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

So after recovering from the viral fever and missing out on the previous weekend’s (24th July) race (refer to my previous blog), I went on the next weekend’s Tri-Factor Series, RunSwim category, a new category created this year.  It consisted of a 6 km run, followed by 500 m swim in the sea and another 6 km run.  I signed up for this early this year, as I intended to get ready  for my ‘initiation’ into a triathlon race in 2017/18.  After all, I’m already 53 and starting to run at late 51, it didn’t seem like a good idea to rush into a triathlon race, so I thought I would start with longer distance aquathlons this year.

But looking back, I had been in a hurry somewhat.  After only 4 months of regular running,  I went for my first half marathon race, then another half marathon 2 months after that, and then 3 months later my first full marathon.  Since then, I had gone on to do fairly regular races at my own pace, and since I was a beginner, the fastest I did in those categories last year became my PB.  After completing 24 races last year, this would be my 17th competitive race for this year.  Would have been 18th if not for running a fever over a duration of 4-5 days.  42 races in 19 months.

So that weekend 24th, it was with a fever that I went to collect my race pack.  The swimming cap was red color this time vs the blue that I got from Blueseventy’s.  The pack was ‘minimalist’ in my opinion.  Anyway, I was not feeling too good so after collection, I tried to rest and will myself back to recovery.    The doctor’s advice had been that if my fever didn’t go away by Monday, I would have to go back and test for dengue infection.  I was quite sure it wasn’t dengue but that I had caught the virus from the hospital somehow the week earlier.

1 of 2

I was actually mulling quite a bit over my DNS on top of my extended feverish suffering. In fact that week, I was also joking with my friend that I had lost something, perhaps my ‘mojo’.  So I had to find it back soon.  I won’t tell you how my friend responded.  But it was also good for me that I heed the doctor’s advice first time that I had better not run that weekend.  I did find my mojo back in the most surprising manner, in the deep waters, okay, not so deep.  On that later…

Anyway, luckily, by Monday, my fever subsided, and there was just the cough and a bit of running nose.  I was anxious to get ready so I went for a short 3.6 km run and then the next day, feeling better, I did another 7.1 km run, all at slower pace.  Then I rested and got ready for race day.  I also swam a short distance on one of the days in the small pool downstairs.

Race Day: I was as ready as I could get, given my ‘condition’ at that time.  I drove to the venue early in the morning and parked at car park D1 which was free.  This was a mistake as I realized later that I had to walk close to 2 km to the venue.  I treated it as a somewhat longer than required warm-up.  Still I was early and so on reaching, I  queued up to get tattooed with the bib number.  I then tied the ankle tag, placed my bag and laid out my swim cap, goggles, fresh pair of socks, towel in front of my bag, in the space allocated in the transition area.  I stayed there for a while and then walked around.  I came back to the transition area to check out again.  I was getting ready to go, when the volunteer suddenly told me that I should put my bag with the baggage section.  I thought of protesting because I saw that others had their bags with them.  But I assumed she was going to tell the others as well, so I deposited my bag.  Then I walked to the starting area.  There, I realized I had left my energy gel in my bag.  Well, I’ll have to do without the gel since I didn’t have adequate time to retrieve.

1 of 3

When the race was flagged off, I tried to pace at a steady comfortable race.  In my mind I had to reserve energy for the swim.  I did more swimming in my undergraduate days but it was non-competitive and I swam the breast stroke, learning the stroke by observation.  Out of the three activities, I enjoyed swimming the most in the past.  These days, I prefer running.  Cycling was second but I realized cycling requires much more than just cycling with the legs casually.   It’s probably the most expensive of the 3 disciplines and I’ll leave that to the last.  So for now, run and swim…

So I tried to pace myself in the first 6 km run.  But probably because I had just recovered, I was panting by the time I completed the first 3 km.  Later I did realize from the timing split that I was running quite fast for my condition.  Anyway, after I turned into the transition area, I just pulled my shoes off, knowing I would have to fumble with the double knots later but figured I could use some time to ‘rest’ from the swimming as well.  (My shoe laces liked to free themselves so I had tied another one knot extra tight !)

I ran across the sand and went into the water.  Wow, the moment I hit the water, I just loved the warmth and the near weightlessness – it was a nice switch from the pounding of feet earlier.  I started to swim.  I kept a fairly steady pace, though I was using breast stroke most of the times.  I was enjoying the swim.  The only unpleasantness might have been the mixture of seawater salty taste and the strong smell of petrol pollutants further out to the sea.   The distance behind the swimmer in front was about constant though he was doing the free style.  Stroke after stroke, I was feeling fairly comfortable and thought I could maintain my pace and maybe catch up.

1 of 4

This was my second 500 metres in the sea (the first time in the sea was in the Nila Aquathlon).  Thoughts about that first swim came floating back, and I felt surprisingly strong.  Then I had to make the left turn.  I had kept quite a distance from the border rope and noticed front swimmer getting into the border by mistake.  Some folks on the boat nearby were shouting for him to get out.

It was an inverted triangle to the shore, first 150 metres, then 200 metres horizontally and 150 metres back.  I switched to free style now and then, just to get the feel and rest different muscles of my arms and legs.  The 200 metres were a bit tougher because the sun was shining right into my eyes when I tried to look at where I was going.  But it was still good, as I really enjoyed the near weightlessness of the water.  I tried to get nearer to the rope to reduce the distance I had to swim.

Now  the last 150 metres.  I was still feeling comfortable though I felt some strain when I had switched to the free style.  Then it happened.  I felt a very sharp tight pull on my left calf muscles suddenly, cramping me up.  I was still about 100 metres away.  This was not good.  I tried to calm down.   My left leg couldn’t move.  I digged harder with my arms and tried to get my right leg to kick harder.  I struggled for a few minutes, swimming painfully and slowly.  There were some shouts but I presumed they were not about me.  Oh man, did I have to give up ?  Surely, no.  I would not do a DNF.  DNS was already a bad experience.  I will never give up !  I calmed myself, told myself to take deep breaths.  I was going to finish this.  And I think that moment, I got my ‘mojo’ back.  Sometimes in your deepest struggle, you would find victory.

I lost precious minutes but somehow the left leg then started to function again, though painfully slow.  Kicked, breathed, swam.  My legs touched sand.    I stood up, walked up the shore and moved as fast as I could to the transition area, remembering to take off my goggles and cap.  I wiped my feet, put on my fresh pair of socks and then struggled with the double knots of my left shoe for more than necessary, the darned knots refused to come out easily, I had pulled too tightly.  The time splits later showed I took 2 minutes at this transition !

1 of 2

I then put on my running singlet and ran towards the exit and onto the last 6 km route.  Luckily, somehow I managed to run still, felt a dull pain in the calf, but managed and completed the last 6 km which was in the opposite direction from the first route, towards Changi Airport.  It was quite strange and miraculous that I still maintained a reasonable pace though this was slower than the first 6 km.  This time too, I did stop to take the Lucozade offered.  No gel but I felt almost alright still.  Towards the end stretch, the kids’ race route overlapped with ours.  I tried to run beside a fast running, very young kid.  A man, presumably her father, was running and encouraging her.  Not sure if she was getting tired or shy, but she slowed down a bit.  I looked to the front and tried to overtake the runner in front, picking up pace a bit.

At the finishing point we collected the Lucozade and finisher medal.  A banana or two would have been nice, I thought.

The medal looked simple in design.  It just said ‘The Tri-Factor Run’, Finisher, 31.07.16 on one side.  On the obverse side it said swim/bike/run series.  Wished that it had been more specific for the category and with a swimmer/runner design somehow.  Still, this would probably be one of my more valued challenge medals at this point.

I had targeted for 1:54 finish, but I managed to do it in 1:48:43.6.  Not fast by any standard, I’m sure.  But this was good enough for me.  (The results were released on the same day, so that was a plus plus point.)

1 of 2

In life, knowing when is enough in that moment, is also critical.  And what’s important is to carry on another day, push your limits and keep on challenging yourself.  Don’t give up, pick yourself up after a fall.  The day you give up, then probably that’s the end too.  Nothing is impossible, but you have to pay the right price.

Final personal thoughts for that weekend : My first 12 km run plus 500 m swimming, longest aquathlon I did.  So I have completed some of my bigger challenges this year, two half marathons within two Sundays, Spartan Super and this aquathlon.  One is still out of my reach, sub-60 10 km race… but I’ll nail it, just haven’t paid my dues yet.  Performance Series III 10 km was on the week after, 7th August.  Till then… happy running (and swimming) !

(Important Note : Credits are due for the beautiful action pictures to Tri-Factor Series and extracted from their FB Albums. I used some of the swimming action scenes from other categories too, as there were a number of events going on at the same time. Featured photo, thanks to Lucozade Singapore.)

3 down 2 more to go! Sounds like I’m counting down to something. No it’s not Pokemon… but it’s the 3rd race out of the 5 races from The Performance Series (TPS). Race 3 was a city race held in conjunction with our Nation’s 51st Birthday celebrations. What better way to celebrate Singapore’s birthday than with a run in the city showcasing our beautiful skyline which attracted close to 5500 runners.

REPC

Race 3 was slightly different from the 1st and 2nd instalments. Not only was it a city race (different location, past 2 races were within the heartlands), but the Race Entry Pack Collection (REPC) location was different. The race pack collection was held over the weekend of 30 and 31 July 2016 at the Singapore Sports Hub Library. I welcomed the change in race pack collection location as I was growing bored of heading over to City Square Mall. I’ve been there like 3 consecutive times to collect my race packs for different events. The advantages of having the REPC at the Singapore Sports Hub Library was because it was a convenient and accessible location. It was also big enough to accommodate if there were lots of people collecting at the same time.

Together with my friend, Serene, we went on a Saturday evening to collect the race entry pack. There was no queue at all and it was not crowded at the collection area and we loved the feeling of not having to leave the place immediately just to get away from the crowd. We took our time to visit the booths that were being setup and took photos around the collection area. What I noticed during collection was that the organiser had pasted a note on the collection table informing the participants that there would be additional items in the race pack. These items were sponsored GetActive! Singapore in conjunction with our Nation’s 51st Birthday which included a Shoe-bag and Snack pack.

After collecting my race entry pack, I headed over to get the shuttle bus service ticket. With my past experience from Race 2, I have learnt that purchasing the shuttle bus tickets is important. Most of the race event sites are really quite inaccessible and having this shuttle bus service really helps a lot. I have to commend the organisers for providing shuttle bus services. It really makes travelling to the race site easier and more economical! I hope for Race 4 the organisers would have shuttle bus services planned because it’s going to be at Bedok Reservoir and getting there early in the morning would be extremely difficult and expensive if there isn’t any shuttle bus service.

RACE DAY

Having taken the shuttle bus service which departs at Yishun MRT Station at 05:45hrs, I arrived about 45 minutes early which gave me ample time to queue for the toilets and take photos around the event site. It was a breezy but humid morning and it was still dark at the Gardens By the Bay (GBTB) East , you could still see the city lights from the Singapore Skyline. We made our way into the START pen as soon as it opened for the participants of WAVE 2.

We did our warm up exercises and and took more photos inside the START pen. As we were waiting for flag-off, the first runner from WAVE 1 completed the race by crossing the FINISH line together with the other race runner ups. There was upbeat music playing in the background and the emcee was cheering on the finishers and warming up 2nd wave. She was doing a good job, however, I don’t want to sound mean but I think she was a little too excited and she kept going woo-hoo even when there’s no runners coming in which was kinda of repetitive and annoying at times, but it’s all good… I zoned out after a while… The race was promptly flagged off at 07:15hrs promptly!

RACE ROUTE

[Above Map from The Performance Series Website]

Having done the past 2 races of the Performance Series, I must say that today’s route had the most slopes and it was really challenging. The up slopes that we had to overcome were:

• Just shortly after your 1.5km mark, there’s a slight slope up the link bridge from (GBTB) East, once you cross this link bridge,
• At the 2km mark, comes the most challenging slope which going up the Marina Barrage
• At the 4km mark, a slight slope where you are turning left and heading towards Marina Bay Sands, The Shoppes
• And lastly, at the 8km mark when you are heading back via the link bridge back to (GBTB) East

Thankfully we didn’t need to scale the Marina Barrage slope again when returning! On my way back at the 7.5km mark (just slightly after the Cloud Forest Dome), I happened to catch a glimpse of the Marina Bay Otters! The whole family was out and about and boy you could hear them!! They were soooo cute and definitely a nice welcome sight along the route! It was definitely one of the highlights of the race for me! Too bad I didn’t take any pictures of them but I could feel myself smiling and having that extra motivation to push and finish the race.

There were no bottle necks along the route and like all TPS races, the race organisers did a fantastic job in having water points strategically placed and well stocked with both well chilled isotonic drinks and water!

POST RACE

I completed the race in 1hr 13mins (unofficial timing). No personal bests but I think this was my best timing so far among all the TPS races. I collect my medal, Finisher Tee and bottle of Lucazade. Always nice to have a cold bottle of Lucazade to re-hydrate yourself after a race! The Finisher Tee for Race 3 is definitely one of my favourites! Dark Navy blue with Yellow wordings! The medal on the hand, was not a little bit of a let down. It would have been nicer if the organisers have opted for a shinier gold coating and maybe some colour to highlight the letters SG which was printed on it. After all this was a race that was held in conjunction withe National Day. But still good job on the organisers on taking in feedback from the participants and printing the distances on the medals.

The post race event space is one of the most spacious. It was easy to find a spot to cool down and meetup with friends as it didn’t have that crowded feeling. As usual, we would take some post race welfies before going off! As this race was at (GBTB) East, the organisers shuttle bus services running from 7am to 10.30am between (GBTB) East and Stadium MRT Station. Within this time frame, runners of waves #1 and #2 who finished their race can use the free buses to be transported back to Stadium MRT station.

Overall, it was an enjoyable run event and kudos to the race organisers on doing a fantastic job as always! I’m definitely looking forward to Race 4 which is at Bedok Reservoir! Hope you enjoyed reading this comprehensive review and Happy National Day everyone! Enjoy the holiday 🙂