Run Walk Pray

The past Saturdays has been reserved for long "run". The previous week, the plan was to run 40km. Started from Ngee Ann poly and went the usual way to Bukit Timah to Dairy Farm before we decided to do a different route and went to Butterfly. Butterfly Trail is a small forested area fringing the Peirce Reservoir. The trail is a narrow little thing loves by mountain bikers. There are roots aplenty waiting to trip unsuspecting runners. Being typical Singaporean and not waiting to risk a fall, we walked the entire stretch. Our reward was the gorgeous view of the reservoir as we skirted around it.

We came out of the area after a long walk and the plan was to go on to Gangsa Trail. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and ended up in mysterious forbidden Woodcutters Trail. Too lazy to retract so we decided to risk a fine and continue on. Since Nparks decided to enforce the ban there, the forest has moved swiftly to reclaim the trails. The overhanging branches are now closer, the ground muddier and plant more dense. My hydration bag got hooked on the branches twice. Luckily it was the branches and not something from the current 7th month!

We ended up at Upp Peirce reservoir from where we jog slowly to MacRitchie Reservoir where we had a long pit stop. All was still fine and dandy until we resume our run. Five minutes into the run, I started to get breathless. It was like I was doing an interval sprint. The sidekick blamed it on the can of coke which I gulped down at MacRitchie. Whatever it is, that was it. I was down and out. We walked the next 15km back to Ngee Ann.

One week later, we are back. This time we started at 6am when it was still dark in the forest. This being the 7th month, we were startled out of our skin when right smack in the middle of MacRitchie and in pitch darkness, we heard a horrifying Chinese song. Fortunately for us, it turned out to be one of those idiotic uncle singing at the top of his voice in the stillness of the morning!

From MacRitchie we made our way to Bukit Timah. It was the first time we were running in the dark. We did not bring our headlamp but luckily the sidekick had a torch. We made our way slowly until the Ranger Station when it became bright enough  to see without the torch. From Bukit Timah, we went to the top of the hill before going down to Dairy Farm and going to Mandai Road. 

By then the Sun was out in its full glory  and I was feeling tired. At Mandai, we were already 3.5 hours into our  run but had barely covered 20km. Another 20km to go! By then I was feeling tired. Took a gel and we turned back. But it was too hot and we were soon reduced to walking the  entire length of Gangsa. We consoled ourselves that we have to practice our walking so there was no rush.

At Chestnut, I ran into trouble again and developed a coughing fit. The sidekick decided then to walk all the way back. Sighed... another long long walk. But at least we now know it is not the coke.

This is me, too tired to walk up the hill at Rifle Range.

Picture by the sidekick

We walked and crawled all the way back to MacRitchie. It has been more than 7 hours since we started. Is this good enough training for TMBT? Back to prayer!