Posted On Sunday, May 8, 2011 at
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10:31 AM
by warriorsofwind
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.
I do feel sad to see the leaving of our MP Chiam See Tong and Foreign Minister George Yeo. Chiam has always been fought hard to be the voice of common Singaporeans and i feel pity that he had to leave due to his ill health and age. As for our Minister George Yeo, he's been a humble person and contributed a lot in our country's foreign affairs, especially in the areas of improving our relationship with the neighbours. In the first time of Singapore's history, an opposition party has finally won a GRC. As Minister George Yea had said " A new chapter has opened... " or perhaps this signified a wind of change. Still, i have no high expectation of much improvement would be done over in the next five years but hoping at least there will be greater accountability and transparency of the government to the public.
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.
Posted On Friday, July 16, 2010 at
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8:44 AM
by warriorsofwind
The final stage begins with descent into Santa Cruz then the route follows the river bank via poplar groves to Valenzuela but soon the climbing begins. A hard climb to Torre Gallina is followed by a very long descent which takes you into a spectacular valley. The valley track takes you to Salar. From here undulating tracks through olive groves lead to a short tunnel under the autovia and the final 2km surfaced road to Hotel Manzanil finish.
Nothing had to say in this stage, every single runner was trying his best to finish strong. Joshua was allowed to join back the race at this stage. To me, the last stage was like my normal marathon training where most of the route covered tarmac roads and relatively flat. I was pacing with Alison along the way with us overtook each other. It was a great and enjoyable run, when we kept each other going.
Eventually, all the Singaporean runners had completed this stage. Ivy came in last but ending with the most spectacularly with all of us running together holding our Singapore flag.
We had the prize giving ceremony at our last dinner where we exchanging contacts, emails and our experience. This year, the Singapore team had swept across 3 prizes – the most dehydrated runner before the race (Me), the most hydrated runner before the race (Gen) and the most spectacular runner ending last (Ivy).
After the dinner, we had a party on the dance floor at the basement. It was great fun!! Everyone could relax, and truly enjoyed the joy and laughter. It was an amazing experience for me in this race, where I’m fortunately to meet wonderful supporters and runners whom cheering/helping each other up along the run even though we barely known each other for long. The memories could stay with me for the rest of my life and who knows, I might be coming back to the race this year. Ha.. (3 pts to UDMC, Oh yeah!!)
P.S: Chantel’s luggage had finally arrived to the hotel on the last day for race.
Posted On Thursday, July 15, 2010 at
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8:40 AM
by warriorsofwind
Stage Four was the ”long day “, with more plenty of hard climbs and long ascents. Tracks lead to Cacin, poplar groves and then another big climb to Pocapaja. From there it was just 4km to the finish but climbing all the way. At 61 km, stage four is likely to be the crux of the event for many.
The temperature rose to 43 degrees and no shade was found along the route again. The stage 4 had proven to be toughest stage among the all. But thanks to the organizer’s well planned, most of the runners had adjusted themselves to the terrain and weather’s condition from the first few stages. Typically, the route would cover open fields, single track trail along the gorge, tarmac roads, beautiful lakes, woods and small towns. Apart from running through the woods along the lakes and brief moment of zealous of buying cans of Pepsi for Gen and Chantel in the town, I remained pretty silence most of the time, taking note of my blisters and doing my slow ascent, climbing up the hill one after the other.
Finally, I reached the campsite at 6pm with all the volunteers shouting and cheering up for us. The camp site was up on top of the hill overlooking the sunset and mountainous region. There was a small restaurant beside the camp which the pasta cost 7 euros again. It was an enjoyable rest for me. But regrettably, I heard there was a runner whom lost 4hrs after organizer recover him.
Posted On Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at
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8:19 AM
by warriorsofwind
Stage Three begins at the campsite and takes the scenic, tarmac road out to Lake Bermejales and then a steep dirt road climb to a forest airstrip and then its mountain tracks all the way through some incredibly beautiful scenery and following it towards Jayena. About 4km before the village you enter another section of single track which takes you to the Bacal campsite finish.
Paul (the race director) promised that the route was mostly all down slope and indeed he kept his promise. This time, we had a staggered start time for the slow and fast runners. Ha. I took the early start time at 8.30am. In preparation of the next day’s 61km and careful not to hurt my knees on the down slope, I decided to take it slow and steady. At the campsite, the organizer invited the nearby villagers to cook for us pallela (Spanish rice) which cost 7 euros. It was delicious!! In addition, they brought beers and goat cheese to sell. Everyone was in a party mood, and this was the first time I could feel the Spanish’s passions and hospitality. The party ended at 10.30pm and most of the foreign runners had took beers and wine before the sleep. Luckily, my freeze dried meal had finally arrived due to postage delay. However, not so lucky for Chantel, there was still no news of her luggage and her supply was running low.
Posted On Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at
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8:13 AM
by warriorsofwind
Stage Two begins by descending into Alhama’s spectacular gorge. There were 4 checkpoints again. From here you travel through the full length of the gorge before heading into the Sierra Almijara. This tough mountain stage includes a new, very beautiful, single track section. From here you begin to descend via the forest tracks before some tough final climbs into Jatar.
Most of the Singaporeans started off strong in the beginning partly due to the beautiful scenery and the less tough trail. Me, Gen, Cat and Ivy met together at the 2nd checkpoint and ran together. However, the event took a drastic turn where we reached the mountain stage where Joshua began to feel unwell. Ivy volunteered to stay behind and the rest of us decided to proceed ahead since we did not want to pressure Joshua on our run.
Once we were out of the mountain stage, we met some marshals and volunteers to ask us about Joshua’s condition. It seems that he was really unwell, and Jerry had driven a land rover parked outside the mountain to pick him up. At the last descend from the mountain, I turned back my head and saw Dr. Bell running across the mountains with her medical box to join Joshua and Ivy. She was really fast!!
By 4pm, we had reached our second camp site and saw Joshua resting at the medical tent. He was ordered to stay out of the race for the next 2 days.
Posted On Monday, July 12, 2010 at
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8:06 AM
by warriorsofwind
The race started at 10am. There was a paint marking on the road or trail to indicate the direction of where the runners should run. In addition, there were 2 road marshals riding on their bikes to check on runners’ condition and route. This year, we also had a research team from Conventry University to study runners’ performance in Ultras and under extreme heat. The research mainly focused on taking our urine sample, weight and readings before the start of the race and conducting interviews after the each stage of the race.
Stage one began with a long ascended of 12km up to the mountain at 1420m with very steep slope. There were 3 checkpoints spread at an average distance of 10km on the entire 37km. Many runners chose to walk to conserve their energy and to settle themselves on the weather condition. At around 15km, I missed a marking and took a wrong turn. It was kind of scary when you realized there was no trace of life along the route, and you were running out of water under the heat. Luckily, I managed to back track on time and resume the run back on the course. The rest of 15km route, were trail running along the vast open field with lack of shades. There was a doctor at each checkpoint to observe the runner’s condition if they could still continue the race.
At the last 2km, I met up with Lam and Joshua walking to the finishing. Joshua was not feeling well and vomiting, with Lam accompanying him. In the end, we all reached the first stage of camp site at the stadium in a small town.
Posted On Saturday, July 10, 2010 at
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7:52 AM
by warriorsofwind
The Al Andalus Ultra Trail is one of the most challenging routes in the world of the ultra trail running which held in Spain, Granada. The race spread across 5 days, in which the runners have to run across mountains, woods, trails and roads under the temperature of 38-43 degrees with semi-support from the organizer. There were a total of 65 participants for this year with 9 Singaporeans participating.
Most of us met at the Granada airport where the organizer was kind enough to pick us up and drove us to Loja, a small town in Spain. Chantel had an unfortunate experience where her luggage was lost in the transition of planes. At the hotel, the organizer held a welcoming dinner for all the participants where we got to know each other from other runners around the world. We were honored to have the Widy Grego (10 times winner of Marathon des Sables) to run with us this year. Although Widy couldn’t speak English, but he was very friendly and communicated with us in every possible way by hand gestures and looking up a translator to talk to us.
The registration started at the next morning, 10am where we collected their number bibs, submitting our medical form, and signing indemnity forms. There was one small counter setup to sell limited gears. At 5.30pm, there was a briefing on the course. By 8pm, we had our dinner by the organizer where we watched over the World Cup Final at the same time. It was fun watching over the participants from Holland and Spain supporting their country, and at the end of the match, both countries’ participants end well with a good gesture and a hug.
