Running Sucks

Key Power International came to Running Lab this evening with their Newton running shoes for trailing. Fortunately for me, they brought along only 1 pair of size 12 and I managed to get it first. "It" is the Newton Gravity cushion trainer. Now I am rather surprised that Newton still has its shoes designed as cushioned or stability shoes. According to its website , Newton shoes are designed for forefoot running. Based on the literature I have read previously, if a person is running using forefoot, there is really no need for stability or cushioning shoes as the gait and impact point is different and there is no need to stabilise the foot etc Anyway, back to the shoes. "Whether training or racing, Newton Active Membrane Technology™ provides greater shock absorption, greater energy return while promoting the natural and more efficient forefoot strike of barefoot running". With this in mind, I put it on and instantly felt the different. There was actually 4 piece o...

GE Women 10k Run. All the actions. Including the top 5 finishers and members of SGRunners. See if you catch the bandit runners or any familiar faces. The Making of the Group Photo. Damm jialat. Ladies.....

The Great Eastern Women 10K. This year was lucky enough to get an invitation from ESG , the event organiser so was able to go to the Hospitality Tent and get breakfast. Thanks guys. So while the ladies were sweating it out in the queue under the sun, we were having breakfast inside the Hospitality Tent together with the VIP and the race winners!. Hmm life is great! M didn't do too well this time round coming back in a much slower time of 58:06 compared to her last few races. The race was won by a Kenyan (they seem to be popping up everywhere) and Singapore's favourite Vivian Tang was beaten to 7th place. Met a few of the new sgrunners ladies. Don't know many of them. The regulars have mostly disappeared or are not supporting this race. Probably too ex which is a waste as I thought this is one of the most well organised race. Photos and videos coming up soon.. just so soon as I can find time to do some tweaking! Okay all photos finally up here

After some searching finally managed to get a video of the start of the marathon on You Tube. As there were only 170 runners in the full marathon, scanned through slowly and can see us. Still can't find any photos yet:(

The day of the marathon. Should I run or not? Actually I had more or less made up my mind to run - bad knee or ankle be dammed. There was never a question of not starting although that was in my mind the last 2 weeks leading to this day. At most, I reasoned, if I cannot do it, I will DNF. Arranged with the race organizer for a shuttle bus pickup from our hotel to Likas Stadium. Cost RM35 per person for a return trip. We were to regret paying for this later. Reached the stadium in good time and was surprised to see the organizer still setting up the start point. There was a lot of Safra runners around. Met IMD and Jennifry(?) at the start. Also saw Alber, Jeffrey(?). Seemed like there were more Singaporeans than the other nationalities. IMD told M not to run too fast ahead of me and leave me behind. How prophetic his words were to become later on. The race started slightly after 4.30am. We had to run 200m round the stadium before going out onto the road. Stepped on a plastic cup and and...

Decided to go to Likas Sports Complex on Saturday afternoon to collect the race kit. There didn't seem to be any public transport there at all and so we had to settle for a taxi. Goodness me, it cost RM18 from our hotel to reach there. Why have the race kit collection in such an ulu area? There were hardly any people there so collection was a breeze. And than the shocker came for M. They had run out of female size singlet! We couldn't understand why but the puzzle was solved later during race day. M got very upset and so we went to look for Shan, the very nice lady coordinator and requested that she gave us the t-shirt on the mannequin instead. Unfortunately, nobody seem to know who was in charge of the mannequin or for that matter the t-shirt distribution so in the end M had no choice but to settle for the oversized man size singlet. The goodie bag was quite miserable. 1 small shopping bag sponsored by HSBC, 1 voucher for the pasta dinner, 1 discount voucher for some spa treat...

Went for my 3rd TCM consultation with a third sinseh in as many weeks. Although up and running already, the swelling was still there so when Sebas recommended this TCM practitioner in Chinatown, decided to pay him a visit. The shop certainly didn't inspire any confidence. It was run down, with many worned and old sofas and chairs lying around. It looked more like a shack with a quack doctor in those old Cantonese movie.  And it was almost like that. The sinseh asked me to sit down on one of the sofa, asked me to take off my shoe and prop up my leg on a stool and start examining it right there in public. No consultation room, no privacy.  But the difference stopped there. And what he did thereafter was very different from the earlier 2. He asked me to remove the other shoes on the unaffected leg and started comparing both foot.(The earlier 2 didn't even bother). Than he pointed out the difference to me and explained that I had dislocated my ankle and he had to put it back in pla...

I am a lazy guy and I also don't particularly relish tying shoes laces halfway into a run which is why I got all these shoe laces tying thingy. Lock Laces : This one I have been using for a long time. Convenient once tied, there is no need to do any further adjustments. It is pretty cheap too at around $12.00 but comes in only a few boring colors. The main disadvantage of this otherwise easy to use product is that adjusting the laces to fit different thickness of socks or a ankle guard can be a nightmare. Also, I am never comfortable with just yanking off the shoes after run without loosening the laces. Yankz Laces: This one comes in many beautiful colors with a fair bit of them in luminous color. And I got the shoes to match! It is also reasonably priced at around $15.00 but I don't really like its way of tying the laces together. Make the whole thing seem so messy. Also, like the lock laces system, it is hard to get the correct fit especially if we use different thickness of ...

Didn't sign up for this race but nevertheless decided to go down for a look see at their practice run. Actually just wanted to kapo a bit and see how the trail was. The training run started at last year end point and down through the chalets. Once passed the chalets, it was straight into the 4.5km trail. And finally, they got the trail part correct. T he last few runs, the portion where they called 'trail' were actually park pavement. The trail here was all flat and a breeze to run on. No rocks or uneven ground but along the way there are patches of mud pool. Part of the trail is quite narrow so it might be a squeeze especially if the ground is wet and runners are trying to avoid the mud. Also, there are a lot of areas where there seem to be a quick patch job and sands have been dumped on the road. There are no shades throughout the trail. If the sun is up, it is going to be hot. If it is wet, the whole place is going to turn into a swamp. This is going to be one tough r...

The Straits Time today had an article on page C34 written by journalist Rohit Brijnath entitled 'Amateurs play for the joy and love of the game. Rohit Brijnath writes mainly about cricket but this piece really strike a chord in me. The gist of it: - He first talked about his friend continuous engagement of cricket despite a 'bum' knee and why he continues to play on - He then went on to talk about why amateurs like us (yes u and me) who don't profit from sports or take it as a career continue to slog on. - He described weekend hackers as 'charmingly mad', when it come to playing, "they cannot be stopped." Here he is talking about ball games but it can be applied to runners as well. His next words: - (Talking about golfer) "Professional are expected to constantly construct brilliant shots, amateurs are in constant search of just one memorable one...........and when we hit such a shot, ......., then we can't forget it. We'll tell our wives i...

After 2 weeks and 4 days, finally went for a short run. Accompanied the new store supervisor from RL and jog a short round Fort Canning. There is still some swelling but the pain is not very obvious although there is still this niggling pull. Was fearful that any over exertion might just cause the pain to come back so in the end did just 4 km and call it a day. Hopefully it won't swell up like a balloon tomorrow morning.