Walkman W252

Someone up there must like me. Just after I talked about having free products testing, got an email from Sony Singapore to 'stress test' their latest product. Talk about coincidence!

From the maker of the original Walkman, Sony has now come up with the Walkman 252, a MP3 player designed specially with the runners in mind. Which makes me wonder, why not call it the Runman 252? Er I guess Walkman 252 sounds better than Runman 252 right?

After a short 1 hour of charging, the Walkman 252 is ready to go for a run but unfortunately I am not so let's look at the features first:

Out of Box

 The most unique feature of the Walkman 252 is that it is 'wireless' but not wireless as in bluetooth or wifi. One of the big bugbear of runners who run to music is the annoying earphone wire and the need to carry the MP3 separately using an armband. The Walkman 252 cleverly overcomes all this by incorporating the MP3 into the earphone so volia - no wire.

It is sleek and looks damn cool. The MP3 comes in 4 colors, Black, pink, lime green and white. The test model I have was black all the better to blend in with the hair. Wait a minute, maybe I should have a white piece since my hairs are all white now! At only 43g, it is light weight and fits snugly in the ear.

The other main feature of the Walkman 252 is that it is water resistant. That should eliminate the perennial problem of most runners that the earphones get ruined by all the sweat from running. The Walkman 252 is supposed to be water resistant from fresh water, tap water and sweat but no swimming though! And no washing or rinsing under the tap.

Switching it on and off is simple - just magnet it together to switch off and un-magnet it to start playback.

Under the Hood

Its comes with a 2GB storage enough for roughly 500 songs. According to the press release, this is due to finding the right balance between the usability, performance and affordability. For this release, the playback is a solid 11 hours on a full charge of 90 minutes. It also has a Quick Charge function which allows the 252 to play up to 90 minutes with a short 3 minutes charging. Unfortunately, it does not come with a separate power adaptor charger so charging is only via the provided USB stand.

Pipeline Reserves

On a hot sunny morning, 5 of us decided to tackle Bukit Timah Hill. The last time we came this way, we started from MacRitchie Reservoir and ran out of steam at the foot of the hill. So this time round, we played cheat a bit and started from Ngee Ann Poly which is like 1.5km away from the foot of Bukit Timah.

Still, it took a lot of effort and a fair bit of walking to reach the summit. And then to return to the foot. That short distance from the Poly to the top and down to the foot took us almost 45mins. [shake head]. Like that how to complete TNF in one piece?

Anyway, from there we went on to Rifle Range Road and then climb over the crash barrier somewhere in the middle and down to the Pipeline reserve. The last time I came here, we only reach the last year support table location but I have always wanted to go the full distance and see how far the pipes lead to (yeah I know it's Johore) but up to which point before it become 'unrunnable'. Unfortunately, the hot weather and slothfulness got to us and we ended up only at Zhenghua Park before we blakan balik.

With this run, I just realised I have completed the whole of the North Face route! Yipee. While others do it in 1 run, I did it over 5 runs. Ha ha ha.

Fresh Air Fund - NYC Marathon

Unfortunately no I am not doing the NYC or New York City Marathon much as I would love to unless somebody want to sponsor me?

From time to time, I get requests from people, mainly strangers to promote some sites or review some products. These have include websites like painting, testing of some computer software, etc. Most time I ignore them unless it is something self serving (my interest of course) or a request from a friend. Sad to said though, is how come I never get a request to test something cool like Garmin watch or new shoes? That one I will gladly write more? So how about it, Nike, Asics, Adidas, 2XU?

There are times when I get requests to write about a cause and generate some publicity for it and most of these I am very happy to oblige and do my little bit to help. But of course I do find it strange that some of these requests come from overseas. I don't really think my little blog is that well followed but like I said anything for a good cause.

The NYC marathon is one of the big 4 marathons in the world (together with Boston, Berlin and London). This year it will be on 7 November. A special feature of some of the oversea marathons is that most of them are big on charities and charities organisation can sign up and runners can pledge funds for these charities and run for the charities. This year, one of these charities is the Fresh Air Fund, an organisation that provides free 'summer experiences' to children from disadvantages communities.

So anyway, if you are reading this from NY or anywhere in the USA or the World and is taking part in the NYC marathon, why not consider signing up as a Fresh Air Fund runner? More information about the Fresh Air Fund here.

POSB Run for Kids 2010

2nd year running I'm doing this event as a run marshal instead of as a participant. This time round, got upgraded to the 4.5km. The run started  a bit late and as usual it was hot in Sengkang. But still the participants don't seem to be affected too much by the heat.

Just about 1 km after the start, saw a guy went down clutching his chest. OMG, a real life crisis. Wiped out my phone to call the chief marshall but fortunately for the chap, there was a medic nearby and when he came I chased after the pack of kids. Those darn kids can run damn fast.

Had an enjoyable time though. I ran, walked, ran again, walked. It was interesting to see especially the young kids most of them still in primary school completing the 4.5km in fine form while the adults were struggling.

Some of the highlights:

The run and bike marshals pre-run 

Participants waiting for the start of the 4.5km race

Runners on the verge of completing the race

The Run and Bike marshal's post run

More photos on facebook