It’s a busy weekend for many runners as there’s many races in this weekend with races such as King of the Trails on Saturday morning, Nee Soon Fiesta 3 Ten Run in the evening, Sunday morning there’s Safra Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon and Running Hour in the evening.

It’s my 3rd time participating in both Nee Soon Funtartstic Fiesta 3 Ten Run and SSBR&AHM, I am honoured to be one of the ambassador of 3 Ten Run ?

(Photo credits: Yi Qing)

With Orchid Country Club as the race owner, Nee Soon GRC, People’s Association and Community Sports Club and many reputable partners, it was a well organised running event. Its really a must try running event honestly not because I’m the ambassador and I have to promote it but its truly an awesome running event as you don’t usually get to run on golf course and the scenery is really pretty ? No regrets! What’s good in the race pack was a towel, race tee and a pair of free bowling game voucher at Orchid Bowl in OCC ?

What’s great was that after the run, all runners will get a medal and also given a complimentary ticket to Nee Soon Funtartstic Fiesta where participants get to redeem goodies and have fun in the game booths. Stupid me didn’t know about the complimentary tickets and went to the Community Centre and bought the tickets but never mind, the tickets was super cheap lah! Only $2 and it’s so worth it! ?

Event location was at Orchid Country Club in Yishun and free bus shuttle service is available from Khaib MRT station to Orchid Country Club.

There’s the 10km competitive cateory, 5km fun run and 1.5km family run. I ran the 5km category with my mum and Yi Qing while Willis ran the 10km category. Flag off for the 5km category was at 6.30pm, a super shiok timing as the sun was setting and it wasn’t very hot.

The amount of participants for the 5km was really only just as the photo above. I was really shocked to see the there were so few participants in the 5km category but it turns out that even the 10km category also had as little participants! All must saving energy for the next day’s one of the biggest race in Singapore, I’m glad I didn’t miss this.

There were 3 water points for the 5km category and both 100 plus and water were provided. It was 5km of greenery ? Though its a challenging hilly terrain, but I find it tahanable as I was going at a slow and easy jog to run with my mum and also to save legs for the half marathon the next day.

We took our time to complete the run and I’m glad that my mum enjoyed the run and the scenery ? Mum is still strong and healthy and she jogged all the way ? Would like to participate in more runs with her ❤

After the run, we proceed to the eventful Nee Soon Fiesta nearby to meet my sister and nephews. There were many Superheroes cosplayers around and many kids were super excited to take pictures with them, there were a few food trucks available and I bought Old Chang Kee. There’s also free Movie Screening whereby mats were given out for free for residents and participants who wants to enjoy the movie! But both my nephews were more interested in the game booths and they really have great fun! I must say the the complimentary tickets was really sibeh worth it and all the additional tickets I bought were all well utilised. Glad my nephews would like to participate in the run as well next year ?

After I reached home and by the time I’m ready to sleep it’s almost 10pm. Which means in just a few hours time, I would need to wake up for the SSBR&AHM. Willis and I tried to wake up early as I wanted to be in the first wave to avoid bottle necks and the people mountain people sea. Flagged off was at the usual Esplanade Bridge at 4.30am but when we reached the event site much earlier at around 3.30am, start pen was already opened. I remembered we were pretty late last year and we were squeezing with the people mountain people sea to even get into the start pen. It’s one of the largest runs in Singapore, and it didn’t disappoint me and somehow in my opinion, I felt the event was even better organized than Standard Chartered Marathon. I think there’s also much more supporters as well. There’s also many entertainments along the route such as drummers, cheer leaders and even belly dancers. Some of the hydration points were even themed and well decorated ?

I didn’t have any aims for this run but just to follow my training plan to run in a certain heart rate zone to train for my upcoming marathon next month. Recently I did a lactate test with Coached to find out what my heart rate zone is in and started to run in the heart rate zone as per Coached training schedule. It’s only 3 weeks since I started to do my runs based on heart rate and so far, I think the results was good. Last week at Shape Run which I participated in 10km, I gotten a sub 1 hour, though its not a PB timing but I don’t have the run die me feel and its my best timing for 10km so far this year and even for this SSBR&AHM half marathon is my best half marathon timing for this year too! ? And the best part is after the half marathon, I felt fresh, my legs weren’t tired and I felt that I could go further.

Flag off was a few minutes delayed and I enjoyed the first few kms of spacious road. I counted 6 lanes of road available for the runners, the happy huge lanes were only till we turned into Gardens by the Bay. It was still runable for me, but for those who are faster runners may seems like they were jammed and forced to run slower. Tips to avoid human jams and lack of hydration at hydration points is to try to be in the first wave. Since not long after flagged off, Willis went missing because he went to the toilet and he was missing till I saw him again after the run in the Race Village at Padang ? I tried to run with Kelvin as I saw that he’s running at a comfortable pace. This time, I felt I’ve done it right by not chionging at the beginning which I always tends to because everyone else is chionging. Till at the next half of the run after exiting Gardens By the Bay East I went faster a little as I felt I’m still energized.

It’s really a great run for me as I finished the run feeling fresh, I wasn’t panting and grasping for air and my legs were still light after the run ? Love the gorgeous finisher medal, finsiher tee and the cold towels and 100 plus❤ There’s many activities in the race village but we didn’t explore around and left after a while.

The Petaling Jaya Half Marathon is considered one of the oldest HM races in Malaysia.  HM is never my interest, ever since I started with FM, HM has become more like for training.  Going for overseas HM is also not that frequent, this time round, since most of the running friends are doing this, I decided to just crash.  Having known that Malaysia is famous for many good runners, I thought just to go and see where I stand.

Logistics

Petaling Jaya can be accessed via KLIA and is about 38KM away from this international airport. Although I was tempted to come here via bus, I found out that taking a plane over is about $150 via budget air,  that is only 50 plus more than I take bus and I was deterred by the customs.  Since now the budget airlines depart from Terminal 4 in Singapore, I thought of taking a look there too.  I was really quite impressed with the Terminal 4 and its efficiency, quite a good way to start the trip.  But unfortunately my Airasia flight was delayed by one and half hours, I guess there’s nothing much I could do about that, just happy to laze around the nice big terminal.

From KLIA, you can take a taxi to PJ, that cost about 80 RM at most.  At the city centre there are many choices of stay, you can also opt for AirBNB.

THE RACE

Taking place at Dataran Petaling Jaya @Padang Timur, PJ, Selangor.  The race flags off on 15 Jul at 5:15 am.  Quite an unearthly time for a sleepy head like me.  Thank god despite being late, my friends already helped me to get the race pack.  As such I was not able to check out the race expo.  Inside the race pack was a running tee and some brochures, there is also a tube of the muscle rub from Denmark.  Kinda interesting as it is Herbal.

The official website has enough information: http://www.pj-halfmarathon.com/

You can also do the registration here.  Finishers also get the medals and finisher tee shirt.  Best of all , there are many refreshments around.

RACE COURSE

The race course is undulating, there were many slopes around circulating around PJ.  I guess this time many of the powerhouses went for the 30KM or gave it a miss.  The 30 Km is a new category only for this 30 special anniversary edition.  However, may suspect that the years to come there will be I was able to have a breezy run by myself after shaking off the crowd.  Running through half way, the 10km and other folks merged in and it got a bit crowded.  However, there were still ample space for us to run.  The motorcycle kept following me, making me wonder if I have a chance to stand on stage again.

The weather was humid and hot, I was all sweaty with my tortoise running shirt, and half way through I also splashed water on myself to cool myself down.  This time round I only brought one small hydration bottle, I guess my ultimate aim is to make FM like running a 10KM, without much baggage.  The water points are well stocked, towards the end there were gels available too.

The ending was really weird with a small u turn into the finishing pen.  Thank god the finishing was not filled with runners.  We were given drinks ( 100 plus and water) and also banana.  The volunteers also hand the finishing medal and very nicely ethnic designed finisher tee to the finishers.  The whole dataran is a large field with spectator seats.

The ending was a nice gala for all with tent with seats and also bouncy castles.  There were also massages and heat rubs.

As I waited for the rest, I just walked around and enjoy what the different booths have to offer.  There were many sponsors selling their stuff like sunglasses, nutritional items etc.  There is also a refreshment area with milo truck and many cereal stuffs.  Some booths were giving out ice cream too.

In conclusion

The race is really quite enjoyable for a short weekend touch and go trip.  I managed to keep up with my timing despite the slopes.  Maybe will come back again but doing the 30Km.

It’s a run that celebrates Singapore’s birthday, organised by Yew Tee and Limbang Grassroots organisations and supported by Gain City. It was a good running event that’s why I’m back this year after participating in it last year! Probably will be back again next year too! ?

There were the 3km Walk category and 8km Run category, Willis and I participated in the 8km run category. The fee for the registration was super low! The cheapest running event I’d participated so far this year ? The 3km category only cost $3 and the 8km category only cost $12 and it’s inclusive of T-shirt, medal plus lucky draw chances and can participate in their carnival games and activities ?

Flag off was at Choa Chu Kang stadium and it was very packed with participants and also residents from the area for the National Day Observance Ceremony. Noticed many secondary school students from the region and residents also participated in the run. There was a slight delay for the 8km category flag off and before the flag off, we sung the National anthem and recites the National pledge. Makes me really reminising back to those days while I was still schooling. There was also a parade by the students of 3 different secondary schools with Red Cross, Girl Guides, NCC etc and shortly after the march off, the ministers flagged us off.

The pavements were pretty narrow as soon as we exit the stadium. Many participants including me ran on the grass patches by the pavements to avoid the human jam but shortly we run into the Pang Sua park connector and it was spacious and more comfortable to run in. We also ran a small part of the rail corridor enjoying a part of the greenery. There were also a quite few water points a long the way.

There was many volunteers along the way, almost stationed every few metres away along the route and all of the volunteers were so joyful and cheerful ? It was truly a nice route and an enjoyable run. And I’m in a superb mood and feeling patriotic to the maximum by holding my National flag and run and at times sung some National songs ?

The end point was at Gain City Megastore at Sungei Kadut, though it seems quite inconvenient to get out of there but shuttle bus services were provided to get runners to the MRT station ?

I’m giving a hundred likes for this run for as soon as we finished the run, immediately my eyes gone bling bling with hearts ? It was my all time number 1 favourite Milo van with my favourite drink, Milo ?

The carnival was funfilled with many games and actvities and there was even a mini vertical challenge by Gain City to climb up the top of the building which I think is 7 storeys if I didn’t remember wrongly.

Willis and I went to play basketball and gotten towels for the participation, the queue was long but fast moving. It was fun and sort of bring awareness to participants of all ages to stay active.

There was also work out and performances on stage but I’m more interested in getting a foot massage. The masseuses were visually impaired, it was $4 for 10 minutes of foot massage and all the proceeds goes directly to them

It was a well organised event, cheap and many goodies and items were given such as red bean bread, banana and bottled drinks. And for me especially, got Milo they win already ? Looking forward to celebrating Singapore’s 54th birthday with them already! ?