Newton 25K Challenge 2012 Race Review

My first longest distanced race for the year and personally, it was a tad bit disappointing. The race itself was pretty fun. The route was every bit as challenging as it was made out to be. I'm glad to say that I ran up both Ammah and her daughters without stopping to catch my breath but that was basically the only highlight of my race.

The wife and me got to the race an hour before the 25K flag off. We took a couple of kilometers warm up around the area to work the 'tight early morning just got up from sleep' muscles and then I headed to the start line for my event.

I had a target pace in mind and intended to keep to it and the only worry I had was whether my thigh injury would manifest itself during the race. The race started on time and I took off at a slow trot until I could find clear traffic and got into rhythm.

Kept to my desired pace throughout the first 15K, took on the hills and slopes littered along the way without stopping, which was a feat in itself and was doing fine all the way up to the roundabout somewhere around the 15K mark. Felt a tug at the back of the thigh and red alerts came on.

'Not now', I muttered to the darn leg. 'I still have a ways to go', I pleaded with it. 'Just hang in there', I begged. 'It's only 10K to go', I assured it. I suppose it just wasn't meant to be cos the tugs got worse and the sharp pains I experience two weeks ago during my run came back. I had to stop and walk to ease the pain and then continue. But to no avail, it worked for a while and then the pain came back.

'Drats', I thought. There goes my race. The 'ease the pain' walk sessions started getting longer and I was losing time considerably. Not much I could do but to grit my teeth and push on as best as I can. I struggled along with the walk/run method all the way back. Neoh caught up with me around the 20K mark, all I could do was watch him disappear in the distance. Good job Neoh, you ran a beautiful race.

That was the longest 5 kilometers in my entire life! I limped across the finish in a time of 2:43:27 which was way off my usual pace. To say I'm disappointed, yes I am, but I'm happy that I managed to usher in the new year doing what I love doing, which is running :D There will be other races for me to make up for this disappointment.

Congrats to the wife for doing the 12K event and taking 8 minutes of her personal best :D Good job, babe. Soon, you'll be outrunning me ... hahaha! Oh and hearing them call out your name as you cross the finish line was pretty cool.

Happy New Year people.