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