New Balance Real Run 2007...

Got myself to Changi Exhibition center for the New Balance Real Run.

I must say this must be one of the most challenging run ever in my life. Ran 12km on the road, 1km on trail, 1km on sand and 1km on the runway. My word! This run really fits its slogan "The Ultimate X-Terrain Challenge".

My 15km race got flagged of at 0745H by the president himself. The morning sun just rose and thus the weather was still relatively cool.

The trail was rather shady, having the trees to block out the sunlight. But once we hit the road, the sun's rage almost killed me. The day started to become humid and hot. Turning into Changi Beach was my greatest relief due to the trees until I reached the sand. How hard can 1km of sand run be? For the amount of energy you put in for a running step on the road, you gotta put in twice the energy for the sand. Its was that tough. Every step you take, you either slip or get your foot stucked into the sand. Finally the official shouted "last 2km". Almost there eh? Can't be that hard to complete another 2km since you got the kick and you are nearly there right? How wrong! 2km of pure straight road. Coupled with 32 degrees celsius of sunrays blasting straight at you and your shoes filled with sand from the sand run. That was just HELL. The heat was bad I gotta admit. It almost forced me to walk the last 2km. My head was swelling from the sun's heat. But I ran and ran and ran till last 400m thinking " Yes just straight ahead". Wrong again! The end point was not where we started but at the other side of Changi Exhibition Hall! We had to run around the building. By the time I finished, I was burning hot from head to toe. I downed 2 100 plus and just poured the whole 500ml of water on my head. You can simply imagine how blistering the heat was. It was as good as running at 12noon boy!

But nontheless, compeleting a race definitely has its satisfaction. Moreover it was such a tough race.