The Longest 12km ever

While saintly people go to church and the more saner people slept in on a nice public holiday, 6 of us slightly cuckooed people decided to brave the rain and made our way to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for our virgin run there. Fortunately, the rain did not came and so begin the longest ever 12km of my life.

Our run leader and 'nature guide' started the run by giving us a topo lesson aka a briefing on the run route. Our mission was to run from Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Visitor Centre(BTNRVC) to the Rifle Range Road and back to BTNRVC to complete the 2nd part of the TNF 25km route. That was part 1 and part 2 was to go up Bukit Timah Hill and from there make our way to Dairy Farm and the Quarry before making our way back to BTNRVC covering a total of roughly 14 to 15km.

And so off we went. The first part of the route took us through the South View path and Catchment Path. We wanted to run but there were too damn many staircases going up and down and that kinda forced us to walk most of the way, which was just as well cause.....




We came out to the pipeline alongside Rifle Range Rd after almost 30 minutes.
This was the site of our support table for last year TNF. Finally, a chance for us to do a proper run! The rolling open plains was a sight to behold and I finally got to run on this part of the route.

We turned into the Durian Loop but too bad didn't even smell not less see any durian. A final run along the road and we were back at the BTNRVC. "Piece of cake"! 5km in 1 hour! I think the slowest time I ever recorded for a 5km run without any newbies involved.

After a short break, we started Part 2.

As everybody has been to BTNR know, there is a very steep slope up to the summit. Recharged and energised, we erm kinda charged up the slope. I lasted all of 10 metres before the charge became a run, then a trot then a walk. Actually if there weren't so many other people around, I think I will have crawled up the rest of the way. But cannot lose face leh... And then we came across this sign:

Now why didn't they put it at the bottom! Anyway, we took 13 minutes to cover the 1km up. This was bad. But worse was to come.

Remember the staircases in part 1? There were more, lots more here.

While we huffed and puffed our way up and down the never ending staircases or rather steps;


some of whom were like 2 feets high; 

old ladies and uncles were walking up and down like spring chicken. One auntie even said she was on her second round. Now I wondered whether she was being friendly or sarcastic!

Our legs were almost like jelly when we finally came to a proper tar road. What a relief. A short run and after all that steps, the legs felt so light we managed to charged the 100 metres to the Wallace Education Centre
where we had a long long break. By then most of us were shot to pieces and hungry like hell.

Our guide and run leader in his almighty wisdom decided to cut out the run to the quarry (thank God) and allowed us to run back to BTNRVC via Upp Bukit Timah Rd.

Part 2 - 7 km - time taken: exactly 1 hour 30 minutes. Total distance ran: 12 km Total time taken: 2 hours 30 minutes. Mission accomplish. A record for me and a very torturous one at that! Seriously, I think this is not just the longest 12km I ever walk/ran but also the toughest. Now I can understand why some of my friends can take up to 4 hours to run 20km when they were training for the TNF and my respect for them and all the finishers of the TNF has gone up several notches after this morning run. And now I am seriously reconsidering my decision to sign up for this year's edition.