The IronBaby Running Experience

Chloe's Debut (21 not 18)

Chloe's debut was held on September 23. We arrived an hour prior to the event, we ample time to roam around and check out the venue, there were a number of interesting things. The baggage area and finishers area for each category had 3 whole parking lots occupied. There were about 2-3 large tents of baggage area for each category,  and there were no long lines to deposit the baggage.

Since I was a bit early, I was thinking  to warm up 20 minutes before the gunstart. However upon hearing the hosts stating that there will be 3,000 participants for the 21k category, I decided to warm up 40 mins before gunstart, because I want a have good spot to start the race. The organizers had a stretching session 10 mins prior to gun start, but the starting area is too croweded for streching. I wished the organizers implemented waves to cut down the number of runners and to prevent a jampacked starting line.

I started the race slow and easy,  headed towards the outer most lane to give way for those faster runners.  At about a few hundred meters, I bumped into a friend, Melvin. We ran together for about 2-3 kilometers. Since I was eyeing for another PR, I slowly accelerated and unknowinlgy outran him. The temperature was quite hot, so I headed towards each water station and bathed myself to regulate my body temperature.

However at about 8/9th kilometer my shirt wont dry quickly and I started to feel cold. I removed my shirt and sqeezed it but the water wont come out, so I decided to run topless again. I learned my lesson, I should always test my shirt a week before raceday so I will not experience this unexpected situations again. 

I crossed the halfway mark at about an hour which was a few minutes late of my target time. I started to accelerate slowly and just about a kilometer after the halfway mark, I saw one of my mentors passed by me, she was insanely fast . I tried to follow her but my I can’t go faster,  I have still a lot of training to go through to maintain a fast pace.

At the about the 16/17th kilometer I checked my watch, I was running late. I relaxed too much and forgot about my target time, so I accelerated again. At the 18th kilometer cramps started to hit me, involuntary contraction from thighs to calves and upto my toes were slowing me down, tried to strech for a few seconds and tried to have a 30sec walk and 3 min slow jog  interval to ease the pain.

The final stages of the course were tough, the pain was tolerable compared to my previous injury so I continued. Tried to smile whenever I bumped into some photographers, even though it look like a forced smile. Right after I crossed the finish line, I almost fell on my knees and a marshall saw that and asked if I was okay. I answered that I am ok and headed towards the medic tent and asked for some ice and liniment for first aid.

Overall, I enjoyed the race and I salute the organizers for such a great event! Next run is on Adidas King of the Road, see you there!