Taipei Expressway Marathon

10th Taroko Gorge Marathon

I took part in the 10th Taroko Gorge Marathon (half marathon category) this morning. Taroko Gorge National Park (太魯閣國家公園) is one of seven national parks in Taiwan, and its name "Taroko" means "magnificent and beautiful". Indeed, it was one of the most beautiful runs that I have ever done, and despite the challenging slopes, the sight was worth every step of the way.

I got up at around 0400 hrs, washed up, and then took a ride at 0500 hrs with some friends in a chartered tourist coach to a parking lot in Sincheng City. There, we transferred to shuttle buses arranged by the race organisers to travel to the entrance of the Taroko Gorge National Park.

There was a crowd of about 6,500 half-marathoners and marathoners, and another 3,500 5-km "fun run" participants. The race flagged off for the full- and half-marathoners at 0700 hrs sharp, while the fun runners set off at 0800 hrs. It was relatively good weather in the morning -- the air was cool and fresh, with clear blue skies.

The route began with a 5-km loop, with the Asia Cement Factory as a turning point at the 2.5-km mark. It was then a gradual upslope run into the embrace of Taroko, with steep and spectacular marble rock faces lining the way with mountains covered with lush greenery in the background. The route took me past Changchunci (長春祠), Ningan Bridge (寧安橋), Baisa Bridge (白沙橋) and into the Sipen Tunnel (溪畔隧道), the end of which was the turning point for 21-km. By the time I entered the tunnel, my legs were heavy like lead, tired from the uphill climb. But the return leg downslope was much more relaxing, and I managed to pick up my speed again from there.

Due to the lack of training prior to the race, I could feel my legs beginning to give way at around 17 km into the race. I could feel the nascent onset of cramping in my left quad, but I knew that if I stopped, I wouldn't be able to maintain my (albeit slow) momentum. So I kept pressing ahead to the end.

I crossed the finishing line in about 2 hr 10 minutes. It was an exhilarating feeling. Not a bad timing for such a challenging terrain and given the inadequate training. :) Perhaps I might consider doing a full marathon next year.

I managed to take a few pictures with some of my friends, including some visiting runners from Singapore, such as tarepanda, ST, yankee and joanna. Everyone had a good time :) But it was a bit of a dampener that a heavy shower poured out of the skies at around 1000 hrs to 1100 hrs, which made it sort of difficult to take photos, and it was verging on being too cold for comfort.

Overall, the logistics of the event were pretty well managed. There were sufficient water points, sponge stations and medical stops along the way, not to mention very enthusiastic crowds cheering the runners along :) At the end of the race, finishers of the full- and half-marathons also received a medal and a free lunch box (rice and some ribs) on top of the regular complimentary isotonic drinks. In the pre-race race pack, there was also a nice big race towel. Not a bad deal at all, for a race that costs about S$30 :)

NightHawk

I took part in Operation Nighthawk last night at East Coast Park. It was a terribly hot evening, but many runners had turned up anyway to run a selection of 15 km, 26 km and 30 km routes. I opted for the 15 km route, since I knew I was hardly in good shape and didn't want to hold up the faster 26-km and 30-km runners. I half expected them to finish their long runs before I came back from my 15 km!

We were set off in batches at around 1030 hrs. The forward journey was rather good. I kept up a relatively steady and brisk pace, and was among the first few 15-km runners to reach the turning point at Bedok Town Park (about 8.3 km from the starting point), getting there about 48 mins into the run. I then rested for about 16 mins, before setting back on the return leg which took a long and dreary 1 hr 3 mins. I was sweating like a waterfall and my pace slowed down to a jog-walk by the time I completed the distance.

I had expected to cover 15 km in about 1 hr 45, but I clocked 2 hr 8 min for a distance of 16.6 km, inclusive of resting time. I wouldn't minus off the resting time from my total time, because I would have run even worse without the rest break!

After getting back to the start point, I did some stretching and replenished lost fluids with ice-cold isotonic drinks and waited for the 26-km and 30-km runners to come back. It was around 3 am in the morning before I hitched a ride in BoSe's car back home. :)

Dusty Run II

Went for Dusty Run II yesterday at East Coast Park yesterday night. We started off at around 9.30 pm, with different groups of runners opting for 10 km, 20 km, 30 km and 50 km routes. There was a total of maybe 50-60 runners, with the majority choosing to do 30 km. I also chose the 30 km route, and got off to a steady start. From ECP F2 Carpark, we went up past Bedok Camp, towards Changi Hospital and Tampines SAFRA before turning towards Temasek Poly.

Around mid-way through the race, I could feel the life being sucked out of me. Maybe it's because I haven't done much running over the past couple of weeks, and a sudden lack of stamina and willpower hit me hard like a ton of bricks. I significantly reduced my pace and had to intersperse my running with brisk walking and jogging. A stitch set in soon after, and my lower back began aching terribly as I went along Bedok Town Park.

I took a wrong turn after the Siglap Park connector and the journey back to F2 carpark was long and lonely. There were no runners in front of me, and none behind me. But at least I remained in familiar territory and knew the way back from ECP Zone D. All by myself under a cloudy midnight sky, I slowly made my way to the end-point.

I had expected to cover 30 km in over 3 hours, and the timing I did clock of about 3 hr 28 min seemed about right. But as I had taken a wrong turn, I actually ran only 25.6 km...which meant that my timing was dismally disappointing. It's an average 7.3 km/hr pace. So slow! :( Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable run, with the cool night breeze behind me and the jolly post-run company to chit-chat with.

Well done, Stardust, for a race brilliantly organised! :)

IPPT

Passed my IPPT today. Was exempted from chin-ups, which meant that even though I scored 18 points (with a minimum of C-grade for my standing broad jump and A-grade for my other four stations) and ran 10 min 39 sec for my 2.4 km run, I could only qualify for a pass and not a silver award. Oh well. I guess I won't get the extra $200 to tide me through this recession!

After the IPPT, I did a really slow jog back home. It was 6 km in total, and I took a whopping 54 min. The route is shown below.

Operation Nighthawk - Night Run @ MacRitchie

Ran with Team Fatbird for a 24-km night run yesterday. We started around 9.15 pm from MacRitchie Reservoir, then all the way to Mandai and back. I think I did fairly strongly at the start, but as usual, towards the tail end of the run, I was cramping up badly and had a terrible stitch on my left side. I returned to the starting point at around 12:15 am the next morning. Took me a super-duper long 2 hr 45 min to complete the journey! =p

After the run, we celebrated DreamRunner's 18th wedding anniversary and also his birthday :) Niwas brought along his curry and YN also made some special ice-cold mango and recovery concoctions, which were all very delicious and very much welcomed at the end of such a long and tiring run! :)

BG Run - International Women's Day

Today was International Women's Day and also BG Run for March 2009. I was awakened by Ripley's wake-up call at 0545 hrs, and made my way over to the old SMU to meet up with her, LaserRunner and PassionRunner. The four of us soon began our slow jog-run towards the Botanic Gardens, did about 6 km inside, and then went out along Orchard Road all the way until the Bugis area where we stopped for breakfast at Killiney Coffee. We met RealRunner and Kickjazz along the way, so that was fabulous :)

Mt Faber to NUS and back

Went for a shiok hilly 18-km run in 2 hr 17 min (inclusive of rest breaks) with Team Fatbird, starting from Mt Faber to NUS and back. Bug led the pack, and was kind enough to slow down his pace so that velocity-challenged folks like me could keep up and not be left too far behind! :) Lunch was settled at Alexandra Village (sliced fish noodles with avocado milkshake), following by shopping at Queensway Shopping Centre with Matthew and Johnny, before I headed home. Dinner was spent in the excellent company of former varsity mates, Sumin, Ming-Chyuan and Gen.

To the two Special Administrative Regions

For the race review done by Ripley and I on the Macao Galaxy International Marathon, please click here. :)

Lari in the East, Makan in the West

Thanks to Babumouse's offer of a ride to East Coast, I joined Team Fatbird for their training run this morning. They planned to do 24 km, but since I was merely preparing for the half marathon in Macao, I decided to settle for a shorter run. The weather was warm and humid, and I could feel the sun burning into my skin and fire coming out of my nostrils. The first 9-km was completed in relatively good time, about 52 min, but the return journey took much longer, around an hour. In total, I ran 18 km in 1 hr 53 min. Brunch was settled over 10 plates of sushi in Sushi Teh @ West Coast Plaza.

Ulu Pandan Canal Run

After working hours today, I changed into my running gear and went for a brisk run. I went from the Civil Service College to Bouna Vista MRT station and then did a loop along the Ulu Pandan Candal, meeting DreamRunner and some other regular runners along the way. It had rained earlier in the day, so the ground was wet and slippery and the air warm and humid. But it still felt good to run. I enjoy the feeling of sweating it out, of the wind in my face, of the firm ground beneath my feet. I covered a total of 5.5 km in 32 min 45 sec.

Swissotel the Stamford Vertical Marathon

This morning, I participated in the Swissotel the Stamford Vertical Marathon, a delightful 73-storey staircase-climbing challenge up Southeast Asia's tallest hotel. I hadn't trained for it much -- except a single short 15-min session in my gym's StairMaster about two weeks ago -- so I wasn't expecting to do a Personal Best at today's event. Rather, I had decided to enjoy the leisurely ascent up the tower armed with a Canon PowerShot in one hand -- which turned out to be not the wisest of strategies since that left me with only one free hand to haul myself along the handrail up the stairwell. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable. At one point I felt like throwing up in the stairwell, but I didn't, and I made it to the helipad in relatively good form with suffering any cramps. Given my laid-back speed, I didn't beat my record of 10 min 31 sec (set in 2004) and only managed a 13 min 35 sec, but who cares! :D I had great company for the race -- BoSe, nerradhog, StarDust, alphagirl, ripley, chantelle, lengloi, zco, walfisch, babumouse, Nan Yan, Chee Meng, etc - and that's more important :)

BG Run, November 2008 and Am Ende kommen Touristen

It was a wet and thundery morning. At around 0530 hrs, the winds were still howling and I could see from under my blanket that the buildings outside my window were being lit up by the occasional flashes of lightning. But the drive to go run overruled the desire to sleep through the storm, so I SMS-ed Ripley and said that I'll go ahead to meet her at the old SMU for this month's BG Run, regardless of the weather. Thankfully, BoSe and nerradhog had the same idea so I managed to catch a ride with them to the starting point in the rain. But the skies were clearing up by the time we reached at 0700 hrs. There, we were joined by _licht, doraemon_red and tktan. After waiting for another 30 minutes for the drizzle to subside, we set off.

For Phase I, we entered the Botanic Gardens via the Rain Tree Drive, then went past the Eco Lake towards the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden. Then, we double-backed along Eco Garden Way and ran through the Evolution Garden (stopping prematurely along the way because of upgrading works). Then we cut through the Visitor Centre and into the Ginger Garden, behind a waterfall and then up the Bandstand. After touching the Swiss Granite Fountain, we ran along the Swan Lake and then exited the gardens. We ran about 5 km, I reckon, by this time.

For Phase II, we ran up Minden Road, past Loewen and Ridley (and the house with many Ferraris), towards Tanglin Mall and then back to the old SMU via Nassim Road. A good route for hill training. :) And about another 5 km too.

The whole journey, interspersed with phototaking, was about 10.5 km by my guesstimate and took 1 hr 26 minutes.

Thanks to doraemon_red, we had refreshingly delicious Pocari Sweat- and Ribena-flavoured jelly to feast upon. :) Then we showered, and settled breakfast at the Prata Cafe. I had my standard teh halia and iced milo, plus two egg pratas :D

Later in the evening, I went to watch Am Ende kommen Touristen (And Along Come Tourists) at the Cathay with _licht. It's a German film about a youth Berliner Sven who had to serve a year of civil service in Auschwitz to help out an elderly former imprisoned Pole Stanislaw Krzeminski who lived next to the holocaust museum. A rather sombre film, which compares how the old Polish holocaust survivors and the new generation of Poles view and cope with the atrocities of the past.

Great Eastern Women's 10-km Race

Today, I went to take photos at the Great Eastern Women's 10-km race. Enuff said.

In the afternoon, I headed over to Lynn's house for a birthday celebration. It was great!

New Balance Real Run

I got up at the unearthly hour of 0350 hrs this morning and hopped into a cab to go down to Jurong East MRT interchange to catch the $5 shuttle bus to Changi Exhibition Centre for the New Balance Real Run.

The 10 km run commenced at 0730 hrs, while the 15 km run, in which I participated, commenced slightly later at 0745 hrs. The first 4 km was on trail, followed by 10.4 km of road (mainly along Changi Coast Road and Aviation Park Road) and about 0.6 km of sandy beach. The sun was mercilessly hot, and I was baked nice and dark by the time I finished my race (about 1 hr 27 min).

I surprised myself by my time of completion. I thought I would have taken around 1 hr 45 min or even 2 hrs. But somehow, I managed to keep up the willpower to push through with the run, particularly the last 2 km which was dreadful under the heat.

My lap times are as follows:

4 km - 0:20:40
8 km - 0:42:48
10 km - 0:54:55
15 km - 1:26:32

Thankfully, I managed to avoid dehydration by replenishing my fluid levels at 3 of the water points during the race, and also by consuming post-race: 4 x cans of 100 Plus, 1 x bowl of Mee Hoon Kuay soup, 1 x bottle of winter melon juice, 1 x bottle of mineral water, 2 x cups of soya bean milk and 2 x bowls of lotus and chicken soup. :D No more throbbing headaches! :D




Update as of 23 October: The results are out! My official net timing is 1:26:11. As a rough order of estimate, I was ranked #335 out of 2100 runners in the Men's Open category who completed the race (according to gun time). Hooray!.

Prefontaine

I watched two DVDs this afternoon at thelonelyrunner and Fd's house on the life of Steve Prefontaine (1951-1975). It was fascinating to see the story of this strong American runner with a cocky "bad boy" attitude that you either liked or hated. It is a pity that he died in a car crash just before the 1976 Olympics. He probably would have won a medal, after having learnt from his lesson in the 1972 Munich Games.

Earlier in the day, I led Thomas on an introductory run of MacRitchie Reservoir. We went clockwise from the carpark, covered about 2.5 km to the fitness corner, and then walked the remaining 8 km of the loop back to the start point. The walk was leisurely, but I think it was still rather dehydrating. I suffered from a bad and throbbing headache later in the day. Ouch. Tomorrow's the New Balance Real Run. I hope it won't be too painful. Nor too muddy.

BG Run, October 2008

I went for a casual run with ripley this morning. We set off from the old SMU, went photo-running for about 6 km within the Botanic Gardens, then went out along Orchard Road until we reached Dhoby Ghaut station where we stopped briefly because of a minor accident. We had covered about 9.3 km so far, taking 1 hr 30 min. We then walked the rest of the way to Bugis, covering 11 km in total, taking 2 hr. Along the journey, we stopped by LaSalle for some more picture-taking.

After the run, the two of us did some weight training before having lunch at a temporary market at Bugis. It was a good morning. :)

Back to Asics and Alonso wins!

I went for a Saturday morning run with cfred84, ripley and laserrunner at MacRitchie Reservoir yesterday morning. We set off from the carpark at 0730 hrs, heading in an anticlockwise direction, cutting through the trail and across the Island Golf Course until we reached the carpark of Upper Pierce Reservoir. There, we met tigger and yankee on the return leg of their 20-km run. After a brief water break, we proceeded northwards and touched the gate of the pumping station and then the gate which led to Old Upper Thomson Road and double-backed to MacRitchie Reservoir. The whole journey, which we reckoned was about 18 km, took us a good 2 hours 15 min to complete, inclusive of all the water and rest breaks.

But sadly, it was also on this run that my Adidas Supernova CTL 9 decided to submit its "resignation letter". With part of the sole peeling off the right shoe, I knew it was time to give this pair of well-worn footgear its deserving retirement.

And so, on Sunday, I popped over to Running Labs to purchase its successor, a pair stunning silver/golden-coloured Asics GEL Kayano 14! :) [See image below] It's an incredible purchase, and is the grandson to my first pair of pair of Asics GEL Kayano 12, which faithfully joined me on my runs from April to December 2006, clocking up a mileage of about 565.5 km. I can't wait to put the new Generation 14 shoes on for a run.

Ealier on Sunday morning, I also had the immense pleasure and privilege of swinging by (together with ripley and fennel) to tktan and doraemon_red's house for a relaxing swim and a sumptious Japanese lunch :) Thanks, tktan and doraemon_red for the hospitality! I can't wait for the tan to develop ;)

And CONGRATS to FERNANDO ALONSO for winning the inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix Night Race in Singapore! What a race! Incredible!

BG Run, September 2008

Today was September's BG Run. I hopped into BoSe's car with nerradhog to the old SMU, and then embarked on a 13.6 km BG run, one of the faster ones in a long time. Also present were ripley, charlotte, tiwazz, ckoksing, zhoaong and cfred84. Although we covered less than the initially planned 15 km, it was still a good run nevertheless. Took us 1 hr 33 minutes to complete it, with slopes, water breaks and traffic lights.

After that, I had breakfast at Forum's MacDonalds with BoSe, nerradhog, ripley and babumouse, which proved rather interesting. :) Then I registered for 5 October's Run for Hope and had tea with ripley at Borders to discuss our December Hong Kong/Macao visit. Lunch was consumed with chris ang, tingyi and chee kong at Sun with Moon Japanese Restaurant: grilled cod with sashimi salad ;) Got home at around 4 pm, tired but happy to have spent a great day out with friends.

KPE Swing Run

At Leonard's and David's advice, I decided to cast my worries aside and live out my weekend. :)

Saturday began late, as usual, but I managed to squeeze in a session to the gym, took a leisurely stroll down the Singapore River and shopped around for electronic paraphernalia at Funan Centre before suddenly feeling sapped of energy and having to go home immediately to rest.

Sunday began much earlier, with me catching a ride in Babumouse's car (picking up BoSe along the way) to participate in the inaugural KPE Swing Run, a semi-competitive and semi-fun 10-km race through Southeast Asia's longest road tunnel. My flu had still not yet receded, but I pressed ahead with the run anyway through the tunnel. It was dark (at least for about 2 km) with limited ventilation throughout, which made it rather challenging mentally to complete. But finish it, I did, albeit with a less than impressive timing of 54:32 and emerged from tunnel and into the light of day. There, I caught up with the other SgRunners and some of my buddies from DSTA who were also present, which was great. :) After the run, I headed down to Vivocity to watch with Babumouse, BoSe and Ripley "Le Renard Et L'enfant", a French docu-film about 10-year old girl's friendship with a fox. It has a simple storyline, but offers fascinating footages of wildlife in their natural habitat through the four seasons. I loved it! After the movie, I caught up with Shiwei over artificial fruit juice and it's so good to hear an update from him on what's he's doing and where he's headed. I had a haircut before going home, but oddly enough, that sickly feeling of being sapped of all energy came back again while I was on the bus. It was almost as if I could simply slip into unconsciousness if I allowed myself to.