Sundown Ultra-Marathon: Final Prep

About 40 of us gathered for our final Sundown Prep Run at ECP car-park C4 at 8pm. The plan was to recce the various Park Connectors (PCN) of Siglap PCN -> Bedok Reservoir PCN and Pasir Ris Park PCN. Many were in their SKINS, 2XU and CWX suits for a full-dress rehearsal...haha.

The run started at 8.30pm in rather gloomy skies and high humidity. Fortunately the rain never showed up. I was trying out my last pair of runnable cushion shoes, the PI SynchroFLOAT2, too see if it would fare better than the less cushioned Speedstar and DS Trainer that I was more used to. Most of the familiar kakis were there, with a few doing the route for their first time. We covered the first 15km to Pasir Ris Park without much problems, and I was glad to be shown the various tricky turning points before Bedok Reservoir, the traffic junction with 'The Clinic' sign and the turn-off into Tampines Ave 9. Tekko and Wend88 took the opportunity to recce the site of their support station, and made comprehensive plans on how to organize on race night.

Brokie, Vincent, DO, Alber, Triple, Ultra, Bev, Cokiee, Heng, Chuacath and myself ran as a group to Downtown East and then U-turn at the Mosque, estimated to be a 16km distance from C4. The return was slightly cooler with slight winds, and we were motivated by the thought of having a nice pit-stop at Cheers along the Bedok Park Canal. After 20km, my feet were still feeling ok. Bev was feeling ok, just a tad thirsty and hungry. With the refuel, it was a higher-paced run back. Bump into the too family along the Bedok Park/Kebangan MRT area, but we did not stop to chat for long as all were shooting for the final 4km.

The concrete and uneven ground along Siglap Connector felt terrible, and I cannot imagine how the soles and calves of my legs will hate them after 60km. Bev, Chuacath, heng and myself ran as a group, following Brokie and V for the final 3km. It was a nice finish, and thanks to RoadRunner who had prepared 100plus, in spite of him having ran 42km and returned earlier than us. We completed 32km in about 4hrs. All still felt that we could never be quite ready for the 84km gruelling distance, especially on such hard concrete surfaces *shudder*. After the wash-up, we went to You Tiao Da Wang for some food which I feel is not worth mentioning.

So it is tapering time now, till the big race on May 31. When the Sun Goes Down on May31, The Sundowners Will Begin Their Journey!