SAFRA MF Hill Repeats

It rained heavily in the afternoon. By the time I reached SAFRA MF ClubHouse at 6.30pm, the rains had stopped and the weather was cool. A large turnout of 30+ runners to do 7 hill repeats at Mt. Faber Loop, each about 1.6km in distance, starting from the carpark.

We started off with a slow 3km warm up jog around Telok Blangah, Harbourfront then moved up along Morse Road. I felt fresh this evening, and tried on my new cw-x running thights to test them for this hills run. Chatted with one of the runners about Chi Running to prevent injury. After a brief of the plan to cover 7 laps within 1 hour, trainer Ong started the run together with us. cm was stationed at the junction to take times of the runners, and to provide the much needed encouragement. I started off real easy, and wasn;t even breathing hard when I reached the top. I was surprised to find that I did the first lap in 8:20min....heh, I felt good...maybe its the very cool weather. As I went on the subsequent laps, I could feel the cool breeze. I was trailing TLH all the way, and he seemed strong today. I finished the 1st 4 laps all averaging 8:20 a lap; on track for 7 laps under 1hour. The rest of the runners were doing very well. As usual, the front runners of Bug, Derrick, Ong were not spotted by me..they are easily 500m ahead of me. Spotted kops and hoho doing their ninja training as I was running up the 4th lap....waved to them and didn't see them afterwards....they must have finished their run early.

I was feeling thirsty by the end of the 4th lap, and was contemplating to go to the toilets on top of mf for a drink. However, I didn't feel so thirsty each time I reached the top after the climb. By the time I finished the 6th lap, the time was 50min+. Wow, I still have 9min+ to finish the 7th lap within the hour, and I was feeling not too bad (compared with the other time when I finished 6 laps in 54min). I increased my pace slightly for the final lap, and understood from Jimmy Chow later that he really 'chionged' when he heard cm shouting my name...haha. I caught up sufficiently to spot Jimmy on the downslope, and he was watching me with a keen eye...haha...am I so intimidating? I increased my pace to try to close the gap, and eventually finished in 58:41min...good enough to be under the hour.

I felt good; wasn't panting that hard. Jimmy jested that he was worried that I would catch him...funny chap. I enjoyed the run thoroughly, and the best part was that I had reserves in the end...my legs still felt spritely at the end. The cw-x thights felt snug and provided good 'support' once I was into the 2nd lap. It really did its work well, and I am sure it had a part to play with me feeling great for this supposedly tough run. Spent some time chatting with a few of the new runners at SAFRA, and found that all were very committed and dedicated runners, and they liked the SAFRA Training Program @ MF to be coming back for more. I can see many emerging stars of tomorrow. Well done SAFRA Runners!

Distance: 11.2km (7 x 1.6km)__Time: 58:41__Pace: 5:14km/hr