While most people in Singapore was still in a deep slumber earlier this morning, we woke up at around 2am for breakfast before the Singapore Bay Run. As the sleepyheads made their way down to the National Day floating platform at Marina Bay, many of us continued catching forty winks on the bus.

Upon reaching our destination, the 21km runners had to report and warm up for their run which was to start at around 5.30am. As for the 12km runners like me, we had to wait till 7.15am before the run was flagged off. Although I planned to run the race with a group of close friends, but due to the overwhelming number of participants, we soon lost each other in the crowd.

This made the run even more mentally-stressful as there is no one alongside to motivate and push you on. In fact, the run was not as physical as I thought it would be. It’s all in mind. When you have the physical endurance, it all comes down to a matter of mind over body. So, as I thrusted myself past the finishing line, I looked at my watch – 1:09:18. Yes, it was satisfying as I met my target of completing the race below 1 hour 10 minutes.

As I left the floating platform with my friends for lunch and a session of karaoke, I can’t help but look forward to next year’s run when we’ll be doing the 21 clicks half marathon. It’s going to be a great race.