aniMILES Reloaded!

To clock in some mileage, I joined the FatBird team this Sunday morning for a 24km LSD at the aniMILES route. I have not been to this route for more than 6 months, in fact, even longer than that. The last time we ran past was during Operation NightHawk 2008.

We kicked off the run at 6.50am, after waiting for 20min for any last-minute runners....just missed Eline. The morning air in that green-lung area was fresh and crisp. As we moved onto OUTR from Casuarina, we picked up the pace to about 5:15min/km. DO and I were showing the way to a few of the FatBird Runners, as we proceeded to assemble at Seletar Reservoir toilet. FJ turned back for a 15km, while we the rest moved on towards Mandai Road along the way to Crematorium. At the junction, Andy, YN and Spencer split to the right towards Thomsom Road for 18km.

Johnny, DO and I continued on to the end of the road leading to the Zoo. We were pleasantly surprised to see that stretch being nicely paved, and the bushes and shrubs removed. It made for a much smoother run, and the road no longer slippery as it was before. We met a few smallish running groups along the way, and a few packs of cyclists along the road....one group shouted 'FATBIRD', but we couldn't make out who it was...hehe. A distance up, SC5 on his bike also called out to me. That Mandai Road stretch is still as interesting as before :)

On the U-turn, we took the straight and long road all the way to Upper Thomson Road. The sides were also paved, and made for some good running. We moved our pace to 4:50min/km - 5:00min/km. Along Upper Thomson Road, I bumped into Eline, who was running back home. With 6km to go, I slowed the pace a little to catch a breather. The sun was burning down on my back...fortunately there were shades along OUTR. Finished the 24km back at LPR in 2hr4min. Someone called out to me, and realized it was Loke with the Sgrunners MR group.

Familiar faces all round, they did about 12km in slopey terrain of SICC. YN, Spencer and Andy had a nice Prata brekky along Casuarina, before meeting us back at LPR. We had a good chat about stylo-mylo sun-shades as training for the upcoming Sundown Marathon in May. Our marathon conditioning for HK Marathon will continue next weekend at the slopes of Mt. Faber....6 weeks to the race :)

Distance: 24.2km__Time: 2hr4min__Pace: 5:10min/km
.