A "Fool" Print

This year, the powerman race was held at Lumut again and it is the only official Asian qualifier race to the Duathlon World Championships Power Zofingen held in Switzerland. There were 3 race categories in which for individual, the distance covered was 11km Run -> 64 km Bike -> 10km Run with one had to complete within the cut-off time of 5hrs.

Feeling moody and lack of training recently. Did a quick run to Esplanade from my home. The street was quiet, running through darkness lane, rippling across the noisy clubs and reaching the blue-lit center square at Esplanade.. Oh.. so quiet and lonely. .

Mind still probing over the Safra Club where doesn't have a sense of belonging with individual private groups are formed .. sigh..
Perhaps, i should quit from the club and find someplace where truly can enjoy a good run

It's been a year since last trained at Laborador Hill. The up slope seems to be tougher than the usual and posed a good challenge to me. Totally breathless and panting for breathe.

Did 7 loops within an hour. Decided not to stress my knees any further and walked to recover in the last lap..

After the run, Alvin invited me whether to join the Desaru Ironman relay, Bike and run. So tempting!!

Tonite, the Safra pool was more crowded than last week. Met Peter and Melvin at the pool and our topic was surrounding the upcoming Langkawi race and Port Dickson.

Went to the pool after they gone and did several laps, trying hard to evade the traffic. Finally, gave up and back home to search for accomodation to share with Lee for Phuket Marathon.

Did a quick 4 loops round the MF hill. Shiok!!
Rushed to Raffles place to join FatBird's team and meet up with Bee Hua for dinner.

Went to Safra for swim after work. Totally, lost track of how many laps i have done. Still slow, got to train up for more speed. One thing did notice for tonite, there were unusually more gals turned up in the pool. Nice.. :)

Tonite, there was a sizable turnout for the run. The route covered from the clubhouse to the Esplandane and back. Saw Anthony and the gang at Esplandane organizing the I-Run and cheering for us. :)

Nevertheless, felt rather disturbed by the morning event. Perhaps, is a matter of personal perception that affecting both of our conversation. Couldn't much enjoying the run of today. :(

It was a hot and humid Sunday's morning to start off with the inaugural Raw Duathlon. The event was held at Changi Coastal Road with nearly 1000 participants joining the race. Apart from that, many familiar faces found at the scene, e.g. Melvin Senior, Melvin Junior, Chin KK, Sumiko, Henry Tan and Collen. :)

The flag-off time for 10-40-10 category started at 7.30am. Runners participating in 10km route would have to make 2 loops around the Aviation Park Road. The run course was relatively flat and i ran with a moderate pace which took me 55mins to reach the transition area.

Leisurely, I took my own sweet time to change for a new cycling jersey, wearing my oakley sunglasses and hydrating myself sufficiently (the weather was terribly hot) before pushing my bike out. For the bike course, we had to make 4 loops around the Costal Road. I had encountered little problem with the ride and enjoying the rushing wind whizzing through my body. However, on the fourth loop, i was nearly fall asleep and skipped. Luckily, managed to recover just in time. A lady rider beside me giving me a smile. I gave a shrug in return. Well, it was totally straight and flat road, couldn't blame me for dozing off.. It took me 1.5 hrs to complete the ride, average cruising speed 26km/hr.

Back to the tranistion area again, I changed to Sundown Marathon singlet. By this time, the sun was scorching hot. Not long before I made my run, i felt a sudden pain at both of my tights. Suspecting that i hurt my nerves, the thought of giving up occurred in my head. I walked for the first 2.5km for recovery. Feeling better, i did a walk and jog tactics for the remaining journey. Total time taken for completion, 4hrs.

Ok.. time to rush to Grand Plaza Hotel to attend Chairman's birthday party.

Damage done:
$40 dollars for taking a cab to and fro.
$20 for leg massge at Freddie's place.

Prize:
Nothing.. no medal, no finishing tee. . Just a pure sense of satisfaction to complete..

In late afternoon, there was a heavy downpour. In fact, these few days were raining during the afternoon. Luckily for us, the rain stopped. We had a good reminiscence at XingCai's house, good food accompanying with great red wine. :)

This was the second year for the dusty run to be held. Since the run was first initialized by StarDust, i believed that was why they called it "Dusty Run".

There were about 58 participants for the run. The run started at 9.30pm after a long hassle of briefing, photo session etc. The route was confusing after the 10km. There was no road marshal or leaders to lead the way, plus few water points to refill our bottles.

Since not many people participating in the 30km route, the rest of the journey left me, Melvin, Freddy and 2 other runners pacing each other. Simon lost his way. At 11.30 pm , i took a cab and back home since i not prepared run for long distance and aggravated my leg injury

This was the first time ever for Singapore's business schools came together and organized a party. The party was held at Mimolette bar/restaurant ( http://www.mimolette.com.sg/) , a location hardly accessible and not to think that it could be locating at the usual crowded central district.

The taxi driver had drove me through a dark narrow trail and circulating around the fairway horse tracks. At the entrance, i saw Stephane and her friend while most of the others had arrived. The floor area was not too big and most of the people were standing, drinking and chatting. Well, apart from there, i hardly imagined anyone could follow the rhythm of the music. We(Abt 15) stayed there for an hour before switching over to Tinhill Bistro Winebar(Bukit Timah Road).

The manager made an exception for us to delay the closing time. We had a chatty, humorous and memorable conversations exchanged before parting each other farewell at midnight

This year, the Bike Rally 2009 had 2 starting point; (1) East Coast Park (128km); (2) NUT (85km). There were 600 participants and over 200 volunteers spreading across the island serving as Road Marshal for the event. In total, there were 6 checkpoints located round the islands with each allowing 3 minutes of break time.

The registration began at 5.30am. Each of the participants was given a blue singlet, with red singlet given for the volunteers and green singlet for the organizers. The event flagged off at 7am. For the first 48km, it was a relatively easy ride with most of the route being flat. The average cruising speed was 30km/hr. KC, Brian and me were among the
lead group to reach the NTU.

I thought the rest of the journey would be relatively easy taken from the experience from the first two checkpoints. However, it was a book in disguise. After coming out from NTU, the journey was challenging with multiple endless up slopes to conquer.
Examples:
1) From NTU to Kranji reservoir (58km), we had to pass by some ulu roads with many up slopes.
2) From Kranji reservoir to Yishun Stadium (73km), we had the infamous Mandai slopes to overcome
3) From Yishun Stadium to Serangoon (88km), we had to pass through Jalan Kayu and over come some deserted road with some gentle slopes to take.

On my riding towards every checkpoint, I am thankful to the young volunteers (quite cute and pretty too ?) showing us direction for every turn we need to take. The sun was mercifully hot and I couldn’t have imagined all these volunteers had sacrifice their time waiting in the hot sun, pointing out direction and cheering us.
By the time, we reached Serangoon Stadium, some of the riders had begun to show tiredness. I found out from the organizer that this year, most of the riders were riding much faster than they expected. We were allowed to rest at a longer period waiting for the lead vehicle to lead us out.

Towards Changi Beach (102km), our last checkpoint, the weather was drizzling. At this moment, my legs wouldn’t have the necessary strength to pedal anymore and managed to squeeze in a consistent speed at 20km/hr.On my last lap toward the ending point (Big Splash: 128km), the weather had turned from bad to worst, pouring heavily. I was totally soaked with rain, smelly and tired. Thankfully, I was left with 7km to complete. Total Completion Time: 7hrs.

I was amazing pleased with this event (much better than i anticipated compared to the past). The whole journey was well organized, with sufficient replenishment (Bananas, Bun, energy drinks and bars, H2O) available at each checkpoint, visible signs and sufficient road marshals spreading along the entire journey. Not to mention, a finishing Teen (to my surprise) and a whole lot of full goodies bag for collection at a price of $15 for all!! Plus, all the cute, young female volunteers that adding up the fun (Stop and chit-chat with them). Hahaha.. I definitely will come back next year.