U by Nuun

Before February, I have never tried any electrolytes drink that comes in a water soluble tablet form, yet this month alone I had the opportunity to try not one but 2 different brand of tablet electrolytes. The first one was the Nathan Catalyst and now I have this 'U' produced by the people at Nuun,


I was at the Athlete's Circle last Thursday to collect some stuff for a friend and the friendly people there just gave me a tube absolutely free. Why? Not because they know me or wanted me to write a review but simply because it was near its expiry date! Ha ha beggar can't me chooser so I happily accepted with thanks. Anyway, I figured I will have finished it way before its expiry date of 03/10 (does it mean 1st day or last day of March?).

I shall not go into the mumbo jumbo part of the tablet. You can read it all here on its website but what I think matter most is the taste. Because no matter how powerful it is, if it don't taste good, nobody ain't going to buy it especially since it cost $16.00 for a tube of 16 tablets.

The tube that I have was the Tangerine Ginger flavour one. After my run at RL, I passed it around and at the same time popped 2 tablets into a bottle of 500ml mineral water even though the instruction was 1 tablet to 500ml of water. Hey, I figured after the Nathan Cataylst experience, I better made sure it taste all right. The tablets took a long time to dissolve unlike the usual vitamin tablets and disappointingly after the wait, it was just as bad as the Nathan Cataylst. Okay, I supposed that's what you get when no artificial anything is added to it.

On Saturday morning run at MR, I popped in 2 more tablets to a bottle of water and drank from it as we made our way through 14km of trail. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the pace or maybe it was actually the tablet effect, but I thought I didn't felt so tired although the legs were heavy from going up and down the slopes.

Last test was when I dropped 5 into a container of half water, half grapefruit juice and plenty of ice and the result - a tangy icy drink which didn't taste half bad.

Where will you be?

Over the course of the CNY holidays last week, met with some relatives. Now as guys do when they meet, inevitably the conversations turns towards our NS days. And as we talked it was an eye opener for me to find out they had IPPT timing of under 9 mins during their NS days. Why eye opener?

Relative No 1 - His best IPPT time according to him was 8:45. I know him long enough to know that he used to enjoy sports and play soccer during weekends and in his younger days, was what we would called a "weekend warrior" so the timing wasn't really a big surprise. What was disappointing was to see his stocky built now accumulated from years of boozing in China. He himself doubt he can even complete a 2.4km run nowadays.

Relative No 2 - His best IPPT time was about 8:55. This guy looks tan and fit but is more into golf than run. In fact I think he doesn't run or I never heard of it from his wife anyway. Which was a waste as I think he could be a real good runner if he had continues.

Relative No 3 is the saddest case of all. While the first 3 are all in their mid to late forties, this young man is I think only in his late twenties but he has the biggest belly of us all. I think his wife who is 7 months pregnant has a smaller tummy. And what is so sad is that this guy was a former track and field runner for both his school and JC which means he would have been very very fit. But looking at him now, one will never have guess.

Over the past years since I started running and leading the RL TNR, I have also seen many runners come and go. Some were fast, some came with a lot of enthusiasm, some started from zero and progressed to a creditable distance but whether it is burnout, work, lack of time, many of them have dropped out.

Where will you be in a year time? Do you still see yourself running 3 years or 5 years from now?

Team Fatbird Eastside Run

The folks in Tampines must have thought a big group of loonies were on the loose. Decked mainly in red and sprewing Hokkien (thankfully not profanities) every now and then, it was the occasion of the Team Fatbird Eastside Chinese New Year Fa Cai Run.

One of the few rare occasion when I joined Team Fatbird for the run, this was a special run as we the Eastsider hosted the Team Fatbird for a run in the East. Thanks mainly to ACLeong for organizing the run, tirelessly co-ordinating, the run went off smoothly despite a last minute hiccup when our original plan to go through the Tampines Mountain Bike Park was curtailed as it was closed in preparation for the YOG.

I think the Taichi practitioner must have been pretty pissed that we took over their spot at Sun Plaza Park,

close to 70 of us went off first towards Pasir Ris Park,

then a run through the mangrove with a stopover at the watchtower and a fishing platform and annoying the hell out of the photographer waiting there patiently to photograph the birds. I think we scare the birds away. ha ha ha

Another stopover at the Gallop stable. Unfortunately, it was still early and there was only 1 white horse in sight. Never mind, after a run through the park, it was up a gentle slope along Pasir Ris Height

before we went up a trail to the Mainland Tropical Fish Farm. Enroute,

there was obstacle to cross

and a nice wide trail for the speed king to chiong.

Another stopover at the Farm for a drink and to gape at the giant arapaima,

before heading down Pasir Ris Drive 3 and the crocodile infested Sungei Api Api. Too bad we didn't see any crocs.

But we had the run, we had the trail, we had the obstacle, the fish, the horse and

most of all we had fun!

Pre North East Run 2010

How do I decide on which race to take part in? Mostly, if the prior experience was good, chances are I will be back but if it is a new race, I look at who the organiser is, the route and the registration fee before I sign up. Most time, I have no regrets but sometime I do make some silly choice. Like the North East Run.

Unlike most run, the organiser did not put up the race route until last week but because it was in familiar territory and I have good opinion of the organiser after last year Suburban Run, I decided to sign up even though it wasn't really cheap. But I thought since I never did a race in Pasir Ris, why not?

And now the race is still a few weeks away and I am regretting like hell. The route was released last week and to my horror (and I am sure many participants' as well), the only thing Pasir Ris about the route is the end and start and the major part of the route is in heavily populated Tampines stretching from Ave 9 to Ave 1 before u-turning back towards Pasir Ris. Along the way, there are 14 sets of traffic light junction, 6 overhead bridges and countless slip roads and entrances to car parks. I can just visualise the frustration of runners as they are forced to stop constantly to allow residents to come out from their car parks (pretty sure the motorists are not going to give way) and also the frustration of motorist as they are caught in the partial road closures along the various way.

Why oh why do they have to put the main part of the race in Tampines? For the crowd support? Can you imagine the aunties going to market applauding us or the chuch goers already late for church because the runners are blocking them stopping to horn their support for us~. I can't.

I don't really like to pre-judge and I really hope the experience will be better than what I can see from the route map but don't bet on it.