A "Fool" Print

It was a mass gathering(about 40 ppl) at NTU sport recreation center. Stardust had organized a midnight run covering a distance of 55km at 10pm to prepare us for the Sundown Ultra-Marathon. There were lot of familiar faces at the starting point, with some haven’t been met for a long time. Jancy was slightly late and her left knee’s area was wrapped with athletic tape done by her physical therapy doctor. It looked awfully serious and there were widespread concerns of her condition. David, Freddy, Kayano, Anthony and Alber were all their wearing long compression tights. We started giving them a nickname of “Long Tight” Gang and I suggested they should stick around together for the rest of the run.

After a series of chitchat and waiting for the some belated runners, the run started somewhere around 10.20pm. It had been a while since I last came back to NTU after my completion of my MBA studies. The familiar slopes and buildings arose my memories where I was here busily preparing for projects and presentations during my study days. Since most of us were unfamiliar with the routes, we were running closely together splitting into three groups. Ahead of us were the fast runners (Ricci, Chin, Collen, Freddy, Ultra-man etc). Within ten minutes, we had lost sight of them, while the rest of us slowly scurrying forward at a relatively 6mins pace. :)

After challenging the daunting slopes and completion of a loop within the campus, we headed off from the Jln Bahar to Lim Chu Kang Cemetery. It was a long dim stretch of road that seem like never ending. It was already past 1:30hr before we made a U-turn and back to NTU campus. Opposite of the road, I saw another group of slow runners. We were cheering each other across the road and the responses were spontaneous. :)

When we ran back to Jln Bahar junction, I saw another group of runners waiting for us. None of us knew the route well, so we all gathered there waiting for the last group of runners to come and lead us forward. At this point, most of the runners had consumed their drinks and left little to sustain. We were all desperately in need to refill our bottles.

When the rest of the runners had reached, we headed back to the NTU campus and running our way out to another stretch of main road. David had kept shouting “toilet 1km away” for every 1km we had covered to motivate us to continue. Jokes could be heard as the toilets seem to turn out to be “mobile” by its own. Finally, after running out of NTU campus, the 24hrs coffee shop was sighted. There was a sense of relief, especially to Kayano who dashed towards for a toilet break. ha

We had a ~15mins break at the coffee shop where all runners busily refilling their drinks and queuing up for the toilets. PS was stretching her ITB silently. She was running relatively slow with Alber tonight, while I and Yong were sticking together in the earlier run.

After the break, we continue to head towards Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim. At this point, some of the runners had fallen back or departed from us. We had a stopover at Jurong Hill to take some photos up there. It was a beautiful scenery with brightly lit bulbs lightening up the nearby port when looking from the hill top.

Next, we were running along Jalan Buroh towards Pandan Reservoir. I was behind Eugene and Jancy. Eugene was recapping his experience of knee injury when he had to stop the run for two months. After hearing the stories, Jancy was worried if she should stop her run. I could see she was struggling for her run all night long due to her knee pain.

When we reached Pandan Reservoir, more runners had departed from the group, (Jancy, Eugene, Moham etc). It was relatively warm running round the reservoir. I not sure why but perhaps would be due to the afternoon heat trapped inside. We made another stopover at Petrol Kiosk to refill our water supply and photo session before heading towards South Buona Vista Road via West Coast Road. It was reported we had covered 38km at this point!!

During the stretch of South Buona, Yong was complaining his knees while me and Wendy were running together. At the Buona Vista Petrol Kiosk, I was totally famished!! Took a Snicker Bar and some HL milk. PS and Alber were nowhere in sight. I figured they would have left the group by now. Anthony reckoned PS would not give up her run. I left the group at Buona Vista MRT and ran back home alone.

By the time, I reached home, it was 5am. Time for me to doze off…………Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

There was a change of plan in the running route. Chairman proposed to do a 4 loops at Laborador park instead of running around Mount Faber for two loops. However, some of the runners (Trevor, Jamie, Ong etc) preferred to stick to the old plan, and did their own run.

I was slightly late and caught up with Michael, Shirley and some of the runners. Then after, I ran passed them and following behind Melvin all the way back to the clubhouse. Subsequently, others (Chin, KK) whom didn’t join us for the run were all gathered at Safra to attend Jimmy’s father wake. It was sad news to us, and I sincerely hoped he and his family would soon recover from this unfortunate happenings. I still remembered in one of the Sunday long run (seven of us) where he consistently bought drinks for me since I didn’t bring any bottle of water with me. He was worrying that I might get dehydrated in that hot sunny day. Really appreciated..

I was extremely late for this morning Safra’s training, which started from the clubhouse, running towards Kent Ridge Road before making U-turn and back to Mount Faber through South Bouna Vista Road (30km). Instead of following the usual route, I ran in their opposite direction hoping that I would come across them on my way up.

The weather was scorching and humid after days of sudden rain. I had to put on my shades to block the glaring light and my skin was fried under the hot sunny sun. Sadly, my knees still hadn’t recovered from the ITB and stitches from the knees still disturbing my pace. I jogged at a relatively low speed aiming to accumulate mileage.

When I reached Kent Ridge Road, I saw no sight of any Safra runners. My mouth was too dry, and hurried searching for water to curb my dying thirst. After making a U-turn, I met the runners at the cross junction between Kent Ridge Road and South Buona Vista. As usual, Lai Chee was the first in the group, followed by Collen, Derek and etc. Most of the runners had went passed me. I saw Yong at Pasir Panjang Road but he stopped over at one of the petrol station.

At the traffic towards Alexandra Road, Heng had caught up with me with PS at behind struggling with her pace. For the last many runs, she had been at the very few last runners. Perhaps, her training regime had wear her down to keep up with our rigorous Sunday long run. Both me and Heng were running at a comfortable pace and chatting along the way. At Harbour Front, my pains came again, feeling like a screw dropped out from my right knees. Oh Gosh!!

After the run, we had a brunch at the nearby hawker center. Subsequently, I dropped by at Chinatown to have a good treatment of Chinese acupuncture. Freddie was joking that it was an easy business for him to treat me. My condition was so bad that he couldn’t need to exert any force. Oh well!!