3Ten Golf Course Run [10km]

When I registered for the 3Ten Golf Course race, I had this romantic notion of gentle undulating hills, amongst the beauty of a golf course and the surrounding Sungei Seletar Reservoir. I haven’t run a 10km race since February, about a month before I fractured my foot. I figured three months would be plenty of time to train up to 10km.

Somehow I managed to entice my husband to join me in this race, even though he keeps telling me that running doesn’t stimulate him but he keeps allowing me to register him. Then I messaged my friend Remek and said: “Hey check out this 10km golf course race. First one in Singapore. It’s only the day before we fly out to Australia. What do you think?” His response was plain and simple: “If you do it, I’ll do it” and that sealed the deal. He figured it was a great way to finish up the year with a bang, a final finisher medal and then get on a plane out.
Kids Dash

Whilst the Kids Dash was meant to be 1km long it turned out to be only 560m. That didn’t deter the kids from having fun and if anything they sprinted all the way to the end. As I was waiting for them the volunteers handed me a bunch of finisher medals and just asked me to hand them out. It was quite a privilege to hang the medals around the kids’ necks. A small personal highlight.

  

But I think the kids’ highlights were the carnival activities like blue fairy floss, popcorn, games and Star Wars quizzes (lucky they’d seen it already).

   

Pre-race training sessions

Somewhere in late October, as the haze started clearing I figured I had better start training for this race. With six weeks to go and not a clue how to train myself up for this kind of distance in a short period of time, I took to my iPhone App Store and went searching for an app that might give me a clue. There I found MyASICS app input all the requested data and started myself from ground zero. Meaning the first week I had to run 4 x 1km runs at a pace slightly above a shuffle. Mentally that was necessary. With an extensive injury recovery I wanted to begin at slowest possible pace. If I can toughen my mind, my body will follow.

Hubby joined me throughout this training program and it didn’t take long before I realized I was holding him back. With his long legs the shuffle was excruciatingly slow. Since John only joined me in races to keep me company this time I encouraged him to run his own training sessions, find his own pace and for the first time run his own race without needing to stay by my side.

It was wonderful to see his fitness kicking in and his pace accelerating. Whilst we would always start together, we would meet back at home and over a cold drink we would upload our data to Strava and discuss our experiences and ooh and ahhh over his continuous improvements.

As the training weeks melted away, the distances increased and so did the confidence in being able to complete the race without stopping or walking.

Racing day

About three days before the race, John promptly pointed out that golf courses may be undulating but not the romantic version I held in my head. And so with a little trepidation and a good amount of nervousness along with John and our friend, Remek, we flagged-off at the back of wave three on a balmy Saturday evening.

For the first kilometer or so, I was literally the last one in the race. I guess I was bringing up the rear. Shuffling along next to another participant we maintained the same pace for a while until my legs warmed up and started moving along bit by bit, passing other runners (a novelty for me as I’m usually the one being passed regularly) and settling into an easy and comfortable pace that I maintained for the remainder of the race.

Bringing up the rear.

As the route weaved and tracked up and down the endless collection of hills by the 3rd km, I was surprised that I was less than a third of a way through the course. It felt that I had run so much further and that’s perhaps due to the fatigue I was already feeling in my ankles. I remember thinking “this is gonna be a loooong and painful run”. The distance kept accumulating but there was no rest from the hills. Just as you got down one hill, so the next one crept up on me. I was looking for the straights to give my legs a little rest but they were few and far between in very short distances.

However, I stuck to my guns and whilst the pace was a slow shuffle, I maintained it so I could last the course and make sure I kept running it. I lost sight of John and Remek ages ago, so when I came across John on the opposite side of my route, I knew he was keeping an excellent pace and he was a good 2km ahead of me. I never saw Remek till the end but he indicated that he went out a bit too fast, not accounting for the endless hills and after burning himself out a bit too early he had to pull back and settle into a pace that was a little slower than what he was used to.

By the 5th km, I was grateful for the water station and whilst I was originally going to stop for a rest and recuperate my legs, I decided against it as I was making good progress and I didn’t want to lose my pace mojo.

Turning the last bend on the golf course, I knew I had reached the furthest part of the route and I was finally on the return stretch to the finish line. It was still 3km away but that meant that I had covered 7 already.

Now it was a matter of keeping the legs moving whilst they were feeling like jelly. Anxiety was creeping into my subconscious, I so desperately wanted to finish the race without walking that at times, I was sure I was tossing my body upwards just so my legs would flop their way forwards.

When I reached the rear of the golf driving range, I knew I had about 600m to go and in a final spurt of energy, I opened my stride increasing the speed not realizing that the final 200m was a complete uphill run. Someone ahead of me just quit running and started walking but I pushed on huffing and puffing until I crossed that finish line 1hr21min after starting.

I’m no Paula Radcliffe (the fastest female marathon runner) that’s for sure but it was an inspiring comeback after a difficult year of injuries, and not so flash races. This race for all of its hills has given me the necessary encouragement to keep going and keep attempting future 10km races.

As for hubby, he completed his first ever 10km race in 1hr3min. Given the terrain that was a great effort on his part. Whilst Remek finished in 1hr9min.

  

With a cool finisher medal in hand it was chow time and a much deserved cold beer. Off to our local hawker centre we feasted like kings and quenched our thirst, finishing our racing season on a high note.

Cheers

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SCMS) 2015 - Remote Spectating

I ran my one and only SCMS 10km race in 2014. After a long week away in Boracay to celebrate a friend’s 40th I returned to Singapore with only a few days spare before the race. Needless to say, after a seriously good trip with far too much partying, I was ill-prepared for the race. Whilst I stumbled my way through it to finish perhaps what stood out the most is how enormous this annual international event was and perhaps a little too big for someone like me who doesn’t particularly like large crowds at the best of time.

To garner something like 50,000 participants is an enormous feat for such a small city-state like Singapore. Yet, it shows it’s popularity with athletes gathering from around the world for this one day. Perhaps one of the wisest moves by the organizers was to split the three major categories into separate routes, starting at different points to funnel in together at the Padang as the finish line.

This year, they even moved the kids dash to another day and completely different venue. Given the difficulties many participants had in previous years with getting their kids to the start line and then making it to the finish line in time to collect them, this was a particularly good move.

Whilst this year I did not participate, I was never too far away from the SCMS app, remotely checking in on my Team Costa friends who were registered. It was just as exciting tracking their progress remotely in the comfort of my home with coffee or two in hand. Our Team Costa FB group was constantly alerting with progress and checkpoints crossed.

We had 5 members representing Team Costa and each category was covered. New personal bests were achieved, marathons completed and the blazing sun conquered.

Here’s a quick recap on each participant:

Ian

Although no stranger to racing in the UK, this is the first marathon he has ever completed. Hindered by a knee injury that occurred at 30km, perhaps his quote “that was awful, never again!!” may ring true but then again somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind, he may feel the desire to conquer it one day. Lessons are always learnt from our worst experiences. Quite often we are curious enough to see if we can overcome our challenges.

Certainly there was no shortage of training to prepare but unfortunately, marathon training takes months to accomplish and busy schedules and the never-ending haze had a lot to answer for.

As his body is still healing and physio will indeed be a necessity for the knee, I’m certain we haven’t seen the last of Ian on the racing circuit.

 

Avni

Ah what better way to knock off an item from the bucket list whilst celebrating her 40th year. Well that’s what Avni did. If you were to ask her about it, she’ll freely admit that it was the craziest thing she’s done so far. Unprepared and untrained she forged through the 42.2km and the blazing sun.

Joined by her hubby and kids just in time to down a good dose of coconut juice, I understand it’s the cleanest form of electrolyte intake, for a much needed energy spike.

One of Avni’s observations during the race was starting out too hard and using up the reserves too quickly. It is probably one of the most difficult aspects of racing different categories. Figuring out the pace needed and when to push to either race for time or race for distance. Underestimating either could mean not enough reserves for long distance or not enough speed to make good time in a short/mid distance race. Will Avni be back?

David

No better way to celebrate a birthday than racing a half-marathon. Right?? Well maybe David could have found something more entertaining to do than racing but it came with a bonus. Knocking off 3min from last year’s SCMS half-marathon. Rightly so, given his consistent training in preparation for this race.

Coming in the 11th percentile in the overall category is no small feat but reaching that position by overtaking just under 500 participants in the last 5km indicates how much he still had left in him, regardless off the relentless sun beating down on him across the Western Coast Hwy. I wonder, David, will we see you at the Sundown Marathon tackling the half-marathon as a night race perhaps?

Remek

Reasonably new to running, he’s progressed to half-marathon fairly quickly undertaking the first one at the Sundown Marathon. Training predominantly at night, Remek admits he was not prepared for the blazing sun on the freeway. Being witness to numerous participants suffering from heatstroke, Remek wisely chose to swallow his pride and slow his pace until he exited the freeway and entered the shady areas of the city.

In his own words regarding the finisher medal “I may not have won it, but I sure earned it”.

Although he may have questioned himself at the end wondering why he’s doing this to himself, I’ve no doubt he’ll do it again and most likely will see him at Sundown Marathon.

Steve

For some time there was a tongue-in-cheek joke about the 4min man. We kind of knew this bloke, known as Steve, or at least about his running feats. When most of us were satisfied to run at an average pace of 5 or 6, there’s this guy who runs at 4. Eventually we got to know him better and swiftly inducted him into Team Costa’s group.

Focusing on improving his physical conditioning with the help of personal trainers, Steve barreled through the 4min pace to finish the 10km category in 37:33min at a pace of 3:45, placing him 4th in his age category and 14th overall out of 14,228 participants.

So fast, there's no one in sight.

I guess we’ll need to find a new more apt nickname for him. A terrific way to finish the year with a new goal post set for 2016. We’ll be watching you Steve.

I may not have participated or been present but following these guys on the SCMS app was just as good as being there. We finished off the afternoon, with a BBQ gathering to celebrate David’s birthday (his lovely wife as the chef), have a race debrief and cheer with beer.

   

Cheers

Santa Run for Wishes [5km]

When I first looked at the $70 price tag for this race, I just went whoaaaa, why so much? Sometimes it pays to look a little deeper and read the fine print.

Returning for the second year in a row, Santa Run for Wishes is a fundraising race for the Make a Wish Foundation which grants wishes to life-threatening medically ill children. Started in Singapore in 2003, it has thus far granted 1000+ wishes making a lot of children smile. Even more wonderful is that all proceeds will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Singapore Government as part of the Care and Share Movement.

This year, Make a Wish Foundation in collaboration with Universal Studios have brought a little extra pizzazz to the racing event. Following the race, all registered participants were provided with exclusive access to Universal for an evening of fast rides and even faster waiting lines.

Well that was enough to seal-the-deal for my family. Have a race on Sentosa followed by thrilling rides and inadvertently give to a charity through our participation. On top of that we were able to donate a number of books during the race pack pick-up.

Now onto race day. My understanding is that last year’s event was held around the Marina Bay area, so this year perhaps due to the collaboration with Universal, the race was held on Sentosa.

Pre-race necessary sugar load.

With 2km and 5km categories, the event commenced at Angsana Beach heading due west. With both categories flagging-off at the same time, it was quite a tight squeeze funnelling through the start line and the first kilometre. As we reached the turning point at the west end of the island the race felt more like an obstacle course rather than a race course. Unfortunately with both categories racing at the same time there was a lot of weaving through the crowds on narrow lanes. We basically gave up on racing and just chose to chill out and wait until the 2km category finished.

  

Somehow though the 2km category didn’t finish until it reached around 3.4km which made me wonder how long was the 5km category. At this point we were quite dehydrated and still a fair way from the organised water point. John veered off the route to stop at 7-11 to buy drinks whilst Trini and I kept going. The water station was at 4.4km at the east end of the island’s turning point.

By this stage Trini was trudging and she kept asking how much longer. Honestly, once we crossed 5km on my Suunto watch, I had no idea what to tell her since I knew we were still a fair way from the finish line. So we started playing a game using landmarks to run between followed by walking and repeat. The running distances were short but it kept her motivated to push through the last part of the route. By the time we reached the finish line we had covered 6.3km. Slightly longer than had expected.

  

However, the ice cream, electrolyte drink, finisher medal and the upcoming Universal visit made for very quick fatigue recovery. There was a little disappointment for my girl when the finisher medal’s paint peeled off as it dried itself onto the ribbon. Promising to fix it with some white paint at home was enough to turn her frown up-side-down. I suspect the medals were packed before they were fully dried as each one of our medals had the white paint peel off when we detached the ribbon from where it dried. Not sure if this was a common problem or just bad luck on our part.

Ice cream and sports drinks fix everything.

Along with our friends, we made our way to Universal Studio’s and thoroughly enjoyed having the park mostly to ourselves. We were joined by many severely disabled children who had this rare opportunity to visit a theme park which otherwise they would never have that chance.

All the thrill rides were open and my 7 yo had her first go on the Cylon Rollercoaster, flipping upside and zooming at high speed.

  

Needless to say by the time we wrapped up the day and got home it was midnight and Sunday was a long and very lazy day.

Perhaps some notes of observation regarding the race is to flag-off the categories at different times, provide water stations at half way points, use breathable material for the tees and ensure the finisher medals have sufficient time to dry if they’re painted before packing.

It’s understandable that the foundation may have teething problems since it’s only its second year and I’m sure as they keep organising this event they will get better at it. Personally, I will happily continue supporting it. Regardless of some of the minor issues, it is for such a worthy event that all this can be overlooked.

Overall, we had a good time as we always do. Wishing everyone a terrific festive season.

Merry Christmas to Everyone.

Cheers.

Junior Spartan Race 2015

With limited obstacle races available for both adults and children, we welcomed the inaugural Spartan Race to the racing calendar. Started in 2010 in the United States it was quickly franchised internationally finally reaching the shores of Singapore this November.

Our Little Leaguers Trinity, Justin and Leo had their first taste of an obstacle race in May when they completed the 1.5km and 3km Energizer Obstacle Race. Six months on and they were super excited about another opportunity to climb, crawl and run their way through another course. This time they were joined by siblings Emmanuel and Stephanie and our littlest princess, 4 years old Michaela.

Split into age categories Justin at 8 years had to complete the full 1km course. Trini, Emmanuel and Stephanie were in the 5-7 category who completed the 1km as well but not the full course. They raced the 0.5km course by completing it twice. Michaela and Leo at under 5 were joined by their mummies, Angela and Michelle (the only category that made parent participation compulsory) to complete the 0.5km course.

All the kids were in the morning sessions, taking off at 20min intervals in their age specific category. Michaela and Leo were first off the ranks. A bit of mayhem ensued with large numbers of children and parents tackling the obstacles when somewhere along the way a parent was injured falling off an obstacle. We couldn’t understand why the parents had to participate in the obstacles given that they were designed for children’s sizes and not adults.

   

 

Whatever injury was sustained by the adult, it took a while to get him off the field thereby delaying the following waves by 15 min. The 5-7 age category had parent participation as optional but given what happened with the previous category, that option was scrapped. All along my daughter thought one of us will join and in the last minute we had to explain that she was doing this race by herself making her a little scared at first.

Couldn’t miss her in this field of orange.

As John and I made our way to the side of the course to get a better view of our girl we were grateful she chose not to wear the race tee as she was easy to spot in the distance and easy to follow on the course. She was doing remarkably well in conquering the obstacles, grinning ear to ear.

The course started off with quite a lengthy prone crawl exercise, followed by a couple of A-frames and then onto climbing cargo-nets. The next three obstacles consisted of “Over-Under-Through” series of obstacles in which the kids had to first climb over a wall, then under a wall, then through a square hole placed in a wall finishing off with a final sprint.

Justin’s course was slightly different in that he had a couple of extra obstacles after his prone crawl exercise and longer distance to run. He had to carry a sandbag for a distance, followed by another prone crawl through what might have looked like a black tunnel. Whilst the sandbag obstacle tired him out somewhat, just like any kid who loves crawling about once he resurfaced from his tunnel he was off and running at full speed again.

   

   

  

Within a couple of hours they were all done. With finisher medals in hand, it was time for some much needed lunch and then off to collect the Santa Run for Wishes race pack.

 

As adults we can be more judgmental about the disorganisation of an event such as the mess up with the scheduled waves, race tees for the kids missing and inappropriate location for the race pack collection. The tees had to be collected on race day waiting in appallingly long lines in the rain. However, as Michelle put it the kids had a lot of fun with it and whilst a bit messy and disorganised she would let them do it again. I happen to concur. Hopefully by next year the event organiser will have ironed out the kinks for a smoother operation.

Trinity also wanted to capture the essence of her race in writing and have it published like her mummy. So below is her take on her experience, in her own words (except mummy fixing spelling/grammar errors).

My Spartan Story

It was today, November the 15th.

I was the only purple tee kid there. I loved the Spartan race because of the obstacles. You had to crawl under ropes and you had to climb over a fence and over spider ropes. You also had to climb over a straight fence, then through a window then crawl under another fence. You had to do two laps of this race in my group to get your medal.

After the race we had lunch, got some ice cream and then came home.

Trini and Justin