6.6km run

Did a 6.6km run in 39:38 minutes i.e. an average speed of 10km/hr.

Run 6.5km around neighbourhood

Support to run with office colleagues (VFI-Runners) after work today but forgot to bring my running shoes !

So ended up running alone near my home around the neighbourhood at around 7pm. Ran two rounds around my regular preferred route. Clocked in a total of 6.5km in 40:15 hr i.e. an average speed of 9.7km/hr. Quite an easy run today.

Never give. Will continue to run to stay healthy.

Quote

The most important persuasion tool you have

in your entire arsenal

is integrity.

Blood Preasure Checked

08:00am Sat 30-Jan-2010
Checked Blood Preasure at home using Omron Model IA2

RESULT
No irregular Heartbeat
Systolic 115 (optimal is < 120)
Diastolic 53 (optimal is < 80)
Pulse 63 (not sure what is optimal but I believe at rest the lower heart rate is better, indicating that the heart+body is efficient)

Quite please with the result.

Marathon Certification of Participation

Received my Certification of Participation for the 6-Dec-2009 Singapore Standard Chartered full marathon.

Completed my very first 42.195km Full Marathon in 5:19:51 hour. Will try to go below 5 hour in my future attempt.

Glad to receive the certificate.

My 1st City Run (non-event)

Went to run around City Area after work with colleagues. Was pacing after KwangYeong. Thought total distance covered was around 6km and thought time taken to be around 40 minutes.

Surprised to find that my Garmin monitoring watch showed a total distance of 7.8km. Even with an error of 10%, the distance covered is still at least about 7km. Time taken was 53:12 minutes i.e. an average speed of 8.8km/hr (including traffic stops, etc).

Was hot, plenty of car fumes and a lot of car traffic. Prefer East Coast and UPR.

KwangYeong was running as quite a fast pace and it was quite challenging to pace after him. First 1.5km was quite fast. After the first 3km, my heart-rate crosses 170bpm which is not very good. Coupled with the new running environment, overall quite a tough run today. But was glad to try out this new city route.

Running around city area - 1st time

Went to run around City Area after work with colleagues. Run from office which is at one end of Tg. Pagar Rd. Run towards One Fullerton, then Boat Quay, then Clarke Quay and then u-turn back. Distance is about 6km I think.

Was hot, plenty of car fumes and a lot of car traffic. Prefer East Coast and UPR.

Friends Get Together in Hong's House

Hong, Cheang, Kuan and Gan families get together in Hong's house. Almost not able to recognize two of the children Kevin and Kelly, they have grown so fast !
A very good get together to catch up with each other again.

Returned from Korea - hit the gym and did a 5km run

Went to Korea over last weekend. Temperature that night was -10 degree C ! Bought more than S$250 worth of K-pop CDs requested by my daughter (through email)... mainly SS501, Super Junior, Big Bang, 2NE1, 2PM, etc. Mostly are all boys band which I heard the name first time from her.

Reached home today. Went to the gym at 6pm and did a 5km ran on the trackmill in 28:10 minutes... set the belt speed at 10.5km/hr and 11.0km/hr most of the time. Was a bit tired but felt good. Went to swim for about 10 minutes after that.

Did a 10km run at East Coast Park after a long break

Have not been running for quite sometime. Went for a Taiwan tour from 26-Dec to 3-Jan. Started running again today at East Coast for about 10km.

Forgotten to bring my Garmin heart rate and speed monitoring watch. Felt sort of a bit "naked" without the device as I am running but not knowing my speed, heart rate or distance covered.

Find the run a bit tiring after such a long break of not running. But am glad to be running again !

Ran 6km around the neighbourhood

Too busy to run yesterday. It has been two weeks since I stopped running.

Finally managed to went ahead and did a short run before dinner around the neighbourhood for 6km. Felt really great after the run. After 1km warm up run, was trying to keep the speed above 10km/hr.

Did 6km in 34:53 minutes, an average speed of 10.3km/hr or pace of 5.48min/km. If can sustain at this pace, it is about 54.8 minutes for 10km. Will try to do a 10km event in the near future with target below 60 minutes, preferably below 55 minutes

Have not been running for 2 weeks since the marathon

Have not been running for 2 weeks since the marathon on 6-Dec-09. Getting a bit lazy to start up again.

Wanted to sign up for the 29-May-2010 Sundown marathon but date clashes with other personal commitment. As such will skip the Sundown and join the Standard Chartered marathon in Dec-2010 instead.

Maybe after completing the marathon and without any running events nearby, am not too motivated to start running again.

Probably will try to start running again tomorrow........to keep the 'fire' going. Run for Life.

My very 1st 42.195km Full Marathon Ran

SUCCESS. We did it !!

The Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon event is getting so popular. Within a short few week

after opening for registration, the 50,000 places were all fully taken up and registration was closed. Ended up some of our fellow runners were not able to join.

Woke up late for my Aug-09 SAFRA Marina Bay 21km event. So, setup 3 alarm clocks last night just to be sure that I can wake up on time for my first Full marathon event today.

Woke up at 3:30am as planned. Took a cup of coffee, 3 bananas and 2 Nature Valley energy bar biscuits (free). Before leaving house, took a glass of the Berocca vitamin C drink (free). Drove out from home at 4:30am and reach event site at 5:00am.

A little surprised to see such a huge crowd. Moved myself ahead bit by bit on the Esplanade bridge towards the starting point. Nice to see that the queue line was properly labelled for >5 hr, 5hr, 4.5hr, 4.0hr, etc. Moved ahead and join the crowd at the 5 hr group.

Since I started running again on 9-Jul-08 with HT Ng and William Yeoh, I have never expected that I will ever run a full 42.195km marathon. One and a half year later, here I am just about to start my very first full marathon ran today at 5:30am. The feeling was great. Have two goals :

Goal#1 : to complete the full 42.195km marathon ran.

Goal#2 : to try to do it within 5:00 hours.

Initial plan was to try to complete the full event at an average speed of 9km/hr which will enable me to complete the full event within less than 5 hours. But I meshed it all up when the race started. Carry a fluid belt with me to carry items like car key, handphone, energy gel and a small bottle of 100-Plus (300ml). Brought along 4 packets of GU energy gel and plan to take one at 45 minutes or an hour interval.

0 to 10km

Started slow to allow the body to warm up. Tried to keep speed between 9km/hr and 10km/hr. Saw a black dressed ‘witch’ (without broom) running at a fairly constant speed of around 10km/hr. So decided to pace her. Quite comfortable pace and continue to run right behind the ‘witch’. Drink at each water point to stay hydrated as advice by Pete Laute.

10km to 20km

At around 10km mark, the “witch” met a “Santa mama” and stopped to chat. So I continue on and met our fellow hot-runner CS Chan (several-time marathoner). Started to pace and follow behind CS. Speed was between 10km/hr to 12km/hr. Deviated from my overall plan but feeling reasonably comfortable at that speed. Along the way saw the 4.5-hour marathon pacers, so my timing was quite ok I thought. Drink at each water point to stay hydrated. Always go for 100-Plus isotonic drink instead of plain water as it hydrates the body better as it replenishes the electrolytes.

20km to 30km

After 20km was not able to catch up with CS and the distance between him and me begin to widen. Continue to run at around 10km/hr speed. At 28km mark, started to feel some pain around the thigh and hamstring area. Bad sign and a symptom of cramp about to come. So stop to stretch the legs and then continue to run. Put on ‘heat-rubs’ along the way when there are supply available. So started a mixture of run and stop+stretch from 28km to 30km and try best to avoid onset of cramps. Told myself regardless what happen, must complete the full marathon.

30km to 40km

Saw the 5-hour marathon pacers, so thought may still have chance to complete the full marathon within 5 hours. Started to stay close to the 5-hour marathon pacers from 33km to 37km mark. Running speed was averaging around 9km/hr. Reasonably ok and did not trigger the cramps. Quite glad and still optimistic that maybe able to complete within 5 hours if the cramps do not sets in. However at 37km the pains around the legs were getting much stronger. The helpers along the way all ran out of the “heat-rubs”. So stopped and stretched the legs again and again and then run. Stopped several times to stretch… continue with a mix of run and stop+stretch to keep myself going. Borrowed some “heat-rub” from a fellow runner near a bus-stop. Seems to help relief some of the pain. Told myself that in future I must bring along some “heat-rub”.

40km to 42.195km

At 39km mark decided to continue running with minimal or no stops to complete the event with reasonable timing. Continued at average speed of 9km/hr and mindful of potential cramps setting in. Completed the full final few kilometres at that moderate speed through sheer determination.

COMPLETED THE 42.195KM FULL MARATHON IN 5:19:51 HOURS.

Was so so glad that I manage to complete the 42.195km Full Marathon and still able to walk around the place. As CS Chan said “It’s a Glory to complete a Marathon event”. Cheers….

After the finishing line, saw my wife and daughter at the side looking out for me. So glad that they have came to provide me the support. This is the first time they came to join me for a running event.

Met ZhiJing and Joe.

AFTER THE MARATHON (SAME DAY)

Was able to drive car home. Very glad that there is no injury. Thigh muscles very painful. Have difficulty taking off the socks. Very easy to get a cramp on every parts of the body if that portion of the body moves too fast e.g. arms, legs, etc. Felt legs pain while climbing stairs,

need to climb stairs slowly.

DAY 1 AFTER MARATHON

Thank goodness that my meeting in US was postponed to Jan-10. If not, the travelling and flight journey can be torturous. Went back to office to work today. Still have some pains on the legs and body generally felt tired.

DAY 2 AFTER MARATHON

Almost fully recovered. Most of the pains were gone. Was pleasantly surprised at the fast pace of recovery. Told myself must do another marathon again and aim to complete within 5 hours. Wanted to sign up for Sundown marathon on 29-May-10 but clashes with some other commitment. So will have to give this a miss.

Definitely will sign up for next year August Marina Bay Half Marathon and December Standard Chartered Full Marathon. Will also sign up for other running events along the way to continue to keep the body in tune and healthy. Not sure whether to run at constant speed of 9km/hr throughout or to use another different strategy to complete the full marathon within 5 hours.

I have never thought of running a Full Marathon some 1.5 years ago. Special Thanks to HT Ng and ST Kuan who have motivated me to sign up for my very first running event last year August i.e. SAFRA Marina Bay 10km run. And for HT Ng and William Yeoh who ran with me since then in the Nanyang Polytechnics running track and subsequently migrated to some of our other favourite running routes. And the joy of running with all our fellow Hot-Runners !!

Run for Health, Run for Fun, Run for Life.

Quote

Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

SGRunners.com

10km casual run at East Coast

6 more days to go to full marathon event on 6-Dec. Will do some short distance runs (10km or less) this week to keep muscle in tune.

Went to run at East Coast after work. Started from carpark B1 and westward towards city. Hit the end (blocked) at 800m. Did a u-turn and hit 1.6km at carpark B1. Then continue eastwards towards UDMC Seafood Centre. Make a u-turn right before the first restaurent, after a total of 6km displayed on my Garmin monitoring watch. By the time I get back to carpark B1 again is about 10km.

Ran really slowly at around 9.3km/hr for the first 6km. Then speed up and stay at around 10km/hr. Speed up to above 11km/hr for the final 1.3km. Overall an easy and comfortable run.

Clocked 10.36km in 1:03:51 hr, an average speed of 9.7km/hr.

23km training run at East Coast

It has been raining almost daily for the past 2 weeks. Today the weather was really good with sunny sky in late afternoon. So left office on time and went to do a solo run at East Coast. As the weather is good, decided to do the farthest run possible.

Parked at carpark F1. Decided to run farthest eastward and then u-turn and run westward farthest (or until carpark B1).

Ran eastward passed sailing club, Safra club, Camelot training camp and no more road. After that there is the National Park Connector (NPC) towards Changi Beach Park. Did a u-turn after clocking 5km. Took a short break at carpark F1 to pick up my drinking bottle and continue running westward until carpark B1 (near Fort Road).

Adjusting my speed along the way while trying to maintain heart rate close to 150bpm and not to exceed 160bpm.

Clocked in a total of 23km in 2:28:49hr. An average speed of 9.3kmph which is my comfortable cruising speed. At this cruising speed, heart and lung seems to be able to continue running non-stop as long as the legs can continue.

After run, took a bowl of fish ball noodle soup and a glass of fresh coconut juice. Doggy-bag a chilli crab and deep fried baby squid at Long Beach Seafood restaurant for wife and kid.

10.71km solo run at East Coast

Was at supplier site in Chai Chee drive. After work decided to go and run at East Coast. Parked at carpark F1 instead of B1 as it is closer to the supplier site. EJ went running too and parked at carpark B1. I ran all the way from carpark F1 to B1 and back.

Total clocked in 10.71km in 1:06:48hr. Started really slow in the first half. After reaching carpark B1 did a u-turn back. Along the way met EJ. After that begin to tail-gate a lady runner in red t-shirt (same color as mine). Was pacing closely right behind her. She picked up speed along the way and I tagged along real closely. When we were about to reach the Seafood Centre, she did a u-turn back. What a pity as she is running at fairly good speed and a good pacer for me. Did not clearly see her face.

Overall, very glad with the run. The timing was better than expected as first half I was running real slow. The second half was quite fast while pacing the lady runner. Went to the hawker centre and took a young coconut. Felt great.

Did a 75 minutes run

Did a 75 minutes run around the neighbourhood. Distance covered probably around 11 to 12km. Was an easy run.

Did 45 minutes run on Fri night 20-Nov

Did 45 minutes run today around the neighbourhood. Distance probably around 7km. No running data as my monitoring watch data is full. Something wrong with my monitoring watch not able to transfer data to my PC recently.

1st anniversary run with the Hot-Runners at East Coast Park

Went for the 1st anniversary run with the Hot-Runners at East Coast Park. Had a great time running with them even with the rain pour.

20 people turned up for today's run. Quite a good turn-out despite short notice.




We had dinner at the East Coast hawker centre after the run.

Did 11.21km

Clocked 11.21km in 1:08:36hr. An average speed of 9.8km/hr.

Quite an easy run.