Sunday Long Run @ Yishun-Seletar Reservoir

This morning was the second time trial for the SAFRA Running Club. I already went for the first one, where the weather was rainy and windy. This morning presented very good weather to do well for the 10km Time Trial. Our group of SAFRA Mt. Faber Runners were there to do their trial, and all came away with much better times than their first run, and for the first-timers, it was very good timing for them as well.

Since Adam, Teen, Wong, myself and a few others already had our time trials, we had plan to do a 20km long, slow distance run. Adam, Teen, Jaime & Wong were going to take this as prepraatory training for their upcoming Ipoh half mary. As for me, I just wanted to put a long run in.

We set off from the same same starting point as the trial runners, starting 1 minute after they had left. We ran an easy 6min pace toward the long stretch leading to Lower Seletar Reservoir, passing the bridge where a group of people were buying crabs off fishing boats coming in. We stopped for a while to look, and soon, we saw the first runners of the trial coming back. An Ang Moh runner was leading the pack, with our own Derek and Jimmy Chow not too far off. We then saw the first of our ladies, Eng Hwa, followed by Sok Hwa and then Tong Ling. Hmmm....seems like our Mt. Faber Runners were all at the front of the race. Good and consistent training, maybe?

Soon, the five of us ran past the last person, and reached the 5km mark of the time trial. We took a quick sip of water from the marshal, and we ran up ahead, and then turned left into the scenic route, leading us all the way to Seletar Base/Jalan Kayu. I was amazed that there was such a nice, short, route from Yishun to Jalan Kayu. I understand from Wong that we no longer need a pass to go into Seletar Base camp, and we ran right on inside. From the point, we have roughly covered 9km. I have been to the camp previously to play golf, but this was the first time I ran inside. The roads were narrow, but it was a nice run of about 2-3km inside the camp. We soon exited, and reached back to the 5km mark where we got the drink earlier.

At this point, we realized that we were not going to cover 20km today, but will settle for a shorter 17km. Since there was only 5km to go, and everybody knew the route we came from, I decided to do a fast 5km just to push the perspiration and heart rate up. It was a great 5km, and midway I had Wong cut me, and from then on, I ran about 50m behind him, at what I considered to be sub-5min pace. The photographer for the time trial was still around to snap a photo of us running back, and I finally reached the finish, breathless. I even forgot to stop my HRM watch, and probably let the time run for about 8min before I realized. Anyway, I will take the average rate of 5.30min/km pace.

Distance Ran:17km___Time:1hr35min___Pace:5:38min/km
Average HR:152bpm____Max HR:175bpm____KCal:1100