SgRunners 5th Demoralizing Run

The Happy 5th Batch Of Demoralizers

A partially-shaded park connector was recently built, and that started the planning for a 5th Demoralizing Run...along the infamously 'mental' Changi Coastal Road. It was always a challenge and good training for marathon on long stretches of flat road in hot sun...conditions found in SCSM.

A relatively large turnout of hard-core SgRunners at Changi Beach Park, Carpark No 2, as evident in the group photo, and I took quite a number of shots with my new digicam, the Lumix FX30, a no-nonsense layman camera, with some advanced features I have yet to figure out...hehe. The skies were cloudy, and the weather looked good. Brokie led the usual Demoralizing warm-up to the end of the Park, before the group took off. I was planning to do a 6min/km 32km to slowly build up the pace for my pacer role at SCSM07.

I was trotting nicely from behind the pack, with the front runners like RR, teelee, cfred, SassyRunner, Vincent, leh-lio and the rest in front. Brokie, DO, Raven (MF Ronnie) were just in front, while Cobalt, tekko, Alvo, Meteor and myself watched the rear. Highbury, Kayano, jjchsg were some of those who were being 'Demoralized' for the first time...haha. The stretch along the pavement along Coastal Road was nice, and real easy on the legs. We had some good chats and I was enjoying the greenery around the area. The pace for that stretch was about 6:20min/km, and soon the front and mid packs disappeared from me.

It was still cool after an hour of running, as we hit the NSRCC stretch. We spotted someone whom we think is a SgRunner, but no confirmation lah. xdd and tktan turned around at the NSRCC stretch, as the pack continued on towards F2 carpark and the cable ski area. Brokie indicated she would turn around slightly early for a 26km to save her legs. The rest had powered on in front. SealBoon and Raven were running alongside me after that, and I bumped into a few more familiar faces along the Sailing Club area....lots of scenery to enjoy, and I was soaking up all the eye candy....lifted my spirits, and I felt light on my feet.

Reached the cable ski area spotting RR, teelee, Vincent, leh-lio, DO on the return leg. Time check on my watch at the mid-point was 1hr41min...hmm, decided to move a little faster for the return split. Kayano, Highbury and a few others were enroute to cable ski for 32km, as we turned back. I ran alone all the way on the return leg, as SealBoon and Raven had dropped back. I maintained a 5:50min/km kinda pace throughout....was glad to be back to the shaded stretch along Coastal Road. The sun was getting HOT, and I was impressed as I saw jj taking his walk break right under the sun. Time check with about 11km to go was about 2hr.

The stretch back was rather cool, and once more spotted tigger and Fennel on their bikes, waving at me. I waved back heavily, and moved towards the Chnagi Beach target. Saw DO in the distance, and passed him with about 7km to go. Then saw Cobalt, and told him we had just 5km to go...he must have been quite happy to hear that, almost disbelievingly...haha. Based on my timing and pace, I was quite sure I would reach back by 3hr20min. Didn't feel much tiredness in the legs until the 30km mark...well, just moved on as I wanted to be back to take some photos for those running back.

Out from the shaded beach stretch, the sun was beating strongly on my unprotected shoulders and face. I remained cool, and just continued on, imagining that I have another 10km to go...hmm. Finally could see the colorful group, and was happy to be rewarded with Brokie's Barley and xdd's jello. I took 3hr15min to finish the 32km+...about 6min/km pace lah. Whipped out my camera, and some bananas, and was back to the gathering point to grab photos for the runner returning....DO, Cobalt, Raven, SealBoon, kayano, jj all looked ecstatic to be back...all completed by 11am, which was the cut-off point as set by RSM. A happy bunch, all rewarded with barley, jello, 100plus and bananas...well done, all survived the Demoralizing Run, yet again!

Distance: 32km__Time: 3hr15min__Pace: 6:06min/km

Photo Slideshow

Photo Slideshow from Brokie's Cam