Broken Vows

I swear many times that I will not run a full marathon again. Not because I think I cannot do it but because I am too lazy to train for it. Then in a stupid moment of bravado, I went and signed up for a 50km trail race. And after countless hours and hours of training, I failed to finish the trail race. Which should tell me to be smart and stay off long distance running. But hell no...

I have a full marathon coming up next year. I don't know whether to celebrate or cry. Celebrate because this is the Tokyo Marathon, one of the major marathon in the year and which everybody tell me is a must do. Unlike the Boston or New York marathon, there is no qualifying time but a lucky draw. And just for a lark, the sidekick and I went to apply and I got in! But not the poor sidekick who was more interested in it than me. So I should be celebrating right?

But I think of the long runs that I going to have to do and I am so depressed that I want to cry. I remembered how it was when the sidekick was training for the Sundown Marathon this year and I was accompanying her. I suffered through most of it and had the ignominy of dropping out less than half way into one of the long runs and taking a bus ride home. And now I got to do it all over again! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

But running changes people and is like a mind monster. I haven't even start training for the Tokyo Marathon and I know I gonna hate the training but I am thinking of doing an ultra trail race. Yes it going to suck big time - the training - but I can't get the DNF at the TMBT out of my mind and I think I will have to break my vow and ............

New Old Shoes

I gonna into this strange habit of buying old shoes. Old as in not used but past season shoes. I used to buy in to all those marketing crap about not wearing shoes that have been in storage for a long time caused the foam will have harden and will not be able to absorb the impact. But nowadays, it is the less cushioning read: foam layer the better so who cares whether there are any cushioning. And besides, I go for those shoes with very little foam in fact the thinner the better so that logic doesn't apply to me anymore.

Anyway, recently to replace my dwindling stock of shoes (I am down to only 2 pairs now), I went and bought 2 new old or is it old new shoes.

First was this nice Saucony Kinvara 3 which I got from Running Lab during the trade in promotion.

That was in July and after the trade in, cost only slightly over a $100. It is still sitting inside the box though and Kinvara 4 is already out! Will it stay in the dark for a year like its older siblings? Anyway, this will be my 3rd Kinvara shoes and I think I gonna love this as well.

A month later, I got this:

The North Face Hyper Track Guide which is about maybe 10 months out in the market already? Not too old but if I am not wrong, North Face has released new models recently. Anyway, this cost me slightly over $120 after a good discount so it wasn't too bad. Why this shoe?

More of that and the Kinvara after I finally decide to wear them.

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

8 Stages of Marathon Running

How apt!