It’s sometimes just nice when you found out about about a race, registration was closed just the day before ? Luckily, registration reopened ? When Eleanor and I went directly to Woodlands Community Club to register,the run was just the next day ? Though even when registration wasn’t close yet, there’s no online registration available as I know of ? Not much information is available online as well other than the poster below, didn’t know if there would be any baggage deposit or what’s the route but I expect it to be well organised as it involves the community club and it would be fun as there’s stage performance, a carnival and National Step Challenge Roadshow that may draw a huge crowd.

It’s a run I wanted to run because the start point was at Republic Polytechnic. A memorable place which I used to dread to go in the past. I took my diploma there and I almost couldn’t graduate. During my first-year school term break, I took up a part-time job at KBox as a receptionist to pass time and loved the job damn much till I converted full time. Many times after work my ex-colleagues and I would stay back to sing and drink. Sibeh enjoying till can’t resist working there! ? Work starts at 6pm and ends at 2am. By the time I’m home, I only have a few hours of sleep before school at 8am. Many times I was absent from school that’s why it took me 5 awful long years than the normal 3 years to get my diploma. I don’t know how is it now, but attendance during my time plays a great deal to grades. My GPA almost got me a “Thank you for your participation” towards the end of the 5 years. Luckily, I graduated with a GPA of 2.02 ? This is already my 2nd “Luckily” I’ve used, I’m lucky. Blessed!

The run was organised by Republic Polytechnic, collaborating with People’s Association and Woodlands Community Club. Registration fee was only $6 which cost even less than a cup of Starbucks, upon paying for the registration fee, we collected the event tee-shirt(blue/green/orange colour to choose from) and a matching colour running headband with the tee-shirt colour you chose with a ticket which shows the running route, according to it, it’s just a 4.5km route and not 5km.

No matter what, it’s cheap cheap, I like ? It’s a fun run, and I find that usually fun run distance would be shorter than the actual distance stated.

On event day 17 November 2018, Eleanor and I reached Republic Polytechnic just a while before 4.30pm. As the event bib stated the event time is from 4.30pm to 8pm, we expected flag off for the run will be at 4.30pm but it’s at 5pm. No where states the flag off time as well ? We went to the toilet to pass time and saw counters to collect the step tracker with no queue! So shiok lah, I remembered last year I queued about an hour for it ? It’s a new step tracker with heart rate monitor, returned participants and new participants(Singaporean and PR) of the National Step Challenge can collect the new step tracker for free ?

It’s a colourful event in a sea of green, blue and orange. Quite a big turnout, with many families participating together and that’s quite sweet. While waiting for flag off, instructors from Active SG which I feel did a rather awkward warm up ? It’s really awkward and I guess many participants don’t know what are they “stretching” or doing as well ? At 5pm, we were flag off by the Grassroots Advisor of Woodlands GROs. Weather was awesome, not sunny like I thought it would be.

It’s a new route to me as I don’t usually run in this area. It was well organised and we ran on the tarmac roads, one lane of the road was cordoned off for the run. There were volunteers and traffic police around directing traffic and we were pretty safe as the entire(other than exits and bus stops) 4.6km showed on my Garmin we’re protected by water/sand barriers. Though there’s many lorries and air was bad at as it’s at the construction site.

It’s a big loop back to the end point and there’s one hydration point at about 2.6km into the run which I didn’t stop for water. At a last turn, I heard the volunteer said I was the second female runner and I chased though its a fun run with no prize ? Finally I overtook her at the last hundred metre of the run just feeling a sense of accomplishment that treasure knife haven’t old ?

After the run we collected the finished race pack inclusive of medal(though quality not very good but at least there’s medal and it’s just $6 we get so many other goodies as well?), bottle of water and 100 plus, and collected muffin, yogurt and a sandwich(which I ate on the spot). We left soon though there’s stage performance and carnival as Eleanor needs to go One North Run REPC and me to Santa Run REPC.

I would want to participate in the run again next year if there is! I think it’s the cheapest running event ever(other than free runs) and all the things I’ve gotten altogether seems worth more than $6 already ?

One week after TPS, 21 Aug,  I was back at The Meadow, Gardens By the Bay.  Coincidentally, this seemed like a rehearsal for me.  The Saturday before I was at Gardens by the Bay for YOLO and then Sunday for TPS at East Coast, both 10 km races.  This time the half marathon route of HomeTeamNS Real Run will bring me from Gardens by the Bay (Meadow) through East Coast and then back.

I have a free slot from JustRunLah! (Thank You!) for this half marathon race.  This complimentary slot has not affected my evaluation and if anything, I took every race seriously, paid or unpaid.  My philosophy is simple – given my age and my amateurish status as a runner, I only want to improve and if in the process, I could share and motivate one more person to take up running or run better, I’m inspired myself.

Back to the race: the race pack collection again saw me completing within 5 minutes, no queue.  I believe this is the new trend – 3 races in a row that I just walked in and collected the race pack right away and not seeing any others at the queue.  Or this is month of October, Halloween and folks don’t come out in crowds ?

Jokes aside, I thought I would share what I did before this half marathon after a few months’ of inactivity.  Looking back at my Garmin, I did a total of 38.2 and 28.86 km respectively in August and September, doing up to max of 10 km (13 km once) but usually between 3.5 to 4.3 km.  By October, I had stepped up to just under 100 km before the half marathon without a real intensive plan.  As I didn’t want to aggravate my back injury, I just went on short runs usually between 3.5 to 4.3 km.  I did squeeze in a 13 km distance though I’ve remembered wrongly as 12 km mentioned in the previous blog.

So as I started to go into the week of race, I was back to just doing short runs.  Perhaps less is more.  One thing though different since March of this year, had been that I was hitting the target of walking at least 13500 steps each day.  This was in conjunction with a paid research programme and I was one of the guinea pigs.  If I am able to keep up a week of meeting the target of 13500 steps per day then I would be paid $14 each week.  But it is drastically reduced should I miss by a day, in other words it has to be consecutive days without breaks – a break would reset the count.  In the process, I find that walking is a good way to keep the body active.  As this had become a habit, I took it as allowance for just being able to move.  Not too bad ! (?)  I was quite surprised recently when I saw all the other participants who turned up for the follow-up survey recently, were young working men!  Do they really need the incentives to exercise?

Anyway, after Sunday’s TPS, I ran on Tuesday – 1 km repeated twice, Wednesday – 4.4 km, Thursday 2.1 km, then 3 km. So rest days were Monday and Friday, Saturday.  When race day – Sunday morning came, 45 minutes before 5.30 am I was at The Meadow start line once again.  This time, there wasn’t any rain.  It was humid and the air was still.  As I waited, some folks tried to make their way towards the front of the start line.  These are probably the faster runners and I recognized one of them as a fellow blogger.  I stood aside to let them pass.  I recognized faces more from either reading the blogs posted or had seen them in previous races.  After a while you tend to know who is who (by face, maybe not by name) in races.  They didn’t know me which was good.

I am common Joe, there to run against myself.  I was hoping to stick to an average pace of 7.5 min/km making it just 2:38 which was my usual finishing time before injury.  Break 2:40 was my mission, my focus for this race, possibly the last half marathon this year (number 13th half marathon).

On flagoff, I started the Garmin as I got past the start line.  I felt stiff and the windless humid weather didn’t help.  After about 1 km, I glanced at my watch and thought I saw close to 8 min pace.  I thought this was not too good.  I fastened my pace but at the same time, I felt heavy.  I tried to pace by feel after that.  I skipped the hydration stops the first 10 km.  It felt more windy only when we got to East Coast.  Still, luckily it was early morning and there was no sun.

I kept reminding myself to keep a certain momentum regardless of what the watch was telling me.   Other than the initial stiffness in the back, I felt fine after the first few km of warm up.  Then towards the end, I could feel a drain on my energy level.  I had taken a packet of energy gel at the beginning and then near the 10 km hydration point.  After 10 km,  I allowed myself a quick cup of Pocari Sweat at each hydration point till the end.

I felt myself slowing down with just 3 km to go.  Then I kept up the pace with as much energy as I could muster for the last 2 km.  There was no bottleneck and probably also because I was in wave 1 there was no unnecessary obstruction of any kind.  Got myself shot by both Runcapture and Running Shots (Sotong) at the race.  Missed my running friend/photographer Terence as I was too ‘spent’ at that point to call out in advance and wanted to get to my target set from start.

Was happy to complete with average pace of 7:30 and better.   It was quite a stretch of a few hundred metres to the medal collection for this race.  Still, I thought it worked out fine as runners took time to cool down and this helped to distribute the crowd of runners coming in at the more ‘popular’ time.

In the end the official net time showed a PB for me post-injury, it was probably the second best time I have for a half marathon – 2:34:56.  This was a good time to beat for the next half marathon target should I be up to it.

Mission accomplished for this race.  The race was well organized and reasonably efficient in logistics.  The medal was one of the better-designed ones this year (other runners’ comments besides mine).  Hydration was adequate and volunteers were superb as usual.

The next run would usually be classified as a fun run.  It is the Lunghi Run but it was held this year in memory of Ali Akbar, the founder who had passed away due to cancer recently.  I have no plans at this point to write about it, as I thought I would just go for a quiet run for this man whom I got to know better only just last year, because of the Lunghi Run itself.  We shall see, in the meantime, run safe and run happy.

Photo Credits to Running Shots and Runcapture, thank you for being always there.

(Parting Notes: just wondering if I should also Break 6 this year or next – more in next blog perhaps…)

After completing the YOLO run the morning before, I woke up again early the next day for The Performance Series (TPS) Race 4.  I had signed up for this race with a generous discount from JustRunLah! as a past blogger.  But this has not affected my review in any way.  TPS started since 2016 and this is the third series and finale race for the year.  TPS is also done in Malaysia.  The theme is around promoting healthy lifestyle through the appreciation of iconic landmarks in Singapore and Malaysia within the local and foreign/expatriate community.

This series was first of its kind to encourage individuals of all levels, from non-active to leisure to competitive, to have a schedule of races to work towards and progress along with the series.  Hence Transcending Yourself !

Garmin has incorporated its name to the series this year as the main sponsor.  The race pack collection also took less than 5 minutes (same as YOLO) and I was a bit surprised too at seeing nobody queuing that weekend afternoon.  I was wondering if the lustre has worn off or just that there were too many races these days.

I was again early at the venue, East Coast this time.  And it was the good cooling weather with rain coming down till the last minute.  Still, there was a good crowd – and I saw some runners who had participated in YOLO Run the day before too.   The race this time was postponed by 15 minutes.  At 7.45 am, the race was flagged off punctually as announced.

Nice cool weather and a simple loop back route for the 10 km distance.  I felt good and ran as per planned.  No muddy shoes this time despite the downpour earlier.  To be fair, the East Coast Park surface is more similar to the hard unyielding surface I found myself pounding at the Pangsua Network Connector most mornings.

I’ve participated in TPS since its inaugural session and liked the theme of improving yourself, transforming yourself through these races, through running.  Folks who had read my accounts knew that I had started with running only early 2015 more seriously, after age 51 then.  Since then, I’ve done biathlons (run and swim), spartan races, swim for hope challenges, vertical marathons and even cycling challenges.  Running became a preoccupation and maybe obsession even as I went on to an ultra 50 km and the Relay For Life event (overnight running, jogging, walking in the stadium) last 1 year.  Yes, even as I was nursing my fractured lumbar (spine) back to health, which I incurred during one of the virtual cycling challenges.

Reflecting back, it was probably foolhardy to still run with an unstable spine and this might explain why the back stiffness and tailbone pain has repeatedly visited me till today.  Pain became my teacher as I struggled through the distances in the past 1.5 years or more after sustaining the injury.  My body adapted, whether it is deeper puffing to get rid of the pain, or an imperfect gait.  I recently found out that my left leg was longer than my right leg.  So it wasn’t just a bigger left foot which was one size bigger.

In the past couple of years too, my black toe nails and plantar fasciitis had plagued me constantly but luckily in the past few months, I’ve gotten back to almost normal.  That may explain why I’m able to keep a relatively faster pace vs before – still below the average runner.  One easier change I did was to reduce my footwear choice to just two brands these days – first letter starting with A and N.  The shoes helped too because I’ve now tried to be nicer to myself by changing the shoes when they wore out.  I used to patch the bottom left heel with rubber that was shed by other runners on the trail.  While it worked to some extent, I seemed to have much less issues these days if I just stuck to the worn out shoes but rotate them regularly.  The patched surface might have caused some misguided adaptation of the foot as I ran.

1 of 5

After the run, we had a relatively trouble free collection of the finisher medal, finisher Tee and drinks.  East Coast area would probably be one of the better race grounds for its terrain and ‘convenience’ for running – free from traffic.  It was nice too to run close to the sea and take in the morning sun and wind.  I had probably the best if not one of the better timings for my 10 km run in recent times.  I didn’t take the hydration but saw a few hydration points so it was probably more than adequate for most runners.

Enjoyed myself and happy with the results.  So on to the HomeTeam NS Real Run half marathon one week away from this race.  This would be my first half marathon after a fairly long break.  I had been making good progress despite the stiff back last few weeks but have not attempted any longer distance than 12 km leading up to it.   Would be interesting to see how I do for myself.

Meantime run safe and run happy.

(Author’s Note: I started writing this about the same time as YOLO run but got delayed by works of my own – hence the reference to YOLO run that took place one day before this race.  The nice photos on the race are with credits to JustRunLah! photographer too – thank you.)

Registration fee was just a cheap cheap $10 and best of all, the registration fees goes into the welfare communities in Jalan Besar GRC and Potong Pasir GRC. Thanks to the sponsors, event pack collected before the event day includes event tee, umbrella, draw string bag,
National Geographic magazine and a wall hanger that you can hook whatever you think you want to hook you can hook ?

It’s my 5th running event of the month. Last week, after Real Run I was already exhausted and I asked Willis could we give this a miss instead? But Willis had only participated in a few runs this year due to busy work schedule and 3 runs he registered isn’t happening. He didn’t heard anything about Run Free, Halloween by the Bay was cancelled due to low registration rate and Gold Coast Marathon for us didn’t happen because of blah blah blah.

So, on event morning, I took about 5 minutes before Grab arrives to cut away the sleeves and length of the event tee after trying it on and feel it’s gonna be hot run since flag off gonna be at 8am. The tee length was also too long or either way, I’m also fine to say that I’m short instead of blaming the tee ? I’m glad I chopped off the sleeves as its indeed a HOT HOT morning! 但本宫针线活不精，得空时必需找绣娘把衣服缝制好，不要糟蹋了衣服 ?

We arrived minutes before 7.30am at event venue and was quite sian as queue for registration to get the coconut and the wrist tag (wrist tag for identification purpose to collect finisher entitlements such as medal and isotonic drinks after the run) was super long, but the volunteers did a great job as more of them come forward and expedite on the registration process and within minutes, the long queue was gone.

While waiting for the flag off, I’m pretty entertained by the emcee, he’s quite funny and he’s giving safety advice and also advising runners not to carry coconuts in the plastic bags and run as its not nice for photos ? At about 7.50am, after the Grassroots advisor of the GRC gives a short welcome speech, warm up was K-pop dance routine. The dance instructor and his assistant were so smiley and full or energy in a morning which I wish I could stay in bed but it sure was a fun work out as I could see everyone was enjoying. Just me and Willis stood there like a log but we really enjoyed just by eye power ?

I thought the coconut will only be given after the completion of the run because it’s like so irritating to carry it and run right? So, Willis and I instead or running, we do a pak tor 4km hold hand stroll, we finished with only a mother and her daughter behind us ? Though it’s hot and glaringly sunny but honestly I really enjoyed the stroll and pak tor-ing with Willis ❤

It’s not a big event with I think maybe about 400 participants at a glance. There’s 2 different distance categories of 2km and 4km. Both were different route and for the 4km categories, we thought that there’s many volunteers along the route and not exaggerating, we estimated 1 volunteer every 30 metres(after 2km it’s a loop back) ?

Though it’s at a inconvenient location at Lavender as I stay in Yishun but I love these type of runs and don’t mind to travel for the run as it’s not expensive, it’s run for a good cause, it’s fun themes of coconuts this year and last year it’s balloon theme. And it’s really well organised and most of all I enjoyed it. Wondering what’s next year theme might be?