Mizuno Mt Faber Run Race Report

Of all the races I've done (which is some pitiful number), I think this was one of the most disorganised ones. At risk of being banned forever by disgruntled race organisers, let me just list the reasons for my conclusion:

Firstly, the race started 5 minutes before flag-off time. As far as I know, my watch has always been pretty accurate and I haven't before started any race late. So I doubt this is my fault at all!

Secondly, the route chosen to Mt Faber basically alongside some main road and the pavement was narrow, so people ended up running on the road itself. It was literally Man vs Car for the distance up to the hill. Coupled with numerous traffic lights throughout the course of the run, this race felt more like a practice run than an actual race. Could they have cordoned off the road? Closed a couple of roads? I'm not sure. I don't know if it costs money to do that or if it's just too much effort for the organisers, but it was a very weird run full of starts and stops. I can't imagine how anyone who runs this run competitively wouldn't be a bit annoyed at all the traffic light stops etc.

Thirdly, the race marshalls seemed to have no clue where the water stops were! On this point I concede that I may be a bit too hard on the organisers, since it was my own fault that I was so desperately thirsty (I had a couple of wines and beers the previous night) that I needed a water stop every 2 steps (there were 3 water stops) and all I had was a vague 'it's somewhere up ahead' answer.

Finally, they ran out of water at the end! This I think was probably the most unforgivable travesty! This isn't the first Mt Faber run, so I don't understand why they under-catered in the whole hydration area anyway! G and I had to grab our bags and then dash off to the nearby hawker to get some much needed hydration.

Would I do the run again in spite of all this? Quite likely although I might make sure to bring my own water next time. It was challenging and that made up for the poor organisation. The uphill run was sheer torture and G and I got lazy and strolled down. But the moment we got back on ground, I was flying (by my standards at least). I've always held back until the last 50m (or such point where the finish line is visible) but yesterday, for some reason I started dashing off with 2.5k to go....needless to say I regretted that almost instantly. I couldn't stop because it was...well, just too embarrassing and humiliating to start with a burst and then just fizzle out after 10 steps, so I just stuck it out. And I made it the whole 2.5k without dying!

I'm pretty happy with my time, not because I ran particularly fast but because I hadn't been doing much by way of training, I strolled down the entire downhill bit of Mt Faber, and I wasn't running all that quickly up Mt Faber either...all that in mind, the time I took was actually half decent. Yes I am actually making excuses for having a lousy time, but I'm still rather pleased with my lousy time!

R and I met up for a good ole Sunday roast at Fosters after his hockey game and spent the rest of the day just chilling out. All in, it was a pretty good Sunday, despite the sore legs today!

Race time: 10k in 1hr 22 mins