Singapore Bay Run

9 years on, I participated in my second Army Half Marathon, or a sexier name would be the Singapore Bay Run. In 2002, when I could barely survive the mandatory IPPT 2.4km run, I needed to run the 21km to pass out from my SISPEC course. I remember running up Sheares Bridge with literally a whole platoon of sweaty smelly army boys. The only thing that kept me going was my hormones.

You know how girls like to wear sports bras to races? In 2002, with 19km left, all I could do was to fixate my eyes on this girl wearing a black sports bra and did my best to keep up with her. Yes, every single dirty thought a hormone-raging, sex-depraved army boy could think of was manifested in me running after a pony-tailed girl in a black sports bra. I think I finished the race in slightly over 3hours.

This time, it was a girl in a white sports bra.

Before I get to that, I must say that doing 21km under 2hours has been my best result so far. And it can only be a miracle from God, because I almost didn’t make it to the race. Was chilling with friends the night before, and only had 2 hours to sleep before trudging down to the start line at for flag off at 5.15am.

I wasn’t sure if I could survive, much less complete the race.

Somehow my body felt good and despite my head telling my body that I’m going to fast at the early 5km mark, my body just kept going. Maybe it was still sleeping.

But I did feel abit of burnout in my lungs at about the 7km mark and the fact that I couldn’t shake the crowd, make it uncomfortable to breathe or pace properly having to keep overtaking. That’s when I thought I would just pace someone.

Someone wearing a white sports bra. To whomever you are reading this, thank you.
Pacing you for a good distance after the 10km mark definitely helped to get me past the first wall. And it was smooth sailing all the way to the finish line. Overall, it was one of the best races I’ve felt in a long time. Thank God. Best part was, I had enough energy to walk to town, take a cab back, have breakfast (yeah, I didn’t even eat for the race) and then go to church. Awesome awesome stuff.

Phew. I wouldn’t recommend what I did for anyone out there going for their next race, but hey. Jesus Christ saved the day, even for perverted runners like me who pace sports bras.

I hope there will be more sports bras in Dec for my next race, 42km!