JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge 2015

I didn’t sign up for this race this year because I didn’t enjoy it much last year. Last year we stood in full sun waiting for the start for about 45 minutes, so I was a bit hot, tired, dehydrated and generally fed up by the time the starting horn went. Then, during the race I had to stop twice, once for my shoelace and once to vomit!

This year about four days before the race, one of my colleagues who had registered injured herself. The organisers said that it was too close to the race date to change the name of the bib, and I could run “as her” but my placing would not be eligible for the team competition to go to the championship race.

I gave her the branded participants singlet and just kept the bib. On the day of the race I sipped electrolytes from about 10am and had a light lunch at about midday. At 3pm I ate a bar made from nuts and dried fruit, then at 4:30pm I got changed, put on my running shoes and met some of my colleagues in the lobby of our office building - we walked over, chatting all the way to the start on the Esplanade bridge.

At the start while we were waiting (and getting thirsty :-)) I saw a few people I knew including Adam, the father of one of my son’s classmates and Gil, a friend with whom I used to run in Dubai! Chatting to them helped the time to pass.

We were entertained by some drummers for a while before we were sent off at 5:30pm.

I started steady and tried to pay careful attention to people around me so I didn’t trip over somebody else’s feet – it was very crowded at the start and a lot of people running much slower than people behind them wanted to! After the first corner I found myself just next to Trine, my team mate from Arrivo Primo Singapura. We ran together for a little while and then she moved ahead a little faster than me. Just before the turn around, I saw my colleague, Phil, running the other way. He was close to the front of the men’s race but didn’t look very happy! After the turnaround, under the bridge there was a little uphill section where Gil passed me then a little further a long another woman passed me. I could still see Trine ahead of me, she had passed another woman so now there were two women between us. About 1km from the end, I heard my friend Ave shout and cheer which was lovely!! Then on the last straight section before the finish line I overtook one of the women between Trine and me! In the end she was third and I was fifth. It was a shame because the timing was over a minute faster than my time for the same race last year and my fastest ever for that course 22m58s for 5.6km… just that in the official records my name would not be there! Shame! Perhaps I will sign up next year :-)