July 2012 was a very busy month as I had 4 races to do and almost every weekend was packed. This was my last race in Jul and the most boring one as the route was along the ECP. I arrived at Angsana Green, ECP by taking the free bus shuttle from Bedok MRT station. :) I didn't see anyone familiar except for Jennifer, who was volunteering for the event. There were a few stalls being setup and more and more runners trickling into the race start area. And then I saw Charlotte! I found it strange as she never register for local races (from my limited knowledge). Besides, she was not wearing any bib. So I asked her what was her purpose of being there and the truth was out. She was supposed to run but she forgotten to bring her bib! I told her that since she was there, and the route remained open for other park users, she could run with me. Charlotte was hesitant as people might thought she was a bandit runner. I just about convinced her that on paper, she was not a bandit though people might think so since she had no bib on her. If she got pulled out of the race, then she had to accept and retire from the race. If not, then at least her trip down to ECP would not be wasted. So we are all set!
The handcyclists (not sure of the term) were flagged off at around 7.15am, followed by a Malay Cultural Ensemble performance. At around 7.30am, the 15km runners were flagged off. We ran towards the Playground's direction and u-turn after about 3km. Charlotte was really nice to keep her promise to run at my pace. She was a much faster and stronger runner than me. I ran passed Arrow and Man after the lagoon and waved hi to them. :) At the first water point, we stopped to take water and Charlotte waited for me to finish taking photos before we continued. So I told her that for subsequent water stations, to save time, she should run ahead to get the water for us while I snap some pictures. She obliged to my request. :p We continued and soon she was ahead of me most of the time though she always made sure I was never far from her. After 3km, we u-turn back to the start and headed towards the NSRCC' (National Service Resort Country Club) direction, which was also the u-turn. Someone then called out to me, I didn't know Poh Gek signed up to run and was very surprised. I ran with her for a short while. She was running with Sok Bee and another friend. Poh Gek also said she signed up for the Yellow Ribbon Prison Run which I would be running as well. We agreed to meet up for the race. I wished her all the best with the race before running very hard to catch up with Charlotte, which I eventually did.
After the u-turn point at NSRCC, which was about 4.5km from the finishing, we made another u-turn to go back to the start/end point. By now, Charlotte decided to chiong ahead and I was left on my own. :( I didn't see anyone familiar until about 2km from the finishing when I saw Alexandra! And we sort of paced each other to the end of the race, which by then, it was very hot. At the finishing point, I saw Jennifer again! This time, she was marshalling the runners into the different finishing chute to collect their medal and food. After I got mine, I got myself a free can of redbull at the sponsor's booth when they started giving out. Then I met up with Charlotte. As she was running without a bib, she decided not to go into the finishing chute. Thus she didn't had a medal. I decided to gave her mine as I had didn't have space in my display cabinet. Besides, it was a way to thank her for pacing me almost 3/4 of the route. A very good workout on an otherwise, super boring route. :)
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