Tour De Trail

As the name suggest it’s a run around MacRitchie Reservoir. I actually did not want to sign up for this run but found out that they actually had a Heart Rate Monitor in their goodie bag and I believe the run was for charity. It was coupled with another run somewhere in the West at the Chinese Garden but I was more interested in this. The entry fee was pretty high at $75 but I guess $75 for a HRM was relatively cheap. I only signed up like the week before and when I went to collect my goodie bag they had not received my entry yet so I had to rekey in everything again. I went early on a Saturday to pick up the stuff and the shipment of HRMs had not arrived so I had to pick that up on the race day instead. The running vest and number that I had got.

It was a 10.5km run which would take us 2 rounds of the normal boys cross country track plus a bit more up the Reservoir’s walk way round the food area, (not exactly sure what that area was) The flag off was at 7.30am a rather late flag off but I guess they wanted to be sure there was light along the jungle track, I have run there in the wee hours of the morning at 6.30am or so and it’s pitch black at some areas with just some light to guide you if you were running on the tracks.

It was not a big race event, about maybe a couple of hundred people turned up. I walked from my house to MacRitchie in the wee hours of the morning. That was like a 3 or 4 km walk, that got me warm up was sweating already before the run. We were flagged off at 7.30am and I felt the first round of the jungle track was really punishing. Almost wanted to just walk the rest of the way but continued and I think after that first 5km I was really warmed up and the second round was much better. The event was organized fairly well had 5 water points along the route which was good. The funny think was they gave the isotonic drink in cups with ice !! That was a first for me but I kept the ice and held it in my hands till it melted and used it to cool me down. They did not have a clock and I think my time based on my watch was 1 hr 14 minutes or so for 10.5km which was ok for me.

Collected my Hearth Rate Monitor, must give it a try at my next run and had the rather long walk home. That’s another 3 or 4 km of walking.