Race Review: NTU X-Campus Run 2014 (by ‘TheMinionGoesRunning’)

The Race

NTU Runners’ Club held its annual NTU X-Campus Run last Wednesday on 15/10/2014. Unlike previous years, the run this year is only opened to NTU students and staff. This could be due to the fact that the school just held the 5tylo-Mile-o Run at Padang during NTU Fest not long ago that was opened to the public, hence this run is designed purely to cater to NTU’s staff and students.

Singapore’s weather had been rainy recently, with showers and thunderstorms in the early mornings and late afternoons. On the day itself, there was a slight drizzle 1 hour before the actual race (at 6.30pm). My lessons just ended and after meeting my friend, we made our way slowly to the Student Recreational Centre (SRC) to the run.  Really glad that the rain stop at about 6pm. Though the floor was a bit wet, the weather makes it perfect for a post-lessons evening run. The route this year is also slightly different from previous year, with both the starting and ending points at the SRC.

 Flag-off

The race flagged off punctually at 6.33pm, with approximately 300 runners running off together. The first part of the run is flooded with runners like any other event, but slowly it began to stagger off. We ran across the new Hall 17 and 18 towards the back of the SRC, past NIE and along the perimeter of the campus. Distance markers were clear along the way, except that I think they missed out the 2km marker? As we know that NTU is pretty hilly, the uphill along North Spine indeed proves to be challenging for some runners as they began to slow down. But I did managed to continue, telling myself that it is good uphill training. The downhill part that follows was pretty awesome as I opened up my strikes and the breeze makes the run very enjoyable. Ran past Innovation Centre and eventually back to where I started at SRC.

The aftermath

The whole running distance was 6,75km, and I managed to complete it in 33mins. 🙂  The post-run procedures were slightly confusing. I was issued a red bib and told to collect my goodie bag (facewash, sweets, 2 pens and some flyers) further down. There was no queue yet, but I got confused with what to do with the bib. Asked the volunteer at the goodie bag counter  and she had no idea. Asked around and eventually was told to return it to another counter for the time to be recorded. Hydration wise, water and Red Bull was provided for the earlier runners. However, it ran out quite fast. My friend whom returned 10 minutes after me and there was no more water nor Red Bull.

On the whole, the running route was great and volunteers were friendly. But hydration wise it can be better managed for the runners that arrive later. It was a good mid-week run in school! 🙂