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 ?

Wheeeeee! Achieved a PB with the help of July and Yi Heng! They could have run fast, but they are really here to pace me and help me complete my run with a better timing. Really thank them both for pacing me and I definitely couldn’t have make it without them! ?

(Photo credit: Pris Chew Dot Com) Love this photo so much! I looked so happy in the photo! ?

Especially thankful to July, keeps on encouraging me, to keep going and reminding me to drink water at the water point. Thought I couldn’t have make it to what I have aimed for because at the beginning of the route it was sandy! ? My previous timing for Pocari Sweat run is 1 hour 9 mins plus, though this time I’m only 1 minute faster but 1 minute IS A LOT! ?

Thank you Kelvin for helping me to collect my race packs and for being our “personal baggage deposits counter” for letting us put our belongings in his car. There is no baggage deposits available but some of us really have a lot of barang barangs to bring such as fresh clothes to change into, especially I lived so far, must change away my sweaty clothes if not when taking public transport back people will faint ah! ?

Lucky me! This is a free slot won from a contest I’ve participated on Instagram 🙂 This is a charity run and to raise awareness humanitarian relief efforts within the region in times of disaster, also benefiting families in Singapore. I didn’t want to register for this run because its too far for me to travel. I remembered last year after Newton Run at the same venue, it is a really torturous journey home. The race venue is at East Coast Park and I live in the North. To travel there is so troublesome and to take a taxi is so expensive nowadays but if I were to take bus or the MRT it will be too rushing for me since the flag off time is 7.30am. But since this is a free slot won from a contest, I don’t mind paying for taxi ?

There is 3 categories for this run, the 5km, 10km and 500m kids dash. Somehow the 5km route seems more tougher because everyone’s gonna carry the relief pack. I am running the 10km category. We have the option to carry the relief pack, it contains some food items which will be donated to the low income families in Singapore after the run. No matter what, it’s already prepared and will be donated right? ? So I run or no run with it doesn’t makes any difference right? ? Plus the relief pack is super heavy, weighs about 5 to 7 kg some more leh! If I carry the relief pack I can guarantee I won’t be able to make it within the 1 hour 20 minutes cut off time. It’s for the experience lah, but seriously carrying 5 to 7kg and run is no joke. Kudos to those who carry the relief pack and run! ??

Early in the morning, like around 5am received a message from the event organiser informing that there might be a delay in flag off time as there were lightning, but then got another message that flag off will proceed at the usual timing. Luckily weather is good, and during run there is no sun and its breezy and cooling ? If not usually by 8am will be quite hot and humid when the sun is out. We were flagged off on the dot at 7.30am.

Get to know Yvonne, she’s a fit mom and she’s really fast! Congratulations for coming in third! ? Theres a lot of fast running mummies out there! Really very inspiring! ? Got to know that she usually runs on threadmill, maybe that’s why she’s fast! What I feel good about threadmill is that we can set the incline level, which is good for the leg strength so when running on road, upslopes will be easy to beat. Maybe I should start running on threadmill, set a faster pace to run too, it’s either I run or I fall ? Hope ActiveSG will put more threadmills in the gym, 20mins on threadmill where got enough? Too bad I’m learning pole and the fee to learn it is too expensive. Expensive but worth it! One month of the pole class fee is almost equivalent to 2 months of gym fee! ? But threadmill had become torturous for me, last week while I was in KL I ran on a threadmill and my eyes were glued on the threadmill, counting every second, every calorie and every 0.01m ?

There’s not a lot of runners for this event. Maybe partially because of the race location is quite not accessible, but efforts were made by giving promo code of $5 discount to runners who’s taxi-ing down or taxi-ing away by using mobile apps. I didn’t download it at first when going but it’s actually quite easy to use. When leaving the place I tried to get a taxi using the Comfort Delgro mobile app as its really hard to get out of East Coast Park unless you got your own transport or is taking the public transport.

All the water at the hydration point is not cold and there is no isotonic water at the hydration point. Or maybe there’s isotonic drink at hydration point just that all the water I grab is water? ? Honestly speaking, it’s the first time that I didn’t complain silently in my heart or complain out to my friends about water not cold. Maybe because it’s a charity run so I didn’t mind, or maybe because it’s part of the event that in time of disaster there is no cold water so there is no cold water for us? ? But the hydration point at the ending point provides super cold water and isotonic drink which is good enough already! ?

Though more directions sign boards should be placed to guide the runners as some runners missed their podiums because there isn’t a clear indication of the route and they ran extra distance. The crazy part is they run so much extra distance, they still come back as the top few runners to finish the race! ??

Usually if I run by myself, I’m not very motivated and I will walk. But today, I feel the “push” from July and Yi Heng. And I’m very prideful to say that I didn’t walk but only at hydration point, only slowing down for a few seconds and carry on. Although many parts during the run I really feel like walking that’s why I keep telling July and YiHeng to go ahead and I’m very touched they still run by me. It’s really very heart warming.

(Photo credit: Chin CK) Though we wanted to stay ahead of the 1hr 10mins pacers, but they overtook at 8km, but still I tried to keep up and we ended only a few seconds after the 1 hr 10 mins pacers, finishing in around 1 hour 8mins plus ?

When I got my race pack from Kelvin this morning and look at my bib number and the first thing I thought of after seeing 1314, which in Chinese words is “一生一世”, it means forever. Maybe it’s a sign that I should run forever. And the finisher medal is really nice! ? Design is simple and I really like it a lot! ?

Its really fun at the race village, there were games stations, photo booth and even a live band with good music! Many people were all crazy with the cute panda plush toy given out at the games booth and July is the first player who’ve gotten all the 5 ice cream sticks into the cans and she wins 5 panda plus toys! Congratulations! I only managed to get only one, so kind of July to give me 1 of her pandas so 2 of my nephews can have it ?

So after the runs, we looked for Chee Beng and Justina for breakfast surprising Justina with a birthday cake ? It’s her birthday tomorrow and due to all of our schedule we can only manage to have all of us to meet up and celebrate in hawker centre ?

Joining a running group or a training run session of a run event is a great way to improve on your running, learn new things and at the same time make new friends. I recently had the chance to attend both lead up training run sessions organised by New Balance Singapore. These training run sessions were for participants of the New Balance Run On Singapore Event happening next Saturday, 20 August 2016 at the Gardens By The Bay (East). The distance for this year New Balance Run On Singapore Event will be 7km, but participants can opt to do an additional 1km to go the distance and would be rewarded with an exclusive NB Run On Achievement Badge! I will blog more about this event after the race.

There were two training runs and the organisers had come up with some really fun and creative ways to make these sessions more interesting!

TRAINING RUN 01

The first training run was held on the 17 July 2016 at the Singapore Sports Hub. This training run had 2 components, a fun workout run session and a super cool shoe hunt which would bring you around the Singapore Sports Hub.

The event started around 4pm at the New Balance Experience Store @ Kallang Wave Mall. Participants were given the chance to mingle around with each other and also shop around the store as there was a 40% discount off New Balance Performance Gear which we could utilize after the training session. One of the event highlights was that we got to meet 2x SEA Games Gold Medallist, Mok Ying Ren! It was really nice of him to be present even though he was recovering from dengue. There were two other 2015 Team Singapore athletes who were also New Balance Ambassadors that were present at the event; they were Colin Tung and Shah Feroz!

The three of them quickly introduced themselves and kick started the programs for that evening. The session begun with warm-up exercises which made up of some dynamic warm-up instead of normal warm-up static stretches. This was something which I found useful and I could do these warm-up moves before I go on my jogs. After warm-up, the actual training run started, we had to do as many rounds the 100 Plus Promenade in 30 minutes. The group was split up into two and were lead by the different group pacers. My group completed a total distance of 4.3km which is 4 rounds around the 100 Plus Promenade. It definitely felt good after that run. After all the participants had returned, we all did some cool down stretch before we went on to the next program. The trio led the cool down session and emphasized how important it was to stretch after a workout. As usual I couldn’t really do all the stretches as I’m not very flexible and I struggled. This means more conditioning work for me.

After that was done, we all headed back down to the New Balance Experience Store @ Kallang Wave Mall for some drinks and refreshments. I managed to grab photo and have a short chat with Mok Ying Ren about his 1 year stint in Boulder and how he felt being back in Singapore. It was interesting hearing about his overseas stint. Soon it was time for the next part of the program. This was the main highlight of the training session! It was the Shoe Hunt where 8 lucky participants would get to walk away with a pair of New Balance Vazee shoes! Sounds easy enough right? Not really when you’re already tired out from the training session and you have to race with all the other participants just to hunt for those hidden shoes around Sports Hub. The 8 different locations of the shoes were revealed and all of us were released from the store at the same time to go ‘hunt’ for these hidden shoes.

As soon we were given the go ahead to find the shoes, I raced off to the location that I had in mind to look for the hidden shoe. I was really nervous and I took some time to find it. It was hidden at a back of a signboard. I quickly took it and raced back to the store. I was lucky number four to have found the shoe. I was rewarded with a pair of New Balance Vazee Pace v2! After all the 8 pairs of shoes have been found, there was the prize giving session and the collection. On top of that all participants of the training run received goodie bag with some really cool New Balance stuff! That was the end of training session 01.

TRAINING RUN 02

The second training session was conducted after work on a Thursday evening. When I got to the New Balance Experience Store @ Suntec City Mall, there was a huge crowd there already. I saw some familiar faces on like fellow Instagrammers and bloggers.  The second training session main highlight was the Vazee Circuit and this circuit was to be completed in a group.  My group consisted of my brother, Joshua, Jennifer and Cheng Yee.

The program started promptly at 7pm. Two familiar faces were up front at the store welcoming everybody and they were none other than Colin Tung and Shah Feroz. They introduced the evening program and the rules of the Vazee Circuit. The Vazee Circuit was made up of a run and body weight circuit exercises! As Colin introduced the exercise for each station, Feroz demonstrated the moves. I was freaking out a bit as I’m not good in doing conditioning exercises and this was going to be a challenge.

After the introduction was given, we all headed out of the store and headed for the Padang. There we did the dynamic warm up exercise which I’ve learnt in Training Session 01. I could see that the others who were not there for the first event were listening intently.  We were then lead to do a short warm up run along the Singapore River to familiarize ourselves where the five stations of the Vazee Circuit was located.

Once everybody was back from the warm up run, they asked us to stand with our groups. The organisers gave us a final briefing on what we were supposed to do. The rules were simple, to win be the fastest group to complete all 5 stations and return back to the START point. Now that sounds simple enough, but it’s not all about speed it’s also about the luck of the draw. The card you draw will determine how many things from each station you have to complete.

You could sense that everybody was really eager to race and finally the go ahead was given and everyone dashed as fast as they could to their first station. Our team had to complete 30 push ups, 45 seconds of leg raises, 30 seconds of plank, 15 burpees and 5 seconds of squats and race back to the Starting point. We came in a respectable 7^th position and though we didn’t win anything, we all had a good workout and fun together! Clearly we were very tired as we never tried to clear the circuit so fast. We headed back to the store at Suntec City. Before the event ended, we took some final photos and purchased some new balance gears!

Overall I really had fun at these two events! Big thanks to the organisers on doing such a wonderful job! Super enjoyed these two lead up run sessions and thank you so much for that AWESOME pair of New Balance Vazee Pace v2! I am sooo looking forwards to the actual run event which is happening next week! See you all there! #RunOnSG. Till my next blog post!

Photo credits: New Balance Run On Singapore.

Let me continue the ‘adventure’ from when I completed Tri-Factor Series Run/Swim Challenge on 31st July, Sunday.  After I had completed that race, I walked back to the East Coast Car Park D1, intending to drive to the Sports Hub (Library) and collect the race pack for following week’s Performance Series III City Race.

After walking half the distance, I realized that I had forgotten to collect my stuff from the Transit Area.  When I reached the place, there were also a few other folks who had forgotten to collect their stuff and had not returned yet to collect their stuff.  Feeling a bit sheepish still, I retraced my steps back to Car Park D1.  It was probably around 2 km walk.  I took a few pictures and one of them were of fallen leaves.  So I instagrammed, and entitled it ‘Fallen’.  I didn’t think how ominous it turned out to be.   I proceeded to take what I thought was a short cut through the trees.  So far, surprisingly, and probably high on adrenaline I didn’t feel any pain in my calf or feet (last blog, Tri-Factor swim – I had pulled my calf muscles badly).

After Tri-Factor

1 of 4

I walked up a slight slope and then the next few moments were like a slow-motion sequence in a movie.  I saw my left shoe stepped forward, slided through the wet grass, forcing me to do a split with left foot forward (I felt silly like doing a ballerina split), down the slope and then (fastforward) I tried to break the fall, and quickly put my arms out, bending both my knees.  Immediately both knees hit the ground.  I saw an almost immediate swelling near the knee cap, and some bleeding from the abrasions.  Picked myself up.  I had pulled my calf muscles in a wrong way this time, and the pain didn’t leave me as I half limped to the car.  I washed the knees with the water from my water bottle.  I set my GPS and drove to the OCBC Arena Car Park.

And I made my way painfully to the Sports Hub Library.  Saw a familiar face amongst the volunteers and chatted briefly.  And luckily unlike the Pocari Sweat queue that I had joined about 3 weeks before, I didn’t have to queue at all this time.  A few minutes later, some folks started to drift in, but they were efficient in clearing the queue.

1 of 2

And so it was that I had this freak incident and had to rest and nursed my calf back to normal.  The abrasion cuts were superficial and the swelling went down the day after.  Tuesday, I tried to do a slow ‘recovery’ 4 km run at the park near my home. Wednesday, I decided to try out the track at CCK Stadium, as I understood this would be gentler on the legs, and covered 4.64 km.  Thursday, I went back for a 2.4 km run.  On Thursday, the pain had almost gone.  For that week, I also used a roller to massage the calf muscles just before I went to sleep each night.  The theme of this series was to transcend yourself.  I was getting back on the recovery track.

On Sunday morning, again I drove, down to Satay Club car park.  There, a few friendly men advised myself and another runner to drive down closer to Marina Golf Course.  As I got near the venue, I saw a turning into a makeshift car park next to a construction site.  A few runners were coming out of there, so I picked a spot and parked my car.  Then walked a short distance to the race venue. I was early for wave 2 and I saw some folks gathering at the start point.  But there was not much congestion at the baggage point nor the toilet cubicles.  Good planning by the organizers I thought, as I then made my way to the starting point.

I could hear the DJ ‘wahooing’ excitably as she saw the first wave runners coming in from a distance.  We clapped on cue as those at the back couldn’t really see the runners coming in yet.  There was a huge 45 minutes gap between the wave 1 and wave 2 start timing.  I thought this could be shortened but perhaps it was also because of the nature of the running route which resembled a U loop.  I would have loved to be in wave 1 but had been allocated wave 2.

As I ran past the big clock, I noticed it was past 46 minutes already.  I had been targeting to  hit sub 1 hour this year for 10 km race, and thought maybe I could make it this round since I thought I was feeling quite good despite the incidents earlier.  When I saw the slope up the Marina Barrage, I knew my chances were slim.  The last series, I had managed 1:07, improving over the first one.

I tried to maintain a steady pace.  In my mind, I was thinking, I may have to be prepared for the U turn, if this was going to be in the last 2 km of the route.  I shouldered on, and then near 4-5 km, there was another slight slope up, towards Marina Bay Sands, The Shoppes.

Luckily near the 8 km, there was no need to go up the Marina Barrage, but a slight slope at the link bridge.  But just before this, where you could see the waters on your left, I suddenly heard some strange squealing sounds.  I looked to the right and saw two photographers, one man and one woman who looked like tourists.  They were not the ones making the noise.  They were holding cameras but they weren’t shooting their cameras.  They looked like a bit stunned looking in one direction.  I was still running, trying to tell myself to go faster.  But my eyes followed the direction towards the ground back to my far right, a few metres back.

Lo and behold, the famous otter family was there, protesting the running legs that separated them from crossing to the side of the waters.  I wished I had my camera.  But I thought somebody would surely capture the photos.  And then I thought of my photographer friend, who had run 10 km races carrying a camera, whom I got to know from the previous series race.  In fact, I was looking out for him at the start of the wave 2.  But I couldn’t see him.  I only chatted with him through the private chats and on FB so we had not met in person yet.  Another friend whom I got to know as a result of technology and running.  If he was here, he would be taking beautiful pictures of them.   Alas, he wasn’t close by but he was taking beautiful pictures of the scenery and the running action behind as I later learnt.

The beautiful pictures you see immediately below are the results of his efforts and brilliance with the camera.  You can also find more on the Performance Series timeline (thank you, Hock Chuan ANG – fb.com/anghockchuan).

Photo Credit : Hock Chuan Ang

1 of 15

I had once again tapped on his kindness and expertise to share some of his photographs.  I believe great stuff should be shared (of course with his permission)!

And after running a few hundred metres, I was stopped in my run.  A runner had fallen or injured himself.  A few men were carrying him on an inclined stretcher and stopped us runners in our path as they crossed to the other side.  I tried to keep my rhythm but anyway, by the 8th km, I knew that my target has eluded me again, though I wasn’t wearing any watch.  I felt my pace was too slow.  Still, I tried to overtake the runner I saw in front as I reached the finishing point and then collected the Lucozade drinks, finisher-tee and medal.

Another in the performance series done, thanks once again to JustRunLah for providing the free slot, and an opportunity for me to transcend myself in the 10 km races.  And this is perhaps one of the most beautiful scenic run ever.  Also, logistics wise, I thought they were well organized – adequate hydration points, quick race pack collection, shuttle bus service arrangements, no visible jam at baggage points or toilet cubicles.  The medal also had the distance imprinted this time as well as the word SG51 years so it’s rather special this time.

1 of 4

My race nett time was 1:13:15, the slowest 10 km race I had ever done. (Photo Credit too to Running Shots – this time I was so slow that I did appear in the race photos.  Of course, it’s a joke, my fastest pace is that of an old man learning to run.) This was a stark reminder that recovery was not yet complete.   Still, I had been doing races every Sunday since June 26th except for one week when I had fever and DNS.  And perhaps the tri-factor run/swim and freak incident after had weakened me more than I expected.   I’ll be taking a short break from consecutive weekly races – no race next week.

Till the next race or next blog.  And I look forward to completing the Transcend Yourself series and achieve my PB.    In the meantime, I wish everyone a happy National Day weekend, run and live well.

It’s hard to resist any running race on the East Coast Park when it’s a 10 min walk from home.

As a precursor to her upcoming POSB competitive race, we registered Trinity into the 1km non-competitive category along with her buddy, Justin.

The running course was easy and familiar since we’ve travelled it many times over the last five years. The kids had a cycling pace setter to keep them on track and minimise the risk of getting lost.

Both the start and finish lines were next to each other setup on the Angsana Green. It was quite a nice setup. We were however, a little disappointed that the under 10 years old category was non-competitive, especially since the racing bibs had timing chips on them anyway.

Justin’s always been a light and fast runner but since he started track training his skills and speed have vastly improved. It was amply obvious during this race when he was on the tail of the cycling pacesetter gaining more and more distance between himself and the second runner. He finished in 4:40min.

1 of 3

Trini on the other hand was just simply having fun with her run. She’s a gymnast at heart but as she put it: “This race is cool because I am racing in my backyard.” She finished her 1km in 6:23min.

With regular training she would have fared better but it’s getting a little tricky trying to fit anything else new into her afterschool activities.

At least she has a baseline to work with now. Let’s see what POSB Kids Dash has in store for both Trini and Justin in September.

Cheers

“Slowly, slowly what’s the hurry,
I always take my time says Murray,
Slowly, slowly around this bend,
I always get there in the end”

This nursery rhyme, that I used to read to my little girl when she was a toddler, just rings too true each time I complete any kind of run or race.

I am by no means a fast runner when I consider my running buddies with their sub 6/sub 5 paces, but regardless of time, pace or distance I definitely always get there in the end.

This third Performance Series race held at Gardens by the Bay East was no different. A 10km route travelling past familiar iconic locations like the Marina Barrage, Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay and Collyer Quay.

After a shocking training/racing season the first half of 2016, the last couple of months have shown consistency, improvements and better fitness.

With that in mind, the only aim I had is no matter how slow I go, that I complete the event without walking at any point. I set off in Wave 2 with my partners in pain (John and Remek) at a steady pace and aimed to maintain it throughout. The other two with stronger legs took off and left me in the dust, to be seen again at the end holding up the wall.

Carrying my own water this time, I passed all the drinking stations. They looked very well organised and set up with a table each for water and Lucozade giving runners both options throughout the whole race.

Satisfied with my steady effort as each kilometer melted away and the music continued to blare in my ears, I figured I could pick up the pace at the 9th kilometer to make up some time I wasted when I chose to stop and take a couple of pics of all the fluoro tees ascending and descending the circular frame at the Marina Barrage. They were the only pics I took en route which is a first for me given how easily I get distracted by my surroundings.

Knowing the finish line was nearby I picked up the pace from 7+ to 6:30 and hoped to take it to the end. I didn’t anticipate not seeing that finish line for some time and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t sustain the pace. I just kept thinking “surely I’m getting closer, I’m on the final straight, I can see Benjamin Sheares bridge so where’s the end”, and as my legs faltered, I kept hoping to see the end and it was nowhere in sight. What I thought was straight was actually a subtly curved path, keeping that most important end out of sight, till finally there in the distance, like a pinprick light at the end of a tunnel, was the most important word “Finish”.

Knowing this was my best race performance since my first 10km Great Eastern race in 2014, I was pleased I had managed to improve on my last Performance Series race at Jurong Lake by three minutes.

1 of 7

The progress is slow. Since my torn ligament and fractured ankle in early 2015 (terrible mishap in an obstacle race), my running has become more about showing up and doing with small incremental changes along the way.

I know speed will never be my forte but what I do foresee is long distance endurance (meaning longer than 10km). A “steady as she goes” habit for longer and longer distances will likely be my new mantra. It should be an interesting journey in itself, as endurance running needs a different mentality to speed running.

For now though, I look forward to Performance Series #4 at Bedok Reservoir in October with John and Remek. I’ve enjoyed the series so far, traipsing around Singapore, experiencing new or rarely visited locations. It’s a terrific way to explore this gorgeous city state.

Cheers