On the 1st September 2013, I completed a mission that I wrote about earlier a few months back in July, it’s my personal mission to Return to Running at the Singapore Bay Run 2013 10km. 3 years had passed since my last competitive run in the Standard Chartered Full Marathon in December 2009. After a 3 years time gap for my post recovery and rehabilitation, I decided that it was the right time for me to return to running. Leading up to my 10km comeback run, I trained and prepared as much as I could, drawing my previous training and running experiences for my 10km. While I reached a distance of 5km for 3x in the lead up to my 10km run, I wasn’t afraid of being inadequately prepared or not able to complete my 10km. I had the inner confidence that if I am able to maintain my 35mins for my 5km run (given my fitness level and condition), I will be fine for my 10km!
The Singapore Bay Run 2013 and Army Half Marathon 2013, one of the runs that I participated a few times before I was injured. This run was packed with many runners and it can get a bit overcrowded at some parts of the run! The weather was great, beautiful sunrise over the Marina Bay and the runners were off to a good start at the Esplanade Bridge. Running down the road in the Central Business District, all you see was a sea of human heads (runners), that was the size of the turnout! Overall for the 10km route, it was pretty alright, except for a few hiccups and bottlenecks situations whereby runners could not run and had to walk due to the congestions at the Helix Bridge and 10km turning point along Republic Avenue / Republic Boulevard.
Given the constraints and congestions, I tried my best to walk faster and overtake the walkers in front to restart and continue my running momentum. When I was nearing the finishing point, I was very excited and happy that my comeback run was going to be successfully completed!! However, at the last 250m stretch along St Andrews Road, I could not run to the finishing line and had to walk to the finishing line because there was a pretty bad (human) traffic jam!! I was planning to put my hands up in the air when I ran across the finishing line, nevertheless, I am still just as happy to walk across the finishing line since I can’t run my last 250m due to the human traffic jam!
When I crossed the finishing line, this marked my return to running. It may not be 21km next or even a 42km, however, I will continue to run my 10km and work towards my 21km! I was happy and excited even though my face doesn’t show it because my legs were aching due to my fitness level. With a rank by gun time of 1hr 28mins 55s and rank by nett time of 1hr 18mins 10s, I am not too far off from my training run target of 35mins for 5km. I will improve on my current running timing, bit by bit, stage by stage.
The past 3 years wasn’t an easy recovery journey for me, rehabilitation and recovery takes time. I am happy to declare that I am back again into running (time to run and exercise more, I must be less lazy!)