No Frills Race

I have signed up for another run and busted my quota for the year. Suppose to do only 6 but had good reasons to sign up for the 1^st No Frills Series of Run organized by Running Guild.

First thing of course is to lend some support to running pal Ben Swee and his team, the people behind the Running Guild. Their objective for these series of runs, in their own word “….wished we could return to the good old days where races were just a few bucks and they were kept simple, pure and people ran for the sake of the experience, the joy, and the exhilaration of racing with fellow friends/competitors and/or just want to have fun outdoors and meeting new friends, some even become lifelong partners” is so admirable. Okay maybe I don’t qualify for the lifelong partners part of it but yes especially in these times when every other race organizer just want to make a quick buck and oversell the race like the Marina 21K race (which I will reserve my full ranting in another post after I collect the race kit this weekend).

Secondly of course is the cost. At $13.00 per participant it is so far the cheapest race I ever signed up for nevermind that the actual cost for me is $39.00 since I kena pay for the team members. Which bring me to my 3^rd reason.

I will be doing this as part of a team which will comprise naturally the sidekick and a new addition to the Tekko running family – the Tekkokia! The kid is finally ready to be blooded in a competitive race. Actually, this will be his second, the first being the upcoming Marina21K. And I will definitely cherish this opportunity for the family to run as a team.

Finally, I have not been doing any 10k races since the NTUC OMB in February and this will be a good opportunity to assess whether I am still able to do sub 60 minutes. Also good as a sort of practice run for the Yellow Ribbon Prison Run the following month.

Anyway, for those who have always been complaining about the ever increasing cost of participating in races, why not sign up for this race? Going by past experience when Ben and his team organized the Banana Relay, the Twilight Ultra and even last year MacRitchie’s Simple Run, it will be well organized, great fun and everything that is promised in the first paragraph above. No medal, no certificate, no finisher tee? Think about it… most time what do you do with the medal and certificate anyway? Dump them in a drawer like I do, never to see the lights of day again. As for the tee, I think we have more than enough and for me, I am still trying to clear some of the event tees from the past races. Any takers?