A "Fool" Print

It was my ever-first attempt to do a full tri. In the past, i had been doing relay for the cycling leg. If not for friend's encouragement, i couldn't have taken up the courage to challenge my greatest fear - so called sea swim. I always have phobia in sea swim and imagining that i might be drowning in the vast sea. Added to that, i did not do much long distance swim until 2 weeks before when I swam 30 laps in the pool 3 times a week. Certainly, the swim I did one week before at Sentosa bumped me with more confidence to handle the sea.

To start off the race, we had a wonderful weather with no sun and a cool wind welcoming us. The sea was clam and having an extremely low tide. In fact, Uncle Chan commented this year PD Tri was unique. We had a Run-Swim-Run-Bike-Run event instead of the normal Tri. I remembered the advices given by Senior Melvin, Chua, Henry and the rest, which i should keep to the right so as not to overrun by other good swimmers. I ran about 50m before dived into the water, using my breast stroke to swim. After swam for about 30m, i still couldn't get into the rhythm and my breathing was not smooth. For a few moments, thought of swimming back to the shore and giving up flashed into my mind. I later remembered my friends' advices to relax, swim slow and take it easy. The thought of giving up was just too unbearable in my mind. If i gave up now, it could be even harder for me to try on for the next time. I swam slow continuously. noticed the swimmers around me and carefully moved on so not to be overran by others. I am making progress although it was slow. Gradually, i felt the confidence in me coming back. The panic and the fear was submerged by my mind focusing in my stroke and breathing technique. Also, since the swim was held in the lagoon, i felt relatively safe from the watching eyes of the spectators. Finally, I took 44:48mins to reach the shore but still feeling strong.

The bike leg was no problem to me. This was the first time i used the Ceepo for race. Initially, i was unmotivated since i was the few last that came out from the swim leg. Nevertheless, after overtaking one after another, my drive and competitiveness took better of me. Makoto from Next Stage had did a wonderful job of tuning my bike. I felt the shifting was much smoother than before and the speed was faster than my usual ride. I loved my Ceepo Venom. It was a fantastic experience riding on it. The bike was stiff and responsive, and effortless in climbing the hill. In the end, my ride took 1:16hr to complete.

For the running portion, i took it slow in the beginning to avoid any cramp. Surprisingly, my legs didn't give me problem usually that came from the Powerman or Dualathon. I did a 6mins pace and made a few stop or walk here and there. The route led us to a the main road, where we turn towards the beach. I loved the feeling of my feet landed on the sand, which felt more like a massage. Subsequently, we crossed over a wooden bridge, and made a U-Turn and back to the road again. It was near to 10am, and the weather was getting hot. Still, I am able to keep on to the pace and reached the finishing line by 0:53mins. Weird, was that i felt the distance i covered for the run was less than 10km. With my pace, I would expect to exceed an hour. Later, i found out the distance coverage was short of 1km or 1.5km.

For the overall results, i took 2:58 to finish the whole race. I was happy with the results and did better than i expected.

It was my first ever 100km Ultra-marathon to complete in one single day. Compared to the past, I did not do much training to prepare for this race apart from running with Eddie, May and Akira together for weekdays training. Our average distance covered was about 15km. Not enough mileage to prepare for this event but we decided to take it easy and aimed for completion.

To equip myself for this race, I wore Kayano 17 Asics shoes and used Nathan Trail Mix 4 fuel belt packed with Counterpain, toilet paper, 2 PowerGels and 1 Cereal and Energy bar each, with some extra money. In addition to these, we had our friends, Genevieve, Rosalind and Chin Yen came to support us at 18km, 35km 45km, 55km, 75km, 80km and 90km. I won't say I would enjoy the run if not for the company and support from friends. The reasons were that I have not recovered from my cough and been suffering stomach pain throughout the whole afternoon of the race day.

The race was flagged off at 6pm.This year, the Sundown Ultra-marathon started from Marina Barrage, where runners were brought through East Coast Park, Changi Village, Pasir Ris Park to Bedok Reservoir and back via the same route with each aid stations separated by 10km. As a sign of our unity, Akira, May, Eddie and I wore the same 2XU Running Tee to run together.

For the first 10km, we maintained our training pace of 7mins/km. Henry and his wife joined in to run with us at the East Coast Park (ard 8km) for the next 16km. They were training for their next week's Gold Coast Marathon. At our first own personal support point,. I took a few slices of Bak Kwa which I had prepared earlier for us.

For the next 10km, Eddie was not feeling well, suspecting food poisoning. Luckily for him, there were toilets along the costal road where he could temporary relieve himself. However, he dared to take much food after that.

As for me, I experienced an irregular heartbeat and discomfort in my stomach from 20 to 40km. We stopped by at the Changi Point Hawker Center but that did not help me much. By 35km, I was breathless where I saw our support group. I could neither talk much nor drink. Added to my worst scenario, the sleep bug caught up with me. I was running zigzag and hardly could keep straight. In order to stay myself focus, I ran along the pavement line. This sustained me a lot as it eased off my mind from the fatigue. I just simply had to maintain a constant pace and following the line with nothing else to think about.

At 40km pit stop, I got a chance to find a public toilet to alleviate my stomach discomfort. Feeling better, we continued our way to meet our support group, whom stationed at the bus stop(45km) where we had a few Cokes, Pocari and watermelon. Around 1.30am, We reached the 50km U-turn point. Not long after, Mohan was with us too. May commented it was rather demoralizing while Mohan and the group consistently overtook us after each pit stop even though we had outrun them. Eddie suggested we should cut short our rest time to 5mins instead of 10 to 15mins. We grabbed a few hot dogs, gummy bears, bananas and oranges before embarked on our next half to the journey.

When we reached 55km, Rosalind kindly brought my special needs bag so that I could change my socks and to my new pair of Nimbus 12 running shoes. After so many unexpected events, it seems like the lady luck was still not on our sides. After Eddie and me, May felt like vomiting. Upon her request, we plodded from Tampines Ave 10, via the Pasir Ris Park to Loyang Ave. Our support group was not stationed at 55km point as original planned. Gen called to inform me that they were at NSRCC. By 68km, we made another unscheduled stop at the Changi Point Coffee shop while we ordered some drinks. I took some ice coffee which helped me to stay awake a little. Subsequently, Gen and Rosalind drove the car to meet us. May was feeling better after the long walk. Nevertheless, it was Akira's turn of his condition deteriorating. He was quiet during the past 15km walk.

Along the Changi Costal Road, Akira requested to walk since his foot was suffering from blisters. May was quite active and energetic by then. I truly admired her recovery process and figured women had a better ability to recover faster than men. Me and Akira was totally exhausted!! Gen and Rosa was kindly to wait for us at the Costal road. Reckoned that there would be plenty of toilets along the East Coast Park and feeling discomfort on my stomach (again!!), I left my fuel belt with Gen and Rosa. By then, I couldn't able to run due to the strain on my right knees.

At 80km, I able to recover surprisingly after drinking the red bull given by Rosa. My right knee was not aching and I felt the strength to run. It was 8am and we had 2 hours to reach 90km before the cut-off time. Gen also kindly reminded us. Given the tight deadline, our strategy had changed from a leisure walk to a run-walk pace. It was 9.50am when we passed 90km pit stop. By this time, the morning sun had came out and we could feel the strong heat and humidity. Akira's situation did not improve much. We split in the last 10km, with Eddie and me running in front, while May and Akira were behind.

Again, Eddie had proved himself to be a strong endurance runner. The 90km did not seem to drain him. He was running quite fast ahead of me. I saw him around 97.5km where he was sitting on a chair, waiting for us. I tossed my bottle of mineral water for him to drink and we walked the last stretch towards the Marine Barriage. The noon sun was so hot that the heat within me and outsides was beyond my tolerance. Furthermore, the location was totally exposed with no shelter. Runners in front of me were all dragging their legs for the last 2km which seemed like an eternality to me. After crossing the bridge, Eddie took the lead to run up the slope crossing the finishing line with me followed behind. In total, we took 17:15hrs to complete the whole ultra-marathon. Unbelievable that I could run for such a long hours!!

Throughout the last 10km, Eddie and me were worrying that May and Akira couldn't complete before 18hrs. I was struggling between whether to wait or ran without them. My rationale reasoned me to go ahead for at least the effort of our support group was not wasted. Thank God, I was so elated when I saw May and Akira crossing the finishing line at 11.45am.

We had all made it!! Hurray for Hoh-Aye Team!!!

Adventure Trail Challenge(ATC) is an annual adventure race brought by the NTU Outdoor Adventure Club. ATC is a time-based, sub-urban adventure race caters for both the amateur and professional alike. This year, there were four categories opened for participation : 1) Inter-Varsity(4 per team); 2) Amateur (2 per team); 3) Men's Open (2 per team); 4) Mixed Open (2 per team). The route would cover a total of 26km, excluding the bike and kayaking. As usual, for any adventure race, the route was not allowed to disclose only upon in the race.Came to think about it, it was my first adventure race apart from my participation at X-physique held at 2 weeks ago which I considered more like an amazing race to me.
This year, I partnered with Grace for the first time. We were told to report at 7.45am. For unknown reason, our category flag-off time was delayed and started at 9.15am. Dora and Ronald were leading the group with us running at third position.

At the first checkpoint, we were tasked to tied our legs and walk to each station to follow the origami folding instruction. My hand was so sweaty that the paper crumbled into pieces at the first instruction point. We made a request to the volunteer to bring us a new piece of paper. Due to our dismay, the request was rejected and we had to walk back to the check-in station to perform the task all over again. Me and Grace were extremely bad in Origami. But thanks to Michael and Ivy's assistance, we had completed the instructions which took us some time. Next, we needed to crossed over a high drain. Again, with Michael and Ivy's help, we were pulled up by them where we subsequently dashed into a trail after the drain.

The next challenge was kayaking. It was a tiresome experience as we needed to carry the canoe for 300m before reaching the sea. Then after, Grace and me seem to be fighting among ourselves since our pedals kept hitting each other. To worsen our situation, our canoe was stuck at the Kelong and made a few detours before pedalling back to the shore.

Afterwards, we ran a fair bit of distance via the stretch ofSeletar Link to reach our third checkpoint. At this checkpoint, we were asked to throw 3 balls into a basket which would reduce the timing by 2mins for each successful attempt. None of us able to do it.

The next stretch of the route was a bit hilly. The weather was really hot as the time coming close to noon. Grace was bit of exhausted and we jogged and walked before reaching the fourth checkpoint - 12km mountain biking. This time, the task was to remember the 3 signatory which we came across along the route. The bike trail route was relatively flat and suitable for beginners.

After the biking, we had to ran through the bushes again, bypass muddy trail and slippery down-slope. Never mind since our fifth checkpoint was river crossing a small canal with a life jacket.

From the fifth checkpoint onwards, we ran past another trail route along the MRT track. Chin Yen was pacing and chitchatting with us along the way. From our conversation, I was appreciated by the effort the students had put in!! They had tried out the route not once but twice!! The first was for recce purpose and the next was for trial to gather feedback. Good work!!

The sixth checkpoint was located under the highway bridge. The challenge was Sudoku which I perfectly had not a single idea what was it!! Grace was also not good in this. We struggled for 20mins to crack the puzzle. There was once where we nearly solved it if not for the one last missing piece to fill in. Siew Lee told us not to waste time and took the penalty of 30mins extra. We agreed.

The last stretch took us off along a pretty boring Sembawang Road, then made a left turn into the woods where we walked in a river for about 1km. The water level was slightly above our knee position. There was no need for us to wear life jacket for this exercise.

After the river walk, we had to bypass a small stretch of Kampong area, via park and HDB Flats to arrive the last checkpoint - Abseiling. The abseiling was done at the third floor outside a multi-carpark. It was easier than I imagined. Me and Grace took less than 1min to abseil down. Finally, we headed to our end point, holding our hands and crossed the finishing line!! It took us nearly 4:30hrs to complete the race.


I was impressed by the effort and the logistics that the NTU students had put in. The route was well planned, with lot of water elements and good support spread evenly. It was a fun and challenging race. Moreover, the goodies bag was definitely worth the price packed with Flip flops, North Face Towel and few other vouchers.

I definitely will come back to join in the race if opportunity arises again. Well Done, NTU students!!

It was my first urban adventure race or so called "amazing race". The race reporting station located at Dhoby Ghaut Green where me and my partner (Rosaslind) needed to report at 7.45am. When I reached the venue, I saw Steve, Jojo, Gen, June, Mark and Rosa all sitting down, waiting for their turn to wave off. Supposedly, my wave should begin at 8am if not due to the heavy downpour which lasted for 1 and half hour.

Once the rain subsided, we were all ushered to a bus where it brought us to the mysterious point. This year, the start point was at Paya Lebar MRT station. We finally waved off at 11am. The first station was to solve a puzzle. Thanks for my smart partner, we managed to figure it out not too long and ran towards the second check point. The second station was mainly testing your physical strength than your IQ. We had to cross over a few obstacles which including throwing and rolling tyre to the designated point.

While we ran towards the third station, the sky poured heavily again. Me and Rosa were totally wet. The third task for us was to discern the next check point by giving a map. We struggled for a while until realized that the map was a mirror image! Then after, we allowed to proceed to our cycling leg.

It was fun cycling in the heavy downpour where you not often to find anybody at the East Coast Park. I could barely made out the view in front of me and constantly had to wipe the water from my face. The fourth task was given a poem to make out where our next destination was. I could guess it was near car park C but confused by the word "lighthouse". We rode further away from car park C and had to U-Turn back. Then after, the map given led us to Parkway Parade to complete a sequence of tasks. The objective was to fill out the missing words in order for you to reach your next checkpoint aka Katong Park.

At the park, we must balance and stand on the slack line for 1 min. I was not good in this balancing act. In the end, it was Rosa to do it. Subsequently, we walked a bit further to Mountbatten Road where we played a few games. None of the game we played achieved the desired results. : (

The next station was to kayak for a short distance (~500m) at Kallang River. We were given then some numbers in which we were stuck for a very long time. Reason was that we too used to the I-Phone and forgot how to use the traditional keypads to SMS.

With some "bargaining" with and tips from the volunteers, we figured out the words eventually. At the open field near Fraser Street, we had to do "leopard crawl" etc to overcome the obstacles. The next clue given was a map which I made out to be at Marina Bay Sand. The task given over there was to guess the "thing" your partner had moulded. Then, we were given a pictures of "Canon" and a "Fort" to find out our next check point. Fort Canning!! It was easy. ha

By then, it was 5pm which past the cut-off time. Rosa and me decided to take our own sweet time and walked. Taking the opportunity of the beautiful, sunset river scene, we took a few pictures at MBS.

At the Fort Canning, we were supposed to follow the marking on the stairs to perform an arithmetic calculation. Mathematics was no problem for me. We managed to calculate the figure in our first tried. We were given a map to lead us to our final check point. Finally!!!

At the last station, the volunteers told us that we could not proceed as we just passed the 6PM cut-off time. Wait a minute, wasn't the cut-off time was 5pm. After much inquiry, we realized the cut off time was extended but no one told us!! What a disappointment. Anyway, the last station was to do a tree climbing. Nevermind, i had much fun at Krabi doing rock climbing already. LOL

It was 6.30pm when we backed to Dhoby Ghaut Green again. The rest was waiting for us. We had our dinner at Park Mall before riding back. When i reached home, it was 9pm. What a day..

Attended the "IBM Technology Conference and Expo 2011" held at Suntec Convention Center this afternoon. This year, the theme of the conference is called "Discover a new era of IT - Smarter Computing", which mostly centralized on virtualization technology. Not much i could say about the conference except a lot of marketing talk. The only thing impress me is the food instead of the content. haha

After wearing Asics Nimbus for the past 2 years, i decided to switch back to stability running. Reason was that i suspected my knee pain might be due to the over pronation of my feet. Among the 2 better stability shoes that Asics offered, i guess i had not much choice but to choose Kayano 17 (maximum structured support) since i did not have a good experience with the other (GT series).

The colour i selected is a blue 2E model. Nothing really flashy about it but the combination of the blue and white made this pairs look like a tough running machine. First impression of the shoes is the weight which is comparable to my GT2150 and the better fit feeling as compared to my Nimbus. Other noticeable feature is the guidance line at the bottom sole. The path is slightly curved through the bottom of the tread path which unlike any other shoes i had. Asics claimed that this helps to provide a smooth gait while running.

The first time I slide the shoes in, i could feel plenty of support at the mid and fore foot. In addition, I liked the sturdy and solid heel construction which gave me pretty of cushioning at the heel.

While running with the shoes, i could immediately feel the stiffness all the way and the strong support at the mid foot. This gave me a very stable landing throughout the 10km run without sacrificing the flexibility. The grip and traction was also great for the pavement and road. However, the only complain I had for this shoes was its poor ventilation. At about 10km distance, I felt my feet was starting to heat up. Nevertheless, i want to give a benefit of doubt as perhaps the poor ventilation might be attributed to the hot weather over the past few days.

It has been an exciting moment for Singaporeans for the past 2 weeks on the General Election 2011. Although my constituency was walked over, I still eagerly following the news.

This year, the election had undergone changes that differ from the previous elections - (1) the rising star of young politicians (Nicole Seah etc) ;(2) Usage of new media to connect the public ;(3) all constituencies are facing competition from opposition except mine. Putting the political view aside, I do appreciate the government's relax in the media control where the opposition's and controlling party's voice can appeal to the greater audience. More importantly, I'm glad that the younger generation has taken more interest in the political discussion and coming out to join the election. The issues that focusing in this election were: (1) rising healthcare cost; (2) rising housing prices and (3) surging foreign workers/talents which i unfortunately are falling into a victim in these issues. In addition, i am amused by the fact that the sensation created by Nicole Seah and Tin Pei Ling in this election. Not that i have anything against TPL, but i found the answers given by her was too surface and not attacking the heart of the problems concerned as compared to Nicole Seah. True enough, Singapore's strategy is focusing on economy growth which i deem is important. But, what is the point of continue focusing on economy growth and job creation where the general public is feeling a strain to support their basic necessities such as paying for their healthcare and wages not able to meet the rising cost? As always, the outcome of the election was no surprised which the PAP still controlling the majority of the seats. However, during the announcement of the results, one had to be astounded by the power of the new media where the results were sprayed across within the "netcitizens" before it was officially announced in the TV.

As of now before i end my thoughts, there is a campaign happening in Facebook on the petition of removing TPL as MP. It would be interesting to see what will be happening next.