The Army Half Marathon 2006

YES! A PB for me in my third Half Marathon - 1hr40min

Official Results Out: Shows Gun Time:- Position 55, 1hr41min

Rank Bib Name Category CheckPt1 CheckPt2 Total_Finish
55 V8788 Sum Yew Wah Anthony MENV 0:39:13 1:15:18 01:41:47

At The Finishing Line with SgRunners

At the finish line with SAFRA MF Runners

Pre Race

Had about 2hours sleep before I woke up at about 1.30am. Since it was still early, I did some work and also logged in to SgRunners to check for the latest. Took a bowl of cereal at 3am, a banana and coffee for breakfast. Put on my new SAFRA Running Singlet, and almost due-for-retirement Asics DS Trainer shoes. Went to pick DO and Divey up, and we arrived to Raffles City parking at about 4.15am. Saw SC5, notme, Vivian Tang, anna, and a few other AniMILES runners at the basement. Roentgen was there waiting for his gang too :). We chatted a little, before proceeding to meet the SgRunners at the pre-arranged place.

Saw many groups of army people getting ready. We met Richy, Bug, flip, Freddy, Cheow12, Yulan, teelee, IMD and his MHA, and many other SgRunners. Also met some SAFRA runners who were hanging around. At about 4.45am, Divey, DO, Richy, Cheow and I went for a short warm-up jog, did some stretches and queued up for the final 'pee' before race start. My race plan was to start out a little faster, and then maintain that pace (4:50min/km) throughout...hopefully can do my stretched goal of 1hr40min, or at least will have no problem bettering my PB of 1hr44min set at last year's AHM. Richy and I proceeded to the start point. There were a huge crowd at the start point for the competitive runners already, and I could see the non-competitive runners barricaded a short distance away. As we 'inched' our way up, we met up with many familiar faces from SAFRA and SgRunners. Spoke a bit to Mike Kang, introduced Richy to TLR, chatted with Bug. I told Richy that I am a slow starter, and it would be best for him to follow the front runners of TLR and DO.


The Race

The race was flagged off by the Chief Of Army at about 5.30am. It took me about a minute to get to the ChampionChip mat. And after stepping on the mat, it took some time for the front crowd to clear, and I had to meander around a fair bit for the first km, spotting gaps where I could squeeze through. About 200m into the run, someone ran up and called me...heh, it was Brokie, in her bright yellow chopchop...hehe. I mentioned that she started at a good pace, wished each other good luck, and I moved further ahead. I could see Jimmy Chow, runalone among others as I ran the first km. I moved at a quicker pace to catch up for the lost time at the beginning, and by the 2km mark, I had taken 9min+....ok, almost near to goal pace. Further ahead, we moved up along Sheares' Bridge...I ran past Supraman, and the team from Guards. I kept to my pace, and tried to catch up a little on the downslope, albeit with caution. I slowed down at water points, and took a few sips of the plain water provided...yucks! At the 6km mark, my time was about 28min+...hmm, ok, have caught up the pace a little. We then turned towards Fort Road, and up to that point, I was running quite close with a Ang Moh. I could see the front runners coming back, the speedy Thai Runners, the elites and the fast local runners. Along Fort Road, I increased pace hoping to bank in more miles. At this stretch, someone called out to me...it was Lim Teck Heng, MR25 pro photographer. Lim had not run a race in 10years, and this being his first race since, was doing exceptionally good pace. I ran ahead and saw Sumiko, another MR25 runner, showing very good form.

After the U-turn, there was the ChampionChip mat again. I think it might have been about 9km. A check of the time showed 38min+. I continued to run ahead at that constant pace, just slightly below 5min/km, overtaking more runners as they were getting tired. Then I spotted a familiar figure in front...it was Ultraman. Ultra was still nursing his injury from a minor accident, and was pacing with another girl runner. I followed from a distance out from Fort Road along Nicholl Highway, and by then, the group of runners around me was thinning. I liked the slight wind that was blowing in my face, and having that whole expanse of highway to run along. As we run up the bridge, I overtook the lady runner, and then waved to Ultra. Ultra perked up upon seeing me, and he revved up his engine, and ran ahead to the front. I was contented to just follow Ultra from behind since I was maintaining my goal pace. Things began to happen the moment we turned into Middle Road. We were stopped for a short while for traffic...URGHHH.. I thought the roads were to be closed?? Apparently, not the traffic junctions. From that point on, there were many traffic junctions, and each time I came to one, there was a possibility of the police and traffic marshals of stopping us runners to allow the traffic to move. I could hear loud blaring of horns from angry motorists...haiz..

I reached the 14km mark at 1:06min. With 7km to go, I had banked in 4min...meaning I was on track for a 1:41min finish time. Wah...gotta speed up if I was to gain 2more min to do sub 1:40. I tried to run harder as I went up the slopes, hoping to gain more time. I was feeling depleted, and could do with a PowerGel at that point...haha...too bad, didn't bring. I did have 3 sips of the isotonic drink handed out along Mountbatten earlier, but it was not very good. With 4km to go, runners from behind were speeding up. Sumiko overtook me at about this point, and I saw her overtaking Ultra...I followed suit. A gal runner was 'chionging' up, encouraged by her running mate. I ran behind them for most of the journey from that point on. I was stopped/slowed down 2 times more along the way and those could have caused me at least another minute. The Running along Outram Road was bad, with the smog coming from the many vehicles waiting to turn into Outram Park, and causing a jam of sorts. The climb up Cantonment Road after that drained me further, and I could have lost more time. At the turn from Cantonment Road to Maxwell Road, someone shouted 2km more to go, 1hr31min. Yikes...I am behind. I overtook the gal and her running mate and ran ahead, but alas, I was stopped another time at the Maxwell Junction to South Bridge Road. She overtook me from there, and I just chugged along, knowing it would not be too far off, with the Bridge in sight. As we ran along South Bridge Road, there were loud horns from motorists and the bellowing of smoke as they were irritated with waiting for the runners to past. It was an ugly sight. I was checking my watch constantly, and with 500m to go, my time was showing 1hr38min. I tried to increase my cadence, and there was a sudden pull....oops, a cramp developing in my left calf. I slowed down to avoid being seized. On the downslope, Eddie from SAFRA ran past me. I tried to give chase, hoping to speed-up for the final 200m. But it was not to be, my cramps were almost going to come...I just did a steady paced finish, and crossed the line at 1hr41min clock-time, raising my hands in jubilation.











Post Race

The finisher's medal was immediately given to me, and the first people I saw were Alan Chao, Ong, Bug and Kumaran, who were there to congratulate me. They did very well, all running many min below 1hr40min. I then saw babymonster Eileen, who did a very good 1hr39min to be third in the women's closed category....wah, again she was in front of me about 2min this year...I am proud of her. DO did well with a 1hr39min timing too....very impressive timing from my buddy...superb! I headed straight for the milo stands, after returning the ChampionChip. This was the first Singapore race that I was served milo. It was refreshing and great for recovery. I took 3 straight cups...shiok! I went back to the finish line to congratulate the many SgRunners (at least 120 of us) and SAFRA runners (at least 80 of us) who were returning. All did well, and most were satisfied with their run, except for the ugly traffic situation...some people were stopped 8-10 times...YUCKS! teelee was superb with his 1hr25min timing, and coming in 19th position for the men's open category...wowee....Lai Chee did 1hr37min to emerge 2nd in the women's closed...wah, LC has improved a lot since doing Alan Chao's hill training.. Brokie came within a whisker of the 10th position in her category...it was CLOSE...we were so happy for her...haha. Run3 almost got top 10 with her 1hr53min timing...waah! Yulan did very well with 1hr50min to emerge 10th in the women's closed...wow, we do have very good lady runners in SgRunners *cheers*. Ultra did a very commendable 1hr42min in spite of his injury. Richy was super-fast with 1hr38min *salute*. TLR did well with 1hr39min, RealRunner extremely fast at 1hr35min, Freddy a record-breaking 1hr45min, Hedgehog, cfred all with very fast PB times, and many more good performances.

The SAFRA Running Club @ AHM 2006

I joined in for some group photos with SAFRA Running Club, as well as group and mini-group photos with SgRunners. There were so many people to talk too, so exciting, so fun. One of the main highlights of such races have to be meeting up with the running kakis and friends, sharing stories and congratulatory messages...Karen, Johnny, doraemon, Fennel, Superboy, Sotong, Mrs Sotong, loneshark, Charmaine, JT, Angelica, daisiki, cosmic, weishan, Divey, Sandy, Adam, Goola, eng hwa, runalone, Derrick, Colleen, Sam, and a whole lot of friends whom I spoke with after the run. Went for 2 more cups of milo in between chats...heehee. Was offered nice iced-cold barley from Fd...wow, that was so sweet and nice...thanks Fd! With the rains imminent, we went to wash up at Raffles City and proceeded to Marina Square for a nice cuppa and breakfast...thanks to DO who bought lots of nice tahu and poh-piah. Signed up for the Run For Funds with HWA, and chatted with the large SgRunners gang till 11am. It was a great post-race meet-up and makan-together. Overall, I had a good race, and I am happy with the results in spite. Will take a rest now, before starting to put in some long runs and training for SCSM in Dec. Will be doing the Public Service Run and MK Climbathon in Sep, and maybe, maybe... a 21km 2nd Link Bridge Run in Nov.