recovery from earlier exertion and side stitch pain, and so it was very tough to make up for earlier time loss. It was only with 1km left before I managed to resume my usual tempo pace to finish strongly.
Although still no PB to date, there are signs of improvement as compared to last year’s Real Run. I felt stronger as I managed an average pace of 5:05, last year I only managed a pace of 5:10 and so based on that I was about 1min 15secs faster. I am also pleased to be able to maintain an average of 5:00 pace up to 12km, probably even up to 15km if not for the sand terrain that took a lot out of me.
Split | Time | Distance | Avg Pace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | 01:17:19 | 15.19 | 05:05 |
| 1 | 00:04:53 | 1.00 | 04:53 |
| 2 | 00:04:52 | 1.00 | 04:52 |
| 3 | 00:04:58 | 1.00 | 04:58 |
| 4 | 00:05:03 | 1.00 | 05:03 |
| 5 | 00:05:03 | 1.00 | 05:03 |
| 6 | 00:04:59 | 1.00 | 04:59 |
| 7 | 00:05:04 | 1.00 | 05:04 |
| 8 | 00:04:57 | 1.00 | 04:57 |
| 9 | 00:05:00 | 1.00 | 05:00 |
| 10 | 00:04:56 | 1.00 | 04:56 |
| 11 | 00:04:58 | 1.00 | 04:58 |
| 12 | 00:05:31 | 1.00 | 05:31 |
| 13 | 00:05:41 | 1.00 | 05:41 |
| 14 | 00:05:28 | 1.00 | 05:28 |
| 15 | 00:05:10 | 1.00 | 05:10 |
| 16 | 00:00:38 | 0.19 | 03:25 |
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