A Newsworthy Event!

by Fiona Lee

The Straits Times Run took place in 16^th July, and I joined the race because I had never ran the event before and thought it would be a pretty good experience to give this local race a go.

I made my way to the race venue with the help of Share Transport, a new app-based transport service. We paid six dollars each and were on our way, reaching the race site at 5.30am, one hour before the flag off time.

Considering that the flag off time for the 18.45km category had come and gone, the race site was still crowded and lively. The remaining group of people left were the 10km and 5km distance participants.
I had Terence Teo from the Running Department as my personal pacer for this event, as I was attempting to set my Personal Best time for the 10km distance. I met Terence during some training sessions organised by Nike, and he volunteered to be my personal pacer when the Straits Times Race came up.

It just happens that the Running Department are also the official pacers for the event. The pacers’ job is to maintain a consistent speed to help runners following them finish within a certain time bracket.

The association with Running Department also did grant me a few perks. It helped me get VIP access for the entire event and included me in the first wave of runners at the front of the racing line.

The route for the Straits Times Run will be familiar to those who are used to running around the city, as there are only so many ways you can plan a race route through the centre of town. There were sufficient hydration points and clear signage to navigate people through the routes, and at the 7km mark, there were drummers to lend musical support for the final 3km dash to the finish.

From where I was running, I encountered no bottlenecks throughout the race. I ended the race with a time of 1:00:23 which was within my expectations. If it weren’t for Terence yelling encouragement and making sure I was actually able to keep up with him, I might not have been able to do so.

The whole event was smooth and we all breezed through a mist station after the event on the way to collect our shirt and medal. The race village was pretty hyped up and I left the event in high spirits. Thanks to the support from Running Department and Nike, I was able to experience the event from a whole new perspective.