It was a race running on familiar route, almost like my usual weekend LSD but instead of doing a u-turn at Fort Road I was needed to do a u-turn near ECP MacDonald. For races I would usually look forward to running at new places with new sceneries, although it was boring to run the old same route again but I think it would help me in my race. I still have bad memories of last year’s race that I did badly as I was recovering from Appendicitis, it was a race that ended up as a walk and run session. This year I aim to do better and hopefully I can go below 2hrs.
As I opted for the first wave I was with most of the elite runners, notably top local runners such as Mok Ying Ren, Anne Date and Sumiko Tan were all around me. It was almost 4:30pm before the race started, as I was running I started looking out for some “Pacers” around me the first runner I notice was Chin KK from Jurong Safra, I tried to follow him but soon both of us slowed down as we were running too fast for the first km at about 4:14min/km. As I still felt strong, I decide to move on and overtake him and soon I was surprise to see Sumiko Tan who was just about 10 meters ahead of me. It was then that I decide that she will be my pacer, I thought it would be a challenge if I can keep up with her pace and I was wondering how long can I do so?
Apart from the first km I was running at around 4:35min/km pace and one of the leading front runners and by 5km I only took 22:24min. I myself was surprise as it was too fast and still a long way to go but so far so good as I still want I can keep up with her pace. It was at about 7km before I started to slow down and soon loses sight of her and by then I started to feel tired so I decide to slow down to just below 5min/km pace. I was slowing down from 7km onwards and by 10km my pace was a slow 5:11min/km, but despite of that I was really surprised that it only took me 47mins to complete 10km, obviously why I was getting tired. It was at about the same time that I see Sumiko Tan again as she was walking at water points near NSRCC and I managed to close the gap on her as I followed closely behind, soon at another water point after NSRCC I managed to overtake her when she started walking again to rehydrate herself, guess the hot weather could have taken the toll on her too.
At 12km it was the usual long boring Changi Coastal Road stretch and my pace was getting really slow, not too pleased with my more than 5min/km pace but nothing I could do except only to hope that I can recover fast enough while at the same time not running too slow. It was not surprisingly the split for the third 5k was really slow at 25:50min. It was with 15km behind me that I tried to motivate myself, I was telling myself only 10km left and now u-turning back at Changi Coastal Road towards ECP!!! Along the way back I tried to up my pace to go below 5min/km, didn’t managed to do so only until I was almost reaching NSRCC again but then I my faster pace could not last for more than 2km. By 20km onwards my pace was again slow and erratic and with 5km left I was struggling, so I planned to conserve some energy for the final 3km for the final push, but somehow I just could not recover in time and can just try to run as fast as I could. The final 1km was hell which I finally managed to finish strongly.
It was a race which I did not really set a pace to run at and was pacing myself over my limit in my attempt to follow faster runners ahead. The first half of my race was definitely too fast while the race after 10km was more of a recovery for me. My subsequent effort to step up my pace fails as I was totally drained out. Overall it was poor race strategy which ended with a positive split when I should really try to go for even or negative split. As always I was too ambitious, but glad that I still managed an average pace of 4:56min/km and came in 45th for Men’s Open Category.
| Nr | Bib | Name | GunStart | TimeStart | ChipFinish | GunFinish | Remark |
| 45 | 12451 | Goh Hiong Hong | 16:28:55.50 | 16:29:04.50 | 02:02:32.50 | 02:02:41.50 | Tag 10426 |
| Lap (5km) | Time (min) | Avg Pace (min/km) |
| 0-5 | 22:24 | 4:28 |
| 6-10 | 24:25 | 4:53 |
| 11-15 | 25:50 | 5:10 |
| 16-20 | 25:24 | 5:05 |
| 21-25 | 25:21 | 5:04 |
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