Sunday, November 23, 2008

Final Two Weeks...All Pumped Up!

Field report by FatBird Anthony
Photo Slide Show by FatBird Jancy

Team FatBird Pacers

It was a record turnout for Team FatBird Pacers Training session this morning, and it was an opportune time to capture all the various Pacer Groups and a large group photo to boot....aiya, forgot to take a group Pacer photo in the end....nvm, next week.

Final Brief

All were ready to implement their Pace strategies for race day, and I was raring to try out the strategy after having rested for 2 days. My left butt wasn't so tight anymore, and I had on my Lunar Racer to do a final test for race day. After a quick brief to the crowd, we set off with the 4hr group taking the lead. Ultra, Aero, myself were running to a average 5:30min/km pace, with Yamsong, HophIng, Matthew, babumouse, Bose, Soloman tracking behind. I explained the 4hr Pace strategy to Aero and the other runners.

The Run Off

Along the way, we met with so many running groups and familiar faces....lots of waves and hi-s and it was really nice to see so many out for their final few training runs. Ran by F2, and the Lunar Trials were taking place....waved to the Nike folks, and they gave some good encouragement. We reached 10km in 54min, well within 5:30 pace. I encouraged all to maintain that pace to 21km, and then we can drift(slack) a little...hehe. We reached 12km along Changi Coastal Road in 1hr5min...good time.

After the U-turn, it was refreshing to see the various Pace groups all running in tight packs and according to pace...I became confident that Team FatBird will deliver on race day. Shouts of encouragement ensued as we ran past the various groups. Back to F2, the Lunar trails were still in progress, and Ming started on his own run. Earlier, we touched 21km in 1hr54min (6min of buffer). With about 6km to go, were maintaining an average 5:27min/km pace....cool. Ultra, Aero, Matthew, Yamsong and myself were stil bunched up, as we navigated the final 5km along ECP. The sun was beating down on us, and we could see many tired faces along the way. We finally completed the 24km run back at The Big Splash in 2hr10min, an average pace of 5:26min/km.

We were all pretty drained by the weather, and witgh the pounding on those hard grounds, legs were getting battered and tight....glad that this will soon be over in 2 weeks time. Ultra went to get the iced-cold 100plus...wah, shiokzz. We offered some cold drinks to the F1 Runners who had completed their 30km+ recce run, and they are real fast....Lexxus, Hong Leng and gang. Had a good chat with them. I managed to brief the Pacers on race day admin and carbo-loading session with Pacees. The team spirit was high, and everyone was looking forward to the big day.

The Chosen Ones :)

A lot of runners joined us, including SgRunners IMD, babumouse, LaserRunner, renohtaram, phoenix and a couple of I-Runners and SAFRA runners too. It was one melting pot (haha...literally) at The PlayGround @ Big Splash, where we had fun exchanging tips, stories and pearls of wisdom for race day. The 21km group of Pacers and Pacees performed very well, and were in high spirits. With one more training run next Sunday for Team FatBird, it is time for us to rest and consolidate ourselves so that we will be able to deliver our mantra - Follow Our Pace, Win Your Race. Cheers!

Distance: 23.92km__Time: 2hr10min__Pace: 5:26min/km

Team FatBird Photo SlideShow

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