What’s up with super heroes these days? One moment it is Captain America versus Iron man. The next you have Batman versus Superman. Perhaps the movies are a reflection of the complex world we live in. You may think you are doing the right thing but someone else might think otherwise. Who is truly right in the end? I do not know. What I do know is that since my wife and I were on team Performance, it is up to the kids on team Batman/Superman to accomplish the 5km at Sentosa Island.

Since my helper needed to take care of the entire group, everyone went for team Batman’s route. At the flag off, they were greeted by guys in real super heroes outfit.

Getting a 5 year old to walk 5km by herself is not an easy feat. Her favourite words about halfway through? “Carry 抱抱?”, usually repeated over and over again until she is being carried. This time round however, she managed to accomplish the 5km all by herself. Did the cape or singlet play a part? Maybe.

Somewhere around the 3km mark, the kids hit the beach. Instead of proceeding forward, they went ahead and played in the sand for a while.

They must have seriously forgotten the time here. The kids only realised this when they saw the volunteers picking up the cones from the rear. One of them even told my son, if you don’t make it by the stipulated timing, you won’t even have a time for your race. With that, the kids started to pick up pace. Despite their attempts, team kids were dead last. Of course being last in a race is nothing to be proud of. But then again, how many of us have done that before. It is like playing one of those video games and suddenly you managed to unlock “Being dead last in a race.”

Since they arrived at the carnival area at such a late time, there was no way they could play the games. The queues were insane. With that team kids joined team performance at Vivocity for some Brunch.

The other reason why we joined this race? The medals of course. We were extremely pleased with the quality of the medals we got from the Little Pony Run earlier part of the year. It seems that medals from character races always have the highest quality. Maybe it is due to the licensing requirements? Or perhaps it is organised by Pink Apple? Well, whatever the reason, the medals are big, heavy and impressive. I mean you could even use them as Batarangs. With the exception of a suit, belt, grappling hook, bat cave and bat mobile, I am this close to being Batman. Ok. I get what most of you guys are thinking now. Team Batman for the win!

This blog post and other adventures can also be found at
http://iamspartan6318.blogspot.sg/

Transcend Yourself – the theme for the Performance Series continues for myself too just the past Sunday.  So after the Series 1, 10 Km (Oasis/Island) run on 1st May, this is the second one held at Jurong Lake.  I joined the 10 Km race again, thanks to JustRunLah,  again with a free slot.

So after the recent marathon and 5 km race (see previous blogs), I spent most of the 3 weeks impatiently trying to recover from Plantar Fasciitis and not aggravate it further.  It seemed more tough than trying to run every day.  So it was mostly rest, stretches on the feet, legs, push-ups, a swim or two.  Anyway, net result was that I felt I was putting on weight.  With slightly more than 1 week to go, I started to run shorter distance of 1 to 3.5 km.  There was still some manageable pain.  With the thought of ‘Pain is inevitable, Suffering is Optional’, I was still looking forward to the 10 km race.

I collected the race pack the week before and everything went though smoothly.  Race pack had the usual goodies and the bright Tee.   For those who preferred no hassle in transport, they could book the shuttle bus service too.

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I had decided to drive.  I reached the venue at 6.05 am and was supposed to be in wave 1, 6.30 am so that should be good.  However the 3 public car parks I drove to were already full, and I ended up driving around to look for lots in more distant car parks.  I managed to find one finally and quickly made my way to the venue, knowing I was already very late.

There was a very nice formation of blue and dark blue striations (with some pink) in the early morning sky and quite a number of people were taking photos.  I couldn’t help stopping short in my hasty steps to admire what appeared to be a triangular, almost like a pyramid emerging against the skyline of flats, although I had not brought my smartphone camera and was already late.  I then made my way across a grass patch, somewhat muddy.  I didn’t think too much of the mud probably because of the worse condition I had experienced in recent Spartan race but I did discover lots of after-event feedback/complaints on that.  Emotions are usually relative.  Actually it was not too bad, depending on where you placed your feet on the grass patch as you made your way across.

I already heard the blare of the starting wave much earlier on.  When I got to the starting point, I noticed still a group of runners stalling and making their way rather slowly across the time mat. I joined the wave only after I saw some space clearing in the distance.

It was a pleasant run, and it was basically a loop round, so the scenery was repeated but it didn’t feel boring.  After all the attraction would be closed for redevelopment of Jurong Lake Gardens (East and West) and this was probably the last opportunity to have a race here this year.

I have read that the NParks and the authorities had been doing hydrological studies of Jurong Lake Gardens West to study how swamps will naturally form and how water will naturally flow so it will become a more beautiful place.  There is a very interesting collection of birds here and NParks will be creating a heron island in Jurong Lake Gardens West which will definitely be a welcoming sight in the years to come.  I am sure the crowd will be even bigger then.

I finished with gun time of about 1:11. I only felt a slight pain on left foot at 6 km but it disappeared when I reached the 7 km mark (though a bit disappointed to say, the pain came back in the late evening, and still around at time of writing).    I collected my medal and finisher T-shirt and a bottle of Lucozade and headed back home for my breakfast.

Ph Balancer Water and Lucozade were provided at, at least two hydration points along the route which I felt was adequate.  I didn’t stop for them as I was doing fine.  At certain narrow paths, it was a bit squeezy.  Probably there were a lot of ‘new’ beginners, many runners just stopped and walked on right side of the route.  But it got a bit confusing when the first wave runners started to come in on their second loop, and there were shouts to keep to the right for the mass.  Still, I saw the podiums-to-be runners overtaking on the right.  It got a bit confusing because it was more conventional to keep to the left for slower runners.  And I guess this was compounded by a looped route.  In all, I thought it was still good given the physical constraints of the park itself.  I could still see smiles all around when I completed.

Happy with my results after what I felt was a ‘long’ hiatus from races, I’ll be back every week next as I had signed on for several races consecutive Sundays for next month.  Till then.  Happy running.

(NB: All the beautiful race day photos credits go to Hock Chuan Ang who had shared his album on the website and the plainer ones are mine before and after the race.)

Today was The Performance Series: Race 2 at Jurong Lake Gardens! Fantastic effort to all the participants who took part. This is the 2nd out of 5 events. I signed up for the 10km category and opted to start in Wave 2. The organisers had split the 10km categories into 3 different waves which were to be flagged off about an hour apart in order to prevent congestion along the route.

The flag-off timings were as follows:
6.30am: 10km Wave 1
7.15am: 10km Wave 2
8.00am: 10km Wave 3

TRANSPORT – SHUTTLE SERVICE

I was super excited but at the same time worried about the race today as this was my first time working out at the Jurong Lake Gardens. I was worried because I was afraid that I would have difficulty in getting to the race site. The organisers had published a post on their FB page before the race pack collection date informing participants that the train services at 13 North-South East-West Line (NSEWL) stations to start an hour later on Sundays from June to December 2016.

It didn’t dawn on me till I went to read up more on it. I immediately panicked because I didn’t buy the shuttle bus tickets at the REPC and I was afraid that I would be late and miss the flag-off. I quickly emailed the organisers and thankfully, they were prompt in replying, notifying me that they would be selling the shuttle bus tickets on site on a first-come-first-serve basis. I made the effort to wake up early, so that I could go to the pick up area to make sure that I secured a ticket and thankfully I managed to get on the 05:45hrs shuttle to the race site.

AWESOME MORNING SKIES

The journey to the race site took about 35 mins and I reached around 06:30hrs where I had ample time just to chill and look for my friends. When I found my group of friends, we would always take some pre-race selfies and photos around the area. This morning, we were treated to a beautiful canvas of colour and patterns. The glow from the morning sun and the cirrocumulus clouds: small rounded puffs that usually appear in long rows high in the sky was just picture perfect. Lots of the other participants were also getting pictures of this beautiful scene.

FANTASTIC MUSIC

We made our way across the muddy field to the START pen. Thankfully that didn’t put a damper our moods. You can tell that everyone was happy and ready for the race! Loved the cheery music that was playing at the race site which just made us wanna burst into song and dance at the same time.  Once we entered the START pen, we just did our stretches, bobbed to the music and took more wefies!!

RACE ROUTE

We were flagged off at about 10 mins late but I guess the organisers were just being cautious to ensure that were no bottlenecks. As soon as the horn went off, I started off with an easy pace. I told myself that today would be a run that I want to remember, especially that this is my first time working out here.

The route was 2 rounds around the Jurong Lake Gardens. This place was definitely scenic with lots of water bodies, landscaping, pagodas and nice Chinese bridges etc. It was definitely a nice area to workout. What I liked about this route was also the availability of shade along the route which gave relief from the sun when it’s sooo sunny! The water points were also spread out evenly which is a big help especially when it’s sooo hot and humid and hydration is really important. The route was also generally flat but with gentle slopes which weren’t too difficult. It was definitely an enjoyable run.

RACE FINISH

I completed the race with an unofficial timing of 1 hr 13 mins. I went to collect my Finisher entitlements from the collection point. To my dismay, I was greeted with super muddy grounds but a big kudos to the organisers for placing a crew personal there to inform runners that the ground was super muddy and to be careful. It was a good thing that they had also prepared wooden floor boards for the participants to walk on to collect their stuff. I would definitely hate for my nice pair of shoes to be soiled. Finisher entitlements for 10km included a Finisher tee from Compressport, a bottle of Lucozade and a Finisher medal. After collecting, I quickly made my way to the MRT station as I wanted to go meetup with my group of friends. We didn’t want to stay at the event site as the field was still muddy.

Overall Race 2 was a really enjoyable one! I had a good time and this event would definitely be one that I remember not only because it was my first race here but because of beautiful scenery and architecture of Jurong Lake Gardens. Hope you all enjoyed this review. Till my next race review, stay strong and push on 🙂

Who’s side are you on? Batman’s team or Superman’s team? “I am on nobody’s side because nobody is on my side”. Quote from my favourite movie Lord of the Rings ? Hoping that there will be a LOTR run! ?

When I registered for this run I can’t decide to be on Batman’s team or Superman’s team because both for batman’s and superman’s running singlet look nice! For last year’s DC Justice League Run for no special reason I chose Batman’s team so I decided that I will register under Batman’s team too and buy additional Superman’s singlet ?

Last week during the REPC I realised that the women’s running singlet size is too small! I took M and it is very tight fitting. Then I have doubt, is it too small or maybe is just that I’m fat? ? So I was told that there is no L or XL to change to so I tell myself it’s a ‘sign’ to tell me to train and work out for a better body ? I don’t want to say lose weight anymore because losing weight and gaining muscles or being tone is not the same. Now, to me being fit is the new skinny ??

A few days before the run, the race route is finalised and there is 2 different routes to choose from. It is nice that we can run whichever route we want. Both routes are not easy. The Batman route have to run on sand and Superman route have the torturous slopes ? But I rather run the torturous slopes actually so I took the Superman route. There was a point where the route merge back for both batman and superman routes runners and it is quite confusing for some of the runners. As I ran the superman route, the crew saw that I am in batman singlet guide me to run ahead when I need to u-turn back already. Luckily I am alert ?

The run is flag off on time. The actual distance is only about 4.5km so I did not even noticed got any water point or not. Is of course have but I just didn’t notice because after the 1km point into the Superman’s route, I’m just focusing on the “killer slopes”. Everytime when the running event is at Sentosa, it will include these series of up slopes I think which last more than a kilometre. I walked again ? But fortunately got improvement that I run at some parts, I walked lesser than what I did for the Music Run which I think I walked the entire up slopes ? So I focus my attention on a pair of Father and Son running ahead of me. It’s too motivating and sweet. The Son is about 9 or 10 years old. If he can run up the slopes, so can I! So I followed them for quite a while to keep myself from walking.

I’m glad that after the slopes I manage to run all the way till the finish line ?

And the medal is super chio! Medal is actually one of the reasons many runners go for a run, for their pretty medal to add in their collection of blings ? I’ve already saw the medal of BVS run from Thailand months back when they posted in Instagram and it is similar except Thailand’s medal got colour on their medal one hor! Both their medal and ours are chio in their own ways ? They have running tees and we are running singlets. Their tees is nice and everyone can have abs but I prefer ours as ours are singlets though a little plain compared to theirs.

There is many game booths around but I didn’t go around to explore but I’ve read on Facebook that there is a booth to get our photos printed, and it is very nice! I like it very much! ? But can only print one piece with every Instagram account, very stingy right? But then I have doubt again. Maybe is not they stingy or is I too “gian peng”? Learning to reflect more ?

After the run, Sabrina and I decided to walked to Malaysia Food Street to have our brunch, although we are pretty sure that the Monorail is quite empty by the time we left the race village, we still want to enjoy Sentosa a little bit more!

I remembered when I didn’t start to run yet, walking a few hundred metres could ‘kill’ me but now I love to walk! ? And we ate too much that Sabrina says that we ate as though we had ran a full marathon ?

Even though there is the performance series running today at Jurong but I think I have no regrets in choosing to come for this run instead because I enjoyed myself and I am happy ?

The first half of the year for 2016 is going to end soon. For 2016 till now I have gotten 10 medals from the running events which I think is quite a lot as at first I have limited myself to run no more than 15 race a year but seems impossible for a runaholic ? Imagine the amount of money spent on going to races ? Some very hard core runners must have run at least 20 to 30 race at least ? I can’t decide which is the chioest medal between the one I’ve gotten for One Piece Run or Batman Vs Superman run, I like them both so much!

There is no ugliest medal or lousy medal because no matter what got medal is very much better than no medal at all as there is runs that dosen’t give medal at all ?