A "Fool" Print

Today is the 15 km progressive run event held by MR25. There was a huge crowd gathering at the starting point near the Macrichite toilet with lots of familiar faces being spotted, e.g. Ronnie, Anthony, Janice, David, Eric etc. In addition, the Tampines Safra club had organized their run at Macritchie reservoir too. I have never seen such a huge crowd since after the MR Ultra-Marathon.

Macus and his brother were wearing their brand new GT 2130 Asics shoes. Everyone was making fun of the brothers’ new pairs of running shoes. Choo was especially interested and ordered a pair from me since he has been searching for the same model for months. Not sure if it was an act of God or by coincidence, our running route for today would pass through a series of trails and slopes. So much for the new sparkling white Asics shoes, which might soon be covering with mud and dirt.

We waited for the 15 km progressive run to begin before our turn to start. Incidentally, the 15km progressive run route was nearly the same as us. The route ran through the woods before hitting to the main road, up to 2 treacherous, daunting slopes before hitting to the scenery golf course, bypassed the air-con road and back by Upper Thomson road.

Our topics of chatting during the run were mostly circulating around running shoes. When I reached the golf course, I saw Anthony firstly to run back to the finishing, followed by Ronnie, Janice, David, Eric and Janice’s husband. One by one, I gave way and cheered for them. Subsequently, Teo led the way and brought us to the water point for the 15km progressive run. (He is also an old member of MR25) Since there was no participant left, we tended to drink up the rest of cold and refreshing water. Cooling!!

Against Toh’s wishes, we protested of his proposal to go up to the air-con road. However, the two ang-mohs (I saw them before but didn’t get their names) whom joined us had already run up the slopes. Nevertheless, that couldn’t spare us from another 2 more “killer” slopes in which we had to pass through.

After reaching Upper Thomson, it was a completely flat road. I thanked God secretly that my suffering had ended. I could still feel a bit of pain near my knees while running up the slopes, probably due to the 3hrs of cycling around at East Coast yesterday cheering up some of the Safra members in the Biathlon race.

At the finishing line, I met Anthony, Jancy, Ronnie and the rest whom had completed their run. Anthony suggested going for another round (10km). I was totally exhausted by the numerous slopes that have conquered. In fact, I didn’t think that Anthony was aware that I just came back from my run. Still, the idea allured me. After knowing their running route, I told them that I would catch up with them later.

I rested and chatted for nearly 20mins. While walking back to the starting point, Billy waved his hand to catch hold of my attention. Hmm.. how did I miss him? He didn’t join us for today’s run but did a short distance instead. I managed to borrow $1.20 from him to buy a can of “green tea” before I ran at the opposite direction of Anthony’s via the woods.

My plan was to wait for Anthony and the rest at the exit of the woods so as to be together for the rest of the journey. However, as usual, my plan fouled. They had not turned up. After waiting fruitlessly for ten minutes, I decided to make a U-turn and go back from the same direction where I have come from.

Jancy was earlier than me at the finishing. Great minds think alike. From Janice, I understood that they had made a U-turn just like me. Alamak, no wonder I couldn’t able to meet them. At this moment, Uncle Chua, Soh Hua, Eng Hwa and Goole had also done with their run. Janice’s husband revealed that Anthony had lost his car key and the rest (I presumed Ronnie and David) were with him searching for the key.

After taking my bath, I volunteered to backtrack their running path to see if I could locate the key. Janice offered to help but I couldn’t think it was necessary. Furthermore, dark clouds were forming in the sky. Perhaps it was a punishment that I didn’t attend the Church service. Once I reached the start of the trail, the weather began to pour heavily. The rain abated and poured again every time I made my way again back to the trail. The experience was exasperating. I headed back to the Macrichite toilet but still no sight of Anthony and the rest of the gang. Finally, after waiting for another half an hour, I decided to go back and prayed that Anthony would find his car key.

I reached the Safra Club at 6.30pm. The sky was cloudy and looked about to rain anytime. Without waiting for the rest, I started my run earlier and jogged towards Mt Faber.

At my first loop, my pace was slow, taking it as a warm up exercise for me. There was still no sight of the any Safra members yet after the completion of my first loop. I picked up my pace faster for the second loop. I always like the Mt Faber loop, as the venue is quiet with little traffic passing by. This allows me to ponder over things while I am running.

At my third loop, my pace was getting even faster. At the upslope of the hill, I spotted Sok Hua, and bypassed her. Subsequently, I saw Angelina, Peter, Wong, Emenila etc and bypassed them one by one. Heng was in front of me. I tried to catch up with him but to no avail. At this moment, I could feel breathless. The sound of my breath was so loud that I swear that it would hear from 5m away. Luckily, the down slope of the hill always provided me a good opportunity for recovery. After a short while of cruising down the slope, my breath was back to normal and I started to pick my pace again at the start of my fourth loop. I overtook few other runners and spotted Heng in front of me. I attempted to maintain a distance from him and careful not to overstretch my breathing again. When he finally caught up with Chairman, I gave it all my might to complete the last 100m run and overtook both of them.

Yean had arrived shortly after my run. I waited for the rest of the runners to complete their training before we headed back to the Safra club where I saw PS and Albert working on their stretching. I didn’t see them in the training today. However, my attention was soon drawn to the smell of the food coming out from the buffet beside the billiard room organized by MPA. After Julie had conducted her warm-down exercise, I swarmed towards the buffet and grapping the leftovers.(Of course, with permission) There was not many left over except Mee Hoon, French fries and Spring rolls.

After the bath, most of us drove down to Henderson market to have our dinner there. During the chitchat session, Alan was transferring his knowledge of running to us. He emphasized the correct technique of running should be using the tight muscle at all times drawing Julie, Teck How, Kurmara as examples. Hmm.. I couldn’t agree with him completely as I always thought that different terrain should be using different part of muscles instead.

I arrived just in time to see the group when they started their run at Macritchie. After queried with Toh on today’s running route, I immediately packed up my things in the locker and chased after them. Strange enough, at the first 10 km, I couldn’t detect any sight of them. Thinking I might be ahead of them, I waited at the Lower Pierce’s toilet for ten minutes. Still, there was no sight of them and I continued.

At the midway of Old Upper Thomson Road, I finally met up with the rest of the group. Teo and Macus beckoned me to make a U-Turn and joined together with them. I agreed.

As we were running (me, Teo, Macus and his elder brother), Teo updated me that the group had geared up and improved a lot in their timing. Macus joked that we couldn’t be lazed around anymore with Toh spying on us like a “watchdog”. In fact, Toh was in front of us and made a few stops to check if we were following him closely.

The pace was unusually fast, roughly around 4mins/km. Even for me, I hardly could catch up my breath. Teo was joking we had to run faster and not letting Tan to overtake us. (Tan was running 20km while we were doing 16km) Else, we would be totally losing our “face”. Eventually, we arrived back to Macritchie 1 min before Tan. (Lucky for us) Tan was really fast, I could not remember anyone I known of whom could do 11/2hrs for 20km distance. And, he will be joining the coming Biathlon held on March. Good Luck to him. :-)

I woke up at 4.30am. Since no one was sharing the room with me, I could take my own sweet time to tidy up myself. Subsequently, I boarded a small van with David, Janice and few others from Sgrunners to bring us to Lake Garden.

There were roughly about 1000 of participants. I was just in time for a photo session together with Mt Faber Safra members. After a few chats, the race flagged off at 6 am promptly. I ran together with Michael and Yuen. It was a causal run for me. I took some photos as I was running along. Then after, I caught with PS and we ran together for the next 15km.

Whenever any of the Safra members crossed over me, I could clap and cheer them up. The route was full of slopes. You simply just needed to conquer one slope with another. It seems like no ending to it. Surprisingly, I found no difficulties with the upslope. The water points were placed at every 5km. The energy drink provided tasted more like “fruit punch” to me.

After the turning point, my distance with PS widened. I caught up with Chairman and we ran together for the rest of the journey. I saw Stanely helping his Safra members(can’t remember her name). It seems like she had suffered from a muscle cramp. At the last 4 km, Chairman had slowed down. Looking at my watch, I still possibly to make it at sub-3hrs. I picked up my pace and dashed towards the ending point overtaking Albert at the last 500m.

Finally, I made it!! The timing was 3.06hrs. Not bad in view that I had not trained for the race. After doing some stretching and rested for an hour, we had our usual memorial photo sessions. The whole Safra (including Tampines and Toa Payoh) took a group photos.

We walked up to our coach overcoming another slope and stairs. It was more tiring than running up and cruising down the slopes. :(

After packing my things, I checked out the hotel room and went together with Michael, Peter, Xiu Lee, Wayne, Eric and some other members whom I not sure their names. We all settled down at a table outside the shop houses to have “Ba Ku Tek”. In addition, Peter bought a suckling duck from a mobile hawker stall. The food was delicious. Then after, I got some local delights before departing to Singapore together with the Sgrunners.

I was sharing a cab with Peter, Ricci and Michael to meet up with the rest of the Safra members at Golden Mile Complex. We boarded our Super VIP Coach and heading towards KL.

There was a news reported yesterday that there was a shortage of water supply at KL due to a water pipe had burst. Apparently, our hotel was affected. We waited at the hotel’s lobby for over an hour while the staff was arranging to resume the water supply. Finally, we decided to leave our things at the caring of the staffs and headed for lunch at nearby food court. I was puzzled as in where the food stalls gotten their water. After making queries with them, I discovered they had used the fire hose to collect the water.

Once back to the hotel, we were allocated with our room keys. At 4pm, I went with Yuen, Michael and his wife, Ong and Jamie to shop around at the nearby shopping centers. I had gotten myself another ring.

At 6pm, all of us gathered at the hotel lobby and headed for dinner. They were 50 of us including those from Sgrunners. The meal was fulfilling, and I especially liked the Hokkien Mee. It was really cheap, which costed RM186 in total. However, the main highlight was the desserts. After we spitted, we had an ice dessert filled wit lot of fruits on it. I ordered a Yam favor and it looked more like an ice-cream. Then after, we had a coffee before PS and Albert joined us.

I reached back hotel at 10pm, made a few preparations here and there for tomorrow’s run before falling to my every own king size bed. Zzzzzzz :p

My head was still pounding due to yesterday’s late night sleep. Oops!! I had remembered the timing wrongly for Tania’s farewell lunch. I arrived at Mache, Vivocity an hour late.

There were not many of us (Carol and her child, Alan Elaine, Mayoko and William). Rosalind arrived later than I did. We chitchatted with each other. The topic was still very much surrounding our job hunting experience and aspirations.

After the lunch, we shopped around for a while before parting from each other. Although I should be happy seeing Tania finding a good job and able to be back in Indonesia to reunite with her families. Nevertheless, I still wouldn’t help it to feel a bit of sadness after seeing each of my friends leaving Singapore one by one.

Good Luck to her and may she succeed in every of her endeavor. God Bless!!

This was the first time I have ever tried on a trail run, not to mention to run for a distance of 50.25km. The thought of running at least five loops around the Macritchie reservoir would discourage me from attempting the event. At the night before the race, I had only 2 hrs of sleep.

Against my agenda to wake up at 4.30am, I had overslept and nearly missed out the start time at 7am. At the starting point, I saw the familiar faces of MF runners and Xuanjing who often likes to take photos for any race events. This year, there were around 200 participants and the weather was kind to us for a marathon race unlike previous year. My plan for today run was to try to cover as fast as possible for the first 30km before my legs could fail me again.

During the first round, I greeted some of the MR runners, and caught up with PS and Michael. I had taken the wrong route to Tereniang trail and overtook them twice. At the exit point from the forest, I saw XuanJing and made some funny posture to be photographed. The first loop took 1.15 hrs which was much later than my usual pace. Never did I expect the terrain of the trail has such a significant impact to the timing.

Before finishing the second loop, my stomach started to grumble perhaps due to the acidic drinks (100plus). It was weird to run with noises coming out from your stomach. The second round took nearly the same time as the first. However, I could not feel the cushioning of Asics GT2110 during the second loop and changed to my New Balance shoes at the transit point.

The third round had turned into a floury experience. At 25km, I suffered a terrible cramp at my right calf and dropped onto the ground suddenly. I couldn’t raise up my right leg and lying there helplessly. Luckily, there were 2 runners offered their immediate assistance. The young chap helped me to pull my calf muscle while the lady applied her Yoko Yoko on my calf. Feeling relative recovered, I jogged slowly and walked whenever I felt the cramp was coming back. The Yoko Yoko worked in an amazing way. It was more effective than the deep heat I applied usually. However, I could feel the burning sensation on my right calf, and the color of the skin surfaced with red. It took me 1.30hrs to complete the third round and I saw PS was behind me at the transit point. I was puzzled by her performance since this wouldn’t be her usual timing.

My strategy was to listen to music for the last 2 laps. For the fourth round, I still felt the cramp kept coming back. I walked on the up slope and ran during the down slope to shorten the time coverage. It was a recovery run for me and it took me around 1.45 hrs to complete. The heel and outsole of my New Balance shoes, which served me loyally over all these years, had came off totally. I needed to change back to my Asics GT2110 again.

In my last lap, I had relied on my thigh muscles to move my legs instead. I was running with Ronnie for a relatively short distance and undecided if I should make one last dive to complete the entire experience. However, the lurk of my past experience at four years back where I nearly couldn’t walk after suffering from a cramp still haunting me. At the first water point, I inquired for any deep heat offered at the last water station of the loop, hoping that at least I could make it there and savage the situation if the problem occurs. But it was not available. Subsequently, I saw PS behind me at Raffles Range and decided to have a one last try. After a short distance of run, the cramp stroked again!! I kneel down on the ground for a moment attempting to recover from the sudden pain. My face must be showing with great pain as the volunteer from the race advised me not to run anymore. Nevertheless, I still continued and delivered more power to my thigh muscles. PS and me were not far from each other and we came across Trevor. Trevor informed me that Michael, Chin and Freddie was not far away. I left behind PS and Trevor and managed to catch up with them. We were walking and chatting along the way. When Freddie spotted PS was catching us soon, he warned us to begin our run. We were picking up our pace quickly. I couldn’t help it. The event was rather funny as if PS was some horrible monster trying to eat us up. :P Along the roadside of the route, I attempted to pace PS. I sensed that she couldn’t like the idea. I still continued and kept praying the cramp would not come before reaching the end-point.

Eventually, I finished the five loops at a total timing of 8hrs.When I reached the finishing line, my whole energy seems to have vanished into thin air immediately. I was feeling giddy in my head perhaps due to lacking of sleep. Vincent from MR was complaining about me for dirtying the finishing t-shirt. Well, this was liked him. Sometimes, he would be nice and while times he would be very grumpy. PS continued to go for her sixth loops. I was resting at the finishing point, waiting for my certificate and chatting with Freddie, Chin, Michael, Trevor, Ronnie etc. They encouraged me to go for one more tried. I did consider but remember doctor’s advices not to run for long distance for the time being. There would be another race next year. Before I left, I took a picture together with Trevor, Alber, Michael, Chin.

On my ride back with Michael, the weather began to rain heavily. I was worrying for Lai Chee and PS (Presumed she would attempt for the seventh round somehow due to her regret at Mt Faber Ultra-marathon) would be caught up in the rain. Again, it was seasonal rain and did not look like it could extend to Marichite. Later, I was totally thrilled to learn that PS had completed her seventh loops and broke her record. It was amazing and I admired her perseverance, as I wouldn’t be able to run for nearly twelve hours surrounding with the same scenery repeatedly. :)

In the end, it was a good closure for this year. Although I haven’t made any plan to stay or leave for next year yet, I wish I would have a new fresh start and opted for a better change to the things happening around me.