The second and final Training Run for the Great Eastern Women’s Run took place last Sunday at the Singapore Sports Hub.
Race takes place on 1 November
Happy participants after the GEWR training run.
Taking place on 1 November at The Float @ Marina Bay, the Great Eastern Women’s Run has four categories this year. These are the 21.1km, 10km and 5km races as well as the 100m Princess Dash to cater to kids.
The Great Eastern Women’s Run is Asia’s largest Women’s Only Half Marathon event.
12km and 6km Training Run routes
Everyone eager to start running.
For the training run, the 21.1km runners had a 12km route, that took participants from the Sports Hub through Gardens by the Bay and to Marina Barrage, before taking a detour towards East Coast Park and then heading back to the Sports Hub.
For 5km and 10km runners, they had completed a shorter 6km route from the Sports Hub through the Gardens by the Bay and towards the Marina Barrage before subsequently returning back to the starting point.
A warm-up session prior to the run.
The training run had been led by the 10km and 21.1km pacers, from the Running Department.
Warm Up session prior to the run
Besides the actual run itself though, we were also taken through a 15-minute warm-up session by representatives from the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. According to them, warm-up exercises are important because these help to loosen the muscles and prepare participants for the workout session ahead. This will, in turn, reduce the chances of injuries.
This warm-up exercises had comprised of mainly dynamic drills because these are able to get the muscles moving and would increase the runners’ core temperature for the session ahead. Doing static stretching instead of dynamic drills, will cool down the muscles instead of warming them up – and this might even increase your risk of injuries.
And participants are off!
I guess that we all realised the importance of these warm-up drills but I could tell from the looks on the faces of the participants, that they could probably not wait for these to finish and start the actual running!
Scenic and Enjoyable Run
I had thought that the 6km and 12k routes were rather scenic and enjoyable, with beautiful sights and sounds. These included seeing kayaks and canoes at the Kallang River, as well as the man-made SuperTrees at the Gardens.
As well, I could see the Singapore Flyer in the distance. This, together with the cool sea breeze, made it a really enjoyable run indeed and I thoroughly found myself enjoying the session, and completely losing myself in the relaxing run.
Happy GEWR pacers!
Having a group of ladies, all with similar goals in mind, running together, also helped because we were able to constantly call out words of encouragement to each other during the run, for example, like when we saw someone struggling.
This was all very heartening and I had really felt that the words of motivation greatly helped tired runners to keep on going. And the looks on their faces showed that they had really appreciated the gestures.
Ladies cooling down after the run.
As well, during the run, we also took the chance to simply chat idly to each other, asking questions such as what categories we are taking part in during the actual race and whether this was our first time running in the event. This mingling and camaraderie aspect of the training run was great fun – as women are, after all, social creatures.
At the same time, I also bumped into a few of Singapore’s elite marathon runners doing their training run – including Rachel See and JieShi Neo. They had coincidentally been doing their own run at the same time, and I must admit that it was a bit of a surprise to catch them. And they were as friendly as usual – we smiled and exchanged friendly greetings before running on. It had been a privilege to catch them in action.
Bread rolls to replenish runners’ depleted carbs.
Completing the Run
Upon the completion of the Training Run, we were even treated to a scrumptious spread of food for breakfast. These included chocolate and coffee flavoured bread rolls, cupcakes, muesli bars and bananas, courtesy of the generous organisers.
Cupcakes to restore depleted carbs and fats.
I thought that it was definitely a great morning workout – as well as a lovely opportunity to meet so many other like-minded ladies who have similar fitness goals as mine.
Leave a Comment