Did the Jurong Lake 5K today in Singapore with 4 new EAPSI friends who I forced to become runners - this was all of theirs first race ever and they all say they will do another one, so its a SUCCESS! My plan to make running take over the world continues. After getting home fairly late last night from a trip to Melaka, Malaysia, a terrible calf cramp in the middle of the night (WHY?) that left it still so tight in the morning, and no breakfast available, I was feeling less than stellar this morning. But Gitt and I headed out, met Melissa, Ola, and Patrick, I did a 1.1 mile warm-up, and we lined up. I wasn't sure where to line-up since this was a "fun run" but I did so in my normal spot - about a 1/3 of the way back - bad decision. Apparently I needed to toe the line! I swear I practically won the fun run, I was passing people the whole entire time, and most of the people in front of me were WALKING! It was so hard to weave around them all and I wasted so much energy doing that, plus after a mile or so we started passing 10k walkers (who started an hour before us - this was where it was timed and the serious runners likely were, but the registration closed very early), so so much weaving. On to the race itself. Oof. It was hard. Although this was 2 minutes off my 5k PR I feel like it was a PR effort. I wish I hadn't forgotten my heart rate monitor because I'm sure my heart rate was near max most of the time. The 3rd mile was so hard and I thought I might die. Very pretty scenery around Jurong Lake, which boasts lovely Chinese gardens with little temples, cute bridges, a lake (obviously), etc. This was the inaugural run for this race, and it was pretty well done, except there were no snacks afterwards! Just bottled water and 100Plus (but only 1 per person!) and NO snacks! When does that ever happen? Patrick and Ola started at the line, so it took almost a mile to come upon Ola, and then probably 2 miles to come upon Patrick, but I finally passed them both. Felt like I was going to die in the 3rd mile, and it was difficult to keep pushing, but I forced myself to kick when I could finally see the finish line even though I thought I might throw up. At 8:30am it already felt like it was sweltering - the sun was beating down and I felt like my face was on fire. Those 7's in my times are much much more than I hoped for, so I'm very pleased with this effort in the heat / humidity. Looks like during the race it was about 84 degrees, 89% humidity, so heat index temperature of 93. Afterwards we went to a (semi) delicious breakfast at Swensen's to celebrate our dominance. PS - I might die during the half-marathon. That might have been a mistake! TT: 25:28 AP: 7:52 (based on 3.24 not 3.11) Splits - 8:03 (so much weaving!), 7:49, 7:52, 7:18
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