Lion Dash Sprint 2012

A friend invited me to go down and look see look see. This is supposed to be the local version of an international event. So it being at the Tampines Mountain Bike park, I walked over to kapo. The website promised participants "a badass mud and obstacle race" with up to 10 - 15 kickbutt obstacles over a 5km route. On its website is the question: Are you a lion?" presumably because lion are fierce creatures but unfortunately, the participants turned out to be more "angry birds" than lion.

I reached the venue at 10am. There wasn't a big crowd. I wanted to get my media pass but was told by my friend not to bother. His words: "No need. Its a mess. Just go where you want". Hmmmm sound bad but from the look of the sparse number of participants walking around, nobody seem angry or frustrated. In fact, there was much cheer and laughter.

I walked around. The first obstacle I saw was this ramp where participants had to climb up a rope ladder and slide down. Not very interesting. Took a few pics and went on my way into the park.

Came next to a artificial mud pool. Now this looks more interesting. The participants came thick and fast. Some ran gingerly across the pool. Some jumped in. Some flew in. One angmoh rolled across the whole place. Majority seems to love the mud and went cavorting in it. It makes for choice photography. Too bad my lens was not long and fast enough to capture the action close up. I venture near once and immediately got mud splattered on my body from one over enthu lady who was flinging mud at everybody! Sighed.

Beyond the mud pool was a sort of "tunnel" which was just some black canvas draped across a water pool  The participants have to crawl in and out. Didn't look too bad since nobody looks freaked out after emerging from it.

Continued my journey in. Seems like I was walking backing and at the tail end of the race. The next obstacle was some tyres on the ground. Participants had to run across the tyres. Noticed that there was no marshall here. But everybody seems game enough to run across on their own. No short cut here.

Walked further in and came to a wooden partition which serves as a sort of wall obstacles. Guess participants have to climb over. Noticed again no marshall. Some participants simply walked around it. Wonder what their point of taking part in this type of event if they do not bother to clear the obstacles. But fortunately most people attempted to clear it. Team spirit was in great presence as those who can't climb were given plenty of helping hands by team mates or other participants. One guy gamely knelt down for a lady to step on to climb. Some students tried all means and methods to aid a friend to overcome it which she did eventually. Nobody was screaming for each other to hurry up. Everybody seems to be just having fun. One guy went the wrong way. I think he mistook the wall for a barrier. Where are the marshals?

Went further in and came to a double wall. Some people were climbing it.Some ran passed up the trail. Where are the marshals? And the signages? Decided this was as far as I will go. 

Went back to the race site. Discovered a giant ice pit. Employees from an ice company was pouring bags and bags of ice into the container but there was few takers for the ice. Weather was simply too good and I guess nobody was feeling so hot that they need a nice cold soak. 

Found out later that 40 or is it 40% of the volunteers failed to turn up. And directional sign and tapes were torn by mountain bikers. Sighed. So irresponsible of these people. But there were other complaints judging from the comments that were flying in fast and furious in the facebook page. But reading all together, I think everybody had fun and really enjoyed the event and at the end of the day, that is what matter most.

Newton Challenge 2012

One thing I have never understand is why people will pay good money to run loops at East Coast Park when one can run for free there everyday. So it never fail to amaze me that thousand of people signs up for the multi loops Newton Challenge Race every year. What was the attraction? So this year since I was free, I decided to drag myself down to witness this spectacle for myself.

The race had already started when I go there at about 6 am. I parked at Carpark F2 and walked up to the Bougainvillea Terrace to take some pictures. But it was too dark and I had to wait until it became brighter before I can start taking photos. My wait was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise and I managed to get a few shots of the sunrise with runners in the foreground. 

Too bad the trees were blocking the full view of the sun unlike this photographer who managed to take a beautiful shot.

The race comprised of 2 categories 18km and 30km. Because of this and probably also because of the high registration fees, only "hardcore" runners turned up. I think there were not more than 5000 runners in total. I guess quite a number of runners are using this race as a final warm up for the SCMS in December like this group of official SCMS pacers from Team BMW.

The race was also well supported by runners from Punggol Runners and the Newton Running Club who were pacing the runners.

I finally understand the reasons for the runners choosing this race over the more highly marketed Adidas King of the Road when at the end point, runners were given a cold towel on top of the finisher medal. What a nice touch! And there were free food galore. Bananas, watermelon, biscuits, ice cream and even soya bean curd! Something that I have not seen except at the North Face 100 Challenge.

The Mok siblings Mok Yin Ren and Mok Yin Rong won the Men 30km and Women 18km races respectively and walked away with $300.00 cash and $300 worth of product vouchers each. But the best was the lucky draw winners who walked away with Ipad and Ipod.

From the feedbacks from runners, distance markers were on the dot, there were ample cold Pocari Sweat isotonic drinks and it was almost a perfect race for everybody - except for the heat. But I guess that is something the organsier cannot do anything more other than providing the cold water and the cold towel.

New Balance Real Run 2012

Haven't take part in this event for the past 3 years and wasn't going to this year as well although this has traditionally been one of my favourite race. But ever since they moved the race from Sentosa to Changi, it has lost its glamour and uniqueness. The 3-in-1, road, trail, sand still attracts a lot of interest but the long boring stretch along Changi Coastal Road and the long run in the finish is a real put down.

Nevertheless, I dragged my butt out of bed on Sunday to go down to take some photos. As per the norm in Singapore, races are super unfriendly to supporters. The roads are closed to vehicles from an ugodly hour, there are no place to park cars, and the race catered buses are for runners only. Even when I thought I tried to park further away, the carpark at the next nearest place at the Coconut Grove is closed to all but the ambulance. Sighed.........

Anyway, I managed to walk to the beach and positioned myself there. There was no way I was going to walk another 4km to the race site. Had some time to kill. Ate my breakfast and waited for the runners to appear.

The first lot was the increasingly common sighted Kenyans. Seriously I wonder why these people bother to travel all the way here to take part in these small events when the prize money is so small. And I heard the money is pooled and shared among the whole squad!

Then the bulk of the 10km came. There were too many of them and I soon gave up trying to snap individuals, choosing to just mechanically snap away. Not much of a challenge but hopefully participants who see their faces in the Running Shots facebook album or here will appreciate it.

Although the 10km runners were flagged off later, the timing of the flagged off resulted in the main body of the 21km running right smack into the slower 10km runners. Poor them. Having to struggle on the sand was bad enough but having to weave through the runners as well. Also because of this, I was not able to take many pictures of the faster 21km runners as they well sandwiched between all the 10km runners.

Here are the photos.

Photos can also be found on Running Shots Facebook page where there are more photos taken by friend, Marcus Lim.

The North Face Run with Kami Semick

The week before the Singapore TNF 100 flag off, TNF Singapore had a special visitor from out of town. Kami Semick, ultra marathoner and TNF sponsored athlete. She came to give a talk to the runners and wind up her visit with a run at the MacRitchie Reservoir.

Runners were invited to run with her and about 50 or so turned up on Saturday.  Most of the runners ran 1 round whilst she and a few others went 2 rounds.

A few of us from last year TNF trail run series and Running Lab were roped in to help marshal the runners. Of course, most of us could only smell her dust but that did not stop us from having a nice time.