I’m going to start off today’s race review by asking a question, “What do you do when the weather takes a turn for the worst?”. This was exactly the question I had on my mind when I saw a tweet from @NEA yesterday night around 8pm notifying us that there would be

	“Thundery showers in many areas in the pre-dawn hours and early morning”.  I just decided to shake off the weather warning and go to bed so that I could get up early to catch the shuttle service to the race event site.
I woke up at 04:45hrs on race day ensuring that I had enough time to prep and head out to catch the shuttle bus at 05:45hrs at the Yishun MRT station. At this point, the North was still pretty much fair and there was no signs of rain or any down pour. We boarded the shuttle bus and it was a really smooth 20 minutes ride to the race event site.

When we arrived at the race event site, the weather was still holding up and the thought of rain didn’t cross my mind till I was queuing up to use the toilet. It was still very dark but far across the opposite end of the reservoir, you can see the sky turning red and starting to look threatening. We heard small booms of thunder which sounded far away and we were still very optimistic that it won’t rain. Slowly my phone started getting busy with messages from friends messaging me both on Whatsapp and Facebook telling me about the weather. Some parts of Singapore had apparently started raining heavily.

In a matter of minutes, the weather at Bedok Reservoir had just changed, there were strong winds blowing and it started to feel cold. We decided to take shelter near the toilet. There were many people crowding there. There was a slight drizzle but that quickly past and we thought it was going to be okay. I decided to accompany my friend, Cheng Yee to the bag deposit counter to deposit her bag. Just as we reached the bag deposit counter, it started to pour, there were some participants already taking shelter at the bag deposit counter so we decided to follow and stay dry. The rain came down heavily and you could see participants frantically trying to find for shelter.

There was an announcement being made saying that Wave 1 runners were being diverted and the race for that wave was cancelled. They advised participants to collect their medals and finisher tees. What a way to start off their Sunday being drenched in the rain. As for Wave 2 runners, the start time would be delayed pending further weather updates.

We were stuck at the bag deposit area for about 20 minutes before the rain stopped. One of the crew members had came and informed us that Wave 2 would go ahead but with a delayed flag-off timing. We walked out of the bag deposit area and the weather seemed to be holding up. We went to find our friends for some photo taking and chit chat while waiting for announcement of the flag-off for Wave 2. 07:30hrs was the tentative flag-off timing for Wave 2 but it was further delayed to 08:00hrs.

The start pen opened about 07:45hrs and the participants made their way there. The mood before race start was definitely not dampen by the wet weather! I could see that all the participants eager and excited to start! The final decision was to start Wave 2 and Wave 3 together and we were flagged off at exactly 08:00hrs. Though the flag-off was at 08:00hrs, it wasn’t warm. The rain had made it very cooling and it was definitely going to be a temperature to workout to. We were worried that there would be lots of bottle necks but it was pretty smooth running all the way from start to the end.

As this was my first time running around Bedok Reservoir, my first impressions of the place was that it really similar to Jurong Lake. Beautiful sceneries, combination of paved and gravel roads along the route. One main difference was the change in elevation, there were some challenging slopes around Bedok Reservoir and it was part of the 10km route. The most challenging one had to be around the 8km to 9km marks. I just decided that I would power up the hill and take a short breather at the top. It was not easy but being at the top of the hill, I could see a beautiful view of the lake in the middle of the reservoir. Once I caught my breathe, I quickly picked up my pace and headed for the finish line.

As I crossed, the finish line, I was glad that the race did not get cancelled. I have to give it to the organisers! They made the right calls on a difficult situation and handled the bad weather conditions well. Everything was well planned from shuttle services at different locations to water points along the race routes, I really could not fault anything the organisers did. Kudos on a job well done! I’m definitely looking forward to the last and final race of the the series! At this point in time, the details of Race 5 are still not out. Can’t wait to complete that medal collection of mine! Till my next race review, here are some photos taken after the race. Have a great week everyone!

Less walking, Less complaints, More smiles and appreciation.

Australia has widely been recognised as a laid-back country. That is certainly not the case for Blackmores Sydney Running Festival. On the day, Sydney celebrated healthy living by gathering around its famous locations to run, cheer and inspire. With a flatter and faster route, many came hoping to secure for a ticket to Boston Marathon 2017. With a more beautiful route, many came to experience the city through running (runner’s way). For me, I took a step back to absorb in the atmosphere given to me by the running community. And I’m glad I did that.

3 Reminders, 3 Attitudes for a Happy Race

1. Keep Running

Do not stop. Throughout the 21km race, I did not see any participants walking. From beginners to seasoned runners, Australia running community never stops, they continued to run, they continued to race. Coupled with a scenic running route through some of world iconic landmarks such as Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour and the Opera House, together we explored Sydney the runner’s way. This unspoken determination certainly motivates any participants of the race to constantly enjoy the journey ahead no matter how hard it maybe. Just as in life, once you commit yourself to a goal, never give yourself a reason to stop.

Keep Pushing Forward, You Will Amaze Yourself

2. Keep Supporting

From babies in prams to supporters holding well-written motivating cardboards, Blackmores Sydney Running Festival has them all. With such an enthusiastic support from the locals who lined up in the streets of Sydney, you do not need the MP3. Fun, vocal and loud supporters take your mind away from any pains and inspire your every step. They make the race for runners easy and enjoyable. And they make the race for participants memorable.

From supporting your family to supporting your running buddies to supporting your running clubs and supporting your running community. Sometimes, it better to give than to take.

Don’t Give To Get. Give To Inspire Others

3. Keep Having Fun

And enjoy the journey. Sometimes we may be too obsessed with improvement. That may be short lasting. However, take a step back and reveal. Anything that will attract you for a longer period of time is the fun and enjoyment you gathered out of it.

As for the event, runners dressed in their favourite costumes were common. Smiles and praise of appreciation were heard given to the crews at the drink stations and organising committees on the route and at the finishing line.

Life Is Too Short To Be Anything But Run Happy

If you are heading to Blackmores Sydney Running Festival 2017 or hoping into Sydney for a holiday, check out Runners’ Must Do Itinerary – Sydney Beautiful Coastal Run.

Lastly, well done to the organising committee of Blackmores Sydney Running Festival. I truly enjoyed myself. Thank you New South Wales Tourism Board for bringing me back to a place I called home for 4 years. Fond memories deepened. I will be back!

For all my overseas runcation every year, this year’s race was set to be in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Hari Sukan Negara (HSN21km). Hari Sukan Negara, also known as “National Sports Day”, is the first of its kind and this year being the inaugural running event, HSN21km was organized in conjunction with Hari Sukan Negara. Why I have chosen to run a 10km in HSN21km is the location of the starting point. Its close proximity to the city and the hotels within walking distance to the start line are abundant, no short of good food and great shopping at Petaling Street (Chinatown).

This mandatory yearly runcation affair was made possible with the usage of my “coins piggy bank” as this year’s budget was relatively smaller than other years so I thought I’d compromise by cutting down on the travelling expenses (took a coach to KL). More on the detailing of costs for the trip later.

My race pack was arranged with organizers to be collected on race day morning via email. It consisted of a running T-shirt and a bib.

Start line of the race was at Dataran Merdeka which was 3 minutes walking distance from the hotel I stayed in. A nice and open area selected as its not only big enough to receive the turnout but also the roads were wide enough to marshal in the waves of runners. Although I have to say, the participants weren’t as many as I thought it would be.

We were treated to a dance performance at the start point to perk us up. Music was loud and had everyone pumping. And off we go! Running for the first km or so was normal and something really surprised me about the way runners were behaving on this run. Runners all kept themselves running within a single lane on the expressway despite the entire expressway being closed on certain stretches of the race route. Take note: these were “live” expressways with cars speeding at 110km/h or faster and that is one hell of a bunch of disciplined runners. Unlike Singapore, when the roads are closed, runners occupy every single lane on the road. Please remember – we do not own the roads and must always run with caution. Organizers cannot ensure our safety at all time and it’s up to us to look after ourselves. Running safely is a habit and not a privilege.

On and off the expressways, we also ran into private estates where hills were a killer. Fortunately, there were more down hills rather than up hills. I made up for the slow time spent on up hills by speeding down the hills.

Overall, the race was a well organized one with some historical sights to be embraced. Race medal is heavy and of good quality metal.

Entire trip costs (SGD$240) breakdown for 3D2N stay:

1. Coach fare (to & fro) directly to hotel I stayed in – SGD$60
2. Hotel stay for 2 nights – SGD$124
3. Race registration (10km) – SGD$26
4. Food & Beverages – SGD$30

As I began to write this I realized that it could be lengthy given my natural inclination.  I decided to break it into two parts so here is part one first – as objective a review as I could from a layman’s point of view and someone who doesn’t cycle that much (or at all actually) till recently.  Part II – I will write it later when I get some free time and when folks are still interested in the musing of a late starter in running and now cycling.

The OCBC Cycle mass event was into its second edition, organized by Pich Event Management and of course with OCBC as its Title Sponsor.   OCBC also supported 4 charities through this initiative.  It was a 2-day event.  There was  a competitive OCBC Cycle Speedway club championship held on first day.   The Mighty Savers Kids and Family Rides were also held on Saturday.   Second day event comprised of a 42 km Sportive Ride and a 23 km Straits Times ride which are non-competitive held last Sunday.  I signed up for the 42 km Sportive Ride – my second time too.

The launch at Orchard Gateway on April 14th was very well organized in my opinion and made more exciting by the attractive prizes for early birds (first 300 would receive special gifts) in the queue.  I went earlier to queue and was 59th in the queue !  For the first time, to commemorate today’s launch event, four teams of riders formed by Friends of OCBC Cycle and invited guests cycled for 24 hours from 12.00pm on 15 April to 12.00pm on 16 April to achieve a record.  Based on announcements, there were 13 pre-event workshops and activities for participants to sign up for, starting with a Singapore Sports Institute Learn to Cook Healthily workshop on 14th May, to the Volvo Route Familiarization Trip in September.

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Collection of the event pack was done from Friday to Saturday just before the actual event at Sports Hub OCBC Arena in conjunction with the Expo @ OCBC Cycle.  So you could browse and purchase cycling related equipment and accessories at discounted prices.    I was able to collect my event pack within 10 minutes.  I also enjoyed browsing through the Expo exhibits.  Kudos to the organizers.

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The actual event was held on Sunday morning 2nd October.  The race started at 5.15 am as planned.  I was in wave A so I arrived at about 4 am.  There was a crowd but everyone was orderly, patiently riding or walking with their bikes slowly to the starting point. I saw folks also streaming into the area for later waves so the majority of folks were complying with the instructions to report at least one hour earlier.

The event was flagged off in smaller waves within wave A and I was in wave 3 of A but the intervals were rather short so everyone was all pumped up and excited to get riding off.  Everyone was also reminded it was non-competitive and to enjoy the ride.

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The route did have a few sharp turns and bends but volunteers were on hand to shout out to cyclists to pre-warn them.  There were also two rather steep down slopes (ECP bridge downhill) which I found myself holding onto the drop bars (for dear life !?), with my whole body tensed up, especially in my arms.  I didn’t even have to move my legs and my bike was overtaking the cyclists in front down the slope each time.  I was doing the reverse of sitting back in my seat and trying to slow down the bike with as big a surface area as I could present ! (It didn’t seem to work.)  There was a couple of tough climbs, notably the Sheares Bridge climb.  An earlier part of the route also took us through a tunnel.  It felt warm being in the tunnel relative to the fresh cool air out in the open but it was only a short stretch.  I loved the fresh morning air and the wind whizzing by on the roads.

In this year’s ride, I wasn’t trying to ride fast.  I was trying to ride safely.  In fact, I did spot two participants, both relatively young, a male and a female who were riding without helmets on separate occasions both ahead of me.  I wasn’t sure how they managed to get through the volunteers in the first place.

There were adequate hydration points and medical posts though I didn’t count them.  I stopped at one hydration point towards the end and was given a bottle of 100 plus which I downed in quick gulps as the morning was turning hot.  I also took some photos at the designated selfie stops.

The ride ended within the Sports Hub in cool air-con comfort which was welcoming for finishing riders.   After collecting the finisher medal, a bottle of water and 100-plus, we were told to move on to vacate from the Sports Hub.  I remembered this was what happened last year too.  But I think this round, they were not as insistent or perhaps it was still early.  But generally, everyone was pretty good-natured, and moved on, after they snapped some photos of themselves, or their bikes in the stadium.  The atmosphere was friendly and everyone wore a smile of accomplishment in completing his/her ride.  I was happy that I completed taking off about 25 minutes from last year’s record (will write about the details in part two).

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Outside the hub, there was also a ‘stall’ that had a nice range of fruits from apples, pears to bananas that you could help yourself to.  A nice friendly touch.

So overall, I enjoyed this year’s event more than last year’s and I would give a thumbs up for this event.   While it was a sportive ride, and not a race, many cyclists were riding as fast as they could somehow.  It will be advantageous to be able to ride fairly well if you want to be in the earlier waves.  Otherwise you probably would find it easier to go in later waves, provided there is no congestion.  Whatever it is, you need to remember to ride it for the fun and not for the speed in this mass event.  The sharp bends and steep slopes would require some good handling of the bikes if you want to enjoy the ride fully.  As expected, there were some falls and incidents but I only saw some visiting the medical stations, not the incidents.

I did discover later from a number of FB posts that some cyclists who completed after certain timing were either given the wrong finisher medals or went without any as the medals ran out.  I understand this was very disappointing for most as they had hoped to take photos too of their triumph with the medals.

BUT I also saw how the organizers immediately responded and apologized and promised to look into the matter.  They also promised to deliver the medals to the individuals.  By the time of my writing,  I also had received a message from the organizers to register if I have not received the medal so that they could deliver the medals.  Apparently from the accounts some of the sportive medals may have mistakenly handed out to the kids participating on the first day.   The amount of efforts to recover from this is tremendous as they would need to reach out to every cyclists – there were about 6400 participants this round.

So there was some lapse in quality control over the management of the medals, but I would acknowledge their efforts to recover from this tough (and costly) mistake.  Hopefully everyone gets his/her medals soon and folks would still treasure the experience of riding on 42 km stretches of the scenic road without Singapore’s traffic that morning.  Enjoyed the ride a lot more this round.  Always great to add some variety to life as to running too.   So ride and run safely, happily till the next race!

I write this with the intention of making it a holistic, objective review of the Asics City Relay 2016. As with my other reviews, look out for the font in italics where I highlight certain aspects of a race I deem important. Do note that I was participating as the first relay runner of my race category (Marathon), therefore my experience (which you can read about in greater detail here) best encompasses the experience of a participant running the first relay leg.

Race Category
This was one of the rarer occasions where I won a free race slot from a giveaway contest on Asics City Relay’s Facebook page:) Together with a three other runners (who also won free slots), we formed a team to participate in the Marathon category. This meant each of us would run approximately 10.5km. This event also offered participants the chance to run the Half-Marathon category as a team – which would mean participants would be running about 5.25km instead.

Pre-Race Matters
Race Entry Pack Collection was held from 14-15 September 2016, from 10am-9pm at Velocity. No doubt a convenient location (for me, at least), yet it was even more convenient that my teammate was able to collect the race packs on behalf of all of us. A simple race pack – a drawstring bag, the event tee and a Soyjoy bar (sorry if I missed anything out – but if so it probably meant that it didn’t grab much attention). Nonetheless, not complaining considering this was a free slot!

The Race Precinct
Many local races are held around the F1 pit building or Gardens by the Bay, however this one was to take place around the Singapore Sports Hub. Some benefits included accessibility, ample dining options nearby and of course the uncommon opportunity (for me at least) to enter the National Stadium. Security was present at the entrance of the Stadium for brief checks of runners’ belongings. Though no baggage deposit was available, this was acceptable because not everyone in a team was running at the same time – hence teammates could help to take care of each other’s belongings. One notable task that runners of the first relay leg had to do was to collect a slap-band that would serve as the “baton” for the relay. There were some fantastic displays projected at the top of the stadium as well!

The Race
Flag off was scheduled and did take place at 6.00pm sharp. Really sharp, as evident from a Seiko digital display which I couldn’t help but constantly gaze towards. This was great, as I’ve heard of flag-offs in other races which can be awfully abrupt. The race route would take participants around the Sports Hub, venturing as far as Geylang road (which isn’t at all far – this means lots of looping in the vicinity of the Sports Hub to clock adequate distance). Those running the Marathon category would run two loops. The transition within the stadium between the first and second loop was less clearly spelt out. I found out during the race itself, taking me beneath the grandstand and around the stadium (in an eerie blue section) before heading off for the second loop. Notable challenges of the race included the numerous bends which were effective in breaking momentum. Thankfully, the course profile was relatively flat and I didn’t encounter any bottlenecks as the number of participants around course at a time was limited to the number of participating teams.

Hydration was made available at two occasions per loop of the race. Chilled water and Pocari Sweat was served in plastic cups – which isn’t the easiest to drink from (opposed to pinchable paper cups) when running. I cannot recall if distance markers were present – if they were they certainly weren’t particularly noticeable. I couldn’t ascertain the course distance as GPS data was affected while running through the stadium, though I do estimate that it was less than the stated 10.5km per runner. The best part of the course in my opinion? The entry into the National Stadium! For one, you’re running towards a vast amount of participants (it’s hard to slow down when everyone’s watching). Furthermore, the air-conditioned atmosphere is simply refreshing.

Post-Race
I was handed a banana and a bottle of Pocari Sweat upon completion of my relay leg. Finisher medals were only collected by the final relay runner. Live results were available – an aspect that many other local running events should take heed from! It was a pleasant evening running with my teammates, most of whom I had never met before! That’s the joy of running, serving as a platform not just for performance but also for friendship 🙂

I sure hope this was an enjoyable read. As always, you’re welcome to read more about my personal thoughts on the race here!