Finally found time to post my first ever race report!
The day started pretty early at 5am, and I woke up to flashing lights from lightning. Wasn’t a very good way to start the day, and I remember hoping that the sky would hold up for the next few hours. Ate some bread and kept a banana to eat later on as my run would be a few hours later. Didn’t have to wake up so early, but wanted to give myself ample time to prepare so I didn’t have to rush. Took a ride from Nic Eu and reached East Coast Park at around 6.35am.
By this time it was drizzling slightly, and we had to walk quite a distance to the transition area due to road closure. There wasn’t many people when we arrived, and it was still quite early, so we took shelter under a…shelter and waited for Joel and Mish to arrive.
When they came we did some final adjustments, stuck stickers, tried not to poke each other when pinning onto tights, and made our way to the transition to lay our stuff there. Then we went to get our bodies marked, and the volunteer screwed up the 5 on my arm. Soon after Mish went to warm up, and when it was 7.40 the Men’s Open were flagged off! 10 minutes later, and it was the Women’s Open, Men’s Relay, Women’s Relay and of course the Youth Relay. The horn went off and everyone rushed to the dirty waters off East Coast Park; pretty funny thinking of it that way.
I went over to the transition area, and it was very fun watching the leaders come out of the water and rushing to put on their skates before zooming away looking like professionals. The atmosphere was pretty intense because the 3 Men’s leader were quite close to each other and all eyes were on them as they left the transition area.
Soon after most of the competitors came in and we were waiting for Mish to appear. Took quite a while, but she finally did and Nic Eu went off! It was still quite a while before my turn, so I was trying to calm my nerves and enjoy the race atmosphere.
Nic Eu came back about 6th or so, and it was Joel’s turn on the bike. At this point I went to do a quick warm up to loosen up the legs and get ready for my turn. When I came back, found out that Joel fell at the end of the first lap. His second lap took really long, and for a moment I thought his bike had a problem and he had to walk back or something. I continued with my stretching and waited for him at the transition area.
After waiting for a seemingly long time, he finally came in and I zoomed out of transition! I counted 5 people ahead of me, and tried to remember their numbers (504, 507, 501 and 2 others I can’t really recall) so I know if I over take them or just over took someone slower than me. Through most of the race the 5 numbers were just running (no pun intended!) through my head, mostly so I wouldn’t be reminded of the pain.
I started off the race too quickly. The plan was 4:15 each for first 2 km, 4:20 for next 2, then all out for last 2. Legs felt slightly tired right from the start, but race day adrenaline pushed me through the first 500m or so in about 3:50 pace, and was like “Uh oh this is bad you need to slow down”. Went through first km in 4:05; still too fast. I was mostly catching people from the Men’s Open who were pretty tired from 32.5km of racing, and there wasn’t really anyone of my pace to follow, so it was just overtaking people. The route was also a out and back course, so I could see the Youth Relay runners. They were all pretty far in front, so there was quite a lot of work to do if I wanted to catch them.
Second km was in 4:16. Still on pace, but could feel myself slowing quite a bit. Legs were starting to hurt, but not too bad. I did not seem to be gaining or losing any time on the other runners.
Third km in 4:27. I knew things were going downhill (my race not the route) so the plan was just to run at the originally planned pace for as long as I can, and pace off someone slower when I was getting very tired. Everything was hurting, but there still wasn’t anyone gaining on me. I knew that the original goal was pretty impossible, and all I could do was not to deviate too far off.
Fourth km in 4:39. Eek! The effort felt like a 4:10 effort, but the timing certainly did not reflect that. I was hurting a ton now, and my focus, other than the 5 numbers, were just not to walk. Was reaaaalllyyy tempted to do so, but mental strength prevailed =)
Fifth km in 4:40. Overall pace was starting to stabilise, although at a much slower pace than expected. My only consolation was that I only had half a lap to go to the finish, and there was a big enough cushion to ensure that no one would overtake me.
Nearing the end, I finally found someone who was running about the same pace as mine and I gladly stayed behind him. About 400m to go, still stayed behind him and the pace started to pick up. I tried to remember to smile at the finishing line, but it was hard to do when everything was hurting like crap. I overtook him going into the finishing chute, which wasn’t that nice a thing to do but whatever. I forced out what I hoped was a smile, and crossed the line with a pace of 4:12 for the last 400m. I remember hearing the announcer say something about energy and youth (because I sprinted past the other guy), and he announced the team name and was like wow what a long name or something like that. After I crossed the line I was so glad it was all over, and the volunteers swarmed all around me like I was a carcass and they were the vultures or something like that. One passed me the medals, another took the timing chip, and I was just standing there grasping for air.
Rested for a while and drank many cans of 100 plus, then went for a short cool down jog. After bathing, we walked quite a distance to the food center, and ate an early lunch there. I ordered a huuuugeee coconut, probably the biggest I’ve ever seen.
You can see how big it is relative to the 100 plus and the lime. 
It wasn’t super nice, but the meat and drink was never ending. That, together with like 5 cans of 100 plus, made me want to puke by the time I was done. Nic Eu and I walked to the bus stop, and stomach was feeling super bloated and uncomfortable.
Overall it was a wonderful race. Always very fun to go for such stuff, with so many competitors around you and everyone trying to outdo themselves and feeling nervous along with you. Being in a relay gave me time to appreciate the race itself, and look at all the competitors (as well as their equipments!) Although the race didn’t go that well for me and I expected to do much better, it was still quite an okay effort considering the lack of training in the weeks leading up due to promos, and also falling sick just days before.
Haha sorry for the super long post, think no one actually read the whole thing. Oh, and PW is nearing the end! Can finally see the light
