Let's ParkRun

Unless you're a runner you may have never heard of ParkRun. A 5km run that takes place every Saturday morning in nine different countries, including Singapore, Australia and the UK.

Established in 2004 in the UK by a small group of people, ParkRun is a timed event that is free to enter and entirely operated by volunteers.

Following an online registration the athlete obtains a unique barcode to be used when taking part; kind of like a racing Bib Number.

At the end of each event the participant's results are uploaded online by the volunteers.  The athlete's ongoing results are catalogued on an individual page detailing each event they participated in.

Very popular in the UK and Australia, ParkRun eventually reached the shores of Singapore in 2014.  A relatively young event, it draws an average of 80 runners each week down to East Coast Park, a 15km beachside stretch of running and cycling paths.

Starting at Fort Road, the group takes an eastbound approach past a couple of Starbucks' (just to dream about that post run coffee) for half the distance and then return.

It starts early enough to not be hindered by the rising sun although you generally can't escape the humidity but if you live in Singapore long enough you learn to overlook it even, if you never get used to it.

Besides being located near my home the highlights are the seriousness of the athletes.  With a huge running races culture (you can find a race pretty much each weekend) many of the 5km categories are filled with walkers.  A runner's results never shows a true reflection of their effort.  Reaching top 10% when your average pace is 7min/km doesn't have the same statistical reflection when your time is compared with only runners.

ParkRun certainly makes that starkly clear.  There are no accolades, no race tees, no finisher medals. When you run you race against yourself and your own personal best (PB).  There are no walkers or large quantities of meandering individuals.

So when your pace is 7min/km and find yourself at the bottom of the results table, you know that is a more appropriate benchmark. You know there's a long way to go and you know you are completely ok with that because you know the only way is up with ongoing training.

On that note, let me take you to Saturday, 13 February's ParkRun event.

My first participation was about a month ago and I managed to finish fourth last.  Undeterred by the sub-15 minutes runners, I was more than happy to join my friends and Team Costa members for another 5km jaunt.

Together with Stan, Michelle, Steve, Caitriona, Cindy and Wizzy, we flagged-off at 7.30am on a very humid morning with a pair of very tired legs, having done a very fast (by my standards) indoor run the night before.

Bringing up the rear as usual, I had hoped I would survive the run and the thought of 5km with tired legs just seemed eternal.

Not even 2km into my run, I come across Stan on his return leg.  Fighting fit and given that he doesn't run much these days but cycles a heck of a lot he finished in 22:50min at a respectable pace of 4.35/km.  I think those cycling quads of his are helping a lot.  Duly impressed.

A few minutes later, I gave Michelle a wave.  Another cyclist with awesome quads and strong legs and a very strong and driven mindset she finished with a terrific pace of 5:20/km.

I missed seeing Steve (probably buried in my own thoughts whilst staring at the ground) but he came in only a few seconds before Caitriona.  Steve is another who prefers cycling over running but the ParkRun activities are something that he shares with his lovely wife Wizzy.

Lengthy overseas holidays have a tendency to mess with routine and fitness typically is the first one to go.  For Caitriona that meant a harder time to get back to running and re-establishing the routine. The upcoming Aquathlon certainly kicked the training motivation in.  With a slow start to the year the old adage "the body will remember" certainly rang true bringing her pace to a nice 5:40/km average in a short period of time.

Finally I'm nearing the turning point and I came across Cindy, who tells me she burnt herself out taking off too fast getting enveloped in the wave of speedsters.

That's half the trouble with paces, being energized by those around you who take-off like Looney Tunes' Tasmanian Devil character and forgetting that your own pace doesn't match.  I've lost count how many times I've gone too fast to then burn out too soon.  I eventually figured it out and now I set myself at the back of the pack and start from there.  If I overtake people great, if I don't I have more training to do.

Looney Tunes' Tasmanian Devil
Img credit: looneytunes.wikia.com

Regardless of Cindy's fast take-off she managed to finish in 34 minutes, with Wizzy half a minute behind her.

Wizzy is an easy-going runner.  She's not about speed, she's about consistency.  As a teacher by trade, Wizzy knows "slow and steady, win's the race" and not in the true sense of the quote because we all know in running speed eventually gets you to first place.  However, Wizzy understands the need to know herself, know her natural pace and then just nice and steadily works her way to the end.

I've certainly seen this in action at the Great Eastern Women's Run race last year where she took off nice and steady and I took off like an Energizer battery.  Overtaking Wizzy, I went and went and went and then no more went.  Legs were dead and I had to walk.  Nice and steady Wizzy overtakes me and carries on.  We went through this scenario twice more until I really had nothing left and I walked more towards the end whereas "nice and steady" Wizzy gets to the end well ahead of me. Yep lesson learnt.

However, don't get Wizzy wrong.  Whilst she's all about a steady pace she still has her own targets. One of them was a sub-35min run which she accomplished at this ParkRun.  Although later she found out that was four seconds off her all-time PB.  No worries, she beat that at the next ParkRun.

As for myself it was a pleasant surprise.  After a hard interval run the night before and insufficient rest my legs felt like lead.  I winced and groaned in my head but thankfully the pumping music kept the legs going forth.  Nothing like a bit of Black Eyed Peas' "Pump It" in my head.

For the first 2km I was following a couple who matched my pace until my need to overtake. Throughout the run they were like shadows, never too far behind.

The further we ran the greater the distance between the couple and myself until I reached the last 300m and realised they were right behind me again.  No way was I going to be overtaken.  I picked up those lead legs and pummeled it to the end, grateful that the sprint was only a short distance.

It was a great way to start the morning.  Even better when four of us made the high achievers list for breaking previous ParkRun PBs.  Being together as a group of friends would have provided us with great incentive to do our very best.  And so we did.

Compressport Rail Corridor Run 2016 [5km]

Gosh how unprepared were we for a real messy and muddy trail run, but how much fun was it to get messy and muddy just like kids.

I’ve been wanting to explore the Green Corridor with my 7 years old girl for some time and Compressport’s trail run gave us the incentive by organising a 5km category. Perfect length for my girl with double the benefits. She got to experience the ruggedness of the Green Corridor whilst receiving a finisher medal to remember the event.

With a reasonable flag-off at 9.30am for us non-morning people, we huddled into the starting pen just in time to see the first 10km racers passing through their halfway mark.

Fourth runner crossing the halfway mark.

Funneling our way through the Start line.

Taking off 5 minutes earlier than the scheduled time we shuffled our way through the starting line and merged with the 10km participants. It was a little tight on such a narrow route given the thousands of participants making it a little difficult to start running immediately.

Just as we were able to get ourselves going, within a kilometer we passed beneath one of the overhead bridges to find ourselves stuck behind numerous runners just standing still, unsure of what was happening ahead. We didn’t account for the mini-pond that was as wide as the running path and possibly as long as 15m (I could be dreaming this but I don’t think so). Ah what to do? We wore old runners but we weren’t particularly prepared to get wet, muddy and squishy shoes so early in the race and the look of horror on Trinity’s face was the deciding factor to attempt to circle the pond on the minuscule amount of surface left to tread. Just like everyone else except for the 10km gung ho runners who’ve been dealing with this surface for 6km already and just no longer cared about how filthy they were going to get. They barreled their way through the pond splashing everyone in sight.

  

I spent most of the race telling Trini it’s okay to get muddy, don’t worry about your runners getting dirty, enjoy the messiness of this race, have fun with this experience. Phew, on and on it went. John and I enjoyed it but we’re not convinced that Trini did the same. She did however, enjoy the Green Corridor and kept asking about the old railway bridge which unfortunately, I had to tell her it was in the opposite direction. Looks like we might have to go out another time before the Corridor closes mid-year so she can experience the railway bridge across Bukit Timah Road.

We spent pretty much the entire race dodging puddles, turned up mud piles or getting around runners who were trying to keep their runners as reasonably clean as possible (good luck to that).

  

Trini found this race very tiring when compared to the road races she’s used to. So much weaving and dodging, trail route instead of road route and of course the distance was wearing on her legs and cardio fitness. However as we were nearing the end we took her by her hands and sprinted our way to the finish line.

 

With all the dried up mud on our clothes, legs and feet we figured we’d be better off getting on a bus home instead of a taxi. We didn’t think any taxi driver would appreciate dry mud in his car. Along with fellow filthy racers we boarded Bus 10 and made our way home, looking forward to a long hot shower and scrubbing ourselves clean.

  

It was a fun event. I wouldn’t intentionally seek out muddy races but if the situation presents itself unbeknownst to me, I’m always happy to embrace the experience and just roll with the punches. Just like we did with this race.

Finisher medals make everything so much better.

Historic Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.

Cheers

Top 10 Running Series #9 - Sentosa Island

By far the largest Team Costa contingency, we had 13 running participants, 2 newbies, 8 support and numerous children far too busy playing on the beach to care what the parents are getting up to with their running shoes strapped on.

We met at the swanky Tanjong Beach Club on the far east side of the island.  After the requisite group shot (and just noticed we have one MIA) we took off at an easy pace in order to try and stick together as much as possible given the various running skills in this group.

With a westward approach along Tanjong and Palawan Beach Walks within 1.5km we hit the public holiday crowds.  Celebrating Chinese New Year provided all the foreign workers with a day off and an opportunity to descend upon Sentosa Island for a day trip.  For us runners it turned into a human obstacle course that we weaved our way through.

Regrouping amongst the crowds.

The masses of groups milling about created a challenge all the way down Siloso Beach Walk but we were a bunch with a very a happy disposition and eventually left the crowds behind.

Siloso Beach

We regrouped again at the western most point of Sentosa which was halfway through the run.  Here, two members returned and the rest of us pushed onto the Imbiah Trail track for a little extra adventure.  Once we reached the top we took another short break, checked the trail map and began our descent via Merlion Plaza where the 37m concrete half lion-half fish statue, known as the Merlion proudly stands.

 

The 37m Merlion statue

Making our way through the mosaic garden and down the zig-zag footpath we eventually merged back on the Palawan Beach Walk on our final stretch back to the start.  With one kilometre to go, Chris provides some extra incentive to pick up the pace and the first one back will be rewarded with a Long Island Ice Tea.  Suddenly Veronika's legs just picked up speed and overtook Michelle (rightly so given that Michelle did a 110km bike ride 10 hours earlier) but Veronika had a serious contender in Cindy who came out of nowhere but unfortunately burnt out in the end. Veronika just really wanted the run to be over and that drink in hand and this babe was outta here.

With the 6km fitness session over, it was time for an after-run beach party. It took us nine Team Costa runs to finally have the largest showing and it was a brilliant afternoon with great friends and neighbours.

Route map.