It was around October again.

I remember last year on the same month after running 8km at Chua Chu Kang Farm Run 2013 (CCK) event that I’m going to join again next year.

CCK was one of the many running events I anticipated this year. This event is annually held around Brickland road. I’m staying in east area, so this running event route is unique and fresh scenery for me. I was delighted when the organizers announced on their facebook page that this year’s run will be 10Km, longer than last year’s 8Km route.  So far this is the cheapest running event I know. I only paid $10 ($12 for non-Passion member) for 10Km with singlet and finisher medal included, shuttle bus service from ChoaChuKang MRT to Brickland road and back, as well as freebies from sponsors. This is a fun run that promotes health in the community through running, with walking and kids dash included as wholesome family event, so there is really no need for race bib and timing chip. I was able to register and pay online as well, which is a big improvement from last year’s registration whereby you can only register and pay through community centre.

Chua Chu Kang BIG Farm Walk & Run 2014

October 12 came. I started heading off from home (Bedok) at around 6 am taking bus/MRT and arrived at ChoaChuKang MRT around 7.15am. I went to queue up for shuttle bus, and noticed that the flow of the queue is good. Volunteer smiled at us telling us not to worry as they will wait for all runners to come.

The flag-off for 10Km run is 7:30 am. I arrived late, went to baggage deposit area to give my bag and went to one of the portable toilet stations before heading to the starting point. There are lots of people waiting 3Km Walk 8am flag-off, and so I started running at around 7:50am. I supposed I can still start to run even at 8:30 am (for those staying farther than me).

Besides liking the route and scenery, I’m also excited to have my PB (I’m using running apps to track my distance/speed), so I ran my best. I can say that the road preparation and logistic by road marshals are good and safe. I was late, so I hurry up and this is a good way to beat my PB. But somehow along the way, I experienced congestion. Some of the participants (and I can say not few), are not running but taking a walk leisurely and taking some pictures. Anyway, what can I expect … this is a fun run and not a competitive run, besides the value for money I paid for. So I squeezed in for several hundred meters doing some zigzag occasionally. On halfway part, I think I passed through the leisure runners and catch up with the serious runners so the road was smooth again. I passed through several drink stations and I think only stop on 1 drink station. I can remember there is no isotonic drink (if my recall is correct), but I don’t think I really need an isotonic drink for 10Km run, water will suffice.

Moving past the half way, I saw the 3Km walkers and they are all happy and smiling. I can see the sense of community in this event. This is really an event that promotes health as they give walk option for the oldies and kids, and kids dash.

At around 8Km mark, I saw that volunteers are giving the finisher medal. I didn’t know that it was 8Km as I think I didn’t saw a sign or mark. I took the medal, thinking that I completed the race and stopped my Runkeeper apps. Looking at it, I saw only 8Km and also seeing other runners continue their run, while I started walking. I guess this confusion is the only part I didn’t like during the run. Anyway I want to complete my 10Km, so I started running again (although my mood wants me to rest already). I persevere and finish the 10Km mark.

At the finish line

The volunteers are waiting and smiling to give finisher medals (which I already took on 8Km mark, so I didn’t take again). They also gave the goodie bags. This event is truly generous as they provide big bananas (I’m seeing some runners took 2 or 3) and waters. After taking my goodie bags (I also bought ticket for my kids since it’s only S4 with shirt and goodie bags included), I queued up for Milo drinks and took 2 cups.

I took a selfie as usual and took a picture of my new souveneir medal. Wow, the medal is much better than last year, it’s thicker and bigger. I looked at my Runkeeper apps and indeed have my PB (less than an hour finishing 10Km).

I collected my bag and took a public bus to nearest MRT. There is a free shuttle bus going back to CCK MRT station, but it only started at 11am.

Few days after the run, I can see some of my running pics by Kiko Aguelo and Running Shots. Again I have my souveneir of pictures and medals that I can see later when I grow older and bring back my euphoric running memories.

My overall recollection of the event

There was much improvement from last year, from the registration, to the longer running route, to the finisher medal. For a fun run I think I would give CCK Run 2014 event a 10/10.

This event has good logistics. Even before the pre-registration, their facebook page is always updated and transport is provided as well. I think there was enough water stations (although I can see comments from others requesting to add more water stations next time) and the road is not congested. What more can I ask for a $10?

What I can see an improvement is the 8Km giving of finisher medals. I’m not sure what is the purpose of giving medals at 8Km, maybe for those who wants an option to stop running after 8Km as this is just a fun run, but at least they should mention this option in the FAQ or updates.

CCK is not for serious runners as it’s non-competitive and you can expect a walker or leisure selfie taker that can block your way unnecessarily. I really think this event is for a health promotion run, that is affordable and wholesome that everyone can participate in the community including oldies and kids. I truly enjoyed CCK 2014 fun run event and will join again next year.

PS. This is of my own opinion and experience, and I’m no way affiliated with the event’s organizers.

Puma Night Run first event in Singapore, Saturday 1st November, 2045 flag off at Sentosa.

This race ended up in the middle of a very busy racing weekend for me. I ran the Stadium Run at the Singapore National Games on Saturday morning (4.4k), good news there – I was able to hang on for 7th Master and F1 Runners masters mens team won the team event. Then on the Sunday I did 4×400 masters for F1 at the same SNG event, here we managed to grab Silver, but definitely confirmed that none of us is ‘track fit’ any longer. We joked with the winning team (proper sprinters) that next year we would take them on over 4 x 5k ! 🙂

So, with those races going on, I decided to try a new way of running an event in Singapore – I decided to ‘Just Run Lah‘. A few of my fellow ‘Mount Sinai Striders’ were running, so I planned to pace my mate ‘Scouse Pete’ to a sub 50 pace. At the same for this event, I would do all the ‘fun’ stuff that I never normally do at races to get into the ‘Puma Night Run’ vibe.

VIP treatment

I was very kindly given a free slot at this race by Puma courtesy of this blog, which was awesome. Joshua from Puma’s PR company Mercury MC met me at the VIP Registration Desk and took me around the race showing me all the various activities and ideas Puma had put together for the run. Wavestation at Siloso Beach makes an incredible Race Village, the beach club vibe fitting really well with the overall ‘cool’ of the event.

Josh explained the event was capped at 3000 runners, due to set off in two waves and it had been a sellout. I arrived at the village around 7.30PM and the place was already buzzing. I dropped my bag in the VIP area (haha! I am going to keep saying VIP throughout this blog, cos it doesn’t happen to me very often) [editor’s note: see? we like saying it too, we even used it as a heading for you :D] and headed into the village to drop off my lucky dip ticket, get a temporary tattoo and grab a handfull of glowsticks to decorate my shoes and make a lovely glow necklace(!).

These are all things I never ever do when I am racing, so it was kind of fun to get into it all. I would have got an Instagram pic taken, but the queue was way too long for my low boredom threshold. So I went back to the VIP (sorry / notsorry) area to see what was going on.

Joshua told me that there were a group of (real) celebrities who had been chosen by Puma for a running bootcamp over the previous 6 weeks – they seemed like a nice bunch,who obviously are enjoying their night and seem to have a great team spirit. Since I’m an old guy I dont know who any of these people are, but judging by the number of runners who are crowding around the VIP area for a look at these guys, they are very popular!

(Blog update – the Puma Night Cats are : Tabitha Nauser, Darius Chia, Kimberly Chia, Mahdir Mustaffa, Gavin Teo, Vivi Yeh & Justin Vanderstraaten)

Two enthusiastic MC’s introduced the famous people to great applause on the stage at the Wavehouse and everyone seemed to be having a great time on a warm, clear evening on Sentosa. The lighting is uber-cool, the music is loud and all the beautiful people are here.

After my Newton Challenge experience last weekend I went early to the start pen so as not to end up in the second wave. It’s about 400m further down the road towards siloso beach and it’s also looking awesome. The whole beach front road from Siloso to Tanjong Beach is closed off for the run, giving it a real professional event feel. I join the start pen, meet my mates and wait for the flag off.

Plan with Pete tonight is to run around 5min/k’s to get him somewhere in the 49-50 mins zone. We know there are a few hills on the route, but we’ll try to stick to the pace as best we can.

 

Flagg off!

Flag off at 2045 and we are off up the road, feels great, with a nice crowd and enthusiastic support from the bars and restaurants along the first km section towards Beach Station. The course is well marshalled, well lit and plenty wide enough for the number of participants.

We make a solid start and we’re on pace through 4k when we turn just at Tanjong Beach Club, we then hit the first climb up the hill to the golf course (seems a lot less steep when I am driving up there!), the course takes an interesting route them through a buggy tunnel at Seranpong and loops around the Telecoms Station. It’s very quiet here, but well lit and a good route decision.

Back onto the main Sentosa road for the last 4k home, we steam down the hill back to Palawan beach and push for home. I told Pete the golf course hill was the last one, but I forgot the slight incline up to Beach Station, so we push up there, still more or less on our pace, last 1500m has a real ‘big race finish’ feel about it so it’s easy to find the extra strength and motivation for a final burst over the line. We’re all done in 50:14 and feeling great. Meet the volunteers at the finish line for a banana and a nice cold bottle of water, collect our medals and the team re groups.

Shug (my regular racing buddy) was racing this one, he finished 6th in 39:17, so he’s very happily wandering around with the ‘6th place’ lanyard around his neck, Shaun and Rob finished just ahead of me and Pete so we all wander back into Wavehouse together, our work for the evening complete.

The after-party

I head into the VIP area to pick up my bag, grab a shower and change clothes, there’s a nice F&B spread put on in here so I grab a coke and some watermelon then head out to meet the boys for a well deserved beer and the essential 30 minute ‘my race went like this’ de-brief session.

We stick around and watch the presentations, Mens Race is won by a Kenyan guy in 31 mins (big respect), Womens is won in 44 mins, which is kind of surprising, but there are a lot of other events this weekend which I assume attracted the faster ladies.

The post race vibe is just as buzzing as it was beforehand so we stick around for a few drinks enjoying the atmosphere. One big plus of a smaller race size and a race village like this place is that you can get an actual seat to chill on, rather than sitting on the grass at the Padang, plus its late at night, it’s a bit cooler, so it’s very relaxing to sit, chat, drink and listen to the bands.

Reflecting on the evening now I can definitely say this was one of my favourite running experiences to date in Singapore. Usually after a race I am mainly thinking about my performance, did I go out to fast, did I go out too slow, should I have done this, should I have done that blah blah blah. But this time, I just ran, at a very comfortable pace, chatted to my mate (bugged the hell out of him throughout) and enjoyed the night.

It gave me an opportunity to see the event the way (I think) many people see it – less about the running performance, more about the overall experience – and I really enjoyed it. Puma got the balance right between sports/performance and fun/atmosphere and in doing so created a really special event. I’m really happy to have been part of the inaugural Puma Night Run and I’ll certainly be back next year. I did hear that the regular baggage collection station was a bit chaotic (not sure why they needed to wrap all the bags in big white plastic sacks – sounds like they made it very difficult to spot identify each bag), but apart from that everything was well managed and executed.

Meanwhile, the competitive runner in me returns and next time out I’ll be fretting about seconds, splits, when to push, breathing patterns and all the other rubbish that usually occupies my mind when I’m running.

Happy Trails!

Attention to detail

When most of us think of Singapore Airlines (SIA), we usually think of it being one of the safest airlines in the world, providing one of the best in-flight services that anyone would have ever experienced and last but not least, the iconic SIA girl- the gorgeous air stewardesses.  Yet, who says that SIA can only forge a relationship to anything and everything that has got to do with flights, airplanes and the tourism indiustry? Just yesterday, on the 2^nd of November 2014, SIA took its 1^st step into the sports industry by organizing a race- SIA Charity Run. Held at the F1 Pit Building, the race attracted one of the largest crowd of participants that I have ever witnessed, ranging from kids to corporate participants to competitive runners.

If you are a fan of themed races like the Hello Kitty Run or Colour Run, SIA Charity Run is the run for you. It is definitely one of the most well-themed races I have ever come across! With its starting point being named as “Take Off” and its finishing point being named as “Arrival”, it enhanced your running experience by allowing you to imagine that you are “flying” instead of running. Not to forget, there were even air stewardesses to cheer for you at the starting point. In addition, to mimic the breathtaking scenery that one would witness on the plane if you are lucky enough to get yourself a window seat, SIA Charity Run provided us with picturesque scenery of the Kallang River, Marina Bay Sands and also, The Singapore Flyer.

A smooth flight

Reputable for providing a smooth flight, SIA has planned a fairly smooth running route for the race too. With little slopes, the run was a pretty easy one that would not be too taxing for any beginners out there. Unfortunately, there were several areas (the Kallang River area) that were pretty narrow and congested. For competitive runners, this can be quite a hassle as your timing for the race will be affected. In fact, due to the non- competitive nature of 5km run, many of the participants were walking. This resulted in a huge congestion around those areas and many of the runners had to either run on the grass patches to keep up with their timings or, to walk together with the other participants. Besides, there were also a lack of road marshals at several important points that resulted in several race participants cheating their ways across the race by cutting across the race route. Yet, all these congestion and problems were eased with not only the strategic location of the water stations along the wider areas of the race route, but also, the integrity of the majority of the race participants.

Due to its abundance of volunteers, there were almost zero queue for both baggage deposit and medal collection.  In fact, unlike many of the races in which you have to endure a long queue before getting into the restroom, there were plenty of restrooms for this run.

Having a themed photobooth is a trend nowadays and SIA did not miss out on that! After the race, one can grab a picture taken with not only a pilot and an air stewardess, but also, with a cute airplane background. Not to forget, Ironman and Captain America were spotted there too!

Overall, SIA Charity Run is one that is not only family-oriented, but also, well-themed. It is a run that you will witness parents piggyback-ing their kids, guys dressing up as air stewardesses, kids dashing along the race routes, all in one day. As a competitive runner, I would join this run again though most likely, for the 10km category instead.

A new Night Run in Singapore!

Sundown Marathon used to be the only “night race” in Singapore. In recent times, there were more of such runs. One example is the Illumi run.

This race is Puma’s first running event in Singapore. I understand the Puma running club in Malaysia is pretty established and thus it was great to witness a sports brand holding a run in Singapore especially after Adidas and Nike pull the plug on their respective hosted runs this year.

Setting its sights in Sentosa, the key attractions to this run is obviously running in the night and “running areas in Sentosa never ran before“. For a typical tourist, Sentosa is pancake flat. However the same couldn’t be said for race routes; be prepared to go past never-ending hills and expect a challenging race.

Puma night run did not disappoint in that respect. Seriously I have no idea where I was running. But in summary the two km was pretty flat. Thereafter it was either ups or downs all the way till the final km.

 

Getting ready

I drove in and was greeted with a smile at the gantry. Thereafter i slowpoked my way towards a makeshift parking area specially created for drivers. Parked my car and made our way towards the starting point. It was a km walk towards the start line and i thought it was a good way of channeling everybody towards the start point, especially in a race site like Sentosa.

The baggage deposit was placed strategically on the upper levels. I though that was a brilliant idea to ensure proper flow of runners! I did not deposit any baggage, hopefully collection was a breeze!

When i reached the start point, i was 15mins away from flag off. The MC was asking all of us to stop our warmups if we want to participate in the first wave.

When i arrived at the pen area, i realized there were no much areas to do any warmup. With that, i did none and walk straight into the pen and squeezed as front as possible. By then, i was jammed 15 rows behind the starting point.

Of course, the coolest aspect is to be able to run with your fellow Mediacorp celebrities. Here you could see Sham enjoying himself with their company!

I only knew there were celebrities after flag off where their respective fan clubs stand by and support their celebrities. I believe Elvin Ng was there. His fan club was screaming for his head lol.

And so the race begins!

The first 2km was rather flat and manageable. However there were peeps walking just after the 1km mark, which was disappointing to witness. There were some minor hills on the way to Cove Drive which was still manageable.

The killer came at the 4km mark where there was this mini route of up and down hills. Thereafter at the 6km mark, there was this unique huge “roundabout” of up and downhills. That was pretty manageable as you could see the front runners running uphill while you’re going down, giving you a sense of what to expect.

Once out of there, you are basically on the same route back to where you started. I like how there’s every km marker on this race, a rarity nowadays. The accuracy seemed to be off abit but who would complain about a shorter distance, right? 🙂

I was amazed by the volunteers and the management of the water stations. They are extremely enthusiastic and would take the water out for you before you crash into the station yourself. Though i stood there for few seconds waiting for mine in one particular station, that wasn’t a problem as i knew they tried. I would prefer to be handed water than to pick one myself at running pace!

The distance markers looked something like that. Don’t we love the 400m and 200m distance markers? These are the most motivating markers throughout the entire race! Not to mention 400m marker was right smack beside the “Bikini bar” 😛

With 200m left, i give a last surge, lifted my arms and celebrate with joy!

The after-race party

While the race comes to an end, the start to the after-party begins!

As the rest of the runners trickles in, there were entertainment planned for everybody.

Free wave rides for runners, concert-liked performances, beer offerings, instant photo booths etc. The aim if to create a party-like atmosphere and i thought this was rather unique for a 10k race! Thumbs up Puma for creating that atmosphere.

I took part in the instant photo booth while the queue is short and was smiling with glee upon receiving my photoprint 😀

Thereafter, i made my way to collect my car. I recall there was a ‘towel’ to be collected, but unfortunately I couldn’t find a booth that says towel collection. With that i walk my way to my car and like the rest, drove out before the crowd came back.

In summary, the good and challenging parts of the race are as follows:

Pros

• Unique race concept
• Night race for those whom prefer racing the night
• Bright pink event tee with nice sizing (Can be cons for some guys whom hate bright pink!)
• Volunteers are extremely enthusiastic
• Water points are well managed

Challenging aspect

• Hilly run, not a good race for PB
• Lack of warmup area
• Not so value for money

All in all, it was an excellent race for those seeking a challenge and for those whom run best at night instead of mornings! It was short, around 9.7xkm, not sure if that qualify as a pro or con! 😀

– skinnykenyan