Beautiful First Night Race @ZSC

And, I completed my first night race here. :)

It has really been a long time since I joined such running events, and I was... a little excited and nervous. 

The race was originally postponed due to the rising covid cases, and I was kinda surprised that it was postponed to just... 1 week after. (I wonder if there has been a decline of cases and that's why, or?)

But, still, it was good to join in this event. 

Fiona said that she missed all the pre-race jitters, and that's possibly how I felt too. And given that I've been running every weekend, and now tracking my runs on runkeeper, I was curious to know if I would be able to under 6, for each km. My target was 6.10, and my dear husband said it was not a target and I should aim for under. Haha. But this is the race jitter la. 

I had no expectations about the organisation of the event, because I have no prior race experience here, and I just thought to follow the flow. I reached to find a whole masked crowd gathered for the 8km run already lined up in the stadium, and with social distancing. It was quite an interesting different experience, because there was no starting off at the same time, no shoving and pushing to the front. Groups of 8 set off 30 seconds apart, and everyone obeyed the rules. 

 

The run started and I just set off with my new sound-liberty wireless buds planted firmly in my ear. I must have been too excited, because at the 5th-mark, I was clocking 5:19. Haha. And then, I realised it must have been the adrenalin in me. So I slowed down a little and just ran. The route was familiar to me, given that I live just here in the sports city, but it was also unfamiliar with the night and the various cones and twists and turns here and there. And with the numbers of people and 2 different races going on at the same time. There were road marshalls and that was helpful, but some parts were really just dark. Still, I just ran and slowed down a little. 

At the 6km mark, I felt I still have quite some energy left, and decided to put in more power in each stride, and to go a little faster. The problem was.... when I was nearly almost 8km, the end was no where in sight. My runkeeper buzzed, and now I had gone on beyond the 8km mark and I thought perhaps, I should recalibrate again to make sure I can continue to finish the race. This was a little unexpected, but the extra exercise would not kill, so then, it's back to the psyche to say - recalibrate, and run on. 

Finally, I thought I saw the end-in-sight, with another 1/2 loop round the stadium exteriors. I ran through the alleyway leading into the stadium, happy to have completed my first run. Really happy. 

And I clocked 5.55 on my runkeeper, for 9.62km.