July 6, 2021
The third edition of the Coached Race was held on 26 June. Here’s how it went down.
Since Covid-19 put an end to races as we know them, we’ve been hosting small runs for our athletes. We hosted our last one back in February and the most recent edition last weekend.
Initially scheduled for early June, we had to shift the start back to abide by the recent government regulations.
Whenever a shift in date occurs, it’s a real bummer for the athletes and involves the right mental approach and changes to your training strategy.
For the most part, our athletes handled the setbacks well, and the results (shared below) were ok.
This edition of the race offered two distances – half marathon and marathon – and our athletes could run in-person in Singapore or virtually.
The in-person race had limited slots to align with government regulations, and athletes snapped them up within a few hours of launch. The remainder of our athletes ran virtually from Singapore, Malaysia, India, UK, and France.
The post-race prize-giving happened on our weekly Community Call via Zoom. During the call, we shared the results and awarded the prizes via a lucky draw kindly sponsored by our friends at Hydragun, Under Armour, Oakley, Koda, Karelle Laurent Nutrition and The Foot Practice.
Post-race, we asked our runners to answer a short survey to share their results and experience. I’ve plucked out some of the non-personal results, and here they are.
Here’s how the race went …
Not surprisingly, most of the runners chose to run a half marathon. We had a small number of motivated runners who tackled the marathon distance.
For most, this run was a chance to test their fitness and have some fun. Thirty per cent were treating this as an A-Race (most important race), and of those runners, over seventy-five per cent ran a personal best.
Considering the date changes and disruption to training that happened, as a result, I was pleasantly surprised by the results of our team. Overall, More than fifty per cent ran a personal best while a further fifteen per cent ran a season or Singapore best time.
For the most part, runners were satisfied with their results. In this case, on a scale of 1 = gutted to 5 = stoked, most of our runners were content with their performance.
Everyone wants to feel good on race day, but it’s not always possible, or needed, to run well. On a scale of 1 = terrible to 5 = fantastic, most of our runners felt pretty good throughout the race.
Race execution is a skill that helps you maximise your fitness on a given day and perform at your best. Because it’s a skill, it takes practice to master. We speak a lot about execution and encourage our athletes to execute with control. Overall, our runners did pretty well, but the pre-race meal still seems to be something that most need to work on.
Until traditional races return or the government changes its rules, we’ll continue to host these races for our athletes.
If you’re keen to train and race with us, sign up for a 14-day free trial and see if we’re a good fit for you.
Ben Pulham
Ben Pulham is the founder of Coached, a personalised training programme that helps runners & triathletes optimise, track and enjoy their training.