Army Half Marathon

For this year's AHM, I did not really prepared. I was oversea during the week leading to the event. Almost got drunk during Thursday night dinner. Not enough sleep and not proper carbo-loaded. It is not possible for me to have a personal best.

Today, the weather is nice, not hot, the sun is hidden behind the cloud. And it is not raining. It is ideal condition for running in Singapore.

I start at the back of the group, it takes about 8 minutes from the actual start time till I cross the starting line. I run at consistent pace at the beginning and switch to brisk walk when we need to climb the Sheares Bridge. And I hurry down the bridge at a 4:30 pace. Since I started at the back, the runners nearby are slower runners. I switch between run & walk all the way. When I walk, I am about similar to the slower runners and obviously much faster than other walkers. But when I run, I have difficulty in passing people. The runners are just too slow for my pace. There is simply too many people and too narrow on the course. There are several places that I encounter bottle neck and need to slowdown to slow walking pace. For the stretch between Fort Road and the Marina barrage, I can hardly switch between running and walking since the runners are very slow. I was actually passing the slow runners with just brisk walk at 7:45 pace. Secondly, that stretch is just temporarily paved and there are lots of water potholes and loose gravels. I got some gravels into my left shoe and caused a blister. I ultimately need to stop at 18km mark to clear it.

At around the half way, I started to have my shoe fully soaked. I think it is due to the water spill at the water station when I need to squeeze in to get water. The result is two blisters - one on the middle toe on the right foot and the other near the heel of left foot which is more caused by the gravel. I brought along two packs of gels and I used them at around 13km and 17km mark.
At around 17km mark, I have some cramp flare up on my right calf. I have to put some deep heat rub on it but in order to play safe, I have to switch to pure brisk walk in the last 4 km.

My original plan is to run the last km before finish line continuously. However, with the worry on my right foot, I decided to only start running in the last 200m. Well, it proves that I was too conservative. My last 100m is sprinting (3:46 pace) and I still have quite a bit of reserve. I think I could have run the last km without problem.

The water points are really disappointed this time. There are too little tables and it ends up spending 20-30s in each water point to just get the water.

Overall, the finish time on my Garmin is 2:38:16. It is faster than my last year's AHM but no where near my personal best. Even my half marathon split at HK full marathon is faster. I think if it is not due to the water point and mixing with the slower group, I should be able to finish at around 2 hr 30 minutes. Well, next time, I will start at the front portion of the group.