Adidas running group / ipod busted

Ipod busted..
After my AHM my ipod nano went haywired, it kept flashing "firewire not support please use USB cable" hmm and i can't sync my songs too..so headed down to Funan center yesterday and send in my Ipod for repair. The technician there tested it out with 2 different sync cable, but unsuccessful to sync anything. So he declare its motherboard is busted. So i have to go without my ipod for a week at most. dratz.. should i get a extended warranty pack ..hmmz

Adidas running group
We had our first meeting yesterday to decide on the date of run and also what are the "perks" to join in the run. Those turned up was nemo, Do, novaflux, charmane, angelica, superboi, cfred, realrunner etc. We have decided the best time for the run will be in the evening and on wedsneday itself. Perks? well just use of the bag deposit , shower and pool facility ..not to mention isotonic and banana at the end of the run. Theres alot of plans in future but as fahmy (organiser from adidas running dept) say he can't promise those yet. But already it sounds juicy...

So for the inaugural run next week expected to draw in about 20+ folks from sgrunners and other MNC, and the route would be probably 8km and at a slow pace of 6.5min/km. As fahmy believes that its best to stick together rather have it separated out into fast and slow group.

After discussion , we had a short intro into the mi adidas customised shoe process. How you can get your own customised shoe made by adidas. Instead of half sizes , this mi adidas can go up to 1/4 sizes for a super accurate fit. Plus embroided name on your shoe too. Theres alot more features.. do drop by adidas cathay to check it out.


















mi adidas shoe.












Look at all the different sizes of shoe for fitting














Fahmy showing off novaflux's custom made shoe a cool 299 bucks.

Recovery run - yishun pond 3.9km

Had a recovery run on tuesday, realised my shoe has not fully dried from the 21km AHM run.
Decided to go with my older mizuno pair which well was well-worn.

Tried to be more careful of my injured right ankle. gingerly did a low tempo jog around the yishun pond. Fortunately the pain did not recure, phew...

Distance : 3.9km
Timing : 18mins 14sec
Pace : 4.5mins/km

Weekend updates - Carbo Loading 2 / AHM 2006

Sat- Carbo Loading Session 2

As promised hedgehog organise the final round of carbo loadin a day prior to the AHM at pizza hut. I was first to arrive and immediate went to queue up for a table ( part of the kiasu traits we possessed) . then came roonz, ripley, alec chua, weishan and last but not least hedgehog. Special guest was TLR and FD who came unannounce luckily we still have extra seats available.

Had 2 family meals of pizza ( seafood and hawailian) and a main dish for each of us. Service quality was rather appaling for both the captain and the waitress who served us. Waitress was frowning everytime we requested something or while serving us. The captain on the other hand well did not smile at all.

Despite that we all had a great time makaning, chatting and i believe this session helped me in my AHM the next day.


















Hedgehog making a bold effort remembering all our orders.. thou mine didn't came out as planned













Food galore... well not everything is out yet .. but still looked tempting












And one for the road..

Sunday - AHM 2006 - A series of unfortunate event



















After carbo load headed home and tried to sleep but as usual anxiety attack sets in and i could not sleep till abt 1am. With only 2 hours of sleep i woke up at 3.20am to pick up the rest of the gang, SV, Weishan , Roonz and james.

Reached at about 4.20am hoping to get a lot at capital center but instead was greeted by the security guard who simplily wave his hands to signal that carpark lot is full. Argh i had to drive down 2 streets to get a parking lot. After rendevous with angelica and daisaki to put their bags into the car.














Flag off

We hurried down to esplanade bridge for the flag off after that. And that was when i realised that i left the race chip in the car. Plus it was rather late to run back and get it , i had to make the painful decision of just running without it. What a boo boo.

Amidst the crowd we managed to find the sgrunner group there. As usual sotong's head was the indicator for the group he is so tall. Flag off at 5.30am , started off the same route as last yr but the twist was at eastcoast , where we headed downtown instead. Tragedy sets in once i started running there was a sharp pain on my right ankle. which comes in on and off thru out the whole race.. had no choice but to bear with it at the same time i felt my feet was wet and blister started to set in.

Unlike last year there weren't any traffic and almost smooth sailing route. This year has traffic light planted all over the route. But thankfully i was stopped by the traffic police only once or twice thru out the race others weren't that lucky (some sgrunners were stopped 7-8 times).












The runners jostling for position

At one stage , some where turning into Havelock road, me , charmane and nemo was pitching our speed and endurance at each other. We seems not to be able to move ahead and was on par for a rather long time till after chinatown. I decided to open up my stride after encountering with tekko who told me the end was near. I speed off with my last breath ( probably a mix of nitrogen and oxygen) , with 500m left i spotted another speed monster RSM. She was fast and i think i came in only meer sec ahead of her. Looking at my timing wow 1hr 53mins a new PB, thats more then 30mins of improvement from last year timing.



















The Medal













The drinks

At the finished line i did some warm down session before heading to grab my cuppa milo and banana .. Was first to be greeted by IMD who came in way ahead as usual while waiting for the rest to get back i got back to my car and took out the DSLR and race chip. Took some photos and after we had washed up. We head down to marina square foodcourt for another get together makan session. As usual sinful food are up on our list.














The parting shot

Went home with a sense of satisfaction and achievement. Till next year..

"on a different note : my IPOD nano just well malfunctioned.. sigh"

Carbon loading session 1

Had a short noticed carbo loadin session with the sgrunners today. Due to the last min gather few turned up . Roonz , cfred , hedgehog turn up first and we went down to runninglab and royal sporting house for some shopping . Using the discount coupon I got myself a short .











At pastamania. Cfred left to meet his friend at the sametime ripley , golden retriever and her friend drop by for dinner with us. Interesting topic followed. Mainly toliet jokes flowed out. from the guy who ran will defecating in his pants.. To the stench of the porta loo at the real run..












Tomorrow will be the next round of carbo loadin at marina square Cheers

Run- Khatib bonsu park connector - 8km

"opps i still owe WS her book ..better returned to her soon" I remembered. Instead of returning the book i jio her for a pre-AHM tappering run on the new khatib bongsu park connector.

So we met up at the yishun stadium for the kickoff. Dump the stuff in the locker and did some warm-up before hitting the road.


















The map look pretty straight forward but there are a couple of traffic light which would break the running momentum and what worries me is that theres a lot of heavy human flow at the mrt station too. Not really a great park connector design if you ask me.















The yet under-construction fishing pond and seafood hut.














Our final destination the stadium. For some cool down before proceeding to dinner at mcdonald.

Distance : 8km
Timing : 42mins 32s
Pace : 5.25 mins/km

RealRun offical result

Well heres my result
http://realrun.sg/results.html

Category CheckPt1 CheckPt2 NetTime Total_Finish
MEN'S OPEN 00:16:11 00:30:47 00:53:43 00:57:52

Ranking i think is a bit screwed but i came in 606 out of 3568 ..

Run - Sembawang rd - Simpang kiri - 9.4km

Well i think i can call this a recovery run for me after the NB realrun. My leg was not really feeling so good a little tight on the calf muscle , stiff perhaps. Nonetheless i still went for this run,
tappering down so the distance i pick will not be so long.

The journey will be well standard route with a slight difference as i will go through the trail route into simpang Kiri. For those who have not been to sembawang park here is a short photo blog taken during my run.















Entrance into sembawang park..



















The only water fountain in sembawang park















Stunning sunsetting at the parks fishing pier.







The view of the fishing pier in the distance.
















Below the red banner is a path leading into the simpang kiri park connector..




















Heres the trail route .. theres also a stream next to it..not much to look at thou..





Heres a video of the route..

Weekend Updates - AHM race pack collection / REALRUN 2006

Saturday - AHM Race pack collection
Morning headed down to the toa payoh pool for a short 12 laps. Being my first time there i notice that the pool was used for a Chinese TV drama series which i vaguely remember the title of it.
Late Run3 and i went to collect the racebib after that which was just next to the toa payoh pool which is the safra club house.

Heres whats in the goodie bag













Sunday - Real Run 2006 - 10km race day!
























Wokeup early in the wee morning like 5.45am. As usual i did not get much sleep maybe anxiety attack or something. Anway picked up jon, li ling , Roonz and james. Parked the car at harbourfront after witnessing a super long jam into sentosa. So we walked all the way in to the start point from where we parked.














Once at the start line we managed to bump into a few SGrunners - KJ, Charmane, Teelee, Meteor, alvo . Not all of them running thou some there for the support and also going for picnic after the run. Rushed into the pen before the race starts at about 7.45am for the 10km race.



















Flagging of the race was prof ho peng kee. Heard this time round over 8k people registered for the race. As you see from the photos its brimming full in the pen. Start was rather slow due to the crowd, Kinda hurt my timing due to the crowd strolling instead of running.














The run covers treelined roads, beaches and not to mention a trail route. Over all the beach route is the toughest of all with a 1.7km stretch. This is my third year running this race and well it has gotten easier compared to the first race which was more then 1.7km. Along the way i had a toilet break which i should not have gone but well its the nature call. Else i believe i could have a better timing.

At the end point i see FD, KJ and Ripley snapping photos for us. Unfortunately for me the energy used in the last sprint to the end was too much. So i shrug away from any photos in front of the finishing line. Instead walked to get some water and catch my breath. And my final timing 52mins 42 sec a new PB for me, not offical but this is taken off my watch.

The only phototaken was this...


















thanks KJ for a memorable shot. I owe you one.













This years goodie bag contents.

Everyone gathers for some photoshooting as usual






























SGrunners gathers.. for a parting shots..

Afterwards its the beach for some volleyball and frisbee.. Some of the sgrunners doing their ninja biathlon training. Alvo, SV, Nemo, taz.. i to tried swimming but rather short one hopefully i would do a more regular beach swim for next year biathlon.













Hmm Kay seems to have something growing out from his ears















The other half of the group staying indoors



















Beach boys..



















Dogs in love... all happens in sentosa

Run - yishun dam 8.25km

Got myself a new phone a few days ago. As my current treo 650 is rather large and bulky i could not bring it out for runs. With this new sony ericsson k750i i can use it not only as a phone but also a decent 2 mega pixel camera to photograph my runs infuture. Did a rather slow run, maybe due to days of inactivity and the hot humid evening sun at 5pm.















First stop yishun park...




















Next the treelined road to yishun dam.







Yishun dam.. long and rather demoralising run.. but















found this little known haven for fishing enthu along the dam.. goin down the make shift steps..















you get a nice view from below the dam... with mangrove trees..















and a small little makeshift pier for folks to fish...

Distance : 8.25km
Timing : 43mins 42s
Pace : 5.2 mins/km

Weekend update - bib collection / BG run

Saturday - Realrun Bib collection / Race belt purchase
Collected my race pack for the coming this coming real run race expo at liang court mall. Also help jon to collect his while he attends his salsa class. Bump into Taz and Kops at the event too they bought power gel and recovery drink powder at the event. Later i head down to running lab to get myself a racebelt from zoot sport... time to buy 4D number? hmmm














Sunday - Botanical garden LSD run 20km














Woke up in the wee morning at 6am. Started my drive down to botanical garden wasn't sure if i was goin the right direction but fortunately i manage to reach the gathering area at evans road NIE campus without getting lost.

Alvo , meteor and Teelee was the first group i met at the carpark. We headed down to wait for the rest at the basketball court. Soon Reno, tiwazz, charlotte, Cfred, TKtan, Daisaki, roonz, ronnie, cookie, run3, doraemon_red , babumouse, starts to trickling in. Started the run at about 7.20am. Afew regular BG runners are not here seems like theres a cycling training for some and NUS triathlon for other.

The route was similar to the previous run except for the extension into rivervalley road and clark quay. Midway at orchard road Alec drop in for the run with us. Somewhere along rivervalley some of us split up to run up towards kimseng bridge, while the other group run down to cavenagh bridge. Before we both rendevous at the 7-11 at riverside front. Charlotte on the other hand went over to the liang court 7-11 waiting for us there. So i guess somehow there was some sort of miscommunication .

We managed to return back in about 2hrs 30mins. Bala was waiting for us at the End point , he actually ran down from clementi doing his own ninja run. After everyone has returned we headed down to the shelter for a cool refreshing isotonic drink provided by Teelee (thanks!) before heading down for a shower and food at food haven. There i had my usual yong tau hu. After some chitchat we headed back home...














Cookie is being modest... covering up his 6 packs




















2 teh tarik please..














Reno dozing off... soon