Running Sucks

World Harmony Run. What a grand sounding title and what aspiration. A run for world peace, world harmony. Why not? So I goondu goondu signed up. It was supposed to be a 37 km run at moderate pace with stops at various religious outlets. Although the organiser has stated that the time taken is to be from 7.30 pm to 1.00 pm it turned out to be the longest run I ever did so far. We started a little late from MacRitchie Reservoir, a motley gang of around 40 runners (mostly from sgrunners), 2 cisco escorts, 1 ambulance, 1 cyclist escort and 1 mini coach and 1 support car running a distance of about 4km to our first stop - the Bright Hill Temple at Bishan. After a short prayer by one of the monks, we moved off to the Salvation Army Here we didn't get to go in and after another short prayer, off we went again. This time, down Marymount Rd to Balestier and to the beautiful Burmese Buddhist Temple. 2 Ang Mio joined us for a very short distance b4 breaking away. I was running sweeper and th...

2.15 am. Took a cab to the Amarie Watergate hotel. 2.45 am. Ate a sponge cake and a banana before going into the hotel lobby. They serving coffee and tea for the runners! Wondered whether I will bump into Runwihme? 3.00 am. Boarded Bus no 5. Collected my breakfast pack. Got a sandwich, banana, an apple, an orange juice, a packet of orange juice and a bottle of mineral water. Those people staying at the Amarie Watergate got a even bigger breakfast pack! Wonder what's inside? 3.30 am. Ate the sandwich and drank the orange juice. Tried to get some sleep thereafter but couldn't. Too excited - mahchiam like a schoolboy going on his first excursion. 4.45 am. Reached. Hell - still got to transfer to a pick up truck to reach race site. Walked around looking at the stalls. Bought 2 running t-s for 260 baht each. 5.30 am. The full marathon starts. Went to take a leak. 6.00 am. Another leak! Why so much pee? 6.30 am. The race starts! The race plan is to go for a PB (anything below 2.02 2...

16 March 2006. 3 days to race Joined a half day city tour. Free in the iternary. Visited the usual place. Cruise down the Chao Praya, visit temple, gem factory and finally the obligatory stop at the 4 faced Buddha. Afternoon, met Annie and her family at the former World Trade Centre for lunch. Took curry rice followed by sticky rice with mango. Does this count as carbo loading? Then went to Pratinum. The place is so hot and boring! And it's so big. The ladies wanted to cover all the 4 adjoining markets and malls. Must have walk a marathon this afternoon! Night time went over to Suan Lum Night Market! Alamak, more of the same stuff and more walking! I dead beat - like that how to run this Sunday? 17 March 2006. 2 days to race Dropped the family off at Siam Paragon - a super duper big shopping mall with a fantastic food court and went over to Amarie Watergate to collect my race pack. The taxi journey took 30 minutes just to clear the stretch from Siam Paragon to World Trade Centre (w...

On leave today. Decided to go MacRitchie for a final run before leaving for Bangkok. As usual, reached there about 9 am. Weather is hot. The plan today is to do the MR TT route again. Objective to better the previous run in February. Strategy - if the first run is okay, the 2nd run to be a recovery/cool down run. Otherwise if the first run is slower than the previous run time of 25.15m, than to chiong the second lap. Tried a new approach this time. Started at a slower pace. Reached the 2km marker app 1.5 from the zigzag bridge in about 7mins. Picked up the pace a little. Reached the half way u-turn mark. Checked the watch: 12:45mins. Sightly faster than the last round but still 45sec off what other experienced runners say is optimum time. Went flat out on the way back using the downslopes to chiong down and going fast on the flat ground. Time crossed the zigzag bridge: 24:48mins. Yes I did it! Under 25mins. Felt pretty good. Grab a drink and a banana - surprise - bump into an old flame...

No - not sway by Michael Buble - but "sway" as in suay - unlucky! First - on Monday caught a cold or is it the flu never know how to differentiate but in any case have been suppressing it with vitamins hoping it will not become full blown otherwise next week how to run in Thailand! On the other hand if it come out now maybe will recover by next week in time to run? But knowing the pattern, if the flu or whatever become full blown, such down for at least 2 weeks like last August like that! Than last night on the way home - don't really know what happened. Just coming out from the train, can't even remember whether I was pushed or what but I hit a bench and nearly went flying. As I was carrying the cake for Mom's birthday, I didn't want to let go and balance myself. So I did the next best things. I jammed my leg hard against the bench and leant forward. The 2 waterbottles in my bag went flying like ballistic missiles and my legs - now both shin got 1 swollen ...

Read the interview in the Today Newspaper Wed 6 March with Guy Ogden, a former World long distance runner and athletic coach to Vietnam and now based in Singapore. Most notably, his comments on marathon running: Quote: "Older folk often have more mental strength and patience and these qualities are valuable in marathon running" "Analyses of marathon results also show that relatively greater improvements occur among older runners" Yeah right - I belong to the 'older folk' category - so how come my timing is going northward?

The strap of the Timex Ironman given by Sebas (his prize from one of the New Paper Big Walk) broked on Tuesday during the CBD run. Replaced the strap on Wednesday evening and the damn thing broked again on Friday on the way home from office! So went and got a new watch yesterday. Couldn't decide between a Polar with Heart Rate Monitor, another Timex or something more fancy. Shelved the Polar cos couldn't stand the beeping sound (also quite pricey). The Timex - so many models didn't know which one to choose. Than saw the Adidas range - quite stylo. The girl at City Chain said this one got timing for soccer referee. I liked huh? Do I look like a referee! But the watch quite chio - beside the Referee function, also can store 100 runs + 100 laps timing. Also got interval mode. Finally it was down to this and a Puma watch. In the end, choose the Adidas - why becos the display is so big - old man like me can see easily!

No, it's not my wedding anniversary but this month marks the 2nd anniversary of my love affair - with running! To celebrate the occasion, ran back from office to home last night. As I ran, I reflected on the past 2 years: I have come a long way since than. It all started when the Company came up with a gym membership for us at Planet Fitness. I followed a colleague who was than into body building to the gym. From doing the warm up on the threadmill, I progressed to running in the parks. Than another colleague, a seasoned runner came along and he started encouraging me to run further. By the end of 2004 in just 9 months, I had finished a half marathon and a full marathon - something that I had never dream possible. As I looked back and recall the many milestones: My first 2km run: I was gasping for breath in just 2 minutes. The air was literally being sucked out of me. My legs felt like lead. It was hell. Now - 20km is the norm and I trying to do a 9.30 for a 2.4km although this st...