Unilab Run United 2: 2nd Piece of the Puzzle

Time to get back to blogging! I've been very busy these past few weeks, with my travel to Kuala Lumpur and then a week training at work with a certification exam afterwards. Crazy! I've got loads of backlog blog posts so I'll try to catch up bit by bit.

The 2nd leg of the Unilab Run United trilogy - Run United 2 2012 happened last 17th of June. This was my last long run before heading to KL for my 3rd full marathon. Quite disappointing since I caught a bad case of colds a few days before the run (which only worsened after the race because of the rain during this race).

I drove to Mall of Asia very early morning, if I remember correctly I was already there 2:15am. Haha! The race village was still being setup and I got a very nice parking slot. There were a few early bird runners already waiting for the shuttle buses to pick us up.

And then the rain poured hard, with strong accompanying winds. Runners had to find cover. It was getting cold as well. When we got inside the shuttle bus, we were already a bit wet. The airconditioning was torture! Haha!

With the reported 4000 21k runners, I knew how crowded the starting line will be. The emcee announced 3 waves will be implemented. I had no intention to race, so I didn't really care whatever wave I'll be in. I think I made it on the 2nd wave, which were released 15 minutes after the 1st. It took around 3 minutes for me to pass by the starting arc, and it became very difficult to squeeze my way in to overtake runners during the first few kilometers of the race. I was running solo (supposed runners who said they'd pace with me left me, bummer) but i bumped into a runner friend Arvin, I think around km10 so I had company for a few kilometers before he told me to go ahead.

At the last 5 kilometers, it was time for me to speed it up. I wanted to finish strong and I wanted at least a good negative split. When the runpix results were released, I was ecstatic reading "DURING THE LAST 6 KMS, YOU PASSED 576 RUNNERS, AND 0 PASSED YOU." Exactly my plan. I may not have done my sub-2 goal (I finished in 2:09), but I finished strong nonetheless.

RACE OBSERVATIONS:
- Shuttle buses were very efficient, but a bit late than the announced 2:30am pick-up start. I like that they're showing videos of previous Unilab Run United races. It was sort of building up the excitement more for that day's race.
- Waves were implemented. However, I hope next time, they'd check estimated/target finish times of runners so that waves could be more organized - with faster runners being released first, and bibs color-coded for waves. Not sure if this is too much to ask though on a logistics-perspective, but I've seen this being implemented on overseas race events.
- I love the race route. Point A to Point B races are really a breath of fresh air for runners.
- As usual, overflowing hydration.
- Medal and finisher shirt issue of RU1 no longer happened. The distribution of the finisher items are now more organized.

Thanks Active Moments for capturing this. Almost at the finish line!

Team Alpha1 group pic! Thanks to Rolly of Team Titans for lending us his camera.

Team Titan friends - Mark, Seph and Rolly

With Arvin - we paced for a few kilometers during the middle part of the race

Post-race breakfast at Gerry's Grill MoA

Runpix results

Next leg (Afroman Distance) on September 16! Mark your calendars! I can't wait to complete the medal puzzle!