Shape Run 2010

It's Shape Run 2010 this morning and there were no rooms for guys, for it was an all ladies affair only.

Winnie had registered the 10km event and she was lucky this time to have booked early for this spot, being one of the hottest run events for ladies here. Again, due to her tight work schedule, she did not do enough training prior to this event. She only managed to sneak one run on treadmills, covering some 5km this week, sigh.

As I had no event this morning, I volunteered to pick her at her place and sent her to the venue. Got up this morning at 5am and left my house at about 5.15am for Winnie's place. I gave her a morning call before setting off, targeted to reach her place before 5.45am. Well, she came out of her house a little over 6am.

The flag-off was scheduled at 7am at Nicoll Highway just behind Golden Mile Complex. We reached the basement car park of Golden Mile Complex at about 6.30am and proceeded to move on foot to the start point by following the throngs of female runners. I understand there were some 8,000 runners this morning.

Helped her with the number bib and after that, she did some warming up. When done, queued for the toilet which took quite a while. It was nearing 7am by then, she proceeded to the start line and almost immediately, the two MCs, a lady & a guy announced the arrival of guest-of-honour, Mr Teo Ser Luck who was to flag-off the runners. Off they went to the applause of the spectators, mostly guys who could only watch. I had this adrenalin rush to run but hey, this was an all-ladies event.

Had an hour to kill before bulk of the runners including Winnie would make the final dash to the tape, I made a slow walk to the hawker centre opposite Golden Mile Complex for my regular morning cuppa, my tea. But when I walked back to the finishing line, I missed the first runner and no prizes for the right answer, it was Vivian Tang who hit the tape first. I managed to hear the announcers congratulating the second runner who finished around 40 minutes, reckon Vivian Tang should have come under 40 mins. More and more runners were making their final dash to the finish. Finally, I saw Winnie at the turn before the straight dash to the finish. Quickly, I took out my handphone from my pocket to catch a shot of her running. The time board above showed her gun finish at 1 hr 7 mins and taking out 2 mins, her chip finish should be around 1 hr 5 mins.

The weather was fine throughout, helped with early start at 7am though it was reported heavy downpour expected. I can hear people talking about the good weather this morning.

While it was not a bad race from start to finish but the queue for runner kits could have been better organised. The organisers should have arranged for all finishers walk into one queue to pick up their runner kits instead of carving out another area for collection of the runner kits. It was confusing to say the least, there more many queues but no signs directing people correctly. This was probably the only blemish for this event, other than that, it was a good event. To Winnie, congratulation for the completion of this race and in the next event, GE Run, aim for under one hour. You can do it, challenge yourself for personal satisfaction. Hooray!