This is a banana... A what?

Was rather grumpy last night, because my internet service provider took about 2 hours to resolve my internet connection problem. By the time I received a call from the customer care consultant to inform me to reboot my computer and try again, it was already around 12.15 am on Saturday morning. So when I finally did come online, most of the people that I had wanted to meet in cyberspace had already gone offline. :p

Later on, I woke up too late for any morning runs. Decided instead to clear some work from home, and then when it was around 11.20 am, I left my house to meet up with some friends at Dreamergal's house. Couldn't resist taking a picture under the flyover near her place. *heh heh* Thought it was a nice, quiet "secret" spot.

Quite a number of us were there at Dreamergal's home, including Daisiki, Roonz, TLR, Fd, Sotong, Mrs Sotong, Tiwazz, Charlotte, Philip, Penguin and Ripley. Some of Dreamergal's siblings were home too, including Bryan, Derrick, Eric and Rachel. It was a lovely afternoon, spent with great company, playing some really wacky games! We traded and bartered with Billionaire, found ourselves tongue-tied with Taboo, let our creative and artistic juices run wild with Pictionary Mania (which was quite a challenge, especially "Drawback"), practised our understanding of physics with two sets of stack-upon-stack Jenga, got really hilarious with "This is a banana...a what?" and couldn't resist a second round of Taboo! =D Lots of fun, lots of pictures taken, and lots of spontanteous laughter, much of it thanks to Sotong's unique brand of haha-extracting humour :) Special thanks also to our special host for her great hospitality and for opening her home to strangers like us ;) Hope we didn't make too much of a mess... ;)

Got home at around 6.30 pm and had dinner with Mum and Dad. Taught Dad some English, then hopped back into the virtual world to sniff out good runs... And yes, I've found it. Mt Faber SAFRA has a 25-km route planned tomorrow, which will cover Queensway, Clementi, Buona Vista and Harbourfront. It's been a while since I last joined the Mt Faber SAFRA folks - and I even missed CheeryRunner and Trainer Ong's recent party. :( Can't wait to catch up with them (figuratively and literally) tomorrow morning at the Clubhouse!

And I found this game online...hahaha, quite easy to play...if you have the patience! Click here for it!

Eating again...and possibly getting fat

Went back to work on Wednesday after two days of medical leave for my sprained right wrist. Had lunch with my colleagues at a place called Jerry's at Tanglin Shopping Centre. Nice ambience, plus one very courteous service staff. We all had the clam chowder soup (but nothing compares to Boston's!). I also ordered the spicy Italian pork sausage (half of which I exchanged with a friend for half of his veal sausage). Not entirely satisfying, but good enough as to last me through until dinner time. :)

On Thursday, met up with some running friends at Fong Kee at Maxwell House for a mini-meeting cum dinner. The restaurant was Sotong's recommendation, and it was an excellent choice. Great value for money. We started off with a piping hot bowl of nutritious lotus soup, and then went on to feast on a wide selection of northern Chinese culinary delights. =D After dinner, we proceeded to nearby Tong Heng for some Chinese pastries and dessert. It was a good meeting; we managed to iron out some details of what we were going to do on this coming Saturday afternoon.

But with all the eating and lack of exercise..*sigh*

Also received an SMS from Legolas about running with Alvin at MacRitchie Reservoir on Saturday morning. Tempting, but I'll need to know more details about the distance run, etc (and who's Alvin?) before I can make a decision... I'm so thankful for the weekend!

October BG Run - Lord of the Rings

This October's BG Run offers a selection of three rings (or loops) which shall be called the Frodo Ring (16.5 km), the Aragorn Ring (23 km) and the Gandalf Ring (27 km).

psst...Only Aragorn Ring is shown in the map on the right.

The plan for all Ring-bearers is to start at 7 am sharp at the SMU, and run along Bukit Timah Road until Fourth Avenue. From there, run 500m up Fourth Avenue until the end, and then u-turn back to Bukit Timah Road. Then continue along Bukit Timah Road until Ngee Ann Poly, and then turn into Clementi Road.

Then run along Clementi Road, and turn left and run along the scenic 2-km long Ulu Pandan Canal, where we can stop for a quick toilet break at the Buona Vista MRT station. Bring coins if you want to purchase drinks from the vending machine at the MRT station.

From Buona Vista MRT station, we'll run until we hit Holland Road and then follow Holland Road all the way until the Botanic Gardens (15 km). At this point, all Frodo Ring-bearers are to turn left and run upslope along Cluny Road back to the SMU for their well-deserved break.

As for the other Ring-bearers, we'll do our usual route down Orchard Road, touching base at the Istana, then going along Cavenagh Road, crossing the overhead bridge at Newton Circus and running through the underground Newton MRT station, and finally chugging along the Bukit Timah Road stretch back to the SMU. Aragorn Ring-bearers to fall out at this point.

Gandalf Ring-bearers are to continue with the additional challenging 4 km Cluny Road-Nassim Road loop, before the job's done. :)

**Good news!** I've been informed by Tekko that Jo from the Osteopath Pain Relief Centre will be meeting us at the SMU after our run to (a) give a talk on how to select the right shoes for your legs, and (b) give individual foot and running gait analyses. It should be quite an informative session! :D

25 Hours

After a frazzled late night Friday, I got up early on Saturday morning to get to Bukit Merah by 7.15 am to prepare for Operation Homeworks, a community project run by Habitat for Humanity Singapore to help clean and make safer the homes of some 40 elderly residents in the area.

I was appointed overall in-charge of the Command Post at the ground floor void deck, and one of my duties was to conduct a briefing for all the "specialist" volunteers at 8.30 am. It didn't help that about half of the "specialist" volunteers did not turn up at 8.30 am - some came later in the day, others simply didn't come at all in the end. But that's how things are, I've learnt, working with volunteers...not sure if it's a Singaporean thing, but volunteer commitment here can definitely be improved.

But as for those volunteers who were around, I must praise them for their excellent attitude. Very dedicated and tireless, they were. And good natured and understanding, despite the chaotic situation at Command Post. Very few complaints from them as they went from home to home, scrubbing floors on their hands and knees, re-painting doors, cleaning air-vents, clearing hazardous items from the corridors, getting rid of stubborn sewage stains, removing bed-bug infested mattresses, installing new Do-It-Yourself beds and cupboards...and dealing with the unexpected mood swings of some of the elderly residents.

At the Command Post, I was swamped by (a) a flood of manpower allocation issues, since quite a number of home-cleaning teams were understaffed, thanks to missing volunteers, and (b) a flood of last minute requests for home-cleaning and new furniture by other residents who had not registered with us. I am grateful for the help of a Central CDC lady, Lynette, who offered to assist me at the Command Post, and with her experience of managing such events, things were brought under control.

I had never seen first-hand how dirty or smelly or pest-infested the homes had been, prior to Operation Homeworks. But from the photos taken "before" and "after" the event, it was evident that major improvements had been achieved. There were heartfelt expressions of gratitude from the seniors, and it was encouraging for us to know they they would be living in a more hygienic and safer environment.

Operation Homeworks wrapped up at around 6.30 pm, after we did a final inspection of all the housing units which were covered under the programme. Then, I headed down to East Coast Park for the NUS Cyclohunt.

Met up with Roonz, Charlotte and Tiwazz at the East Coast Park MacDonalds at around 7.30 pm, and ate the chicken rice which they had helpfully tar-powed for me. Then we went to get ourselves registered for the overnight cycling competition...our team name was Makan Marathoners. :D We also collected our rented bikes and bike lights. (Thanks to Balasing for lending me his helmet!)

As it was still early, the four of us went for a short ride along East Coast, bumping into SportVenturer along the way (who later decided to accompany us throughout the whole Cyclohunt), and returning to the registration point by 9.15 pm for the final briefing before the event flag-off.

During the briefing, we were told that we had ten (+one bonus) check-points to go to, but we could choose to visit them in any order we liked. We were told to return by 5 am; late-comers would be penalised.

At 10 pm sharp, the organisers sounded the starting horn, and many teams zipped off on their bikes. But Makan Marathoners was still leisurely planning our route ;)

We only started to cycle off at around 10.15 pm. From East Coast Park, we went to the following check-points in this order: (a) Purvis Street - stopping to buy drinks; (b) Merlion Park; (c) Maxwell Food Centre; (d) Chinatown - stopping for makan there; (e) Labrador Park - stopping to enjoy the coastal breeze; (f) Gleneagles Hospital and then (g) Holland Village - stopping for makan there too.

Along Holland Road, on the way from Gleneagles Hospital to Holland Village, I had a bike accident. Maybe it was because I was tired from the whole day's exertions, or maybe it was because some unhappy thoughts came back to distract my mind as I cycled past my workplace. In any case, after the Holland Rd-Farrer Rd-Queensway intersection, my bike veered too much towards the curb, I lost balance, and Man+Bike slammed onto the road. I landed quite hard on my right side, and slid a couple of meters onto the middle of the leftmost lane. I got up as quickly as I could, and dragged my bike to the side. Roonz, Tiwazz, Charlotte and SV came up to me and checked if I was okay.

By the grace of God, I only suffered minor grazes on my right knee, shoulder, elbow and wrist and didn't break anything (I think). But the blood wouldn't coagulate, and my wounds remained moist for quite a while. Also by the grace of God, there were no vehicles travelling on that lane behind me, because where I was sprawled, I could be easily run over by an on-coming early-morning speedster.

We reached Holland Village at around 3.30 am. A number of us were already suffering from terrible butt-ache. After Tiwazz and SV had ther pratas, we re-evaluated our plans for the remaining four checkpoints. We wouldn't be able to cover all of them, so we decided to just go to one of them (Mustafa Centre), then head back to the start point. We would be late and therefore penalised, but we didn't really care. The whole point of taking part in the event was to enjoy ourselves :D

After my little mishap, I was cycling much slower. It was just very, very tiring to pedal, and my bike kept making squeaking noises. And it was still quite painful for my right wrist to grab hold of the handlehar.

When we reached Mustafa Centre, Charlotte bought some snacks. SV was nodding off. :D With whatever combined consciousness that we had, we planned our last leg of the route, and cycled without any further pit-stops back to East Coast Park.

I can't remember what time we reached the end-point, maybe 5.40 am. I just remembered feeling very tired, thirsty and aching all over. But it had been a fun and enjoyable experience. A quick plot on GoogleEarth showed that we had cycled about 50 km. Hmmm...we did take a rather long time to finish the event... ;D

We collected our goodie bags, returned our bikes, and went to sit down at MacDonalds. SV fell asleep; Tiwazz struggled with the Z monster; Charlotte plugged in her earphones and shut her eyes; I ate my Big Breakfast; and... Roonz took out her students' worksheets and started to mark them! *gasp*

Since there was no point sleeping at MacDonalds when there were more comfortable beds in our homes, we split and headed back at around 7.15 am.

I reached home at around 7.40 am. I showed my parents my grazes, which was still bright red and moist, and then had a shower, and went to bed. I didn't wake up until 5 pm, and realised that while I was asleep, my parents had applied antiseptic lotion to my grazes. Thanks Mum and Dad!

Criticism

Don't know why I am taking this round of criticisms so badly. Maybe it's because I got criticised by someone I really respect, and I never had the intention of doing anything that would make that person so upset. Lost all my appetite for today, and have a splitting headache now too... *sigh*

Minipots

Had lunch wih my colleagues at Tanglin Mall this week. Had the usual Minipot :) Am I being too unadventurous, sticking to the same dish, time after time, food court after food court? Ah well... Guess I'm a die-hard fan when it comes to what I like. Will need to try the Taman Serasi Minipot again to decide which tastes better. Either way, they both taste better than the Minipot at Harbourfront.

On Wednesday, celebrated Chee Keong's birthday at a steamboat place along Rocher Street with the other DSTA fellows. Caught up with a lot of good buddies - haven't seen them in a while - and it was great. My former colleagues are a happy, carefree, athletic bunch. They won a few races recently, and did the organisation real proud. Most have signed up for the end-of-the-year marathon, and Kenny's aiming for 3 hr 25 min for the 42-km. Quite a few of them is going for the Swissotel Vertical Marathon in November too. I miss being in their company and training with them. Anyway, Hedgehog's must be having a whale of a time working there with them now, lucky chap :)

Next month, there's another Sentosa outing planned. Sounds good. Ying Tat's also booked a chalet sometime mid-October. Another Club Rainbow house-call is also being planned. Looks like it's going to be another busy October...

Need to keep up the training to cut body fat percentage to 9%. Did some leg training earlier on Monday, but it's been a while since I worked on the quads and hams, so they're still aching right now. Hopefully the soreness will go away by Saturday.

And yes, thanks to Daisiki for her reminders and IMD for his help, I'm now registered for the Great Eastern Pacesetters 30km race in Kuala Lumpur in January 2007. Malaysia, here I come...again! :D

Blue Ribbon S8 Ice Kachang with Peanut

Caught a ride in Vincent's and Brokie's car together with Ripley and Cokiee to go to Sentosa this morning for our 7 am ninja training. The skies were already darkening, with heavy clouds looming overhead. So much for last night's weather forecast which only said that there would be showers in the afternoon.

We parked the vehicle at a small carpark along Tanjung Beach, readied ourselves, and then went off for a brisk jog-run. I tried the Pose method of withdrawing my lagging leg quickly towards my hip, and boy, was I moving fast! :) And it required less energy to perform than I had expected.

We ran from Tanjung Beach to Siloso Beach, then onto Dragon Trail. But along this point, Brokie, Vincent and Cokiee had pulled ahead and got separated from Ripley and me. So Ripley and I emerged from Dragon Trail, turned left towards the Merlion, ran past it and reached the multi-storey carpark. By this time, the heavens had already begun to release its showers of blessings. *pitter patter*

From the multistorey carpark, Ripley and I went relaxed-pace all the way back to Siloso Beach, u-turned and returned to the multi-storey carpark, bumping into Mythos and Jennifery along the way. *pitter patter* We group of four then steadily proceeded towards Tanjung Beach, meeting Kickjazz, Roentgen, AngelicaWonders and some other SgRunners who were running in the opposite direction. *pitter patter* (Turned out that they had begun their run from Sentosa at 6 am, and did 12 km - including going to Labrador Park - before starting on the Terry Fox Run route proper.)

When Ripley and I reached the Start Point of the Terry Fox Run *pitter patter*, we realised that the organisers had not yet started the race, and participants were still slowly streaming in. *pitter patter* So Ripley and I decided to go run some more on our own, and we ran all the way back (again) to the multistorey carpark, and u-turned. *pitter patter*

This time, when we reached the Dolphin Lagoon, the run had already started, and a dense crowd of people were already on the move, pouring out of Tanjung Beach. By this time, Ripley and I had already covered nearly 10.5 km. And the rain had more or less subsided.

So we joined in the race from the Dolphin Lagoon. I managed to keep to a good 5:15-5:30 min/km pace for the next 5 km, then slowed down to a 5:30-5:45 min/km pace for the remaining distance. Saw Ultra, Kumaran, Tiwazz, Bee, Mrs Sotong, Eunice, Cokiee, Alecchua, Shaunzer, ActiveLifestyleDude and more SgRunners along the way.

Crossed the finishing line with a total timing of 1 hr 53 min, having covered 17.9 km in total. Somehow, I felt that the route for today's Run for Hope was less than 9 km... *hmm...*

Anyway, caught up with Rogerhub, Andy and the rest of the group at the endpoint, and feasted on the apples, bananas and fruit juices :) Also saw Edhorizon with his group of buddies.

For lunch, we headed for Seah Im Food Centre, where I ordered Ban Mian and a cup of watermelon juice. Andy was very generous, treating all of us to Seah Im's famous char kuay teow. =D We ate, and chatted about the forthcoming Swissotel Vertical Marathon (which I have not decided whether to register) and the 30-km Demoralising Run next Sunday. But I won't be able to go for the Demoralising Run, since I would be busy all of next Saturday with Operation Homeworks in the morning and afternoon and the NUS Cyclohunt at night, and would be too tired to run 30-km the next day.

Later on, Roentgen drove Kickjazz and me to Alexandra Village to visit the famous Blue Ribbon S8 dessert stall. I ordered the $1.60 ice kachang with peanut, and it was fabulous. The ice is crushed just about right, and melts just the right way when eaten. Yummy! :)

Run through the air...

Hmmm...saw another Pose method video here. Dr Romanov's main point is to pull the lagging foot upwards vertically towards the hip during running, rather than having the feet go through a large oval range of motion. In other words, instead of keeping the rear leg on the ground for support while swinging the leading foot in front - the usual way of lengthening a stride - he advises to try pulling the rear leg quickly upwards under the hip. By pulling up the rear leg before the leading leg lands, the runner would be able to cover more ground "in the air". Hmmm... interesting...I'll probably try this out at Run for Hope tomorrow.

Fighting the Flu Bug...and Operation Homeworks!

Been fighting off the flu bug all week. Limited success, but managed to hang in there. *sniff* Despite the flu, managed to pause and breathe and soak in the lovely scenery around me. Things look a lot nicer during the IMF/World Bank Meetings. I wonder why. ;) Took another photo on my camera phone on my way to work this week. It's a picture of an overhead bridge halfway under construction. Thought it looked interesting.

Didn't have the time to train all week (as usual), so am looking forward to the 18-km run at Sentosa on Sunday. It's the Run for Hope event (formerly known as the Terry Fox Run), and I've signed up for the 9-km route. Hoping to run it twice...

Lunched out sometime this week at a Hong Kong restaurant in the Novena area at the recommendation of a colleague. Tried the ee fu noodles, and it was quite good :) Didn't order any dessert though, although the peanut sesame paste was quite tempting :D After lunch, I went over to Whampoa Drive to buy some of the best-tasting bread in Singapore :)

Friday evening, I managed to get off work early, and headed to Bestway Building to attend a briefing by Habitat for Humanity. The briefing was in preparation for next Saturday's event, "Operation Homeworks", in which I'll be helping out with the logistics. Hosea gave everyone a succinct introduction of what the volunteers were expected to do - clean the homes of 36 elderly folks who lived in single-room apartments in the Bukit Merah area. Then this was followed by presentations on how to paint (the proper way!), how to spot hazards and prevent the elderly from falling, and how to understand and communicate with the elderly. It's going to be a meaningful morning and afternoon next Saturday, I bet, with so many of us volunteers putting some hygiene into and removing fire hazards from the homes of those who are truly Singapore's pioneers.

We don't have the technical expertise to remove the bed bugs from their apartments though, so an expert pest-removal team has graciously volunteered to fumigate the housing units after we're done with all the cleaning. Down with bed bugs!

*sniff sniff*

It's time to down another packet of Lemsip...

Ice-cream Run

Woke up, felt that the flu bug had departed over the night, so put on my running gear, and headed for the old SMU for the BG Run. Great turnout today, including new faces like Stazla, Compass, Rim, Jin and Jiao_li. Also very honoured to have TLR join the run today ;D

Started promptly at 7:15 am, chugging along Bukit Timah Road. Great weather, still nice and cool. Did a bit of upslope training at 3rd Ave, and then went along 6th Ave until we hit Holland Road. Then went along Holland Road, until Orchard Road, until just before we got to the Istana. Then cut across Buyong Road, and went northwards along Cavenagh Road and Clemenceau Ave. Crossed the overhead bridge, then went underground through Newton MRT Station. Then it was the final stretch of Bukit Timah until we got back to the old SMU. Total distance for Caramel Route was 17.5 km, time taken (for me): 1 hr 58 min. Well done to folks like Bikerchic, who performed very well today :)

Then Stazla, Alvo, Babumouse and I (and later on Balasing too) went for the additional 4 km of the Dark Chocolate Route. :) But actually, while the other three ran up the great slopes of Nassim Road, I elected to walk up instead. I told myself I was cooling down, but I think, really, I was just being lazy. :P Need to rediscover my inspiration! So for me, total distance run: 21.5 km, total time: 2 hr 36 min.

Run3 had brought along some barley, so all of us feasted on it at the end-point. Muchas gracias por los bebidos! :D

Washed up at the old SMU, went over to Food Haven for drinks. Was supposed to join Babumouse for a swim too, but I backed out at the last minute because I was feeling tired. Followed Roonz, Philip, Tiwazz, Balasing, Charlotte and Cosmic to Serene Centre for ice-cream -- I was so zonked, succumbed to a double scoop...*sigh* (and I think I also fell asleep there too...) Who can guess the flavours that I ordered?

And yes, the Field Report and photos from yesterday's visit to HWA is out...check it out HERE! :)

A Visit to the Handicaps Welfare Association

Felt a bit of flu setting in over the week, so went out to buy a pack of Lemsip.

In the afternoon around 2 pm, went for a talk on "Running Injuries" at the Handicaps Welfare Association (HWA) for which some runners are helping to raise funds even as they race in the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon in December 2006 (check out http://hwascsm06.blogspot.com).

While I was there, I watched a really informative video about HWA and the work that they do for the handicapped in Singapore. This was followed by a 50 minute presentation by Dr Jason Chia on "Running Injuries", and then by a very insightful and engaging Q&A session. Then, we toured the HWA premises. It's a lovely little place, but could do with some maintenance and repair. At least now I know where my collected funds will go to, and I'm glad it's for a worthy cause.

On my way back home, stopped by a traditional bakery, and bought a loaf of really fab smelling and sweet tasting fresh-out-of-the-oven bread. Nice :) But had to skip Ramanie's wedding tonight...thought that it'll be better to stay home and rest through the evening, so that I can recover from my flu-like symptoms before the BG Run tomorrow morning...:p

Later in the night, I heard loud sirens outside my window. Went to take a look. Parked downstairs were an ambulance, two police motorbikes, a police car and a fire engine. Turned out that one of the units on the opposite block had caught fire. Apparently someone was burning some stuff inside his or her house. Anyway, our Home Team did a great and efficient job, and there were no casualties. Well done, Home Team!

A sum-up...

Happened to be drizzling earlier in the week while I was waiting at the bus-stop on my way to work. Realised how beautiful the greenery behind the bus-stop was, and I took a picture (left). I need to take more time out to appreciate all the wonderful things that God had created.

Felt a bit overwhelmed at work this week. Will need to buck up, and be more productive, more efficient and less careless. And also go home earlier and enjoy the warmth that only a family can provide. Ah, sweet...

Later in the week, had lunch with my colleagues at the newly openly Taman Serasi Food Court. I was under the impression that prices were steep, but to my surprise, they were about the same as any other food court. Had my usual order again, yummy :) Too bad I won't be recommending eating here after the BG Run on Sunday as it is too far, about a 2-km walk from our start/end point.

Met up with some of the SgRunners for a chat at the Red Dot Traffic Building on Thursday. Lovely place to chill out and relax. Celebrated Carine's birthday after that at the Maxwell Road Food Court. :D

And earlier today, I had a good chat with Chee Keong over drinks at Tanglin Mall. We had an illuminating conversation, and he helped to put some perspective and order into my financial life. Appreciated that very much, buddy!

Got home, checked the AHM website and found that they have uploaded the net race times. I've done 1:59:09.15. ;D It's a sub-2 and I'm in the 18th percentile for my category. I'm so pleased.

Lots of things happening tomorrow...hmm...will have to make decisions again on what to go for, and what to skip... Hate to make such decisions, wished I had time for everyone. *chuckles*

A good MacRitchie Reservoir Run

Went for an early morning run at MacRitchie Reservoir today with some of the SgRunners - Meteor, Freddy, Babumouse, Roonz, Loneshark, Brokie, Vincent, Cosmic and Cokiee. The plan was to do a slow, relaxed 20-km recovery run. There were also other SgRunners gathered there today, including DO, Dream, Ultra, Bug, Alvo, RealRunner, Sumiko and Ronnie. They were taking part in the 30-km MR Progressive Run. At 7 am sharp, the MRPR folks took off, while the rest of us waited a little while more before starting. Babumouse forgot to bring his running vest, so he had to run bare-bodied. Must have attracted quite a few girls, heh heh...

The weather was good and cool, and we got off to a great start along the MacRitchie Nature Trail. I chugged along steadily behind the front runner, Loneshark, keeping to a 5 min 30 sec/km - 6 min/km pace. It took me about 10 mins to get used to the terrain. After about 20 mins, we emerged at the road leading to the Singapore Island Golf Course. Some excellent slopes here, which gave us a really good workout. At the end of the road, we continued onto the grass and jogged across the lovely greens.

We eventually ran until Lower Peirce Reservoir, and crossed paths with the MRPR folks. Loneshark indicated that Babumouse, Cosmic and I should move on while he waited for Brokie, Vincent and Cokiee outside the reservoir toilet. And so, off the three of us went. Touched the metal gates at the end of the road, and U-turned back. But somehow, along the way, Babumouse and I lost sight of the other runners, and since we didn't know where to continue our run, we ended up loitering around the reservoir bridge for a good 10 mins. There, I saw a number of grasscutters at work, so I took a picture of them.

Then Brokie and Vincent appeared, and the four of us ran off together, back across the greens, up and down the slopes of the country club and then did a turn towards Rifle Range Road. It was just yellow-brown, sun-baked soil for the most part of this section of the route. And lots of slopes. And we even had to cross a tiny river. We eventually did reach Rifle Range Road, but I was too lazy to run the full length of it (5.3 km one-way). So at my suggestion, we just ran for about 200m uphill along Rifle Range Road (said "hi" to the monkeys which were grooming one another on the road), then U-turned and headed back.

I was getting quite tired by now, and had to intersperse my running with short bouts of jogging or walking. The four of us were already in the second hour of our run, and we had covered some (or should I say "only") 14 km, cross-country style. But despite the fatigue, somehow, we pushed on, up and down each crevassed slope. We then took a few turns, took a short breather at the Ranger Station and then ran through the "out of bounds" land-slide area and emerged where Sime Track intersected with Golf Link.

From there, we went onto Golf Link, going past Jelutong Tower, all the way until we hit Jering Trail (~19 km mark). By this time, I guess I must have gotten my second wind, because I began to feel energetic again, and was able to drive up my pace back to 5 min 30 sec/km. And steadily, I moved towards the end point, reaching there with a timing of 3 hours for a distance of 23.3 km.

Some of the MRPR folks had already finished their 30-km runs by the time I got there. *gasp* Because there was a Children's Cancer Foundation event on at MacRitchie Reservoir that same morning, there was a Milo Van on site, and we were free to help ourselves to the free-flow of tasty, ice-cold Milo. =)

Also saw the grey-haired uncle who is featured on the Standard Chartered Marathon advert. For someone who's aged 54, he is in excellent shape. He runs fast, and has two well-toned pecs and eight bulging abs to show. I wonder how he does it...

After the run, I sort of nuah-ed around the MR Toilet area, trying to cool down. Brokie brought out her home-made barley, and offered all of us a cup. Thanks, Brokie! You're the greatest! :) And the whole lot of us sat or stood around, sipping on Milo or 100 Plus, or munching on energy bars or bananas, and chatting about Manuka honey and triathlons.

I didn't join the folks for brunch though. I was supposed to go to Legolas' church at 11 am, but considering the time I took to run today and how I still needed to bathe and clean up, I had no option but to arrive at his church late...real late, as in, when I got there, they were almost at their final hymn for the day. :P But I managed to meet Legolas, and passed him his AHM certificate. Also met Lina, Sihui, Henry, Jacky, Ming-Chyuan and Jenny there. Had lunch with Legolas and Bee Him, and shopped around a games/toy shop at Anchorpoint before finally heading home for a good rest. :) Settlers of Catan and Blokus Triagon look very inviting! =)

Some other pics from today's run... (Cosmic and Ronnie respectively)

AHM Results - the elusive sub-2 timing...

*grumble, grumble* It seems as if I'm still plagued by the "cannot get an official race timing of under 2 hr for a half-marathon in Singapore" curse. The official AHM timings are out. I clocked 2:00:00.65. Thought I went past the finishing line just as the official race clock hit 2:00:00 and it took me a good 10-15 seconds (at least!) before I crossed the start line after the race gun went off. *grumble grumble* Ah well, not that it really matters...

Judging from the results of the Men's Open, I'm in the 16th percentile. Which is much better than my 26th percentile in the New Balance Real Run. :) If the statistics hold, and if I can push myself to 1 hr 55 min and below for the half marathon in the SCSM, then I should be within the top 10 percent. Nice.

Tomorrow, I'll be joining Meteor and Alvo for two loops around MacRitchie Reservoir. It'll be an exciting 20+ km of trail running. Hope to finish by 10 am, so that I have time to wash up and get ready to join Legolas at church in Bishan.