Snapshot's SD Photo

Managed to save Snapshot's photo of me at the finishing line at Sundown. The official clock shows the time at 1hr 24mins +.

1st Punggol Central Run - 22 June 2008

Woke up late at 7:10am. My dad called and spoke on the phone about 10mins. It was raining, people at traffic lights were using umbrella and could hear some thunder. Looking out the window, I saw lightning flashes too. Was debating whether to go to Punggol or not since 1st wave supposed to start 7:30am. Figured the rain will stop and it may continue or to just go collect the goodie bag. On the way out of the door, wife asked, "Raining still going?". Replied, that I go to collect the goodie bag (but I brought my Nike cap along and changed from vest to the NBRR 07 tee.

Took the MRT to Punggol. By the time I was queuing for my bib, it was 7:35am. There was still light rain and lightning flashes. While queuing, I saw DO (one of the sweepers) with Brokie and told myself, I wasn't late. In the queue, I heard an announcement that due to Cat 3 weather, the run is delayed. Got my bib: Yellow 116 (Men's Open).

Heard the run moved back to 8am. Was near the START with kayano, DO, DreamRunner, Brokie (& family of husband and 2 boys, all running 5 km), IMD & YeeHua and jodan. Spent some time chatting with jodan.

Minister Teo Chee Hean, MP Charles Chong, MP Teo Ser Luck came at 8am+. We were flagged off around 8:15am+. The pavement was wet and narrow. Walked till past the bus shelter and covered walkway before starting the jog. Decided to maintain my pace behind jodan. It was drizzling and was glad I brought the Nike cap along. At the 1km mark, shouted to jodan just in front of me asking what is the distance. He replied "850m" which told me my 4min+ time was fast rather than super fast. *Phew*

Saw sgRunners' Fennel and Sxuangjing along the route with their DSLR cameras. Surprised to see Fennel kneeling in the middle of the road with a blue raincoat taking photos of the runners in the rain. Good thing that road was deserted of cars.

Tried to run under the LRT tracks to get shelter from the ran. Thereafter, I generally maintained my pace and overtook jodan and a few runners cause my nose was runny a little and I felt my socks getting really wet. I walked a bit the last 1.5km as it was wet and tiring. I saw some of these youth, super fast man. Along the route was overtaken by Yee Hua and Brokie. Both ladies steady and fast. Nearing the Finsih, saw Ripley with a large haversack and her cam.

I finished the 5km run in 31:11. Happy with the time.

Finished, straightaway went to queue for my goodie bag with my coupon which was damp as it was in my shorts pocket. A little chaos as some didn't queue and dashed to the goodie bag counter. I lined up in the XL/L queue and had to re-queue for the S/XS queue but it was a short wait. I got my XS white Punggol Central Run 08 vest. Made my way to the Finish line. Did not look inside my goodie bag. Was wondering where to get drinks. Got a cup of 'warm' Berocca (not sure if the orange drink was Berocca but tasted a bit like it). Feeling better made my way to the Start line and saw the Milo truck. Still had lots of empty cups. Took one and got my 1st cup of cold Milo. Delicious.

Stood around. Waiting. Finally, looked through my goodie bag. The vest, a blue PAYM friendship band, Hp pouch sponsored by NEA, A Key chain, A water bottle with Pasir-Ris Punggol GRC logo, a few vouchers. Not bad for $8.

Met up with the sgRunners near the Start line. Chatted with Kayano and jodan. IMD, Yee Hua, Brokie (with family), Ripley, Gentle, Sassy Runner, DO, Dream Runner and wife Bev, Fennel, Sxuanjing, Happie (14 year old who did the 5km in 19mins), were some of the sgRunners I recognised. Some others I don't know.

We all waited for the lucky, hopeful that with so many having left, we had better chance. My lucky draw number 8585. A nice number. Unfortunately, with so many sgRunners there, none of us got any of the lucky draw prizes. :(

Overall, nice run. Good to have one event so near to home. Weather and my running nose is no fault of the organiser. Next time, they must forget about pavement running in Punggol due to the hanging branches. Reason why people all abandoned the pavement for the road after the 500m mark.

7km jog

Started slow slow jog at 7:30pm.

Did a 5km loop + 2km loop. Completed my slow 7km jog in 54 minutes. This Sunday is Punggol Central 5km run. Not sure I want to cheong 5km or run slow, slow.

SD Participation Cert

Got my Sundown laminated Certificate of Participaton. Ordered on Sunday night and received it in the mail today (Thursday).

Very expensive and the photo not nice. Next time, I will order the photo w/o the cert.

Run and then marketing

After a week in KL, came back late Saturday night, reaching home at 10pm+.

This morning, wanted to run but. . . .could not wake up till 7:25am and then sun was out. So, went out at 5pm for a run after maid said no more rice.

Initially, was wondering if I could do 8.5km (7km loop + 1.5km to Rivervale Mall NTUC). But then, after 2.5km, already out of breath. Must be too much eating and no running for 1 week after PAssion Run. Looks like I better find the time to re-start my 2x a week running instead of just 1x per week.

Wore the Saucony PAssion Run 08 green vest for 1st time. I think it was too big as the left shoulder kept slipping to the edge and that irritates me during the run. I can only think the size was too big. But if "S" to big, does that mean I should have asked for "XS"? So I'll probably never use the Saucony Vest for running ever, maybe for going to the park or beach or BBQ :D

I think I ran too fast as I clocked the 1st km in 6mins and the 2nd km in 13mins. Thereafter. panchet. It was a struggle and I decided to just stop at Rivervale Mall. It would have been around 5.5km and ran for 40mins and 30 secs.

Received my SD Finisher Tee

Came back from my KL trip and on Saturday night, finally saw my bright red Sundown 10.5km Team Finisher Tee. Maid said it was delivered by hand on Wednesday.

Not bad, in plastic wrap and the XS size requested for. I won't wear it till . . .maybe National Day :))

Official Results for SD and PAssion Run

Official Results are out.

Sundown 10.5km Team: 1:24:18:93

PAssion Run 10km: 1:22:47

PAssion Run results are a tad bit disappointing considering it's 500m less than SD and the time difference was just approximately 1min and 30secs.

Panaromic photo of sgRunners @ PAssion Run 08

The beauty is that there are little controls that allow you to stop the pan and to zoom in and out, pan to left/right or even up and down. Amazing!!

PAssion Run 2008

Well, my 1st Saucony PAssion Run at ECP. Weather was great. No sun and it wasn't raining. 1st 10km run and event for my wife and she did so well.

The start was uneventful. Less than 200m from the START, saw slow_runner on opposite side, Wave 1, 15km runner. Finished 1st km and 2nd km in 7 mins, which I was a bit worried as a bit faster than I wanted. But 3km mark sign board, took me 10 mins, which is clearly wrong. Almost same pace, surely it would not have taken 3 more minutes. After 4km, took 2 sips of plain water. Walked a bit. By the 5km mark, knew I was pushing the 8min/km mark too closely. But, was feeling tired, not breathless. Saw my wife on the opposite side at my 44min mark. She's doing well and at steady pace.

The 5km U-turn was a pain for slower 10km runners like me. There was some bottle neck. Faster 5km runners and fast 10km runners who started late just bashed through the crowd of 5km and 10km runners. Over-taking and swerving, they elbow some runners jogging slowly. (How these people drive and over-take when people cut-in before checking they won't knock into the person/car they over-take???). These are the ugly kiasu runners, who are inconsiderate and never even apologise to the runners they elbowed. Terrible.

Last 2 km was feeling really tired. Ran too fast in first 3km and after the 7km mark. Wanted to quickly get back to collect bag from baggage deposit and to snap photos. After final u-turn, 100m from Finish felt my left calf cramped. Really upset. I thought the cramp 1.5km from end of Sundown was isolated. Now, about 500m from finish I felt it coming. Same calf and same place. 100m from finish saw sgRunners', IMD and his wife YeeHua.

I finished per my watch 1:22:55 (1:23) a really slow time. SunDown 10.5km I finished in 1:24. Got to see the Chip time when it is officially released. But presently not pleased with my time and cramp. Slow time probably due to the traffic when the 5km runners did their U-turn. Sudden braking and over-taking does take a toll.

After finish line, saw DreamRunner and DO, they have finished their 15km and were wearing their 84km SunDown Finisher Tees. Thereafter, untied my Champion Chip, walked to change for the Finishers medal and goody bag. Then went to Recovery Area to get my 100Plus (wasn't ice-cold like SD) and then to Baggage Deposit. Baggage Collection was smooth.

Then went through the START line, positioned myself and waited for my wife with the camera. Finally saw her. Snapped a few pictures. Still smiling and running at a very steady pace. Ran to the finish line but missed snapping her just in front of the FINISH.

After she went through, we both took pictures in front of the FINISH and then took her to collect the medal and Goody bag. Then brought her to get 100Plus.

After that called slow_runner. We met slow_runner who was with my marathoner ex-boss, TY. She was with her mountain climbing team mate. Called my ex-colleague KenL who did 15km but he had left ECP and was on the way home.

After that, went to sgRunners booth. Saw they had broadband on mobile and people could sign up as forum members on the spot. [Cool]. Met Ripley, TLR, Terry, Kayano, Brokie, HoHoRunner, Philip, Bee, Alvo, Meteor, Vincent (Brokie's husband), zco, etc. . . .saw many forgot already. Took group photos with the sgRunners.

Then went off with Kayano who offered to send us back. We took a picture at the FINISH arch :)

Cold Storage Kids Run 08

Me and my wife brought the kids + Kayano's daughter to the Cold Storage Kids Run on 1 June 2008. The kids did well. Organisers did a good job. I think the padang and layout of the Start point could be improved but can't think of anything better at this point of time.


The kids all got their finishers' medals (I'M A WINNER), a laminated completion cert (with a blank line for you to fill in the child's name), a towel sponsored by "Lifebouy" + a bottle of mineral water.

Thank God the rain stopped. BUT the padang was an absolute muddy place. Shoes are 1/3 covered with mud. It was also very hot by 8:30am. Not much shade. Muddy ground but had to shuttle from start to finish very carefully not because my calf cramp the night before, but because I did not want to slide onto the mud and look a mess. :D

I will give the 1st time event a 8/10 for the goodies bag (incl the dri-fit event tee & goodies) + the organisation + the volunteers and sponsors and all for $15. So now, we have 2 events for kids (incl the SCSM kids dash).

I saw some of the finishers. Some kids dash faster than a lot of adults :sweat: :sweat: :sweat:

Top kids finising time
800m Boys (7-9 years old): 2min 47sec
800m Girls (7-9 years old): 3min 01sec
1.4km Boys (10-12 years old): 4 min 04sec
1.4km Girls (10-12 years old): 4 min 31 sec

Kids' Goodies Bag (Collected a week earlier)
Kids got lollipop each at the counter whilst waiting for the bib and the bag.

In the bag, each each got:
1) 1 Black 'messenger' sling bag (which they can use for classes)
2) 1 tube Colgate 'pokemon flavour' kids toothpaste
3) 1 Colgate kids toothbrush (that has a tongue cleaner)
4) 1 May 2008 issue of Women's weekly magazine (and I told the counter girls I don't think my 6 year old girl reads Women's Weekly)
5) 1 plastic water bottle (sponsored by Singapura Finance)
6) 1 sachet of BananaBoat SPF30 Suntan lotion
7) 1 Cold Storage green 'dri-fit' tee shirt (with "WE ARE RUNNERS" printed on the back)
8) 1 "I Play, You Play: Sporting Ideas for Children" booklet published by HPB
9) 1 "Explore Possibilities @ Marina" wristband
10) 1 Toys'R'Us $8 discount voucher
11) 1 packet Winnie the Pooh tissue
12) 1 numbered colour coded Bib with numbered wrist tag for parents (to identify kids' parents)
13) 1 packet of Jacobs Cream Crackers
14) 1 Thomson Medical Centre leaflet on HFMD