Sundown Marathon Familiarisation Run

What a long weekend... As pre-arranged with Ripley, I was awakened at 0545 hrs on Saturday morning and then headed for MacRitchie Reservoir for some trail training. It was my first time back on that terrain in over six months, and my ankles clearly were not yet re-adjusted to it. Together with Ripley, we started from the reservoir canoeing area, went past the ranger station, cut across the golf course, crossed a few tiny hills, touched the gates of the pumping station at Upper Pierce Reservoir and then headed back to the golf course. It was already almost 15 km by the time we reached the golf course on our return, but I could feel my ankles going all wobby and I didn't want to risk getting an injury. So I decided to walk the remaining 3.5 km of the journey back to our start point. It took us a total of 2 hour 30 min to complete 18.5 km. By this time, I had a huge sugar and water craving, which I satisfied with a huge bowl of ice kachang at Novena. :)

I didn't have anything else for lunch, and then took the train to Hougang to visit the Mother in Labour with the Returning Arab and the Japanese Journalist. We three merry visitors congratulated the young mother and her spouse on their family's latest addition, and chatted about parenthood issues...though I was probably the least knowledgeable on these issues in the group! :D

Before heading home in the late afternoon, I had a haircut, fell alseep as my stylist was snipping away, and awoke only to be told that I was balding. Ah, the much-anticipated signs of maturity have arrived.

I had a quick bite for dinner, and then took a cab down to Changi Village for the 35-km/42-km Sundown Marathon familiarisation run. The fare amounted to a whopping S$30, but it was worth every cent to get to the startline in time to soak in the atmosphere and find out how I could help out as a volunteer with some of the other SgRunners for the event. At around 8.10 pm, the race flagged off. I reckoned there were about 80-100 participants. Once the runners were off, leaving behind a trail of dust in the humid salt-spray-filled air behind them, Taz, Sotong and I headed to the 17.5 km mark (35-km route turning point) to set up the water/isotonic drinks point. We greeted many fresh-faced and excited runners over the next few hours. Well done to everyone!

Before long, our supplies of sports drinks, bananas and jelly were depleted and by midnight, we had already "closed shop" and returned back to the starting point. From that point on, it was another long, long wait. Fabian completed his 42-km under 4 hours, which was the fastest among all the participants. As the hours trickled by, we had other participants coming back to the startline, visibly exhausted but also beaming with pride that they had completed the challenge. Many of them had gotten lost on the second leg of the race, which was through the Bedok/Tampines area, but thankfully they managed to emerge from the "wilderness".

Nevertheless, to our annoyment, some runners had fallen out of the race and went home, forgetting to keep us informed. And we were kept waiting at basecamp for their "return". Consequently, at around 0200 hrs on Sunday morning, we had to comb through our participants list and personally ring each and every runner to check whether they were either still running in the event or whether they had headed home to sleep. :P

By 0330 hrs, however, there was still a runner who had failed to report back and calls to his home (he only provided his home telephone number) didn't give us any useful leads. To our knowledge, this runner did not carry a mobile phone with him, and he did not have any money or his wallet on him either. It had a been a while since he was last sighted along East Coast Park. Fearing for his safety, TLR was despatched to run along the stretch of the park to find him. My memory of the events which subsequently took place were rather hazy after that, as I began to drift between consciousness and sleep. We didn't manage to find the man, alerted his next-of-kin, and I think TLR went to comb the entire stretch of the park a second time, if not the third. I recall getting into Sotong's car at around 5 am, switching to a taxi with PeaceFool, and stepping into my house at around 0545 hrs and then slumping into bed soon after.

At around 0730 hrs, I was informed that our missing runner had just reached home. At least he was safe and sound, so that was good.

Many thanks to the SgRunners support team (TLR, Fidah, Ripley, Tiwazz, Taz, Sotong, Meteor and Jamessoh). It was good teamwork... though I am still quite paiseh for succumbing to the Z-monster at the critical juncture :p

Cumpleaños

It's my danjyoobi today. The day began ordinarily but ended spectacularly. I was treated to mee goreng and teh halia for lunch by Sherwood Orientals, and unexpectedly received a cake and song from Lady from the White House on the Hill through the Returning Arab. :) Many thanks to everyone who sent their well-wishes via the internet and SMS. :) Thanks especially to Owners of Nuki who gave me a stunning wristwatch which looks stylishly fashionable and which would definitely match my new suit splendidly. Thanks also to the Formosan Golfer for much appreciated thoughtfulness in advance. I'm happy, thankful and grateful. Tengo buenos amigos muchos y enchufe tambien. :)

Botanic Garden Run

Went for the BG Run this morning after receiving a wake-up call from Tiwazz at 0500 hrs. I reached the SMU track at around 6.50 am, and did three slow loops of 400m for warm-up. By then, it was around 7 am, and the running group had gathered: Tiwazz, Charlotte, Doraemon_red, tktan, oye como va, LaserRunner and dkw. After some stretching, we were off:

Evans Road - Bukit Timah Road - Dalvey Estate - Dalvey Road -Stevens Road - Orange Grove Road (past the Shangri-La Hotel) - Orchard Road (past Shaw House, Paragon, Centrepoint, Plaza Singapura) - Bras Basah Road - Princep Street - Selegie Road (past Parklane Shopping Mall) - Sophia Road - Adis Road - Upper Wilkie Road (including a loop around Mt Emily Park) - Selegie Road - Princep street - Bras Basah Road (cutting across Dhoby Ghaut MRT station) - Penang Road - Buyong Road - Orchard Road - Oxley Road - River Valley Road - Leonie Hill Road (past the Indian High Commission) - Grange Road (past the Ministry of Education until Tanglin Mall) - Tanglin Road - Nassim Road (past the Russian Embassy) - Evans Road [Route map here, courtesy of Tiwazz]

Total distance, according to Charlotte is about 14.5 km. We covered it in quite a relaxed pace, completing in just over 2 hours. :) Sweet.

Brunch was consumed at the Prata Cafe, where we were joined by Ripley and BoSe. I had a cup of Teh Halia, a cup of iced Milo and a sinful plate of Ice Cream Thosai. An extremely high-calorie meal, but I think I earned it and it contributed to the lifting of my happiness index :) We chatted quite a bit about the various runs coming up, including the Macao Marathon, the Disney Marathon, the Berlin Marathon, the Sun Down Marathon and Ripley's 100-mile race (approximately 160-km) across South Africa! Incredible :) I think that talking about these races is rather exciting :)

First IPPT

Hooray! I took my first IPPT in almost a decade. And despite the lack of training, I managed to pass the physical fitness test with satisfactory results :) I think I qualify for a silver award, but I don't know if that will translate into any monetary incentive since I am PES C.

As for the 2.4 km component of the test, my performance was hardly optimal. I crossed the finishing line just under 12 minutes (the requirement for the gold award is to run under 10 minutes), but I started to feel that I had to vomit when I embarked on my second out of three rounds around the training grounds. This sensation reminded me of life back in my school days when I dreadfully dreaded the IPPT because I threw up every time I ran. I hope those days will really be over.

En la casa

After a long hiatus, I'm finally back into the blogosphere and back in Singapore. First thing I did was to go for a medical, and ended up with a nerve test scheduled in May. *sweat* There are quite a number of things which I need to sort out while I'm back. And there's so many people that I want to meet up with. And so much food to stuff myself with too. :D I will need to watch my wallet and my waistline.