2XU Compression Run 2023

It been a while since I last joined this race.  I believe the last one was 2017?  There was one year where a runner collapsed in front of me in the race where they had a full marathon.  After that 2XU never did any FM.

Joining this race was because I wanted to use up my health and wellness entitlement for my company for 2022.  That time there was also a deal going on where more people signing up for the race can get cheaper rate.  So managed to get 4 people to sign up together with me for the discount.

Website:https://2xurun.com/

Also I thought it will be a good time to test my half marathon timing.  Hopefully, it has not gotten rusty.  Running a half marathon is probably still manageable, I have been doing it during the covid period and so far the timing are still okay.

Race Pack Collection

The race pack collection was held at Suntec City Convention Hall and it garnered a lot of bad reviews on its first day due to the super long queue.  The exact reason might be due to poor organisation or bad logistics.  Some had queued for 4 hours on the first day just to get the race pack.  I went on the first day and after realising that the queue was too long and the organiser simply do not have the capacity to go any faster that day.  I decided to go back on the second day.  They did made a lot of changes for the second day and the waiting time was cut off largely.  The race pack was bountiful, I paid $66 and there was a race singlet with a polo tee shirt inside.

There were also some sample from the sponsors like detergent, sports tape and gel.

Race Day

Race day was on early Sunday morning of 16 April.  The race start is 04:30Am, I was still thinking of riding to the F1 pit which was in the city centre.  Car parking is getting really expensive in Singapore and I thought maybe doing something environmentally friendly will be good.  Making sure that I was all ready for the race , I did not go out far the night before and just had a simple sushi dinner with my nieces.  I prepared the stuff and also decided that I should have a drop bag for a fresh change of clothes as the weather was pretty humid and I presumed that I would kinda sweat a lot.

Did nothing much to prepare for this race, just had a red bull in the morning and I ended up parking at the Parliament house which was my favourite location for parking in the City Hall area.  Later, I found out that a lot of people actually parked at the Marina Square.  I kinda presume that the parking is going to be expensive there and did not bother to do so.

Walked almost 1 km plus to the start line.  The checking was strict and all runners had to put on the bib to get into the race village.  My friend, Richard was doing the AETOS security duties there as their company was taking  up the security task for this time round.

The 21 km was broken up to waves , each wave is about 6min in time.  The faster runners all tried to squeeze into the Pen A.  Somehow the Audio system was a bit furry that morning.  Took some pictures with the usual suspects, but did not manage to see many of our tortoise runners dorn the tortoise shirt.

The course was quite predictable, choke point was likely to be at the bridge at Tanjong Rhu and the Gardens by the bay East.  As I ran past it, I was thinking , it was a good move to do it in Pen A instead to avoid the crowd.  I flagged off with Rand and of course in the beginning I overtook him, my style.  He took over me by 13km at the Gardens.  I really admire is his consistency and also his recent pb at Seoul Marathon doing a 3:26!  A bit wet from the rain the previous day, but I was glad that the weather was rather cooling that morning.

 

My condition that morning was pretty good and I was wearing the Vibrams.  Finished at a Net time of 1:50, I was quite happy and glad at least the sky was still pretty dark.  Rand took a few pictures of me at the ending.  As it was dark, I did not see photographers taking the 21km folks.  The distance was about 500m shorter but I thought I had enough, saw some folks continuing to clock the full distance though.

Race Ending

There were the usual banana( 1pc ) , Pocari sweat and a cold wet towel which was really good.  Of course the medal too.  The race village had a few photo booths and also Carlsberg 0% , it was kinda strange that there was no water , I mean pure water for hydration.  I met Sally along the way and wanted to take picture with the rest of the Tortoises like Fowler.  But I found out they were still walking, so I decided to just go off first.

Overall the race was pretty enjoyable although there were a few casualties along the way who had fell down due to pushing and crowdedness.  The bag drop was also well managed and I managed to freshen up before going off.