The Longest AdiRUN

Time flies. We were doing the 8th or 9th adiRun already; not sure; I lost count. This evening's run was supposed to be 16km into Marina South, running mainly the StandChart 21km/42km route, in what will be the longest adiRUN yet....hmm, no wonder only the serious ones turned up, though it was quite a large group. We had a 'rare guest' in the form of an ironman who had recently taken a keen interest in dragon-boating...hehe. Leh-lio Gal joined us for the first time too, and we had the return of the ang-moh runner as well.

Because of the longer distance, we started the run with some quick stretches, led by Cokiee. As per normal, all were soon running in front, and very soon it was just Beverly, Meteor, leh-lio (who had a slight mishap in the toilets...hmmm) and me doing a 5:45min pace along Shenton Way, and into Marina South. When we reached the left turn along the Marathon Route, DO was waiting, and I handed leh-lio safely to DO to carry on the faster journey...haha. Superboy and Stazla caught up in spite of being late, and they raced ahead. I continued on with Meteor and Beverly, and the gals were keeping up to a good 5:45min pace. I ran a bit in front to lead them round the steam-boat area, all the way through the 'rather boring' stretch to Marina Jetty. On the way to the Jetty, we saw cfred on the return, followed closely by SC5, and then Brokie and the rest.

We reached the Jetty after running for 52min...hmm, the halfway mark must have been more than 8km based on timing and pace, more like closer to 8.5km. Somehow, my stomach was feeling slight queasy and I wanted to go for a quick 'mission' at the Jetty. I told Beverly to go ahead with Meteor and I would catch up. I did some small arty fire, and soon was on my way to play catch-up. I spotted Bev, Meteor and Cokiee running back along the steam-boat area. I took quite a while to catch up as they were running at a very steady 5:45min pace. I caucght up at the steam-boat area, and we ran together all the way to Shenton Way. I tried to pick up my pace, but found that the gals were just 25-50m behind throughout. Wow, they were very consistent and strong.

I was glad to finally finish the run, taking about 1hr45min. I estimated that it must be more than 16km, more like 18km. It was later confirmed by many that it was closer to 17km. The adidas guy was kind enough to bring the 100plus all the way to Esplanade exercise area for us..really grateful to him. I was so thirsty. All were happy with the run, as many of them felt good after running fast paces. SC5 ran sub 5min pace throughout, DO was 5min pace, Brokie was slightly over 5min, and of course leh-lio and stazla were the Cheetahs, as usual. We had some interesting chat on the way back, and as the time was quite late, we dispersed rather quickly once we reached back Suntec. Another good AdiRUN.

Distance: 17km__Time: 1hr45min__Pace: 6:11min/km