Botanic Garden Run

Today, I received SMSes from Tiwazz, Hedgehog, Bee and Run.run.runaway to wake me up for the Botanic Gardens (BG) Run. :)

I reached the old SMU at 6:45 am, and met Tiwazz and Ronnie near the spectators gallery. Rey was also there. It was Rey's first time running with us, and it's great to see new faces each time we gather to run :) Sportsventurer (also formerly known as Littlefoot) came soon after, with his trademark racket sticking out of his huge backpack. Run.run.runaway and Cheow12 (with Violet) parked their cars in the parking lot beside the basketball court, and joined us shortly. Astrogirl, who took a cab to SMU, came down the slope from the opposite direction. Cokiee was there too. Ironmandreamer appeared soon after, having run 6 km from his home. Brokenrunner, who had gone to fetch Kellylim22 and Bee, drove in at about 7:30 am. Ultraman was at the basketball court too. He had started running at 3 am in the morning, and had just finished his run. Impressive!

When we were all ready, we, including Ultraman, began our journey at 7:45 am, from Evans Rd into the Botanic Gardens. The air was refreshingly cool and moist, and it felt as if the entire garden was air-conditioned. There were many groups of people in the garden, practising taichi and all sorts of martial arts. Soon after, we exited the garden through the Tanglin gate, and went up Minden Road onto Loewen Rd and Ridley Park Rd. We passed some old military buildings, and also saw for ourselves a very, very, very large house with many, many, many cars parked in the driveway. I think that house belongs to a very famous and successful F&B entrepreneur, and his house had been used for filming in 双天至尊 as Li Nanxing's character's house. We also went past the Chinese Embassy and the British High Commission. At this point, Ultraman decided to run back home, so we waved goodbye to him there.

Past Tanglin Mall, we continued on our way past the Myanmar Embassy towards the Ochard Hotel, where our ninja photographer, Kellylim22, was positioned, camera in hand. We then continued our way along Orchard Road, stopping to take pictures outside Far East Shopping Centre and Wisma Atria. Choonwei was also there on his bike, and he cycled with us along the Orchard Road stretch. Moving steadily on, we reached the Istana, where the guards permitted us to take a few group photos at the Istana main entrance.

From the Istana, we headed north, through Buyong Rd and Cavenagh Rd (past the Istana back door) until Newton Circus. Kellylim22 again was in position, snapping pictures of us as we crossed the overhead bridge to get to the Newton MRT station. We then went through the Newton MRT underpass to get to Bukit Timah Road, and continued running all the way until we reached Evans Road, back to SMU.

It was a good 11.2 km run. While some of us opted to take a break, Ironmandreamer, Astrogirl, Run.run.runaway, Ronnie, Cokiee, Brokenrunner, Hedgehog and I decided to push ahead with the additional 4.5 km route. We ran downhill along Cluny Road, then turned left to go past Gleneagles Hospital until Nassim Road. There, we turned into Nassim Road, and proceeded with our uphill jog, past the Saudi Arabian Embassy, the Japanese Embassy, the Philippine Embassy, the Turkish Embassy and the Russian Embassy, eventually ending up at SMU.

The whole group of us went over to Food Haven for breakfast. Brokenrunner, as usual, prepared her delicious home-brewed barley water for us to drink. :) Thanks Brokie! Also, much thanks must also go out to Kellylim22, who took taxi, buses and even ran in her jeans, to get ahead of us to take pictures of us :) Thanks a million, Kelly!

I think everyone enjoyed themselves quite a lot today :D I certainly did.

Some pictures from today's run...

Taking a picture along Orchard Road, where the Chinggay Parade had been held the previous week

Outside the Istana

Shoes and sandals of us all