Keep going! ?? That’s my motto for this run. Many times during today’s run I was so tempted to walk but I didn’t! Because partially of the top I’m wearing, if people run pass me saw me walking and say “keep going” I think I will be very embarrassed ? Part of the run I was also chanting in my heart what Dory had taught me: Just keep running! Just keep running! ?? Keeping myself motivated is very important ?

I thought I would walked the upslopes but I didn’t! I’m quite amazed with myself, I thought I would walk! This is the first time I never walk in a half marathon! ?? I only walk at each water point for water for about 10 to 15 seconds and carry on running and I finished strong. Strong as in I don’t feel like ‘run die me’ or couldn’t catch my breath or my heart beats super fast. And I must say hydration points are very well organised! Especially impressed by one of the water point they placed at a grass area out of the running route after Tanjong Rhu nearing sports hub, it’s very well planned! Because the route there already is narrow, if the water point is very near the running route it will sure jam up the place! Nice! ?? All the water points area are littered with paper cups but there is so many dustbins and huge black plastic bags prepared ? And I’m super grateful for the many water points along the route especially nearing the end of the run.

First of all, luckily and quite a relief that PSI is not high and the race is carried out as usual. It’s always this period of the year it gets hazy and many running events had already changed the dates of their runs to a much earlier or later dates to avoid the haze.

Shuttle bus option is only available at certain Safras and Yishun Safra is actually just about 1km away from home but bus tickets were already sold out! ? It’s one of the biggest running event in Singaopore and should have prepared more shuttle buses and make life easier for the runners right? ? There is no choice, I’ll need to take a taxi there. But in life, there is always a choice. I can choose to never sign up for runs, I can choose to sleep in on weekends morning. But no, I choose to run. Still, fare is about $25 sibeh expensive leh ?

Thank you JustRunLah! for the race slot! The race slot is quite expensive for people who never served NS and like me who is char bor ? I reached the race site quite late already and went quickly for baggage deposit. Security is tight, they even have those scanners like what we saw in the airport to screen through our bags first. And I must say that both the baggage deposit and collection is very fast and smooth ??

So I quickly rush to look for my friends who are already at the “start”. And the volunteers directed me to to go this way where I saw many runners go the other way, maybe that way is for the elites, jialat confirm will be at the very back this time, can still catch up with pacers? That’s part of the reason I like to be at the front, so that I can manage to follow the pacers. Then when I saw that there are not so much people at the start and saw many familiar podium runners it is only then I realised that I was in the front where “seeded runners” is given privilege to be at the front of the start line, what is “seeded runners” I also don’t know actually ? I’m really paiseh lah! ? Maybe is a slot from Just Run Lah that’s why the privilege to enjoy the spacious place to breathe in front for a few moments more and not be packed like sardines at the back ?

I was actually aiming to follow the 2hr 20mins pacers at first but I think I need to be realistic because all the half marathons this year I did is worse than my first and only half marathon last year, at GEWR completed in 2hr24mins and my CSC run last month I did 2hr43mins! ? But for the half marathon at KL after CSC run I did 2hr36mins, still much better than CSC run. Now I wonder is it the “been there done that” mentality so I have lesser motivation to run full marathon and half marathon anymore ? Did 2hr25mins which I’m quite happy ?

I was hoping that I will never ever see the green and white balloons, that’s the balloon color of pacers running 2hr30mins and slower. But 2hr20mins pacers pass me shortly after 3km! ? Set another aim not to let the 2hr30mins pacers to passed me and I did it! ??

I credit the improvement to the weekly training with Pinoy-Sg runners, I’ve certainly become stronger ? And I must say the entire run I’m pretty motivated to run, because like nobody walks! There is people who walks lah but it is only like 0.01% maybe? Usually I saw a lot of people started walking after 10km but today is not that day ?

From the start I try not to listen to my MP3 because all the songs have very fast beats and I will end up going too fast and hit the wall, but it is important to keep myself occupied so I listen to my surrounding. Mostly I’m listening to the different types of footsteps and the way people run, stomping, shuffling etc and different types of breathing, I hope I’m a “quiet” runner because I listened to a lot of different types of breathing such as “hahahaha”, “hurhurhur” and “hehehe” and “huhuhu” ? Only till after the 13km point I think I’m quite safe in my speed and start listening to music and decipher or agree and disagree with every part of the lyrics to keep myself occupied. Especially the song “Love me like you do”, it’s been one of my favourite song but today it sounds sad to me. Love me like you do, touch me like you do It’s like begging for love and touch and he don’t love you and he dosen’t wants to touch you ?

Although I heard about negative reviews of the past AHM runs, like bottlenecks and very squeezy but certainly, this run is good so far to me! I didn’t come across any bottlenecks and I have space to run and breathe ? Especially at the last few kms at a water point some guys were wearing like Spartans and drew their own 6 pack which is so cute lah ?

Dubbed as the ‘Happiest 5K On The Planet”, The Color Run (World Series) is back in action and happened over the 3rd weekend of August (20th and 21st)! This is the first time for Reyrey and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me.

The race pack collection happened over the weekend of 13th – 15th August at City Square Mall, same collection weekend as that of New Balance Run On SG, Puma Night Run and NUS Ru pickups. Collection site also allows late registrations and I managed to get one of my “fun gang” member, Juan to sign up for this highly anticipated run with me, along with my kakis.

My kakis and I decided that we would go for the Sunday slot since we had to complete our New Balance Run ON SG (Team challenge) and also I thought the organizer will be more generous with the colored powder thrown out at runners (since it is the last day of this year’s edition and it is perfectly normal to use up everything that was left over from Saturday’s instance LOL)!

With the race village situated by the Beach Station, it became too familiar and we already knew where We will be meeting each other and how the route will likely be like (slopes by the first KM) and we were totally correct about it. It was a great turn up with music playing, food/beverage (beer has to be paid)/photo printing booths that are already bombarded with queues by fellow Color runners getting their food, drinks and posing for photos that they can print out for free. Freebies such as sunglasses and visors were being given away (literally flown off the stage by the emcees) and our hands were too short to catch ’em!

Into the run and by the end of each kilometer or so, every runner dashes through a color-specific zone where volunteers threw out color powder onto the runners – turquoise, orange, pink, green and a packet of mixed powder handed out to the finishers by the finish line. I particularly loved the pink zone where we hung out at for a long while doing all sorts of crazy poses, and many instagram-worthy ones LOL. The only hydration point was situated perfectly right beside the beach station at approximately into 2.5 km of the run inside a sheltered zone allowing us to catch our breath (from our fun walk), and hidden away from the sun – yes, we walked most of the route since we planned not to run but swee swee complete this with poise and class (not!)

After re-grouping, we continued laughing at our lame jokes and how we looked (Serene become Fiona of Shrek), making hi-5s with fellow color runners in the opposite direction , and finally crossing the finish line together (all 9 of us!). The entire event was absolutely perfect for groups of running friends or even families who occasionally love having a great time spent together at un-timed, uncompetitive (except competing who stayed the cleanest by the end of the run LOL) fun run with lotsa fun to top it off. We also gained a PW (personal worst time) for a 5K at sub 2! 🙂

Fun was definitely the word to describe this year New Balance Run On SG event! The race distance for the event was 7 km but participants have the option to RUN ON one extra kilometer on race day, and earn themselves an exclusive NB Run On Achievement Badge! I joined last year and I couldn’t wait to add on to my collection of New Balance Run On SG unique race medals. I’m changing my review style to highlight the things that I loved about the event and things that I thought could be done better.

Let me first start with the POSITIVES:

RACE ENTRY PACK COLLECTION (REPC)

• Organised collection process – I went on a Sunday afternoon after lunch with 3 of my close girlfriends. We didn’t need to queue at all. The volunteers were quick and efficient and knew what they had to do. They quickly got our items for our race pack, asked us to verify the name stated on both the race bib and timing chip. They also remembered to offer us a lucky draw to see whether we can win for ourselves a pair of new Vazee Rush or Vazee Pace shoes, but alas, both my friends and I are never lucky for lucky draws.
  
• Free Silk-screening – Big thanks to the people at The General Co. for silkscreening our race tees!! I always look forward to the cool designs that you guys have. This year I chose “IT NEVER GETS EASIER, YOU JUST GET STRONGER, #RUNONSG”. My friend Cheng Yee chose the same design too. We really liked this tagline because running is never easy, and you got to do it consistantly in order to get stronger and better! My friend Kalsom and Jennifer chose “RUN SHIOK SHIOK”! That is one funny tagline! So Singaporean but who can deny the “feel-good” feeling after a run! I can certainly attest to that!

  

• Fantastic idea to have a flea market (LACE UP) – Loved the idea on how NB Run On did a tie up with The Local People by orgainising this flea market! It was cool to see all the local designers products that were available! My friends and I stopped by the FAWN pop up store. They were selling Vinyl stickers which I thought were super cute! Most of us ended up buying the stickers from them. I bought a fat unicorn sticker which I’m going to paste on my luggage!

  

RACE DAY

Fast and organised boarding of the shuttle buses Thank you organiser for providing free shuttle services to the event site! That was a fantastic call because it’s so difficult to get there! We arrived at around 4 pm at Stadium MRT and didn’t have to wait long to board a shuttle bus to the event site. Intervals were very fast and we could see the shuttles leaving promptly and arriving really quickly. Volunteers did a good job in crowd controlling.

• Cool photo opportunities – I love how the organiser had cool props for the participants to take photos with! What’s a run event without having photo memories! Best part was that they had assigned volunteers at each station to help take photos! This makes it so much easier when taking group photos!

  

• Awesome host and music provided throughout entire event – Two thumbs up to Kimberly Wang, Elias Soh and DJ A/K/A ATTAGIRL. Kimberly and Elias entertained the crowd really well by charming us with their personality and also providing us details about the race and it was just nice listening to her talk! DJ A/K/A ATTAGIRL beats were so cool that they just made you wanna party! The combination of them just made the event really hyped! Check out the flag-off video!
• Nice Scenic race route and enthusiastic volunteers – Love how beautiful the Singapore skyline is. From the START pen and all way throughout the route where we ran past the Marina Barrage and Gardens By the Bay. We also got to see the otters when we were starting our run! At my 2.5 km mark, I saw the first few runners coming back and that included some familiar faces like Mok Ying Ren, Shah Feroz and Colin Tung who were also participating in the race. Boy they were super fast and I can only dream of doing that pace. I excitedly cheered them on as they past. I did the extra 1 km and I gotta to say I was impressed with the volunteers who were at the extra 1 km because they were the most enthusiastic of all! Their encouragement does play a part in motivating those who are already tired out from the 7 km to keep pushing.
• Cool finisher medal and achievement badge – I’m so glad that I completed the race in that scorching heat. It was definitely not an easy one to keep pace. It was great feeling to be rewarded with a nice medal and an achievement badge to mark the end of the race!

  

• Fantastic post race refreshments – This is one of the main reasons why the NB Run On SG event is the best! Free flow of food everywhere! From beers to truffle fries, there were many more other fantastic refreshments like hot dogs, fish balls, ice-cream, yogurt etc. You definitely won’t grow hungry and you’ll be satisfied! Coconut water was given to participants to re-hydrate their bodies which had raced in the grueling evening heat! The weather was a killer!

  

• Cool post race contest – I like that the organisers catered for those who were there to just enjoy and not running competitively. I liked how they were running Instagram contest and giving out NB starter kits. Too bad I didn’t Instagram early enough because they had a cut-off timing at 18:30 hrs.

Now for the things that I thought COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER:

• Flag-off Timing to be reflected instead of event start time – This was one of the big things that I really didn’t appreciate. When you state 5pm is the START time, people would automatically assume that flag off is at 5pm. Most races would emphasise their flag-off timings rather than start pen open timings on their websites and race booklets. We would not go into the nitty-gritty of the race booklet to see the program schedule. So when I thought the start time was 5pm, my group and I headed to the starting pen early only ending up to be stuck there for another half an hour before flag-off! It was NOT a nice feeling because we got stuck in front of a speaker blasting the music and also because it was super hot that day!! We felt like sausages on a flaming grill!!! My only consolation was that I got to see Mok Ying Ren walk past while he was heading for the front of the START line 15 minutes before flag-off and he said hi!!! To bad I couldn’t get him to take a photo because it was soooo squeezy but it was really nice seeing him.
• Not enough hydration points – There was only one hydration point for the entire race! And that was only at the 2km/5km mark which was the Marina Barrage area. It was sooo hot yesterday that another hydration point at the U-Turn point would be a real treat but unfortunately there wasn’t. Maybe the organiser could set up an extra hydration point at next year’s event.
• Not reflecting the race route accurately in the race booklet – Now we all know that NB Run On SG has a really fantastic design crew but the one thing they did not do was to reflect that we had to go up the Marina Barrage slope. In the race guide, they just drew a straight 90 degree turn which a lot of us would expect it to be flat ground but it was not. Run Events like the Performance Series did do so by highlighting the actual route and I appreciated that because having myself being mentally prepared, helps me plan how fast and how much effort I need to keep on going for my entire race. I’ve circled the area in RED that I was highlighting.

  Note: Maps are from New Balance Run On SG website and The Performance Series website

  

Overall it was a  fun event and I enjoyed every moment of it! I took a lot of photos and they will be memories that I keep! I’ll definitely look forward to next year event where we go the distance again. Interestingly, my group still had the energy after the event to go and catch Pokemon around the area! It was a fruitful ‘Pokemon’ing session! In total I managed to add these new additions to my Pokedex a Clefairy, Rhydon and 2 Jynxs! Till my next write-up! Stay healthy and happy!

It was raining so heavily when I woke up, but luckily no rain in the noon. Think the Sun pity us those runners who was so burnt yesterday so today went resting behind the clouds this afternoon. Yay! ?

Race pack collection is great, there’s no queue at all maybe because that there were 4 generous long days for us to collect our race pack and some people get their race packs to be delivered as they took the deluxe slots. There’s two days we can choose to runon, either Saturday or Sunday ? But we have New Balance Run on Saturday so we go for the Sunday’s Color Run. The race fee is quite expensive, if I didn’t remember wrongly the early bird slot also need to cost me $55. But fun runs are always slightly more expensive than those normal race. But this Color Run is worth it to go, my friends and I are already looking forward to next year’s color run. The deluxe slot cost about $40 more, but I don’t think that there is a need to spend the extra money. I can use that money to sign up for 1 more race ?

It’s not the first time I cut my shirt, I cut the T-shirt for One Piece run too. I don’t like T-shirt ? And many people really cut their shirt till so trendy and nice, think it’s either they are creative or they really got effort go YouTube on the ways to cut a T-shirt ? Unlike me no licensed and took me only about 5 mins to a draw a few lines and cut.

The location of the run is at Sentosa and the flag off time is at 4pm. I took the monorail in from Vivo, as we wanted to avoid the crowd, we decided to meet earlier. As we are wearing the Color Run shirts and bibs, its free entry for us to Sentosa! The staff at the monorail is so friendly! She gives every runner a hi-5, and wishes us a happy run!

The Color Run claims to be the planet’s happiest 5km and indeed it truly is! ? I’ve been to Hello Kitty Run, Music Run, Batman Vs Superman these types of fun runs too, but it is so far never as fun and being happy as the Color Run ?

The start pen opens only 5 mins before flag off, which is great. At the start line, they were already spraying the runners with the color powder. And started throwing freebies like sunglasses, visors and wrist bands to the runners. I caught none ?

My friends and I didn’t run we jog a little only at the start and after the first 1km, we walked all the way. We can always run in other runs but now I see it that for fun runs we should spend more time, be slow and enjoy! ? Every 1km point there’s a different color powder being splashed to the runners by the volunteers. Serene said that we are paying to get dirty and get “sabo” ?

All my friends and I got our “personal worst” timing. A 5km route took us almost 2 hours to complete as halfway at the hydration point we stop and waited quite a long time for Eugene who kena stucked and jammed every where, at the the flag off, at the monorail. He came over after the Trifactor race this morning. I didn’t feel the wait because the rest of us were under the shelter at the hydration point enjoying the super cold and shiok 100 Plus, taking photos and looking at other colorful runners. It’s actually quite therapeutic to see so many happy faces. People were all so smiley ?

There’s many youngsters at this Color Run. They were all so fun and energetic! ? They are so cute lah! They even roll on the floor to get the colors on them. After the run there’s a concert on stage and may of them were on the “dance floor” dancing and jumping. It’s so fun to hang out with friends like this. How come during my teenage days there’s nothing so fun like this? It’s ok, I’ll forever be young at heart! ?

And something funny happened! Refer to the snapshot below and the hashtags ?:

HAHAHAHAHA! ? Sometines when I go running with my phone and if it suddenly rains, to prevent my phone getting more wetter than my sweat I will also put my phone there. But must depends on the sports bra support also lah, if not phone will also drop out ?

Although the quality of the medal is not good and design of the medal looks simple and no effort but at least the floral lanyard is nice. What’s more important is the fun and happy memories made with friends for this run ? And the race village is fun with the music and people dancing. There seems to be unlimited water available in the race village at the hydration point and we can just go to the hydration counter to take the bottles of water and cans of cold hundred plus. And of course we didn’t missed out having fun taking a photo at the Haribo photo booth. Hurhurhur! Faster than Usain Bolt? ?

Guess many color runners will stay and party there till 9pm as the atmosphere is really fantastic! ?But we are hungry and the next day we need to work so we leave, took quick rinse and change into a fresh set of clothes and have dinner at Vivo. Walking out because the monorail have long queues. When mood is beautiful, everything is beautiful and nothing negative gets in. Pokemon Go players are cute today ?

No. As of now, I will not sign up runs that flags off before 6.30pm anymore, not at the moment ? Because paying money to torture yourself is not worth it. But tomorrow’s Color Run flag off time is at 4pm. See how I get burnt ? The flag off for New Balance Run is at 5.30pm, the start pen opens at 5pm. It’s a torture, roasting ourselves under the sun to wait for the flag off. Unless the fear of Sunshine is gone, or the craziness kicks in, or the race is attractive enough to lure me to sign up again, no more race at a timing when the Sun is there to get me 50 shades darker ?

I know its unglam to be squatting down while waiting for flag off but I seriously feel so unwell to stand. Start pen shouldn’t have opened so early since they have plenty of fun things in the race village for the runners to enjoy. I was so drained and I got a little dizzy while I was in the start pen waiting for flag off. Rey says I looked pale. I was sweating, the Sun is so fierce today. I’m not fast so cannot be in the first wave so my punishment for not being fast is to be roasted under the Sun and be roasted longer ?

Two weeks ago I just ran a half marathon and it wasn’t even as tiring as this 7km plus 1km run! ? While waiting for flag off I was telling myself, no I won’t be running the extra 1km just for the iron-on-badge(maybe the last 1km run should includes run for a good cause, this would makes the additional 1km more worth running). I’m already super tired before I even started running. But I saw Kelvin right ahead out of the sea of orange(our group of friends all wore blue today ?）just shortly after I passed the finishing line, he’s going to run the additional 1km. I catch up with him and we finished the last 1km together. I will never run the additional 1km if I did not saw him, it’s really friends who keeps us going ?

Really, why is the flag off at 5.30pm? Why is it at Gardens by the Bay east so not accessible? Venue cost will be cheaper? Although there’s shuttle bus, but still the place is not very accessible. I cab down with my friends there because I just ended pole class. I’ll be late if I take the bus or MRT and after the run, my friends and I walked to Stadium because the shuttle bus queue is crazily long ?

“Unleash your speed” ? Cannot unleash because of the “human jam” ? Luckily I don’t run fast because how to run fast when when there is no space to run? ? The flag off was in waves but how many waves were there? It felt as if after the first wave runners were flag off, then all the rest of the runners were “released” to run. I don’t really know how many waves were we flag off in but when I finally passed the start line when it’s about 5.45pm, imagine a piece of meat left under the Sun for 45minutes, it’s gonna be almost cooked ? I thought I will be relief to start but I was super super not happy. Pokemon Go players is catching Pokemon just steps away after the start line! OMG, it was already so congested and they were there blocking the path ?

Signing up for runs is to have fun and enjoy but still, I got many things to complain ? I don’t drink coconut drink, it’s given at the hydration points and end of the run. Though some of my friends like it and says its refreshing and nice. Sadly the water is not cold at the hydration point and race village and water runs out at the race village around 7pm ? There’s only 1 hydration point along the route at barrage, consider it 2 because it’s to and fro but it’s at the same spot. And to consider the weather, it’s so freaking hot that two hydration point is seriously not enough with this kind of weather that makes you feel like you were in a desert ? No cold water some more, if got cold water it won’t be as bad actually ?

But still, there’s good things about the run. What’s best for this run is that there is FREE BEER for all runners who are 18 years old and above! Guess it’s the only carbonated drink I like! ? And the rose beer is really nice! ?

The photo booth is really nice, taking three shots then printed on a print out that moves. However seems like the printout needs a lot of time to get printed. We took the shots at around 5pm but even when before we leave the place some time after 8pm it’s still not ready yet ? I’ll still need to send them a selfie so they can identify my photos through email or message so they can print the print outs and mail to us. And there’s another print out of our photos on a card as sovenirs ? Its nice to have photos and sovenirs other than medals and bibs only to keep ?

The only place with no queueing at all is baggage deposit and collection, nice! ? And I must really say that the race village is actually very awesome. I enjoyed the music by the DJ and the band. There’s many food like yogurt, ice cream, hot dog buns, fish balls and truffle fries ? But I didn’t queue for food only for the beer ?

The race fee is not expensive compared to other race and to consider all these food and beer that is at the race village given to the runners. Though I will still need to think thrice if the flag off time of the run is still at 5.30pm next year. Hopefully next time they will organise at a better time when the Sun is not so glaring.

Overall, I still enjoyed today’s run! Maybe it’s because of great company of friends! And thank you July, Yi Heng and Guo Jun who’s not running to come down specially to cheer for us who are running ?