Sundown Ultra Marathon 2011

For the 4th continuous year that this race has been organised, I did not take part. Ha ha, I am not up to that calibre to do an ultra. But a number of my friends are. And to these people, I salute them for their perseverance, tenacity and endurance to take up to 18 hours to do a run. Me. Probably will kill myself if I have to run anything more than 5 hours.

Anyway, even though I wasn't running, there was no stopping me from soaking in the actions by dragging my sleepy body down to support my friends. Of course, over the years, the support stuff has been getting more and more pathetic. First year, we had a big group, all sort of food including a barbecue, it was down to drinks and some bread in the 2nd year, last year it was just some drinks and this year, we only had coke and coffee. This was mitigated by the fact that the full marathon had been spin off earlier and so it was just 900 ultra runners. 

After leaving the house, we cruise around the race route looking for familiar faces and stopped to give them a sip of hot coffee or coke before we eventually settled at the East Coast Park with fellow Ocean 9 pal, John to wait for everybody else to turn up. And bit by bit, one painful step by another, they staggered passed us enroute to the 100km finish line.

Run Home #???

It's been a long time since I ran home from work. The last time was sometime in August last year, a run which came to an premature end at Bedok Food Centre, just 3 km from home in Simei.

This time round, we are now staying in Pasir Ris. A further distance. My original plan was to run via Sims Ave and link up to the Siglap PCN before going by Bedok Reservoir. But the sidekick decided in her usual style to run via ECP cos less traffic and less people even though I told her not to join me since the foot was still giving her some problems. So in the end, to keep peace, agreed to do it her way.

But as things turned out, we both didn't get to run our way. We started off late and took the usual Esplanade, Marina Promenade route. It was tough weaving in and out of the crowd with so many people blocking here and there taking photos. The pace became a little bit easier as the crowd thins out after the Helix Bridge but it was also construction time for the F1 and certain stretch of the pavement were reduced to single lane. At Nicoll Highway, we climbed up the stairs and down again over the river intending to go into the Stadium area to cut across to Tanjong Rhu via the Indoor Stadium. But this was where we met our first obstacle. The work for the new Sports Hub was in full stream and we couldn't go in. So in the end, it was the full distance along Nicoll Highway until the junction of Mountbatten Road.

That was when the sidekick finally realised that her intended route via ECP would means an extra 4km. So she chickened out and we continued into Guillemard Road. More traffic fumes. I think we inhale more toxic in the run than smoking a pack of cigarettes! From Guillemard Road, it was across the road to Sims Ave. More traffic but eventually we reached Kembagan MRT where we turned into the Siglap PCN for a slight respite from the fumes.

Our run took us through the HDB estates of Bedok Reservoir fronting the PIE and to Bedok North Rd where we crossed the road via an overhead bridge only to find our way into Bedok Town Park blocked - by another construction! So it was along Bedok North Rd and Tampines Ave 10 for more cancer inducing fumes but that also means a discount of at least 1 km. We turned into Bedok Reservoir Park and came straight into the tentage for the next day Sundown Ultra Marathon. Too bad only the tents were up. No drinks or food, otherwise.... Also, we didn't manage to spot the upper body of the poor chap who got half his body eaten up by the fishes there!

From Bedok Reservoir, back on to Tampines Ave 10 and then Ave 9 before we finally hit the Tampines PCN which means another 1.5km to go to Pasir Ris. Total time taken, 2 hours 18 minutes including various breaks for traffic. Total distance 19.8km according to the Garmin. So a total discount of almost 5 km from the initial planned 24km. Maybe I should do this more often?

Ouch!!!!!!!!!

Interesting.

3 weeks ago I ran 4km barefoot and got no problem. 2 weeks before that,did 2.4km also without problem. I thought I finally overcome the thin skin problem.

But surprise, on Tuesday after 6 rounds on the track, could feel the skin tearing on the little toe. By the 8th round, there were at least 2 more. Enough for me to call it a day and ran another 2 painful km back.

Final tally, 4 on the left foot (picture above) and 1 on the right.

Sighed. Back to square 1.

TNF Trail Run Series #5 Pulau Ubin

Woke up to an orange sky and the wind howling and trees rustling. Oh no not again! Sure enough, it starts to pour. It was the morning of the TNF Trail Run #5 at Pulau Ubin. Rather pessimistically, I changed into my North Face attire. Is the Pulau Ubin jinx going to strike again? It had rained the first time we went in February to recce the route and as a result, we had aborted the recce and postpone the run in February. Then at our next recce, it rained again and we had to delay going over to the island until nearly 8 am. It didn't rain during the last recce but it poured right after we finished our recce. So don't blame me for being apprehensive.

The rough sea after the rain

By the time we reached the ferry point, most of the hardcore runners were already waiting. Still it was a smaller than usual crowd. Only about 30 persons compared to the usual 50 - 60 of the past few runs. Credit that to the rain and the early meet up time. Fortunately, the rain stopped and we sailed over no doubt most of us with a silent prayer that it will not rain again. 

And the sky held up! And in the end the rain turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it became one of the best run ever with beautiful scenery, cool weather and great company.

RL Brokie pointing the way to the Secret Garden

Our route took us through various highlights of the island. First was the cutesy named Secret Garden which was actually a garden with all sort of vegetables and fruit trees including coffee, bitter gourd, starfruite, pomelo, corn, watercress.........

From there, it was a winding run through the trails passing swamp, rubber trees and cemetery to the Chek Jawa wetland. We stopped for a group photo at the jetty. However, I think everybody was busy eyeing the beautiful coastline of Pasir Ris and Changi and looking for the many sea creatures hiding in the seagrass. That plus the windy breeze and it was with great reluctance that the runners finally decide to continue the run.