An Officer and a Gentleman - Terence Yeo

I first got to know Terence early this year when he joined a group of us trekked up to Gunung Nuang in Malaysia.

Terence in the middle of the group photo at the summit of Gunung Nuang

Back then, I only knew he was in a school and I thought he was a school teacher. It was only later that I found out he was in fact a vice-principal at a secondary school.  Why did I mentioned this? Because he was not your typical school principal. In my mind, school principals are mostly bookish and boorish and very serious. But Terence was not. He was fun, loud at times and very down to earth. During our trek, he constantly stayed behind to help the weaker climbers even though he was probably one of the fittest having completed many marathons and ultras.

From that trip, we got to know each other better and Terence strikes me as a most helpful and humble guy. He joins us on crazy escapades like the Prawn Mee Makanathon, made time to have dinner with us despite his busy schedules and join in our whatsapp chat; something that I certainly do not expect from somebody so senior in the hierarchy in the Civil service.

Terence at the Prawn Mee Makanathon

Terence at one of our dinner outing

Sadly, on 27 November 2014, at the young age of 40, he passed away leaving behind his wife May and 3 beautiful kids. It seems he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage after climbing Mount Kinabalu with his students. 

In the short time that I have known him, I could sense that he was a very special person - the type who will go out of his way to help friends and probably strangers as well and the type who will probably give his life for another person if he has to. And the testimony and tributes that has floored his facebook page demonstrated this wonderful traits clearly in the way that he has touched and helped and inspired so many people.

He will be sadly missed but never forgotten. RIP Terence. Your time here may be over but you will always be loved and remembered by your loved ones, friends and students.

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?

Racing the Sahara

A young friend of mine is going to do something real crazy. She is going to run 250km in 7 days in one of the toughest terrain in the world – the Sahara Desert.! And all this with only 3 years of running experience and without a full marathon to her name!! Oh yeah, she did completed the latest edition of the Sundown marathon finishing in 12 hours 35 mins or thereabout but what 84km compared to 250km?

You can find her almost every weekend morning at MacRitchie Reservoir or East Coast Park with a 7 – 9 kg load on her back doing 20 – 30 km runs. So why is she putting herself all this torture?

She is running to raise funds for a very worthy cause – the World Vision ‘s Vision Fund. The Vision Fund is built on the premise of "teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime". Its purpose is to:
        · provide micro loans of $50 to $500 to families
        · help develop necessary business skills
        · provide material resources to help families develop their own business within their communities and become self-reliant.
The key is to help shift families and communities out of the poverty cycle by providing loans at reasonable interest rates to families who would otherwise have found it difficult or near impossible to obtain financing.

Jane aims to raise US$40,000.00 and as of todate, she is still rather far from the target. She will be holding a fund raising drinking session on 5 September 2010 at LOOF. So do turn up to lend your support or pledge your support here. Every cents count!

For more information on the World Vision’s Vision Fund, click here
For more information on the Loof ‘s Desert Party, click here
For more information on Jane’s click here, here and here. 

Click-4-Klick 1 Jan 2010 3am - 2 Jan 2010 9 am

What a wonderful way to start 2010. Together with many others, we witnessed a jaw breaking sometime heart wrenching scenes as Kelly started on her mission at Bedok Reservoir and completed it 30 hours later at MacRitchie Reservoir.

She battled fatigue, lack of sleep,, blisters all over the foot, a bloated stomach, the heat and then the cold and rain to overcome the odds to clock 150km in 30 hours. Although she did not managed to hit 160km, her self imposed target, nevertheless, it was a super achievement. Myself, I doubt at this current moment, I can last even 3 hours on the road.

The amount pledged to date is also still short of the target of $50,000.00. Hopefully, the pledges and donations will continue to come in during the next few days.

However, I am much heartened at the support of friends who stayed with her throughout the 30 hours, and those who popped in at BR or MR to show their support. After the rain and towards late evening, when it was clear that the original plan to use 1 pacer per loop was no longer workable, calls were made and many responded turning up in the early morning to pace her.

Here are some selected pictures of the 30 hours journey. More pictures on Facebook.

Holding on to pacers for strength

Blisters

Dazed

Icy foot soak

A quick massage

Pricking a blister

A cool way to beat the heat

An icy neckwrap

Powder bath

In the wee morning

Finish at last!

Click-4-Klick Prelude

Another day to go before the end of the year. Gonna spent the start of the year at 2 reservoirs. At around 2 am in Bedok Reservoir and thereafter sometime in the morning at MacRitchie supporting Wonder Woman in her quest to raise funds for the needy.

A rather meaningful way to start the year I suppose. So far, according to the latest update from the blog, nearly $20,000.00 has been raised. Not bad considering that the publicity was limited and started very late. However, this is still far off the target of $50,000.00.

So friends, why not start 2010 on a feel good mood and pledge your support for this worthy event. And if you and your family are free, come down to MacRitchie on Friday to witness this extraordinary lady doing her wee little bit.

Click-4-Klick

Everybody loves a challenge. I guess in my list of acquaintances and friends, none more so than this lady, Kelly. She among all that I know has ran the most marathon and ultra marathons. 38 in all in the past 8 years!

To kick off 2010, she has decided to take on not 1 but 2 challenges.

1) Challenge no 1 - to run non-stop for 30 hours and to cover 160km in the process

2) Challenge no 2 - to raise $50,000.00 for the President's Challenge.

I really have to salute her (actually if I am in camo, I have no choice ~ she is a Major in the SAF) but it is her mental strength that amazes me. Read more about her races adventure here.

Back to the 2 challenges, on 1 January 2010 at 3am she will start running circles at Bedok Reservoir before running from there to MacRitchie Reservoir where she will continue running the 10.5km trail until she hit 30 hours. She hopes supporters and friends will help her to complete the challenge by donating generously to the President's Challenge either with an outright donation or a pledge of an amount ($1 or more) for every kilometre ran.

Unlike most fund raising projects, all donations received for Click-4-Klick will go directly to the President's Challenge. There will be no deductions of fund raising expenses, admin charges etc. So please donate generously.

For more information on the challenge and how you can make a donation or pledge, click here. For more information on the President's Challenge, click here.

Running with M

As most of those who have a full time running spouse (read: lady spouse) will attest - running with the spouse is oh... so bitter sweet.

I have been running together with M for the past years and while most time I look forward to running together as a time of bonding, sometime it can be nerve wrecking.
Just like yesterday. I wanted to do our lsd by running from home in Simei to ECP via the Bedok PCN and from there to Changi Coastal Run and than Loyang Ave and back to Simei. She didn't want to run along the side of the road and prefer just running up and down the ECP. To me, doing a 28km up and down ECP was not my cup of tea. It is so boring. In the end we compromised, from ECP to Changi Beach and back. And that is one hell of a monotonous and tortuous routes. But what to do? And that is the problem for most of the runs that we do together.

I love to run new routes, routes that do not entail going up and down the same old path and I will travel all over Singapore just to run. She prefer to just do her runs on the same old familiar places. Next, her speed and my speed are vastly different (for the time being). Run too fast on unfamiliar or dark area, she makes noise. So have to run side by side with her. Run side by side, too fast also she makes noise (give her pressure) too slow I suffer. Also, cannot talk to her too much. No words of encouragement, no advice. Do so at own risk.

Most time, we get to solve the problem by running with her friends. She can run with them at her own pace and I can run on my own. And also because they are all staying in different part of sg, I get to run at different places. But sometime it is not possible to get that many friends to run together especially now that we are doing more long runs.

So no choice got to stick with it. But having said all that, that's not to say I don't like running with her. I thinks it's great that we can get to do our running together cos this has helped our relationship grow stronger and stronger. Just need to learn to keep my mouth shut while running and slowly 'cyclo' her to run all the funny routes that I like to run.

IMD

My friend, IMD is now Ironman twice or is it thrice over?

Now we know the true face behind the Ironmask lol:


picture courtesy of Aram

Ironman, marathon wannabes, interested in looking for a coach to help you achieve the challenge of your lifetime?

Call IMD Ben. More info on IMD Ben here He will guide you to achieving your goal!

The Mrs

The NB RR results are out and the Mrs clocked a very credible 1:03:17 (chip time) I am very proud of her. The last few practice at Sentosa she was still doing 1:11 to 1:15 and this is a drastic improvement.

She was an unwilling runner. Initially, when I started running seriously in 2003, she always said I crazy don't want to sleep wake up at 5.30 am to go running. My efforts to get her to run didn't work. Her excuse: "I can't run". Then she started joining me in the gym to reduce 'weight'. She started running on the threadmill but try as I could - couldn't get her to run on the road with me. She said she can only runs on threadmill.

When I started going to the Running Lab run, and told her of the people and the lady runners there - I think she got worried that I will run away with someone from there. (Too bad so far no takers for me:) So she decided to join me.

Now she runs 3-4 times a week more than me and I am the one who have to keep telling her to stop running and rest. She has done 4 races this year - I have only done 3 so far. This morning she surprised me when she said she will do the half for the SCSM. She said too many 10K already time for new challenge.

Time for me to stop running and turn coach.

Taming the Shrew

If you can't beat em, join them. I suppose that what the Mrs decided after she failed to get me to stop running this whole year. Last week she shocked me by agreeing to join me for my morning run. Not even the mention of long distance, 10K, waking up at 6.30 am failed to deter her. So there we were at East Coast and she managed to finish the full 10k in a very respectable time of 1h 12m.

Not bad considering this was her first 10k run - the rest of the time only about 30mins on the threadmill, although she quite regular.

Then last week 2 rounds at Bedok Reservoir finishing the 8.6k in 1h 03mins. Threw her another invitation yesterday - Pierce Reservoir. She has been there many times - I run, she catch lobsters with the kids. This time, she ran too and we even go into the air con road to make it roughly 10k. Time taken: 1h 15m. Even when I chiong up the last slope, she gamely followed.

Now I have a companion to join me for my early run and less nagging. Must get her to run until can run up to 20k then can join me for the half.

I hope she don't get to read this though - especially the title of this page:)

Meeting with f 500

Met up with f500 otherwise known as Walter at Running Lab last evening to discuss his Thursday evening run. Ironmandreamer aka Ben also turned up.

Walter is the GM of Running Lab. He's also into adventure racing. He also co-owner of Wallet Shop and Outdoor Traveller.

Walter haven't got any thing fixed up yet. Basically he's looking for a few fellas to lead runners for casual run. He got 1 staff, a Safra runner and needs a few more. Routes shld be mainly to Marina Promenade, Marina South and Fort Canning.

We discussed which day is best - he wants Friday but Ben thinks Fri is no good and suggest Tue to Thu. I agreed. Fri - people want to go clubbing, movies etc and will not be in the mood to run.

No conclusions in the end. Got to wait and see.

Running Partner

Ran with Novaflux met from sgrunners last evening. Yesterday supposed to run at ECP but last minute his Mrs changed mind so we ran from Simei to Bedok Res instead.

Started the run pretty late. Almost 10 pm when we set off via the park connector. Bedok Res late evening is very quiet and cool with a slight breeze. Only a few couples on the benches and saw one fogged up shaking car in the car park. What is the people inside thinking? The carpark is so bright!

Running with a partner is good. U don't feel the distance. Novaflux just recovering from some leg pain but I can feel the beginning of a shin splint developing on my right leg. So we ran slowly - probably about 7.30/km pace. This is a good comfortable pace and I probably will run at this pace for the SC Marathon. (Oops just check the Runnersworld website. Based on this time I will finish 5.15 almost same as last year time) No good. To achieve 4.30 must run at 6.30/km pace.

Novaflux is a former fencer. He has the built and can run well even though according to him he just started running 3 weeks ago. 3 weeks and already doing 15k - not bad. Another 3 weeks and he will be faster than me. Running with Sebas and BC is damm shiong. Always have to do catching up and they are always so far ahead. At least now have somebody who can run around my pace.

Return via Bedok Res Rd and Tampines Ave which is a slightly longer route. From outside Novaflux's place, sprint all the way back. That's where must have aggravated the shin. Today the pain is quite bad.

Sigh! Now got to stop running for the next few days.

sgrunners.com

Found a huge community of running enthusiast or rather one of them found me and invited me to join their group at sgrunners.com. So honoured.

Haven't met any of them personally yet but seen them at the various runs recently. Seem like they ranges from school kids to seniors like me. Most of them though appear to be in their late teens and early twenties.

It's good to find a support group where can share tips, help each on running matters. Some of these guys are very on. From there first time heard of such a thing as a metronome and race ready shorts. Didn't even know such things exist!

Hopefully, the group can grow to be as well known as MR 25 and the Hash runners. But then again if too big must register as a society?

To everybody in sgrunners - Keep running!