My Unconventional Shoes

I constantly tell people to wear proper and suitable shoes when they run but when it comes to myself, I never ever follow my own advice. Take this 2 pair of shoes for instance.

I bought the Puma Mobium on impulse at the Puma Factory outlet in December 2013. Back then I knew nothing about the shoes and the only reason I bought it was it cost less than $100.00 and it was orange in color. True be told, it wasn't a really great shoe. It was a tad too rigid for me and I was always afraid the Mobium band will break. But slowly I got used to it  In fact, I worn it so often that I managed to clock more than 700km in it and all from runs of not more than 10 km. I still couldn't bring myself to run longer distance in it. And the Mobium band didn't break. In fact, it was the upper that finally tear and force me to retire it. So it has been a pretty good shoe after all and certainly good value for money. But not a shoe that I will recommend to anybody.

The Skecher shoe on the right of the photo is the Skecher Go Run 2. I got this in the 3rd quarter of 2014. It was on sale as the Go Run 3 was already out. Since then it has been in its box till this week when I finally took it out to replace the Puma Mobium. And these 2 shoes wouldn't have been more different than night and day. But more about the Skecher when I run substantially enough to form a proper opinion.

So these 2 pair adds on to my collection of unconventional and non main stream running shoes which so far have included the Altra Lone Peak (still in use); Terra Plana Evo (one of my favourite and now retired); Tyr booties, Pearl Izumi SyncroPace; Zoot UltraTempo (another favourite) and my current daily ride, the Puma Faas 300. How many of these names do you recognize?

An Apology - Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2014

In my previous post, I made a claim that some people were taking a shorter route during the SCMS and included in the post were photographs of some individuals and their timing results. That post has attracted a lot of attention including calls from reporter and even a lawyer purporting to act for one of the individual in the post.

Since then, it has came to light that these individuals may have been diverted by the race organiser to take the shorter route. Below is the full statement from the SCMS. The link can be found here.

Public announcement about SCMS 2014 results

Spectrum Worldwide is aware of the online article referencing marathon (42.195km) runners who were photographed at Gardens By The Bay East during Sunday’s Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore.

To clarify, a number of diversion points were positioned along the marathon route. If any runners had not passed a diversion point by a specified time, they were diverted on to a shorter route towards the finish line. The diversion points were planned with the safety of runners in mind, as the closed roads had to be re-opened at a specific time in accordance with the requests of the authorities.

One of these diversion points was located at approximately the 13km mark of the marathon. From 7.30am, all marathon runners who had not crossed this point were diverted (removing the entire stretch of East Coast Park) and had their race distance reduced by approximately 17km. This diversion allowed them to comfortably reach Marina Barrage (35km) by about 8.15am where some may have been photographed in the referenced online article.

As highlighted on the official event website and handbook prior to the event, all participants who were diverted are still entitled to receive the Finisher’s T-shirt and Finisher’s Medal upon crossing the finish line. However, they will not receive the Finisher’s Certificate and their official race timings will not be recorded.

One of the reason why I wrote the earlier post is that as a regular runner in the local running scene, it irk me a lot to see runners who are totally not prepared attempting the full marathon. And everywhere there will be many people who do so just for the finisher tee and medal like the infamous incident last year. My intention was to highlight these incidents and hope that the running community as a whole can come together to condemn such behaviour and build a better running environment and community. In penning the post, never in my wildest dream would I ever think that the SCMS itself, the organiser of a Gold Label race will actually ask participants to take a "shorter" route. The correct practice adopted internationally I believe, is for participants who failed to meet the cut off to board the sweeper bus and not be allowed to take a shorter route to the finish line! I will address this again in a separate more detailed post in due course.

In any event, it appears that because of this, I have jumped to the wrong conclusion and wrongly accused these people. I know no words can take back what has been done but still I would like to offer my sincere apologies if the post has caused any one of these individuals any embarrassment. Nevertheless I have decided that the original post shall remain but with some amendments and the deletion of the photos and names. Hopefully, the post will generate more discussion on this issue and if it serves as a wake up call to running community at large to tackle this problem, the post will not be in vain.

There nothing to be ashamed of

Recently we at Running Shots got a request asking for us to remove a photo. Now getting request to remove photos is quite common. Most time it is due to a wardrobe malfunction or some very glaringly faulty shot. So when this request came we thought nothing of it. Probably a badly taken photo that slipped QC. It sound like it though from the message which I quote:

"I know I'm not tagged but omg guys a lil bit of quality control! Please please please take it down"

When we took a look at the photo, we were real surprise. There was no wardrobe malfunction. Neither was it out of focus or badly taken. In fact it was a perfectly well taken shot. There were 3 persons in the photo. 2 Caucasians (a man and a woman) and 1 Chinese man. What was unique was that the couple were obese. But there was nothing word with the photo per see.

Last year I wrote a post  about how to look glam for one's running photos and got whacked left right centre by a lot of ladies. I guess the point which the ladies were trying to carry across was that it should not matter whether one look glam or otherwise when they are running. What is important is that they made the effort to go out and run. And I totally agreed with this stand. 

So for this particular case I guess this lady was the reverse of all the other ladies. The only reason I guess was she didn't want other people to see her obese self. Which I think is very wrong and silly. In fact, she should be proud that despite her size, she is doing something about it and out there participating in a race. 

For me, every time I see someone who is older, obese or handicapped participating in a race, I am encouraged and motivated by them. And I think that it is wonderful that despite their condition, they are still out there pounding away and not letting their condition get to them. A case in point is our very own blade runner, Sharif. His life story would make a very compelling sob movie but every time I see him, he is always cheerful and encouraging others in their own.

So I think this lady should not be ashamed of her size. She should be proud and happy of herself. And my message to everyone who is willing to wake up at ungodly hours, pays exorbitant transport fare and race fee to participate in races, you are beautiful in your own special way and you should never  ever be ashamed of it.

Have a Break

Not literally though. Race season is now in full stream and there is at least 1 race per week. Some weekends there are 2 or even 3. And it is interesting to see some of my running acquaintances signing up for each and every races. Some did back to back races as in ran the Real Run last Sunday at Sentosa and then went over to Tanjong Pagar for the Green Corridor Run. And it is because of support like this from the running community that there are races sprouting all over.

There are now on top of the established races, many new races like the Green Corridor, ST Run in the Park, City Chase and then there are theme runs like the recently concluded Foam Run, the upcoming run like Garfield Run and the Electric Run....

But despite the popularity of races, there have been casualty. The theme run from US the Heroes Run has been cancelled due to poor response, the Punggol Waterway half marathon has been postponed indefinitely and some races are not coming back or at least there are no news of them yet - like the Mizuno Mt Faber Race but for every race that got canned, 2 pop out to replace it.

I am impressed at the continued support shown by the local running community.Despite complaining day in day out about the high cost of the registration fee and the lousy goodie bag, they still continue to sign up. But I think that a lot of runners especially the newbie are putting themselves at a higher risk of injury by running too much too soon. Maybe our runners should all take a break and relax and skip some of the more expensive and poorly organised races. That will send a clear message to the event owners to take a long hard look at how they should organise races and hopefully we will have less but better organised and more appropriately priced races.

Banditing of the Highest Level!

"Bandit" a term that is frown upon by Race Directors and serious runners but where almost everybody else quietly endorse it. For those newbies and really innocence, bandit in running terms means taking part in a race without registering for it. There are many argument for and against it but most people I know bandit not because they cannot afford the registration fee but mainly because the race is sold out or they cannot qualify for it or they simply want to accompany their friend like what I observed at last year Great Eastern Women Race

Most people who bandit just run and depending on their luck, they may get chase out by bandit catchers. It has always been fairly easy to identify bandit runner - anybody without a bib is deemed a bandit runner. Until now ..

Last week at the Boston Marathon, 4 runners were "caught" running bandit. They were not booted off the course though. These people have elevated "banditing" to the highest level - with a fake bib! And nobody will be none the wiser if not for the photographers and the real owner of the bib. After her race, like many others, she went to Marathon Photo to look for her photo and she found it along with four other runners all wearing the same bib number! Read the details here and here!

Ok I am glad this is one area we here in Singapore haven't caught up with the Americans yet although I must admit we do have our fair share of cheaters. But these Americans (I presume they are Americans) have taken banditing to the highest level. ~respect~

Whither the Sponsorship?

I was reading the papers when I came across this big advertisement. It caught my attention immediately. One because I always looking at airlines ads for special offer and two, because it has our national marathon runner photo in it.  Turned out it was an announcement by Air Asia that they are supporting Mok Yin Ren in his Olympic quest.

I am happy for Mok that he now has one less worries and can concentrate fully on his training. But at the same time I could not help but note that the sponsor, Air Asia is a Malaysian company. And it makes me sad that none of our local companies are sponsoring him or for that matter, any other local sports athlete. 

I posed this question on my Facebook and I got comments such as no budget, no synergy and already sponsoring other. In a way that is true. SIA has just announced a million dollar sponsorship deal for the F1, OCBC is already sponsoring cycling and even has a Team OCBC which ironically comprises riders of several nationalities. DBS has the river regatta etc. So the sponsorship is mainly for an event or a sports and not an individual per see.

As I pondered over why there are no sponsorship of individuals, I realised that it is not about budget. The cost of sponsorship does not amounts to much, not if the companies are big companies like the telcos, glcs, transport or even property companies. The real reason I guess is that these companies do not see any benefits arising from these sponsorship. To be honest, while I have never been approached to sponsor any athlete, my company have been approached by many organisation to sponsor all sort of projects. Recently, we were asked to sponsor a local national sports event. The cost does not amount to much but after I sat down and work out the sums, I have to regretfully recommend to my Management to not go ahead because I could not justify the investment. I guess most people in charge of such sponsorship approach the situation the same way I does. The first thing we ask ourselves is "What is the benefit to the Company?" and next "What is the return on Investment?". Even if it  is to be treated as a CSR project, we have to look at the intangibles benefits - like the publicity and goodwill from being associated with the program and maybe in the worse case, the tax benefits. And the hard truth is that while there are a lot of benefits being associated with a big project like the F1 or even OCBC Cycle or SCMS like the advertisement and branding, sponsoring an individual or a small event has absolutely no tangible or intangible benefit other than a "feel good, pat on the back" feeling which I can never justify to the board. So sadly even if my company were to be approached to sponsor Mok or Tao Li or other promising local athletes, we will have to turn it down but because there is no way to justify the expenditure.

So is there no hope for our local athletes? In the immediate future, I think no. But hopefully one day, our companies especially the GLCs can take it upon themselves as a "National Service" to sponsor promising local athletes under a special program.  Other way that local companies can support is to employ these athletes and allow them to train full time much like the now defunct SPH program for ex-National footballers. And the government can help by giving tax allowances for such sponsorship. The question is - will we ever see such a day?

Snowed Out?

One more week to the biggest race of my life and at this juncture in time, it is looking like it is not going to happen. The snow is falling falling falling. Will it be snowed out?

I have never trained so hard for a race before. And the surprising thing is that I never wanted to do it. I balloted for it together with the sidekick because I knew she wanted to go. And unfortunately, she didn't get it and I did. So that kicked off a whole 2 months of training. The worse thing about training? Waking up early and going for long long run that stretch till late morning. I love to sleep and I really hate the waking up at 5 am on weekends. But since I was fortunate enough to get a slot when so many didn't, I think I need to give it my best shot.

I have modest aim. A personal best which I think is very achievable considering the effort I put in and the cooler weather. But of course now that looks in doubt. It is going to be freezing cold and I have no experience at all running in sub 10 degree. So I may choke that is, if the race ever get flag off.

On the brighter side, there was a minor miracle when on Saturday I bummed into a friend while running and somehow in the conversation that followed, I managed to get the sidekick a place at the side line that is, if the race ever get flag off!

Whatever, I done my due diligence. If I don't get to run, so be it. I not going to give up my sushi and ramen - not for any snow!

Wish me luck!

Stop Running Part 2 - What comes next

Ok finally time to write part 2. But first you gonna read all the disclaimer in Part 1. Done? Then you can carry on.

Men in White Tights

To date my earlier post on Men in Tights have garnered the most eyeballs and is the most read article of all my blog post. I don't really know what is so fascinating about men in tights cause most of those who stumbled on my post were actually googling online on this subject. Personally I think men in tights are .. umph not very pleasant looking although I do admit I also wear tights for longer races. And what is worse than men in tights? Men in white tights lor!.

Anyway, I promised on my FB that I will put out some photos of men in white tights to prove my point.   But first an advisory: If yout think that the Abercrombie and Fitch ad in Orchard Road was indecent, then you should not continue reading. But if really die die must see.. then don't say I didn't warn you......

Stop Running! Part 1 - Get a Life!

There I got your attention. Didn't I?

But before I go on. Please note the following:

1. I am going to give unsolicited advice. If you do not like unsolicited advice - please do not continue reading.

2. I may offend certain people. In particular, those who are single. If you are easily offended and single, please do not continue reading.

3. If you are the type who takes blog posting so seriously and think it is mainstream news and influential enough to make changes to your life, you can continue reading just remember points 1 & 2 above. But if you think blog postings and in particular this blogger's posts are crap and good for a laugh, by all means continue reading. But remember points 1 & 2 above.

4. If you consider yourself a serious runner and think that this old man who can't even run faster than your grandmother is a big fake and quake, you will most likely be insulted or offended by what I am going to write, so please do not continue reading.

You have been warned! Although me think the caveat above is not going to stop anybody from reading and getting offended but me being me and a big kaypoh, I don't care. Actually I love the attention and the increase in readership!

Ok now to the main story.

Goodbye 2013 Hello 2014

2013 has been a most interesting year. In fact I would said it has been the best year ever.

Started the year with a very enjoyable race in Thailand

This was followed by another race in Muar.

In between, did 2 fun runs and 1 local race; the inagural TNF City Race as part of a team.

Also went over to do a fun trail run in Malaysia where we had our first encounter with leeches!

August decide to do the Army half marathon which turned out to be a big mistake.

Went to Kota Kinabalu to challenge the mountain there but expectedly failed miserably.

Then instead of running the local TNF 100, we did something different and it was another wonderful experience.

And that about it for the year. Of course, in between the races, shot thousand and thousand of photos as part of Running Shots and made lots of friends.

Certainly a most fulfilling year.

Come 2014, have already committed to one hike, 1 local and 1 oversea race and looking for more. Perhaps a climb up to the highest mountain in South East Asia and a trail race somewhere cool and nice?

Have a blessed prosperous and healthy new year, everybody!

Race Photo - Sunset Industry?

Following my last post, the Australian director for SuperSportsImage has given an apology to Running Shots. His apology can be found on one of the Running Shots comment posting. Check it out. So since apology given, and no offence taken, I shall let this matter rest and move on. But one thing strike me while mulling over the whole episode.

The way I see it, his major grouse is the competition we guys gave him. We were a big threat to his profit margin . After all, he had to incur costs in getting photographers to shoot for him, then do backend processing etc. A lot of works involved and with us around, there was no way he was going to make money not less recoup his cost. I guess he was afraid that we were going to kill his business.

But on hindsight, this area of sports photography. Is it a sunset industry? I wonder how many people nowadays actually will buy race photographs. Over at Running Shots, we don't sell photographs. But we do charge a very nominal sum for high resolution photos. Even then, despite covering more than 80 events this year, todate we have received only requests for not more than 15 photos. Certainly none of us are laughing all the way to the bank. And we are not killing SuperSportsImage or Marathon Photo or FinisherPix business.

The fact is nowadays people simply do not keep hardcopy photos unless they are real important. For normal photos, most of us are content to just keep them in soft copy format on our computers, tablets and phones where we can look at them any time, any place. And they don't take up space, not like those chunky photo albums. And there is no need to spend tons of moneys to print photos that we will look at probably just a few times after which the albums will be relegated to the drawers to be opened maybe once or twice a year. Just look at the photo finishing kiosks that used to be so prevalent in all HDB estates. Most of them are gone now. Only a handful remain and to survive, most of these places have to offer other services such as photocopy, selling photo frames etc and value added photo printing. My point is selling race photos is like selling photo films. It is a dead business. That is why Kodak went bust. Because it did not know how to innovate and meet the new challenge. With rapid change in technology, businesses cannot continue doing things the old way.

So I think for SuperSportsImage or the others to survive, they need to think out of the box. Do not simply sell the softcopy or a hardcopy with timing. The majority is not going to go for that, at least not at the prices that these people charges. Think of how to entice people to buy their photos. One innovative way is to partner with the event owner to build in the cost of the photo into the race fee. Like what Great Eastern did for the recent Great Eastern Women Run. GE bought up the rights to all the photos and gave it to the participants FOC. That is probably the way to go. Work with the event owner, bundle the cost of the photos into the race fee. The participants automatically get a photo after the race, the event owner get happy customer and the photo service provider smile all the way to the bank! Imagine if he just ask for $1.00 for each registered participant and there are 10,000 participants, that will be a cool $10k. Compare that to selling say 200 photos at $40.00 which will fetch him only $8,000.00 if he can sell 200 photos in the first place! 

What drives you?

Coming almost 4 weeks after probably the most infamous marathon finish in Singapore, this is now very old news but I think this blog is not going to be very complete without a comment on it. I am of course referring to one Tam Chua Puh who spectacularly finished ahead of Mok Yin Ren to come in as the first Singaporean in this year's edition of the full marathon of the SCMS 2013. By now everybody in the running circle would have known that he only ran 6 km and ran back from the esplanade to clock in at 2 hours 46 mins 57 secs and that he all he "wanted was the finisher tee and medal."

Which leads me to wonder. Why do people choose to run a marathon. For most runners, I would guess they are like me. I started off about 9 years ago not barely able to run 400 metres. Then I managed to do 2 km, then 5, then 10 and 21  and one day I wondered - why not give the full a try? It never occur to me that there was a finisher tee and a medal up for grab. What I just wanted to do was to see whether I could run 42 km. I did it in 2004, swear that I couldn't do it again and then promptly went for it the next year. The first year I did it was because I wanted to see whether I could do it. The second time I did it, I wanted to improve on the previous year's performance. And it was the same reason I signed up for a third attempt. That was in 2007 and I wanted to call it quit after that but by then the sidekick had got into the game and so my reason for doing my 4th full marathon was just to keep her company. That was also the same reason when we signed up for my 5th full marathon. To date all my finisher tees are still in their plastic packing and the medals have been dumped in the cupboard never to see the light again. 

Most runners I know are like me. Their main reasons are usually to see whether they can complete the distance and once that achieved, to see whether they can complete in a faster time. It is never about winning or snagging the finisher tee and medal. Those are a bonus of course especially as the cost of racing soars. 

But to run a marathon just for the finisher tee and medal? And not to train for it? Where is the honour? How can the person dares to wear the tee when he never even complete it or in some case, run it? What do they brag to their friends? Don't they know that all it takes is a mouse click on the event's result page and whatever lies they told will be found out? Seriously if all these people want is the finisher tee and medal, there are plenty available on ebay. And heck, maybe I can sell mine finisher tee. All 5 of them. $50.00 a piece. Any takers. And I throw in the medal for free!

Marathon Bad for You?

There is article written by a lady in Malaysia that is getting all the wrong attention.  Coming from somebody who is in the sports industry, I am rather surprise at the issues that she has raised concerning marathon running. Read the full article here.

Here are the 4 main issues she raised:

1. It wreck your knees
2. You could drop dead
3. It could ruin your sex drive
4. Its not the most effective weight loss method

I going to attempt to tackle these 4 points.

1. It wreck your knees. So does doing any other sports and having a sedentary life style. Like in my small workplace of about 100 staff, there are a number of people with bad knee problems. One of them is of course me. Another colleague had it so bad she had to for for knee anthroscopy. She has never run or do any sports in her life. Another colleague did the same on both knees. He only cycles. Another colleague takes the lift up and down even though we are on the 2nd floor because of her bad knees. She is in the late thirties and don't do any sports. My big boss walks with a limp because he refuses to go under the knife. He only play golf and nothing else. 2 of my running friend had ACL injury. They got it while playing football and not during running. The point I trying to make is, almost anything can cause knees problem. The main cause of bad knees is osteoarthritis and not running. So don't just push every thing to running.

2. You could drop dead. Fair enough. One can also drop dead anytime from doing anything and even nothing. A friend's mother dropped dead in her living room. There was no apparent cause. Another friend's brother got up to pee one morning and then went back to bed. He never woke up again. And he was only 45 years old then. People die from any reasons. More people die from riding motorcycles, aeroplanes, cycling than people die from running. That doesn't stop these people from continuing with these activities. Running actually keeps the heart and body healthier reducing the risk of sudden death. The only reason people get all worked up when somebody dies after running is that it is so rare that it gets reported in the media and draw all the attention. People dropping dead in normal situation is just not news anymore.

3. It could ruin your sex drive. The writer cited a study by the University of British Columbia. Let me cite these articles: 

http://therunningbug.co.uk/training/training-for-beginners/b/weblog/archive/2012/08/01/6-reasons-why-running-is-great-for-your-sex-life.aspx

http://www.canada.com/lifestyle/relationships/story.html?id=2dc6f60b-11a7-421f-9ab2-1ac1c6629599

Need I say more?

4.Its not the most effective weight loss method. I don't know what is. Those weird diet plan? Running is, in my humble opinion, the cheapest and easiest weight loss method. That and of course a sensible diet. I should know. I am one of those who lost many kilos after taking up running. And so does many of my running acquaintances like Nel, Anthony, Kartono and the list goes on. If running is not, what is?

And finally to conclude, if you are reading this and preparing for your marathon tomorrow, don't despair. Let me assure you that unless you have an existing heart disease, you are not likely to drop dead from running the race. In fact, you have a higher chance of dying in a car accident on the way to the race! Happy racing!

Unglam Running Photos

I was taking photos this morning at the annual Shape Run. While I was sorting through the photos, I realised why they named it the Shape Run. Cause the ladies do really come in all sort of shapes. Hahaha, but that is not the topic of my post. The other thing that I noticed was that most ladies look very unglam in their running photos. But before you ladies out there jump in and said "abutthen, what do you guys expect?", let me state that I also captured shots of ladies who still look glam and cool and some even glow! Here are just a few examples:

For obvious reasons and since I value my life and my camera and do not want some enraged lady to kill me or kick my camera the next time they see me shooting at an event, I am not going to post any unglam photos here. Those who are curious can go check out the photos in Running Shots:)

But for those ladies who are honest enough and admit that they do look unglam in their running pose, here are some tips on how to look glam:

1. Put on some make up. I know, I know a lot of ladies will kpkb about this, how make up can run with all the sweat and grim but I think there are some waterproof make up available. 

2. Tie up your hair. I think I blogged about this before. Nothing is worse than hair flying all over. Or wear a cap. Look at the ladies above. None of them has messy hair. They are either tied up neatly or they are wearing a cap.

3.Its in the eyes. Most of the unglam photos have one common theme running throughout. The eyes. Some are shut, some are slit, some are sunken. The easiest thing is to wear a sun-glass and volia! Again just take a look at the photos above. The glasses do make a big difference.

4. And last but not least, smile. I know after running for more than an hour, it is a torture for some people but a beautiful wide smile can make a world of a difference. Don't you just love the smile on the faces above? The next time you see a photographer, just smile. We loves to shoot cheerful looking people.

There you have it. The trick to looking good for your next running photo.

When you need to go, just do it!

It is just before the start of the race. You are in the race pen all excited to be flag off and start the race. You warm up a bit, look at your watch, 10 minutes to go and darned it, you need to pee again! Funny, didn't you just went to the porta loo like half an hour ago? So how? Leave the race pen? But that would mean possibly getting stuck in a queue for the toilet and worse missing the flag off. So you hold on, tahan and 5 minutes after flag off, you join a horde of runners lined up against the wall of a shophouse and let go. Ahh! Relief at last. Now you can do your run properly. 

Sound familiar? How many of us have this urge to pee just before a race? I think there is a running term for it but I am too lazy to google for it but it is so common. In the past, every year at the SCMS and AHM, I used to see runners lined up against the partition of the Fullertion Hotel when it was undergoing renovation. And that is like barely 100 metres from the start line. I think its all in the mind. The tension from the race, plus the early morning start all contribute to the urge to pee.

Fortunately I have so far never felt the need to do so, at least not in such open public area. The only 2 times I need to go while on the run were all in the forest and I could do it behind some trees concealed from sights. Never like this:

And while I had heard about runners peeing or even doing the big business while running, I have never actually see a lady doing it side by side with the guys! I guess we will be seeing more of such things in the future as we become a more open society.:)

Here come the Garbage Men @ TNF 100 Singapore

It all started with an idea by a friend who got his inspiration from a  race in Hongkong. One thing led to another and yesterday we found ourselves, a group of 6 runners at the start line of this year edition of the TNF Singapore 100. Another 2 started at the Mandai Road checkpoint. Not to race but to do something very different and I hope inspiring enough for the real participants to do their part.

With Marc Pereira from North Face Singapore

Our mission - to literally sweep - not the last runner but to sweep up all the trash  left behind by the runners. When we embarked on this, we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. We have ran the trails in the MacRitchie area and Central Catchment area many times and we have seen many of the rubbish left behind by runners and other park users. But I didn't thought it was that bad.

We started off at about 7 a.m. about half an hour after the 25km runners were flagged off. Our objectives was to stay behind the runners and pick up whatever they left behind. Originally we thought of all of us covering the full 50 km route but as we went along, we realised that it would be faster and easier to split ourselves up and cover different sectors. So 2 of the faster runners in the group, Terence and Voon ran ahead towards the Ghim Moh area where they will start the trash picking from there while the rest of us started picking up the trash from the Durian Trail head. Another 2, AC and Osbert had earlier parked themselves at the Mandai end and will start at around 12 noon after the runners had u-turned.

To help us in our task, the organiser had at our request, kindly provided us with litter pickers. Thank goodness for them  otherwise I don't know how we were going to do our jobs. With these mean litter pickers, we need not bend down to pick up the trash, need not dirty our hands too much and most of all, they enabled us to reach the trash that were strewed among the bushes and in the drains. 

Jancy with one of her "catch"using the litter picker. Photo by Nicholas

Why I Run

I started running only like in 2005. And despite many injuries over the years, I am still running today. Why do  I run? Do I run to keep fit? Lose weight? Lose fat? Or am I addicted to running? Honestly, I started out just out of curiosity. Then to lose weight and lose fat. Then it became a challenge to beat the clock. Now with age catching up, it is no longer about beating the clock. And I think I am of the right weight now. The fat around the belly - that one will never go away considering the amount of food I eat a day. 

So that leaves running to keep fit. But then again, I think I fall sick more often as a runner than before I started running. That is kinda oxymoron. Run more and fall sick more. But many runners have the same problem. Why? I think because we stress our body too much and when the body is stressed and we continue to run, we will fall sick more easily.

Anyway, I now run because? I really don't know. Maybe this guy can explain it better:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running

Kancheong Time

K. So I am a wee bit kancheong now. It is just slightly under 3 months to the longest race I going to do so far. And I have barely  started training for it. The haze  of course didn't help. 

It all started last year when I decided to run a 50km race to celebrate my 50th birthday. But I left things a bit late and somehow the year slipped by and I didn't sign up for anything. So I did the next best thing. Sign up for one this year. Nevermind that I have not run a full marathon for the longest time. To make it worse,  this is a trail race not merely a road run and the cut off time for it is a whooping 15 hours which means it is probably going to be tough as hell.

To kick off the training, I went and did a 25km trail race in Thailand in January. That turns out to be relatively easy but after that, the momentum was not maintained and the weekly mileage continued to stay at 30 km, definitely not something that is adequate for the purpose. But last week decided to use the Muar Cross Country Run, which was a half marathon semi-trail race to relaunch the training. But the haze kicked in and I lost 1 more week. And with lots of races and photoshoot assignment coming up in the next few weeks, plus the haze, I really don't think I can prepare sufficiently for it.

And how do one train for a trail race of 50km when Singapore is all so built up and the only trail we have is MacRitchie and Bukit Timah which while we called the latter a hill is just a small little mound in comparison.. There  going to be a climb of at least 1.5km with total ascent of 3.5km. Where to find such altitude to train in here?

Anyway, the next few weekends, haze permitting, will see me traversing Bukit Timah and MacRitchie and at least once every week I will be at Mt Faber trying to make the best of whatever we  have, for what it is worth. Anybody care to join me?

Growing old and slow

My long runs have been going down hills. Maybe it is a sign of old age or maybe I have really been super lazy. All along I thought my fitness level was still fairly decent and can run at a decent speed.

Then I did a long run in March from the office back home. Distance was about 23 km. It took me and the sidekick nearly 3 hours to complete. I was surprised that we took so long. I thought we ran at quite  a hard effort and the pace felt more like 6.30 than the 7.25 that it turned out to be. I  attributed it to running at night

As the sidekick has signed up for the full marathon for the Sundown, she had to train and I tagged along. The next long run above 20 km was a 25km run at the East Coast Park. We started at 11.30 pm and crossed into midnight. We were supposed to join the Punggol/Newton Runners but were late and ran at a furious pace to catch up. Or rather we thought it was a furious pace. It turned out to be 7.05 pace and I was struggling towards the last quarter. Previously for my longer road runs, I have still been able to at least manage a sub 7 mins pace and so I was really surprise that I was now doing above 7. Again I blame it on the night run.

To prove my theory right, I did a 16km run in the late afternoon and the pace was exactly 6.30. Yes it has to be the night running. So for the next long run of 25km, we started at 6am. And guess what, this time we took 3 hours 22 mins! There goes my night running theory!

So we switched back to night run and decided to start the next one at 4am. Target was 30km never mind the timing. I bombed at 15km! For I think the first time in my running life, I hit the wall at an premature 15km! It was so totally unexpected! I knew I didn't start off well. It was one of those run where you struggle to start and every little step seems to be such a bit effort. But I thought I could shrugged it off once I warm up. The warm up never came though. I ran out of steam and couldn't run at all. My whole body just felt like collapsing. The sidekick who was by then way in front ran back when she saw I was staggering. Lack of water? Couldn't be. I was carrying a hydration bag with 1 ltr of water and was drinking at about every 2km.  Hyponatremia? Nah I didn't think I was drinking that much. My waterbag was still more than half full. In the end, I walked another 5km and took a bus home.

So the night theory didn't work. The truth is probably I am getting slower and slower. Sign of old age or whatever. But the next run at 11 pm I went below 7min pace. 6.50min to be precise. Distance 20km. Still got hope?