Its been quite a 2010 for me... Started off with a 30-hour Charity Run to raise funds for the President's Challenge 2010 campaign, my team (too many to mention all but the key personnel being Aihua, Kang Ling, Malcolm, Taz, Teelee, Tekko, Molly, Sharon, and many many others [including sponsors like Geylang Serai CC and Hammer Nutrition, and those pacers who were activated at the last notice] who played important roles) ensured that I was well fed, well hydrated, well massaged, and well paced to cover 150km in this challenge... And in the process, raised approximately S$42K for the less fortunate... All on the first day of 2010... :) Thanks again to all supporters and donors... Your actions were deeply appreciated...
********************
2010 was my year for ultras... Not that the marathon had lost its magic... But rather, there were certain ultras on my bucket list and I knew my chances of completing them would be higher now, then when I got older... In all, a total of 6 ultra races were planned... 3 road and 3 trail ultras respectively... I succeeded in completed the 3 road ultras (Bataan Death March 102km in 16hrs 59mins; Two Oceans Marathon 56km in 6hrs 53mins; and Comrades Marathon 90km in 11hrs 25mins) but failed miserably in all 3 TNF trail ultras (completed 61km for TNF100 Philippines; completed 68km for Canadian Death Race 125km; and completed 50km for TNF100 Singapore)... Trail races were more obviously more difficult as compared to road races since they were found mostly in mountains ranges (and hence trails and more upslope and downslope "running")... The beautiful scenery were partly my reason for taking longer time than I should as I stopped to capture my journey... Of course the main reason for my failure was my lack of ability to traverse as efficiently as I would on road, though it was more of my physical ability than physical fitness... You see, the terrain in Singapore is mostly flat and there are no mountains to train for downhill running... Okie, I did like giving excuses but the fact was while I could overtake other runners on my way up, even more runners would pass me on my way down! It was pretty demoralising... :( Nevertheless, I vowed that I would try again in 2011 and if I still failed, I would have to look for other ultras with a more lenient cut-off time or join a relay team to sight-see the beautiful scenery, in the case of the Canadian Death Race.
Running was not all about LSD / ultramarathons, etc, and while I enjoyed running far, the races I had the most fun were those shorter races like the SHAPE Run, Great Eastern Women's Run and the Yellow Ribbon Prison Run... In particular, both SHAPE Run and GE Run were organised just for women... It was really fun as I ran the women races with my regular running buddies Elise and Vivian... We stopped for photos at all km markers, as well as some of the water points and cheer-leading performances... Timing wasn't on our agenda, especially for the GE Run, when Elise was already 4 months pregnant!
The only marathon I did for the year was the extremely beautiful Jungfrau Marathon. It started at Interlaken in Switzerland and ended at the mountain of Jungfrau... In fact, I only managed to get into the race through the wait list due to the pulling out of other runners as the registration was full by the time I had decided to sign up for the race... And mind you, although this was just a marathon, it was still a hard race due to the climb up the Jungfrau mountain in the second half of the marathon! In fact, had the organiser been more stringent with the cut-off time, I would have failed in my attempt to complete it within the cut-off time of 6 hours 30 minutes... Luckily, all those who cleared the final cut-off time of 5 hours 40 minutes at the 38km mark were allowed to cross the finishing line and my finishing time was 6 hours 30 minutes 50 seconds... :)
My final running event for the year was an overseas running cum makan/shopping trip with Tekko and family in Macau / Hong Kong in December. It was also the most relax overseas event that I had ever signed up, although the MOP$700 for just a 6.5km run was a tad too expensive... In fact, the stressful part was to ensure that I finished my race fast enough to go back to the hotel for a quick shower and change of clothes, and then rushing back to the stadium and to take the finishing photos of Tekko and Molly, who were both running the 21km event... I managed to do that with about 10mins to spare... :p After the run, it was just eat and eat and eat; shop and shop and shop... Never had my trip been so easy...
I had been very lazy in updating my running blog in 2010... This would be something I had to change in the new year... And in the process, I hoped to share the races that I had signed up (whether or not I completed them :p ) as well as the photos taken during these overseas running trips... Someone told me that I inspired them through my runs... I was not sure how my running could be so powerful... Besides, I'm an abled-body runner with no disability... My only conclusion was that although I was a slow tortoise, I was courageous enough (or stupid enough - 不知死活 ) to sign up for tough races that only the best runners in business would think of signing up... So if I could inspire more people to take up running for health, to challenge themselves or whatever other reasons, I guess it's something worthwhile... And hence I should and will try my best to share more of my stories in the new year... Be patient though... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment