Botanic Gardens & The Prata Place

Today is the last Sunday run prior to the Singapore Marathon 2005 next Sunday, Dec 4. The plan was to run a reasonable pace from SAFRA MF thru Ridley Park to Botanic Gardens and back. I have pre-arranged to meet some SgRunners for a fun run within Botanic Gardens, then have carbo-reloading at Prata Place, before I will run back to the ClubHouse.

I am still in the recovery process of my flu which began on Wed. My nose was still blocked as I ran with DO, LKY and the rest of the SAFRA runners along the Delta Canal towards Ridley Park. I felt tired as well, since I had less than 3 hours of sleep due to the blocked nose. As we hit the Delta Canal, I asked DO to move up to join the front runners and I was not prepared to go with his faster pace. We ran all the way to Botanic Gardens, and met up with Brokie, Tiwazz, cosmic_wind. The rest of the SAFRA gang moved on. We ran a nice loop around Botanic Gardens. There were many runners, qi gong exercisers and walkers on this Sunday afternoon. Though it was sunny, the air was chilly, and really made for very nice running. I was in fact feeling a little cold. After one loop, me and Tiwazz decided to stop and the rest carried on for another round. We subsequently convened and went to Prata Place at SMU for very nice teh-tarik, milo dinosaur and banana and mushroom-cheeze prata. We ate and chatted for some time, and were later joined by Kops and his sweetheart.

After I had my coffee, I bade the group goodbye and made my way back to the clubHouse with a 50min run. The air was still cool. I had some initial stitches due to the food I took, but it eased as I ran on. Did a reasonable pace, and reached the ClubHouse feeling drained. My legs were feeling good, but my breathing was rather heavy, not too smooth. I covered an estimated total distance of about 20km in 1hr 50min. There are only 2 more runs remaining for the week before D-Day, a 8km on Tue and another 8km on Thursday. Looking forward to resting my body for the big race.