Dear1 Dear2

Oh, Real Run was on 19 Oct, that’s almost 2 months ago. Can’t believe I forgot to write about it.

We had wanted to join the Real Run last year, but becos of some business trip, we couldn’t participate. Luckily for us, the timing for this year’s run is just right. We’ve never ran on trail or sand before so it’s going to be quite a different experience for us.

After collecting our race pack but before the actual day, we realized that we forgot to purchase the bus tickets from the organizers, and the run was going to be held in some ulu ulu Changi region. I called in to the organizers and they assure me that there will be extra buses at the morning pickup point and tickets will be sold there as well.

Fast forward to actual day morning, we were at Jurong East MRT station to purchase our bus tickets. To our delight, the bus pickup service was very well organized. There were 3 volunteers in-charge and they had with them alot of details such as signage, bus schedules, contact numbers, bus plate numbers, quota of passengers, etc. For ppl who were purchasing tickets, they had a waiting list where we can indicate our names and contact number and the IC will call us when there are available seats. Overall very well organised. I couldn’t understand why the annual Stanchart Marathon couldn’t provide this level of organization.

We arrived early and check in our bags. Everything was indoors and air-conditioned. Service counters were numerous and there was no queue at all. I suppose this was the advantage of having the race at such a ulu ulu place where space is not a constrain.

The race started with a mass warm up session by some gym trainers. No bad, quite fun, just like the great Singapore workout. Haha… The horn sounded and off we went. The 10km run started with the trail section. Basically, it meant running on dirt path with stones, gravels and pebbles, uneven ground and lots of dust. Yikes, it was more difficult and strenuous than we imagined. The dirt path doesn’t respond well to kicking unlike tarmac roads, hence using more energy to maintain the same kind of speed and posture. Also, the uneven floors made us spend more energy keeping our balance and also skipping left and right to avoid uneven landings. The small stones on the floor reduced the friction between the soles of our shoes and the ground, causing some slipping at the contacts and hence required us to dig deeper into the ground for more grip. Plainly, it was tiring.

Once on the road, everything was back to normal. But by now, the sun was up and we had to endure the heat. Somehow, in this ulu ulu part of Singapore where there were no visible buildings in sight, the sun was especially hot.  We made sure to stop at every drink station and hydrate ourselves.

Very soon, we reached the sandy beach. Running in the sand was no joke. We sank into the sand with every step and had to drag our feet up with every step. Our toes became very tired becos we had to use a lot of toe muscles to kick ourselves along the sandy route. However, we quickly discovered a cheat and exploited it fully. The part of the beach nearest to the water line where the waves constantly washes up tend to make the sand more compact. These wet sand areas were more solid and hence required less energy to run on. The drawback was that the occasional big wave will soak our shoes a bit. But that can be avoided by keeping an eye on the waves and escaping up beach when any potential large wave approaches. Overall, we find the sand run slightly easily than the trail run after applying our wet sand exploit. :D

After exiting the beach area, it’s back to the tarmac and towards the finish line. We tried to pick up the pace a little but the sun was super scorching. We continued at a steady pace and drank lots of water. With about 1km to go, we pick up the pace and had a great time overtaking the walkers and slow runners in front of us. I suppose every overtake gave an endorphin boost that helps us forget our tiredness and just keep on running. We crossed the finish line in roughly 1.5hrs, not a fantastic time, but we completed the Real Run together.

After the run, we collected our bags, no queues again. We collected our goodie bags, no queues too. The Real Run t-shirt is made of a very nice material too and its my favourite t-shirt now. Everything was indoors and air-conditioned. Again, all these thanks to the ulu ulu venue of this race. There was ample space to sit on the vast floor area. Ample bananas going around and ample Nature bars (iirc).

The return shuttle bus to Pasir Ris MRT was a little slow. There were lots of buses queueing up to pick up the runners but there was only 5 parking lots available as pick up point and this made the passenger queue run rather long. This was a little glitch that I think the organizers can work to improve on the next time.

Overall, a very nice run, nice atmosphere, nice organization. The venue was a bit ulu, but resulted in many other benefits in return, such as queue-less baggage and goodie bag, spacious indoors and air-con. Maybe the run could have started a bit earlier to avoid the hot morning sun. It’ll be even better if only they gave out running singlets too. Looking forward to next year’s run.

-Dear1

Yesh!!! Dear1 and Dear2 completed their third and final running event of 2008. We only had time to participate in 3 events this year, namely, Sundown Marathon, Real Run, and Stanchart Half Marathon. We missed the other events such as the Mizuno series, Passion Run, and a few other due to our wedding preparations and also some overseas trips.

Let’s talk about our half marathon.

First, we ran slowly then we did in 2006. Huhuhu… And that was mainly becos we didn’t train properly for this run. Prior to the run, we had only gone for 2 short trainings of 5km each about 1 week before the run. On the eve of the run, we were still worried that we will be unable to complete the 21km. But with perseverance and the assurance that we’ve completed longer runs before, we managed to complete the run in decent form and without injuries.

We started the run at our usual pace. Both of us were in terrible in condition. We were putting on some weight due to lack of exercise after our wedding. It wasn’t long before we realized that the route was changed and that we won’t be running into the Marina South area. Also the route markers wasn’t available to half marathoners, so we were kept guessing of our actual distance covered.

At around the 5km mark or so, we made our first stop and walked for some distance. For the rest of the run, we adopted a run and walk strategy, usually running for about 1.5-2km and walking for about 0.5-1km. At the U-turn point, we decided to eat our Powergel. Yucks! It was chocolate and strawberry flavoured, ya, but the feeling of the slimy and gluey substance in the mouth was just plain disgusting, or maybe just that we haven’t got used to it yet.

Feeling suddenly recharged (and I really do mean *suddenly*), we surged ahead and overtook many walkers. :P And we overtook many slow runners too. :D We continue building our momentum into our run/walk strategy and soon found ourselves at the F1 pitstop area, roughly 2km from the end. From there, it was a (slow) sprint to the finish line. Somewhere along 1.5km to go, we started merging with the 10km women category and ended up in this huge human congestion. We overtook many 10km runners and finished the race in relief and triumph!

Now, let’s cover some of the lousier points of this race.

First, there’s no one in charge at the early morning bus pick up point. We arrived at Bt Gombak stadium carpark punctually at 5am and found no one there. There were some other runners there waiting for the bus and didn’t know where to go. About 5 mins later, a bus arrived to pick us up. The driver claimed to be the 4.30am bus driver who had lost his way and only arrived at the stadium at 5.10am. Wat the!? Next, he didn’t wait for any late comers. He simply stop the bus, about 10 of us boarded, and drove off immediately. Bad bad bus pick up co-ordinations by the organizers.

Next, the bus driver didn’t know where to drop us off. So he made us all alight somewhere near Golden Mile Tower, not near our starting point at all, claiming that another bus will pick up us. Not true. While we waited, several other buses with runners on board sped pass us towards City Hall area. Just then, a bus arrive, a Runspiration bus. Everyone was worried, so we boarded the bus hoping that it will bring us to our starting line. Nope, it was headed towards East Coast instead, becos it was the Runspiration bus, not the runner bus. After some communication with the bus IC on board, we managed to get the bus to drive us to the starting point. The time was 6.15am.

We quickly rushed to the baggage counter, only to realize that there was no way we can quickly deposit our bag. Not becos of the queue. In fact, there was no queue. But it was becos the floor was muddy, much worse than the Real Run. We had to cautiously inch forward in the mud, snaking through the empty queue lines and finally deposit our bags.

The race started without us and we were with the rear pack, and we have not even hydrate, toilet, and warm up. With some quick stretching, we quickly joined the crowd and started our race.

Once the race started, we realized there was no proper signage for half marathoners. The distance markers were only for full marathon. To compound the matter, the half marathon route broke off from the full at around the 1-1.5km mark and rejoined shortly after. We estimated the extra route covered to be around 1.5-2km so we added that distance to the full marathon distance markers to find out how far we have ran. To complicate matters more, the full marathon route broke off again about half way through and suddenly we have totally no gauge to how far we had ran. The first distance marker for half marathon came at the U-turn point, and that was 13km (iirc). I don’t think it is difficult to put up proper distance markers, and I don’t understand why the organizers did not do it.

Overall, I was rather disappointed at the organization of this race given that this annual event was already into its 7th year. Perhaps becos of the financial crisis, less money was available for the race?

With this race, Dear1 and Dear2 realized that they are out of shape and really need to start exercising again to stay fit and healthy.

Let’s run, my dear.

-Dear1

Jeans sizes increasing.

Feel hungry more often.

Already cannot wear sleeveless tops.

Growing out of new clothes – what the!?

So many tell tales signs, but why did Dear2 not notice about these signs that tell me that I am getting fatter? 

Must run, but keeps raining leh.  That’s why people have running tracks at home.  But expensive, and we dun have the space for it…..

A cheaper alternative – hula hoop!  And that cost only $4.95 from the neighbourhood toy shop.  Heehee…..

Hmm…. but Dear2 has not played a hula hoop ever before. The constantly rotation of the butt seems easy, but is it really all that is necessary to turn the hoop and make sure it stays swirling around your waist?  I seriously doubt that it’s this easy.

True enuff, first attempt on the hula hoop proves to be veryyyyyyy tiring.  Now I can appreciate why fren Vivi says that she got more tired from the constant squating and standing to retrieve the hoop, rather den the actual swirling.  Dun anyone dare laugh at Vivi!!

Cut the long story short, let Dear2 try to share with all on some pointers in picking up hula loop.  I can proudly say that this was picked up barely from the second attempt alone, so it’s really not too difficult afterall, u just have to use your brains a bit.

1) Start by holding the hoop in a horizontal position (obviously, around your waist) with both hands.  If u can get the hoop to start rotating on a correct note, the battle is half won.

2) Turn the hoop slightly to the left, and use your left hand to give it a push in the clockwise direction.  Effectively, the right hand is really to hold the hoop in the horizontal position, so that the first swing can maintain it’s horizontal plane.  And as u push, the hoop is actually touching against and rotating round the back of your waist.

3) For beginners, to minimise fatigue from doing the squats (afterall, I really want to hula hoop and not do squats…), try with just turning the hoop just 1 round and catching it back with your hands.  This is not easy, mind u.  And once u’ve managed to do 1 round, let’s go for 2 rounds.

4) Ok, here comes the brain part.  U need to try and feel what works best for u.  The above 3 points were really derived from trial and error, from the feel of what feel weird, what works and how to improvise on it.  What I’m trying to say is that, it’s not about simply vigorously swinging your butt round and round and round round the hoop; u need to try it, feel it, and determine if that should be the way. If it doesn’t feel correct, pls move on to experimenting the next technique.

5) Ya, so based on pt (4), start to swirl the hoop around!!

6) The next thing to do will be to maintain the hoop at the waist level.  It’s common knowledge that gravity works to pull all things down, so the hoop should naturally go down as well (obviously correct…).  How to prop it up?  This will be the next tricky question to address.  The only thing u have on your waist, is your hips. So, use your hips to prop the hoop.  And your stomach and butt pls (hey, this is hula hoop, of course u need to rotate your hips, so, prop your stomach and butt and hips out further everytime the hoop feels like dropping). 

7) Did i forget about centrifugal force?  Ya, Dear2 din forget about it, but hey, it’s only my second attempt at hula hooping, give me more time to figure how to optimise this (for the benefit of some, centrigufal force means the force that throws things out when u have a rotating situation).

It’s fun, it’s cheap, and it’s supposed to help me recover my waist.  Way to go.

Happy hooping!!!

- Dear2