Deepavali Run Along The Esplanade/Kallang River

This is the holiday week, Deepavali today and Hari Raya on thursday. As such, trainings has been changed to mornings, and more opportunities for me to put in the necessary long runs. Did a 26km run from SAFRA MF to Kallang Indoor Stadium through The Esplanade -> Marina Promenade -> along Kallang River -> Indoor Stadium and back to The Esplanade -> Shenton Way -> Keppel Road -> MF Clubhouse.

Trainer Ong and Jaime both did not run due to injuries, but came and provided vehicle support fully loaded with 100plus and ice-cold water. Great support there. We started the run at about 7.15am, a small group of runners today, and I had Cheow12 from SgRunners join me for this run. Cheow12 in the end completed 34km, and he was happy to have covered the full distance. For the first 10km from MF ClubHouse through to Marina Promenade, I was feeling slightly heavy in my legs...hmm, coule be due to the long run at Yishun on Sunday....still did not have enough rest. Alan Chao who came back from Nairobi had a lot to share about his StanChart Marathon experience there, as well as the way the kenyans train. The conditions there was dry, with very steep hills. Alan was good enough to complete in one piece. I was chatting with Colleen along the way for the first 10km, and stayed behind a bit. Cheow had followed Jimmy Chow in front, and at The Esplanade, I did not stop for water but continued to just reach Cheow just before Marina Promenade. Ong & Jaime was there near the toilets providing 100plus. It was a refreshing drink, and I also took sips of my pre-mixed powergel.

I continued from Marina Promenade and ran along the Kallang River. I did not see anyone in front, and was quite undure of the route. After some time, I saw PA, and turned into it, cut across, and ran towards Indoor Stadium. On the way in, I saw Derek running out. I reached the Indoor Stadium but was surprised that no one was there. I made a big loop and ran out towards the PA entrance. As I was about to get out, I saw Wong and a bunch of the runners. I followed them back into the Indoor Stadium route. We waited at the Indoor Stadium for some time before Ong and Jaime showed up with 100plus, and waited even longer for the remaining runners to come in. They said that we were running too fast...hehe. Some of the runners like Jimmy Chow, Cheow, Goola and EH wanted to run further to ECP which will give them an additional 4-5km. The rest of us decided to turn back from Indoor Stadium as planned. We did a reasonable paced run back and soon found Ong again at the Marina Promenade toilet. Again we took 100plus. Ong was having a hard time driving to meet us...hehe. From there we ran ahead to The Esplanade and took a toilet break. The day was HOT, and it was draining us. We had to take lots of water along the way. My legs felt very tired, and I knew it must be due to the recent run on Sunday.

From The Esplanade, we ran along Shenton Way, and took our final 100plus with Ong along the way. From there, it was us against the elements. The weather was hot and it was draining me. I didn;t want to stop anymore, as that only tire me out faster. I ran behind Wong all the way, and with a remaining 2km back to ClubHouse, I just went alone. Back at the ClubHouse, I cooled down, waited for quite a bit for the rest of the runners who went the ECP route. Did a wash up, and later went to Kumaran's house for Deepavali Celebrations, and listening to more of Alan Chao's marathon adventure in Nairobi, Kenya. It was a day well spent, but my legs really felt dead. I decided to skip speedwork on Thur, and instead join SgRunners at MacRitchie for a slow, recovery run.

Distance Ran:26km ___Time:2hr35min____Pace:5:57min/km
Average HR:156bpm___Max HR:182bpm____KCal: 2,034