A year ago today, I woke up at 4:30 am to race Challenge Roth which started shortly after sunrise. Today, I woke at 4:30 am to race a 10 km run in tropical Singapore to finish shortly after sunrise.
Running in Singapore comes with two major differences to many places in the world: Humidity and Heat: Therefore, running is recommended early in the morning and after sunset only to avoid the heat. And the humidity makes for very sweaty conditions. During today’s 10 km race, my body weight reduced by 1.1 kg…
The race was very nice: It started at 6:30 am, which is still dark in Singapore. After the start, I had to run through many slower runners or walkers. It took 2.5 km before I was able to run with runners at a similar pace to mine. The route went out to the National Stadium and back to the Marina Bay. At km 7, the course had us running along the pit lane of the Singapore F1 race course. The stretch along the paddock building and the starting line of the F1 race course is very wide and straight. This would have been the perfect location for a runners pit stop (i.e. nutrition spot), however the nutrition station was positioned on a narrow path just after we left the F1 race course. It seems that runners are not fast enough to qualify for a pit stop on the F1 track…
A year ago in Challenge Roth I was a ‘daylight finisher’ and today I was also a ‘daylight finisher’…. however today’s race was eleven and a half hours shorter! I was a happy finisher in both events.
Running in the morning humidity of 86% and a temperature of 27°C is much harder than in European locations. It felt more like a half marathon, than a 10 km race. Imagine how it feels to run a marathon in this climate!
