2012 to 2013

A super bad flu kept me off running for the whole of the last week of 2012 and the year ended quietly for me. No big last race like the MR 25 Ultra or anything spectacular. In fact,unlike the past 2 years, there was no race for me at all in December.

For 2012, I had decided to run less and I thought I quite succeeded in that with less races, less long trail runs and even the weekdays runs were reduced. Yet after reviewing my logs, I was surprised that in fact mileage for the year was still higher than previous years. For the whole of 2012, I clocked a total of 1,502km which works out to roughly 29km a week. For 2011, it was 1,328/26; 2010: 1665/32.  

In 2012, I took part in 5 races. In 2011, it was just 3 in 2011 but a whooping 9 in 2009 and 2010.

2012 actually has been a good year for me. Other than the sprained ankle at the TNF 100 in October, I had no major injuries unlike in 2011 when I had the metatarsal stress fracture which probably accounted for the less than desired mileage then.

So what does all this figures imply? And why am I running less? Have I lost my zeal for running? Or am I getting too old for this shit?  The truth is - neither. Or at least I hope so. I am taking it easy on the advice of my doctors and friends so that I do not pick up unnecessary injuries. 

That said, 2013 is going to be a brand new exciting new year. I have already committed to 3 races, all increasingly longer in distance one of which will be my very first ultra! After photographing and admiring all these ultra runners I have decided it's time to do one myself abide even if it is the shortest ultra distance available. 

Have a blessed healthy 2012. Keep on running!

Night Trekking at Cameron Highlands

A lot of my friends had during their long ultras, ran in the forest in the middle of the night. Me? Never did an ultra and have never step foot in any jungle or forest in the night at all until now.

To pass away our time because there is absolutely nothing to do in Cameron Highlands at night, we decided to sign up for a night trek.Our guide said the whole distance should be about 2.5km and it will take 3 hours to finish. In my heart I was like lol, we probably will cover the 2.5km in double quick time but...Of cours, with our luck, it continued to rain and so here we are all decked out in the disposable raincoat in the middle of a jungle adjacent to a river, a village and higher ground on our left.

 

The benefit of having a guide was soon apparent when within a few steps of entering the trail, he stopped to show us this stick insect. And as we continued on, we became more and more aware of the little critters that were all over the place.

 

We also saw a green forest frog. In fact, subsequently we saw a few more of the same species. They were so well camoflauged that if not for the guide pointing them out to us, we may have missed them seeing that it was totally dark in the trails.



 

The guide also showed us this weird little creature. At first he mistook it for a firefly. But on closer examination, it turned out not to be but was in fact a caterpillar. And the interesting thing about this caterpillar? It glows in the dark!

Next we also saw this long legged creatures. It is as I understand a centipede although the guide claimed he has not seen it before.

More on the night trekking here

All in, the whole trek took us slightly over 3 hours out of which about 2.5 hours was spent actually in the jungle and the rest was the return trip to the car via a kampung road. So yes despite the rain, we took longer than we expected. In fact, I believe if not for the rain we could have spotted more creatures but the rain has forced them to take cover leaving us silly human to walk in the rain and waiting to get a cold!

Trekking at Cameron Highlands

Most people who goes to Cameron Highlands think of the strawberry farms and tea plantation. After all, there is no  shopping mall, theme park or anything of interest for visitors. Except the mountains and jungles. Which most sane tourists would only admire from the road and not venture into.

Anyway, we got sick of visiting farms after farms and decided to do some trekking up one of the hill. We didn't know what to expect and having heard tales of people getting lost in the jungle, we decided to get a guide although we were told it was possible to go without as most of the trails were clearly marked.

We told our guide we wanted something exclusive and that we did not want to join other people as we anticipated we will be slower in our movement. We obviously didn't know what we asked for because we got more that what we bargained for.

The guide brought us to this place. He called it a private trail as opposed to public trail, that is, trails that are known only to his company. 

We started at the foot of a hill just in front of a vegetable farm. Our first objective was the summit of this peak which involves an almost 70 degree vertical climb over soft muddy ground. 

Distance to the summit was not too long - just about 300 metres but it took us almost an hour to climb, clambering over the dense undergrowth and ducking under many fallen trees. 

 

We finally reached the summit which is just a narrow strip of rock barely 2 metres wide. Luckily we had the guide with us otherwise M would have freaked out having to walk over this area.

That's our guide leading the way.

And that's our next target, said the guide. The next peak. Gulp!

 

And so we continued our way, slithering and sliding over some areas, crawling under trees and bashing  through thick undergrowth which do not seems to have been trodden on for ages. 

 

The Princess crawling under a tree

But we were well rewarded with impressive scenes of what the guide called "mossy forest" which was actually thick growth of moss over the trees, branches, grounds and everywhere.

 

After a tired but rewarding 3 hours trek, we made our way back but not before having to climb over more steep cliff side like this one. 

Overall, it was an exhausting 5 hours trek made worse by the intermittent rain that falls every now and then and more challenging than we had expected but nevertheless a wonderful way to spend the day rather than visit the farms/

Cameron Highlands

It has always been my desire to run in a cool place. Cool as in cold. And the chance came when we went to the Cameron Highlands for a short getaway. 

Weather during the time we were there was terrible. We got our "cool" but most time it came with rain. Temperate was around 15 degrees in the morning and the fog was so dense in the earlier part of the morning. A little bit later and the traffic would have built up into a big jam so it was really difficult to fit in the run. Finally we managed to squeeze in a short run on the day of our departure.

We started off at about 7.15 am. The plan was to just do a short 30 minutes. What I wanted to do was to see how it feel like running at an higher altitude. Our hotel was at about 1600 metres above sea level which was about as high we can get start of from. 

Out of the hotel, it was a down hill run along the relatively empty road. It wasn't as bad as I thought. The altitude. Going down, we ran at an easy pace stopping to snap some pictures. We ran downhill for 2 km eventually reaching 1,500 metres above sea level which means we have descended about 100 metres only.

Running downhill

 Ok that was easy enough. And now for the difficult part. Running the 2 km back up. Temperature was a cool 16 degrees and great for running. But within a few pace of running uphill, I had removed my jacket and was sweating buckets, the first time I had done so during the past few days here. 

Running uphill

Aside from the fact that it is rare for us Singaporean to run in such weather and altitude, we also don't have any real hill to climb. And even though the ascent was only about 100 metres, it was enough to reduce our already slow pace to an even slower 7 minutes pace. And now a days later, our quads are still aching from the exertion.

But overall, I enjoyed the run. I only wished it could have been longer.

The Kid

The kid started his running in mid 2009. Since then, a lot has passed. Back then, he was in the poly. Now he is in the Navy. 

I remembered he started off with just a short 2.4km. Since then he has moved on to 10km distances and even took part in some races together with us. For one reason or another, he did not venture beyond that distance. Being in the army didn't help. The emphasis was on fitness and not so much long distance running and with him almost permanently on courses, there is hardly little time to run. Even in camp, with the strict emphasis on safety, self running out of the PT sessions are a no-no.

So we were surprised when he declared that he wanted to do a 21km to commemorate his 21st birthday this week. Transiting from 10km to 21km without any progressive training runs is a no-no for me but what the heck, you only get to be 21 once so we didn't to support his endeavor.

Started off last week with a 15km run at Punggol. He passed the test with flying color completing in in 1:30 hours. So this the week of his birthday, we went to do his virgin 21km. We were blessed with shower of blessings. A heavy rainfall shortly after we started did not dampened our spirit but in fact made it easier to run. And despite this being his first 21km, he blew us away by finishing faster than both of us.

Welcome to the club. The orientation is now over!

The Old Masters 老前輩

At 50 years of age, I feel my age when I run. Yet out there in the great running world, there are so many people who are so much older and still running strongly. Like these people.

This gentleman is from Malaysia. He is  70 years young I think. He does not just run. In fact, he runs ultra like I run 10km race! And he travels regularly all over the region to participate in races.

This guy is always seen at the local races. Bone thin but still running very strongly. He looks at least 60 years?

This is argubably the most famous veteran senior runner in Singapore. Mr Hong Fatt Kor. He is what 80 years old? You can read his interview with Run Society here.

Another very prominent runner especially in the MacRitchie trails.

Another frequently seen runner.  Not too sure how young he is.

This gentleman is I think between 75 - 79 years young.

And of course at the last SCMS, a very special guest turned up! 101 years Fauja Singh came all the way from the US to take part in the 10km race.

I don't think I will be running when I am 100 if I live to be that old. Heck, I don't even think I be running at 70! So I really admired and look up to these 老前輩. Wonder how they do it? Maybe I should try to do an interview with these guys?

Recovery

The marathon is almost a week old. Maybe this comes a bit late but still it's worth a read I hope since there always a race round the corner.

Here are my secret weapons for a quick recovery:

1. Stretch immediately after the race

2. Take a cold shower as soon as possible after the race

3. Eat a good meal. For a good cheap local recovery drink - go for teh halia yes ginger tea

4. I like to put an ice pack on my knees and lie down with my legs raised up against the wall

45 Have a nap in the afternoon after the race

These are the standard prescribed advices from the pro:

Active.com Chow Chug Chill

Running Times Hydration, Powernap, hydrotherapy, Instead of forcing out potentially helpful inflammation, aid your body in flushing out superfluous inflammation. Drink plenty of water, elevate your legs above your heart for a few minutes whenever you get a chance, take an ice bath and consume more anti-inflammatory foods. Whole grains, healthy fats from avocados and nuts, beans, leafy greens, and wild-caught fish promote an anti-inflammatory response in the body, but don't prevent local, potentially beneficial, reactionary inflammation.

Yahoo Sports Food, liquid, dry clothes, swimming, light exercise, light stretch, recovery run, sleep, cold bath

Quite similar right? And at minimum cost

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2012

This year unlike the past 2 years when I was not in town for this event, I am in Singapore. But like the past few years, I choose to skip this again and instead when down to snap some pictures.

Initial feel while walking on the Padang was that the organisation has improved. There were plenty of freebies available for the runners and supporters. However, one observation was the the free drinks were inside the runners finishing bay and not available to supporters. Security was tight, too tight in fact and the boorish and rude security personnel made it worse. I seriously wonder what they fear? They should take a leaf out of the Newton Challenge or even the Brooks Run Happy to see how to organise a party for runners and supporters.

This year the race again starts from 3 locations to reduce the jam but unfortunately they didn't plan for the finish leg which was again a big jam starting from the Sheares Bridge. With a total of about 53000 participants, something should be done to alleviate this situation which crops up year after year. Me think the least they should do is to cap the 10k numbers. According to the figures released, there were 17,000 full marathon participants, 10000 half, 20000 10k and 3500 Ekiden runners. 

This is billed as the Singapore Marathon so why are there so many 10k runners? Surely there are enough 10k race in Singapore to satisfy those who want to run the shorter distance and not clog up the route in such a major race. I was about 200 metres from the finish line and 3 hours after the 10k were flagged off at 7.15am, there were still plenty of them struggling to reach the finish line or worse walking hand in hand. Surely there is a better time to go on a date than this! 

There is a front page report in Sunday Times that the race may be split into 2 days when the Sports Hub is open in 2014. Hopefully that will come true and make it a pure 'marathon" for a better experience for the runners.

Anyway, this race marks the appearance of many "super heros" other than Catwoman and Spiderman/ Catwoman was missing this year but instead there were

Batman

Wonderwoman

Zorro not exactly a super hero but a hero nevertheless

And this group of Spidey, Hulk, Thor from the Avengers

This year event also appear to have more runners using this to promote their cause be it physical disability, Lynas or using it to raise funds for charity.

Participants in the wheelchair category

The visually handicap running with a sighted partner. Spotted at least 5 pairs of them

 And this gentleman from Malaysia bringing his anti-Lynas protest all the way here

Overall based on what I heard, the event organisation has improved tremendously. Now the next thing for them to do is to find a way to manage the crowd and make it a truly gold class experience for the runners.

Swissotel Vertical Marathon 2012

I have never been on top of the 73 storey high Swisstoel Hotel what more ran up instead of taking the lift. So when I was given the chance to go up, I grabbed the opportunity. Equipped with a media pass, instead of running up the stairwell like the rest, I took the lift up to the top of the world. What I want was to get a view of the skyline but unfortunately it was fairly cloudy and I didn't get any clear view although I did some decent shots. 

But more than the view, what I got was the determination and drive of the participants who ran up the 73 storeys. Mainly healthy young people but some oldish folks and some with very obvious physical handicap.

Young people hand in hand

This chap came from Malaysia just for this!

Where did Flash came from?

Singapore's son, Singapore Blade Runner after completing his first vertical marathon

Another physically challenged guy completing the gruelling 73 storey climb

More photos here

Brooks Run Happy 2012

This was billed as the first ever Singapore Party Run. Unfortunately, although the organiser did their best to create the party atmosphere, majority of the runners came more for the running then the party.. Still, there were a few who really got into the spirit of the whole party thing and came decked in their party best.

This guy has a jester hat!

This group was decked out in fancy attires

Our famous Catwoman forsake her costume for this red piece complete with red hair

And Miss Punggol came in a sexy 2 piece

There was a huge party at the end of the run at Marina Barrage with free flow of food, drinks and live performance.

Now all races in Singapore should be like this!

Can't find your Race Photo Part 2

The part 2. Been busy and my apologies for taking so long to post this. But hopefully this will come in useful for those doing the mother of all race, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.

So how to make sure your photo is taken? I don’t know about other photographers but in my experience as a photographer wannabe, these are the things that make me press the shutter release.

Originality

During a race, majority of the runners will be in the sponsored event top. So if it is the SCMS, everybody will be in blue. Anybody else in different attire will get my attention and guarantee a snap. Like this young lady from the Punggol Runners. She will definitely get many many more pictures than everybody else. Wear a bright color. Wear a bikini. Or don’t wear anything also can. Anything to stand out. Like this lady Jenap who is always in one costume or another:

Get the photographer’s attention

Wave, dance, do something outrageous. Do something different - kiss the girl next to you. Hold hands when finishing. Do a cartwheel. Push a pram. Use a walking stick. Whatever. Anything to draw the eye of the photographer away from the sweet young thing in front of him to you. No promises but where possible we will try to oblige and take the picture.

Keep to the inner side

The photographers will be kept at bay by hoardings etc and will be positioned at one side. Keep to that side. If the path is wide and you run on the far side away from where the photographer is, his lens may not be long enough to zoom in and get a decent picture in which case he will rather take the photo of someone nearer. And also if his view of you is blocked by other runners, he can’t take your picture. Which brings me to the next point:

Keep away from other runners

Try to run alone especially at the finish line. If there are two or three person coming in together, the photographer may only have time to take 1 person not all 3. Worse if you are behind a runner. You be blocked like the guy in this photo. So try to space yourself out when you see a photographer. Slow down if you have to. Speeding up may be a bad idea because the photographer may not be ready for you or worse the guy next to you decides you are challenging him and ends up racing with you and blocking you off from the photographer.

Join a running club

Many of the photographers will try to take photos of runners from the various running clubs especially if they themselves belongs to that club. Wear their top during the race and as long as you are not blocked and can be seen by the photographer, you should be good for a picture or two. Popular clubs with strong focus on identity and have their own attires are Punggol Runners, Safra and Team Fatbird.

Be friend with the photographers

As long as you are known to the photographer and he can see you, chances are he will take your pictures. I try my level best to do this. After all, that’s our purposes at this event. To take photos of our friends.

But after all this, if you still can’t get a photo, maybe you need to do something really outrageous in front of the photographer like maybe strip naked, bash up somebody or you could do the easy thing and just go up to him and beg for a photo.

Happy Posing and Running!

Eastside Deepavali Run

It has been a long time since we had an Eastside Run. The last one was in January this year on New Year Day. From time to time, friends have asked about it but with so many races throughout the year, there wasn't really any suitable weekend to do this and anyway, with so many more "official" group runs like IMD Running, Team Fatbird, I reckoned the interest in regional run has waned. And beside, it has not been easy to find interesting routes that will interest the runners.

But somehow, on Deepavali day itself, there opens a small window of opportunity. Most of the runners had started to taper for the coming marathon and it was a weekday and not a weekend so it will not clash with any races. So we ie TLR the big boss of Sgrunners and me decided it was as good as any to revive the Eastside Run.

And I am delighted at the response. I had hoped for no more than 30 runners but close to 70 turned up with some coming all the way from Yishun, Jurong and Punngol. 

As usual, we tried to incorporate some element of fun into the run by making the route more interesting and running into some "new territory". The only issue was the many semi-wild dogs which I had encountered previously but thankfully, with the big number of us, we vastly outnumbered the dogs and ran through without any incident.

A picture review of the run in this video


Hopefully we don't have to wait another 11 months for the next run.

The GREAT Eastern Women Run 2012

Once again, another weekend, another race. But again I am not racing but kapoing. Not that I didn’t want to do this race but last I checked, I lacked the physical attributes to qualify for it. I did told the sidekick I can wear a skirt and run but she said don’t foul up the place with people’s vomit. Wondered what she meant by that? Anyway, the GREAT Eastern Women Run 2012 return for its fourth edition with a little bit of variation.

Previously, Great Eastern Life Assurance was the title sponsor of the event. This mean they paid for the rights to have the event named after that and that was basically it. They do not have “absolute” control over the rest of the details and organization. What happened this year, according to a little bird, was that Great Eastern decided that they wanted to increase the distance from the usual 10km to a half marathon but the event organizer did not want to. So there was a divorce and Great Eastern went ahead and appointed their own organizer to organize the event for them.

And what a right move to do! Just like last year was a year when every race seems to be hitting the pits with its poor organization, this year, every race organizer appears to be trying to outdo each other with great organization and generous freebies. I have not done many races this year but from feedbacks from friends and the chatter on the web, it was a good year for racing. I guess with so many events chasing the same pool of runners, the organizer had no choice but to up the stakes. The Yellow Ribbon as usual set the standard with its well planned route and carnival; the Newton provided goodies galore and even the TNF 100 got its acts right again. But the GREAT Eastern Women Run 2012 must in my opinion beat all of these hands down and could possibly be the best for this year if the SCMS maintained its poor route planning.

Noticed the GREAT? In capital letters? It was that GREAT!

When was there ever a race when the 3 categories of runners do not meet each other during the race? The 21k women had a different end route from the 10k and 5k women. There were no human jam and no congestion except for maybe the slower 10km runners who has to merge with the faster 5km runners.

When was there a race where there is a “Powder Room” to freshen up after the race? The Newton race last week gave a cold towel to each runner to freshen up. The GE Women provided a covered tent with mirror and toiletries for the ladies to clean up!





A participant cleaning her face at the "Powder Room"

Nowadays, free food at the end of the race appears to be a norm. There were muffins, fruits and drinks at the Yellow Ribbon Run. At the Newton, there were free soya pudding, biscuits, fruits and ice cream. GE Women had muffin, fruits, ice cream and drinks and hotdog in a bun!

The non-participants were not forgotten. There was a “playground” for kids and adults under the stand of the Floating Platform. The baggage deposit area was also under the stand which means the runners did not have to queue up in the sun to collect their bags.

Most local races offer token cash prizes and product vouchers. GE Women had $10,000.00 for its first prize for the Elite category and $3,500.00 for the Open Category. Even the winner in the 10k Women Master’s category get $1,000.00. Except for the Gold Label SCMS, which other race in town offers such great cash prizes? 

So the GE Women had it all. Great race experience, great scenic route and value for money. All perfect except for one small blemish.

  

They inexplicably went to create an “Elite” category and invited 15 runners; both foreign and local to come under this category. The “Elite” champion gets to take home the $10,000.00 whereas the 2 runner up get $5,000.00 and $2,000.00 respectively. Then there is the Open category opened to the rest of the field. The prize money is $3,000.00, $1,500.00 and $1,000.00. The “Elite” runners also get to start 2 minutes ahead of the rest of the field.

  

These are the top 3 results in each category:

  

1- 1:17:58; 2 – 1:18:28; 3 – 1:22:41

1- 1:19:35; 2 – 1:24:02; 3 – 1:24:28

  

So what’s the problem? Unfortunately, the results on the top row are those of the 3 winners in the Open Category whereas the results in the bottom row are those of the “Elite” winners. It was no wonder that the Kenyan woman who came in top in the Open wasn’t smiling when she receive her prize. One certainly wondered how these “Elites” were selected. Take the local runners who were “Elites”. There were at least 3 local runners who had finishing time that were faster than the 10th place “Elite” runner.

The "Elite" Champion

Do they really need to have an “Elite” category? Wouldn’t they just invite their sponsored runners and let everybody have a go at winning the top prizes?

 Other than this, I think looking at the contended face of the women; it was definitely a GREAT race. Too bad we guys still don’t get it!

Photos availabe at http://facebook/runningshots.sg

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Can't find your Race Photo? Part 1

One of the most eagerly awaited items after a race; in addition to the chip timing; is the race photos. In the past, the race photography scene was monopolized by the likes of Marathon photo and Sports PhotoX and to get one photo, a runner has to pay an arm and a leg for a hard copy. Then came the advent of the digital camera and photo hosting website and suddenly you can download them for free. The difficult part was sussing out where which photographer wannabe host his photos and whether they allow public access. Popular sites were Flickr; Picasa Web and Photobucket and the now defunct Multipy. But looking for one own photo through these websites was a pain in the posterior as there could be thousands of photos and most of these sites load photos at incredibly slow speed.

But then came Facebook with its super uber friendly photo hosting. A bit low resolution but the advantage with Facebook was everybody was free to tag photos and so if a friends see another’s friend photos, he can tag it and volia, no search required. The picture pops up in a notification from Facebook! How cool is that? So how come everybody else photo is there except yours?

Yes of the freaking thousand photos in all the friends’ albums in Facebook, your photo is not one of them! What happened? Why oh why? 

As a a runner and photo enthusiast who occasionally takes photographs at races, let me try to explain what happens and what makes a photographer takes a particular runner and not another.

A professional at work in front of the start line

Firstly, there are photographers and there are photographers. 

There are the professional employed by the event organizer or the official photo site. If the former, don’t hope to see your pictures. They are reserve for the eyes of the organizer only. Even if they do publish photos, it will only be a selected few – the flag off, the champions finisher and the prize presentation. If the latter, they will usually be stationed at the finishing line. Usually, they are seated comfortably right in front of the barriers. Their job is to take as many photo as possible but if there are thousand of participants, chances are they miss a few hundreds here and there. And don’t forget, you still got to pay an arm and a leg for the photo if you can find it. Good thing is their photo can come with official timing, logo, and a thousand and one format. Just remember the arm and leg.

A photo enthu with his bag of gadgets

Next you have the photo enthusiast. How to spot them? They are the one armed to the teeth with super duper long zoom lens, tripod and all sort of gadgets. They take photo selectively but whatever they take, be assured it is quality stuff. Only problem is, where to find their photos? One good source is photo forum like Clubsnap where they post their best photos for what they call “critique”. From there, a few click here and there and you should be able to find out where these photographers host the rest of the pictures. But don’t expect a lot. These photographers have high standard and anything that don’t meet their expectation will never see the light of day.

Then you have the runners themselves. Armed with a compact camera, they will run and take photographs of their friends, or pose at various memorial or scenic points along the route like the distance marker, drink stations, great view of the sea, the Esplanade; the MBS etc etc. But most of their pictures will be posed pictures of friends at the start and finish grounds. Running pictures if any, inevitably are not well taken and general not in focus. Not the type of photos that is going to show you with your determined face racing the guy next to you or your cheery face as you overtake that sweet lady.

Last but not least there is the photo cum runner enthusiast. People like the famous Malaysian guy, Mr Tey, who travels all over the region to take photographs of his running friends. These photographers, whose passion is running and photography see taking photographs of friends at races as a way of supporting friends. How to spot these people? They are usually stationed at strategic points along the route and armed with a camera fitted with a long lens (not the super duper long type). They may move from point to point; may even join in the run with the camera in hand! They are not very selective and try to take as many photographs as possible; and generally take fairly competent pictures. Photos are usually uploaded on to Facebook within days of the event and opened to the public to tag. There will usually be a few albums worth per photographers which will get numerous “likes” and comments and tag. 

And everybody will be happy except you cos you still can’t find your freaking photo.

To be cont’d