10km Sheares Bridge Run 2006... A Series of Unfortunate Events...

This morning's 10km Sheares Bridge Run, for me anyway, can be described as a series of unfortunate events.

Why do I say this?

Well, read on and perhaps you all will understand my reasons...

One, after I got to the Padang (which was where the run was at) this morning, I (and several other 10km non-competitive runners) found out that the bag deposit service provided by the organisers was only for competitive runners (the website for the run only said that "Bag deposit service is available for participants" but did not specify that it was only for competitive runners). Thus, I, having a a heavy waistpouch and nowhere to deposit it, almost decided to just leave and forget about the run. Fortunately, I was able to ask a guy (from CJC, I think) who was staying back to take care of his friends' bags to help to take care of my heavy waistpouch. Here, I would like to again thank this guy for taking care of my stuff.

Two, there were several bottlenecks during the initial part of the run (which is very annoying to runners who want a smooth & uninterrupted run) due to the 3 main reasons listed below.

I) The massive amount of people taking part in the run (the organisers should really have set a limit on the number of people who can participate, if they have not done so yet).

II) The limited amount of running space (only 1 running lane was open to the participants for at least 5-6km of the run).

III) The presence of at least 2-3 SAF units (Commandos, Guards and an Air Force squadron), running in big groups with their unit/formation flags in front of them, taking up quite a bit of the already limited running space.

Three, it really didn't help that it started to rain quite heavily from the 7-8km mark onwards. I, and those whom continued to rain despite the rain, was totally drenched.

Four, there was a bottleneck just before the finishing point! (At this point in time, I just stopped my stopwatch; I didn't see the point to continue timing.)

In the end, I managed to finish the run in 1 hour 5 minutes and 18 seconds, which isn't too bad a timing, considering the above circumstances.

Five (and lastly), I had to queue for at least for half an hour after my run before I could get my goodie bag, which was not exactly filled with "goodies" (e.g. the copy of S.N.A.G. magazine in the goodie bag is 7 months old!)

Well, I suppose that the only compensating factor to all this would be that the design of this year's event T-shirt (see above) isn't too bad (of course, this is in comparison to last year's design).

Next major run on my calendar: Singapore Standard Chartered Run (21km), 3/12/2006 (or maybe I will go also for this Terry Fox Run which is projected to be on 16/9/2006).