A "Fool" Print

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!!