Safra S'pore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon: Running with Achilles tendinitis again

For the first time, I ran a half marathon on back-to-back Sundays.

For the second time, I limped to the start line.

Yesterday's Safra S'pore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon was my third.

A week after The Performance Series run at Punggol, my right ankle still hurt when I walked.

The Army Half Marathon has long been my Moby Dick since I first joined the event in 2013. It was my first 21km race.

I joined again last year. Both times, I felt defeated by the distance.

I told myself that this time, I was going to kill the White Whale. Then my Achilles tendinitis happened.

But having survived the Punggol racewith the bad ankle, I felt a little more confident yesterday morning.

Flag-off was at 4:30am.



There were over 40,000 ruuners, about 10 times more than at the Punggol run.























The water points were rather chaotic because of the crowd.

















Approaching the finish line:

















For the first time, I managed to run (or jog) almost all the way to the finish line in a half marathon, walking only before and after a couple of water points. My ankle actually hurt less when I ran.

I made it in just under three hours.

Thanks to the power of the low expectations due to my Achilles tendinitis, I'm actually pretty happy with my performance (even if I don't look it in the photos).

For the first time after an Army Half Marathon, I don't hate myself.

I like the new route much better. A few minor bottlenecks but the dreaded Republic Avenue U-turn was no more.

A post shared by SM Ong (@sm_ong) on Aug 19, 2017 at 9:21pm PDT

I may not have conquered the White Whale, but I can live with it now.