Singapore Safari Zoo Run 2017

Singapore Safari Zoo Run 2017
By Jaqa


Hi All! Just a quick race report on the Singapore Safari Zoo Run 2017!

(Disclaimer: Yes, it's a zoo! I know the arguments. I grew up on a farm in Africa. It's in Singapore so it's definitely not on too tight a budget.)

I grabbed an entry from a friend who could not make it, so was running under the way-cool name of "Orange Lion" He is Dutch! It was a spur of the moment thing as I really could not bother with a 10K race paying ridiculous Singapore prices but is was a bit discounted and sounded fun.

The race is all inside the Singapore Zoo with 1 1/2 laps. The week leading up to it was meant to be a hard training week but I felt really Bleh! and only got one proper hard session in of an 8 x (3' max+3' rest) on the track on Thursday. Friday I had the worst recovery run ever. Had to stop more than 6 times and cut it in half. Feeling really sick so dosed up on Theraflu early in the day. Saturday woke up feeling fine with some DOMS from Thursday. My strategy was to listen to my body and if I had to stop, well I was just looking at animals.

The whole race village and start was done pretty slickly with dancing mascot animals at 06:15! The race announcer was genuinely funny for a change and got the race started on time at 7:15. I had done a nice warm up run so started off well and was quickly passing the other runners. At the first water stop, some lady had a sip of sports drink thinking it was water. She promptly spat it out all down my leg! Never mind! At least it didn't ruin my shoes, I said in passing.

The course was obviously quite windy going around the zoo and more hilly than I expected, but I was going at a good pace and started telling myself to keep my pace at at least 5:00/km for a 50 minute finish.
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See the giraffes in the background!

It was way awesome to run past tigers and lions with only a moat separating us. I really regret not looking around more than I did. At the 5k mark I started pushing harder and gave it my all 2k's from the finish. I ended with a happy (for me) time of 46:47 for 10.3km. So just off a 45 minute 10k. I was really pleased to see that each km was faster than the preceding one for the whole race.

After the race, Orange Lion's wife and I wandered around the zoo for a couple of hours enjoying the fun Saturday morning. Oh, and I met up with another barefoot runner. There are a couple drifting around Singapore!

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Zoos tend to have good, smooth asphalt. I bet that felt great running on it.

Cool to meet another barefooted there.

Thanks for sharing. I've added your report to the home page.
 
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Thanks TJ!
Yeah, the surfaces were fantastic for barefooting. I almost ditched the bare feet because I was worried about slippery, wet tiles (my worst surface!) , but a check of the route map helped make up my mind. There were some spots were I could feel my feet slipping out a bit especially where they covered grates with plain metal sheets and had some water/sweat on it. I would have preferred the grating!
 
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Ha! Grating is never my favorite. Ugh.
 
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LOL Singaporeans have the strangest habit of putting shoes on their dogs' feet! Sometimes they are moccasin type things and more frequently they are mini Nike's! I always feel so sorry for them- they look very uncomfortable.
Why do they do that?
 
Why do they do that?

The short answer is that they do not understand dogs! Cesar Milan pulls in here almost every year to do his "stuff" :muted:

The long answer has to do with extremely high levels of affluence, no rural area left in Singapore, and manufactured, and self-imposed, fear of everything. Think "Brave, New World" instead of "1984"! I could go on forever about this :arghh:
 
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I'm afraid to ask about Cesar Milan...
 
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