Dear1 Dear2

Dear1 and Dear2 participated in the Mizuno Mount Faber Run last weekend. The participant seems to be much poorer as compared to the other usual runs, becos 1) The race pack collection booth was manned by a miserly 5 counters for each category, as compared to the over-whelming scene of kid helpers at the earlier Passion Run, and 2) The registration was extended 1 week, what a stark difference compared to the year end Standard Chartered Marathon when participation was so limited.

Flagging off from ‘the grass patch’ between Block 121 and 123 at Bukit Merah, it almost looked like a Resident’s Family Carnival when Dear1 and Dear2 arrived. Dear2 almost half expected to see some balloon booths or the large air filled structure where kids have a jolly time bouncing around in. The toilets were a miserly (about) 10, and Dear1 and Dear2 did not join in the flag off as we were still queuing for the toilets at that time. How lucky we did that in fact!

There weren’t the usual student helpers, or road closure for running events like this. Instead, what greeted us were the numerous traffic policemen directing traffic at the zebra crossings and pedestrian crossing, and many uncles and aunties who I think are likely to be residents of Bukit Merah. And becos of this, what it means for runners is 1) There is no road closures and we have to run on the pavements. Bearing in mind that the pavements in Bukit Merah are not exactly wide, some only allowing 1 runner to go through at times unless you are willing to step out on the road. And bearing in mind that there is NO road closure, meaning that vehicles are still zooming past by every other minute. 2) Becos the route is not marked extensively, you’d better be fast enough so that there’s some runner visible in front of you, or if you can spot a helper, or a traffic policeman somewhere in front. No telling how the lone runner knows which way to turn if he is left far back!

Surprisingly, Dear1 and Dear2 completed the run in about the same timing that we did the Passion Run, even though we totally walked the entire stretch of the uphill on Mount Faber and there was plenty of gentle upslope or downslope on the Henderson and Bukit Merah estate. The Faber scenery was nice too, for people like us who have never been on Mount Faber before. It’s a surprise to find that Singapore actually have such a place like The Peak in Hong Kong. The best part of the run will be its shadiness. It came as a pleasant surprise to us that pretty much of the route was naturally shaded by the trees alongside these pavements. Cool! (literally)

I’m glad we did this run.

- Dear2

It is interesting to join new and difference sporting events to see the race route itself, explore places of Singapore where we wouldn’t normally go to (such as Changi area for Real Run), and also to see how such public race events are organised. This is the first time that we’re participating in the Mizuno Mount Faber Run and below is a picture of the race route for me to remember by.

It’s a 10km race just like the Passion Run. But since it is named the Mt Faber Run, we can expect the route to be hilly and probably made up of a lot of uphills and also downhills (what goes up, must come down). So for that, I’m predicting a slower timing compared to the Passion Run. Let’s put our target at 1hr40mins.

I’m quite excited to visit the new park connectors around the region as I haven’t visited any of these park connectors before. The only time I managed to catch a glimpse of it was on TV.

Being a couple, Dear1 and Dear2 have never been to the ‘romantic’ Mt Faber before, so it is an opportunity for us to visit the place in the mood of sporty romantism (coined by Dear1). Gee… No lah. Next time we visit Mt Faber again during the evening to enjoy some romantic time together. This time is more for the run and healthy exercise. :)

Now, let’s talk about the registration. We didn’t want to commit to this run too early becos we were rather out of shape and didn’t know if we can take this kind of hilly run. So we waited until *after* the Passion Run to decide. Passion Run went well and so we decided to join the Mt Faber Run. Luckily, there was no early bird price (correct me if I’m wrong and make me sadz…) so we didn’t really miss out on any discounts. And luckily, registration deadline was extended (due to lack of participants?). Somehow, I had the impression that registration must be done in person at selected World Of Sport shops so we made the trip down to the Jurong Point branch. But alas, the deadline extension was only applicable to online registration. That meant we made a wasted trip. -_-”

Anyway, back home, online registration was a breeze. It was mentioned that there will be free socks for the first 500 Passion Card members. During my registration, the system actually asked me for my Passion Card number. Does that mean that I’m the first 500 participants, even during an extended deadline?! Or maybe the programmers are just lazy. This kind of nitty gritties really create negative impressions on the organizers.

Race cost is $35 which I found it a bit on the expensive side, maybe due to it being a small scale event. Race entitlements only include an event running tee and a (non-event?) waist pouch, and *no* finisher medals. The last Mizuno/VGO event we participated in was the Mizuno Wave Run and that time, they ran out of event running tees and distributed normal leftover stock Mizuno running tees instead. Yucks! Hopefully this won’t happen this time. I have heard that the Mt Faber Run is different and much better organized than the Wave Run. I certainly hope this is the case.

Right, that’s it for my pre-race thoughts. This weekend is the race expo and next weekend is the race. See ya.

-Dear1

And so we participated in our second running event of the year last Sunday, Passion Run. The first was the Zoo Run. Here’s a recap of what happened.

We really haven’t been exercising since the Zoo Run back in Feb 09. Yes, Dear2 went for a few runs with her colleagues after work. But Dear1 really didn’t have any training whatsoever. And so the 2 yaya papaya Dears went into the 10km Passion Run without conditioning.

We arrived in time for the 8am flag off. The interesting thing for us this time was the “new”  RFID tag. It’s not a durable looking champion chip which we had to return after the run. It’s not the strip of wire which was fastened to the runner bib and make the whole damn thing so heavy. This time round, it is just a strip of plastic sheet about 10cm in length that is embedded with some flat wires and electronics on one side. Just loop this flexible plastic piece around our shoe lace and stick it in place with the sticker provided. It’s that easy. The best thing is, we didn’t have to remove and return it, which is a good thing becos we didn’t really fancy the idea of bending down and untying our shoe laces after a long run. Thumbs up for new running technology. (Side note: Maybe we were suppose to return it but then nobody told us…)

We didn’t have any baggage with us so I can’t say anything about the baggage counter. *Hint* Why didn’t we have any baggage? Where had we left our things? Hmm…

Run started and so we ran. Not too bad, we were in good condition up to 4km and we overtook many ppl along the way. Yeah. We didn’t have any breakfast in the morning and so we started feeling the emptiness about then. And this was the quote from Dear1:

I’m running out of bananas.

We passed the u-turn point and began looking out for our first water stop. We had passed a few water points earlier on but didn’t need to stop at that time. But the next water point turned out to be very very far away. We were expecting a water point before the 5km mark, but there was none. By this time we were feeling rather tired and slowing down alot. Surely that must be a water point soon after not having one for so long. Wrong. In the blink of an eye, we were at the 6km mark and still no water point. We didn’t stop running as we didn’t want to. We were determined to only stop when we get to a water point. But we had already dropped a lot of pace.

Finally, the next water point was spotted shortly after 6km. Many runners stopped to pick up a drink after such a long water point drought. We continued walking for some time until we passed 7km. And then we suddenly spotted photographers under a tree ambushing the tired runners. We didn’t want to be caught walking on camera and so we started running again. What a vain motivation. :P

Some distance down, we slowed to a walk yet again at a water point. 8km mark had passed. After replenishing ourselves, we mustered whatever bananas (read energy) we had remaining and made a dash for the finish. Dear2 switched to her race day mode and started overtaking fellow runners. She liked to concentrate on overtaking other runners to take her mind off the running. I just followed closely behind, keeping up with the pace, and taking over the pacing every once in a while when Dear2 started falling back.

Somehow, the finish line always seemed so far away on the home stretch. We passed Bedok jetty and spotted the finish line in a distance. Mind over body. We kicked up the pace and made for the finish. Yes! We completed our first 10km run of the year! (Well… technically, Zoo Run was also 10km 6.2km – thanks zaimie for pointing it out - but we were there more for the animals. :P) And Dear2 counted overtaking 55 runners on our final sprint. Yeah!

Immediately after crossing the finish line, we were ushered to collect our goodie bags. There was no queue and we got our goodie bags in zero time. Good goodie bag organization. Thumbs up again.

We walked around the carnival area, drank 2 cans of 100Plus each, and took a relaxing walk along the beach before heading home. We were pleased with the organization of the run and would recommend to anyone who wants to participate in a casual running event. We were also pleased with ourselves as we had the mental perseverance to give it our best for this run. The timing wasn’t anything great but it showed us that we still can do it and we need to get in shape so that we can do even better. 加油！

-Dear1

Oh, we haven’t been exercising since the zoo run. But then, the zoo run isn’t really much of a run anyway. So the truth is, we haven’t been exercising in a long long while. It’s time to get back into shape! ><

The latest upcoming run will be the Passion Run 2009, the closing date is just round the corner and the run in another 3.5 weeks or so. We decided to participate in the 10km open to give ourselves a target to train up to. 2 years ago, we participated in the 5km fun run, also at the very last minute. Somehow, we never seem to be in luck with Passion Runs, and never seem to be able to exploit their early bird discount.

One thing that bugged me during my online registration last night was the ‘Express Registration’ for runners who have participated before. Having participated in this event before, we expected the registration process to be much smoother and efficient, much like Stanchart marathons. Just click and the database will fill out the form for me. I *expected* this but I didn’t receive it. The stupid registration system still expects me to key in every single detail. It didn’t even remember my t-shirt size. Grr… No big deal, but just goes to show how much they haven’t improved over the years.

Another irksome point for me was that as non-Passion card members 2 years ago, we were given free 3 years Passion card as part of registering for the run. Of course, we had to pay a slightly higher registration fee back then because we weren’t entitled to the Passion card member discount. This year, we were able to enjoy the member discount but will not be receiving any Passion card renewal. Whereas, non-members will get their free 3 year Passion card. I find this practice rather stingy for such a large organization. This kind of practice will make me reconsider whether or not I wish to continue my Passion card subscription.

Okay, now just concentrate on the run ahead and to keep fit.

-Dear1

Alamak… what a lousy timing! Recently, Dear1 went to take his Individual Physical Proficiency Test or simply IPPT as required for all Singaporean males during their NSmen liability period. Sigh… Without a doubt, I failed.

There are 5 stations in all. 4 static stations, namely shuttle run, sit ups, chin ups and standing board jump. As Dear1 was very active in sports, particularly basketball, during his schooling days, I had no problems with jumping and sprinting. But I wasn’t really good in the sit ups and chin ups. Sigh… Overall, the IPPT was a disaster.

What really surprised me was actually the 2.4km run. Dear1 and Dear2 had been somewhat active in running, participating in running events, personal training and everything, but 15m56s was just atrocious! Hmm… maybe it wasn’t that bad after all… I remember we ran 40mins for the 5km Passion Run. Ops, so I *was* running that slowly all along.

Maybe it’s the difference between long distance running and short distance running. Running events have always been long distance and we tend to keep quite a lot of energy in reserve for long runs knowing the distance we need to cover. But 2.4km is really very short and one needs to burst through the entire distance in order to meet the IPPT passing criteria. I suppose that’s the difference between endurance run and power run.

And if I can’t clear my IPPT before my birthday, I would need to go for the dreaded Remindal Training (RT), what a waste of time. For the sake of my freedom and possibly $100 incentive for passing, I must train up my 2.4km run! and chin ups! and sit ups… =(

For now, Dear2 will continue with her 5km training runs while I’ll convert to 300m interval runs to build up my lung capacity, with static training between intervals. Certainly hope this works. And hopefully I’ll be able to shed some fats along the way. :D

-Dear1