News ...

In that short span of 30mins watching CNA news, I was bombarded with nothing but bad news

Political instability in Thailand, Taiwan (their people expect immediate results from the President they elected just 100 days ago. Duh ?? One citizen lamented that the President did not deliver on his promise about the stock market. Hello ? Hasn't he heard of the subprime crisis ?? Ok, maybe all this is just staged for some political reasons ... ).

Storm of Century in New Orleans. Their mayor had instructed the New Orleans citizen to flee .... seems like 50% are still staying put .. must be very hard for the people just 3 years after Hurricane Katrina. They are probably just slowly recovering from that and now this ...

Flood in India. Worst seen in living memory. People are eating uncooked rice mixed with polluted water.

About six people were run down by an errant driver in Spain and two of them were tourists who just arrived in the city.

I was just hit one after another by these sad news ... all while trying to get some breakfast in after that LSW. Though I lament so much day after day, I feel so unfairly fortunate to be comfortably at home in SG ... without the woes of political instability and saved from huge natural disasters ...

Hope they will see better days real soon.

LSW

The slacker in me finally prevailed and I ended up walking more than running ...

After 4 km I was ready to call it quits ... when ur mind wants to slack, it will find all sorts of excuses and the body sorta played along. The nagging backache (prolly due to the lousy sleep the night before), the slight shin pain, the weak mental state all but told me to stop running.

Then I happened to see some people walking across a bridge that seemed to lead to another jogging track so I decided to explore a little since I've decided to slack anyway. Crossing the bridge was a little scary as it was made up of 4 metal planks and I could see the canal thru the gaps in between the planks. It was kinda scary and I was regretting it half way across the bridge.

The track, about 1.8km long with 2 traffic stops in between, took one to Jurong East. Its rather quiet and hence its pretty nice to run along that stretch. But one traffic stop is under construction thus I had to dash across the road. Not very safe.

The park connectors are not well connected yet unfortunately and it is rather inconvenient to run along the whole stretch with the frequent traffic light junctions etc. I didn't run til the end as I wasn't in the best of (mental) state and considering I have no ezlink card nor $$ with me. I felt very insecure to be running too far out of homeground. Will explore further next time when I'm more prepared.

I think I didn't cover more than 10km today and it took me close to 2 hours. Haha ... this is definitely what Taz would consider as "junk miles" :P

Ok, as The Gifted says. "Nevermind lah, relax. Start again next week. " Yup, hope so.

Anyhow Run

Its been a long time since I last did an "Anyhow Run".

Didn't run ytd as it was raining. Was so happy when I heard the pitter patter as that meant I could sleep a little longer and skip the run :P

Anyway, the guilt kicked in soon enough and so I went out for a run this mrn.

Changed the route twice while running, but still managed to get to destination on time. There were one too many traffic stops this mrn, so had to compensate by running a lil faster in between the breaks.

Should cover about 9km 1hr 2mins.

Good run.

I Just want to slack

I felt less burdened after SBR that right after I was already planning excuses to skip my routine runs. Yes, I have in all 206 lazy bones in me (Googled and that's the number of bones an adult has ...)

Alas, woke up at 4am and was drifing in and out of a dream revolving around colleagues & work ... what a nightmare... torture

So decided that though I don't feel up to it, I would just do a slow run.

Surprisingly the very slow run turned out to be very enjoyable. The stress and unhappiness surrounding me before the run evaporated. No wonder they said exercise help lifts one's mood.

Good relax run.

Ok, continue to slack.

SBR 2008

The pics said it all.

Yup, I finished it. My second SBR (first being in 2006) and my premonition came true. I struggled.
:P



This run is quite unlike my first. I guess in my first SBR, I didn't know what to expect, I was running quite often and the runs were always fun, so I was sorta looking fwd to SBR 2006. I completed the run feeling fresh (albeit breathless but my legs were alright) and enjoying the whole experience.

Come 2008. Somehow I felt apprehensive and by this morning i was a lil anxious.

Very fortunate to have Mr and Mrs IMD picked me up this mrn and we got to the starting point early. Didn't manage to catch any of the rest of the SGRunners gang and so I was alone at the starting point and it was boring. The comperes were not psyching up the group, and the music was just *yawn* ... errr ... I was really expecting a more upbeat atmosphere :P Maybe it was just me

When the horn sounded, everyone just surged fwd as always but thankfully in an orderly manner. I started my own slow pace and everyone just passed me. I kept to my consistent slow pace and let everyone passed. Somehow the feeling was really surreal. Its almost as if I'm in a dream watching myself running and having all the runners passed me by. I dunno why but I had the urge to turn around to see whether I was the last runner. I know it was a silly thought but really that's how I felt.

The run towards ECP was manageable. Bee ran up to say hello. Pleasant surprise! Very happy to see Bee and very nice of her to run over to say Hi. She was still running at a very consistent pace and I tried to keep up with her on and off.

Shortly into ECP, I already started seeing runners on their return leg. Tried to keep a lookout for Teelee but didn't manage to see him. Saw IMD breezed past. Also caught sight of cfred, TLR and realrunner all in good form. Cokiee passed me and gave me a thumbs up to cheer me on. Thanks so much Cokiee for the encouragement! Really appreciate it. :)

I didn't expect the U-turn point in ECP to be that far away and each time I thought the turn was near, I realised that the long train of runners ahead were still meandering further in. The turning point finally came at the 9km mark. The return leg out of ECP was thankfully uneventful and seemed half as long.

By the 17km I was showing signs of strain. The lethargy was kicking in (so soon?!) and somehow my gastric didn't feel right. I wasn't sure whether it was indeed gastric or stitches as I gulped down a cup of water shortly before. I was starting to weaken mentally and shortly after I started to do run walk. The "trail" leading up to the Marina Barrage was a little challenging, perhaps exacerbatd by my increasing lethargy. Anyway, someone gently tapped my arm as I was in my own world struggling - turned out to be one of my uni friend's husband. How he could recognise me from behind after so many years, I do not know. He was trying to make conversation but I was just too tired and could only answer him in between breaths. Shortly after I asked him to go ahead an he trudged along and was soon out of sight.

The rest of the journey was just ... struggling and I finally finished the run in 2hrs 27mins 04secs. Much slower than my first SBR. Ah well ...

I didn't feel very good after the run, was really drained and ears seemed blocked the entire time. I couldn't really hear myself very well. No good.

Anyway, managed to catch the SGRunners and took some group pics. I feel so out of place now in the SGRunners as I know only the handful of them now. Thankfully cfred called out to me as I was searching for the SGrunners people, else I would have missed them.

My calves felt tight after the run. Quite strange since its not as if I have not tried 20km in my LSD. Must be the age :P

Though I said I feel out of place in the SGRunners group, I'm still nonetheless glad to see some familiar faces like Andy, Sotong (Thanks too for the encouragement after my run! I'm still in awe at just how he towers over everyone!), Teelee, Taz, IMD, Brokie, cfred, Charmane, Renoh, Tigger, Ultraman, Bee, TLR, FD, Cokiee, DO, Gentle ...

Special thanks to Mr and Mrs IMD for giving me a lift today! Very very grateful! *BOW*

Thanks also to Teelee. You know what you did :) So THANKS again!

Also to Cokiee. THANKS so much for all the encouraging words last nite on MSN and to cheer me on when you passed me. That really helps, really. :)

And to the many others who didn't scoff at my horrible timing :P

Ok lah, though I bitch so much about how I didn't enjoy the run, I'm just glad that I completed it as targeted.

Very nice number eh ? I should have timed to finish in 2hrs 38mins and 8 secs :P

SCSM 08 ? Errrrrr ..... I better think about it

Random Musing

Another short run on thurs. Think about 6km 45mins. People finish 10+km in that time haha ... oh well.

______________________________________

Feeling under the weather ... and so I've taken two days off. No activity. Nothing. NULL. I'm almost like just bed-ridden (by choice). And I don't even feel guilty about it. Just rest (slack).

PS : Thank Heaven for the rain the past 2 days. Somehow that calms me down.

______________________________________

Ever since the National Day Rally (english) on Mon night, suddenly the single MOST important topic in the entire nation is about getting hitched and procreation. The newspapers ran endless articles about it ... and needless to say, whenever I catch the news on TV, its nothing but dating, babies, maternity leave.

And now Beijing parents congregating in parks to match make their kids no longer seem odd (if I dare say ridiculous?). Who knows, we might in time to come hear of aunties gathering at Bishan Park or East Coast Park doing the same ?

Not to mention dating services are now in the limelight and we should see the exponential growth of these services very soon.

Are they going to start obstracizing singles soon ?!?! This whole damn situation is making me a lil nauseous. Can we move on ?

Tues Run

Same old story. Struggled for the first few km before I slowly got the hang of it and managed to complete about 11km. 1hr 20mins.

Losing the momentum ...

Runs

Slacked for 10 full days. I'm not sure whether it was all psychological or just lethargy but I could really feel the significant drop in fitness.

I had to cut short all my runs this week ... sad.

Tues Run - about 10+km 72mins
Thurs Run - about 6+km 48mins
Sun Run - Truly an LSD - Long SUFFERING Distance
Mental was at its weakness. I had so much difficulty getting out of bed and just 3km into the run and I felt so much like giving up. My brain was just feeding me all the negativity, that there is no way I could run three loops, and that I might as well had just stayed in bed yada yada. It was mental weakness at its worst. Haven't felt that way in recent months.
Struggled throughout the run and managed to complete the targeted 18km in 2hrs 5mins.

I'm so going to suffer next week ... Am I worried ? You bet.

Japan 31 Jul - 10 Aug

Yeah, am back from my holiday to Hokkaido & Tokyo. My first trip to Japan and it was a last minute arranged trip (what's new?) and just glad we made it. :)

I've been plunged back to the realities of working life too quickly and been busy ever since. Didn't have (and still don't) the mood to blog and organising the pics are taking way too much time. Just too physically and mentally lethargic right now.

Realised the pics I took didn't do the place justice ... but anyhow ... some pics here to capture the moments ...




These are some of my key takeaways of Japan ...

1. Children are very well-behaved! These tykes do not make it a habit to run around, scream like their lungs are going to burst, behave rudely to one another and act like spoilt prince and princesses. They behave themselves in public and independent and best of all, they seem to have respect for their elders. As my friend commented, they seem to retain their childhood (tong1 zhen1). Yes indeed. If kids in SG can be so well-behaved, don't think they would repulse me this much.
   
   
2. Place is clean. Their toilets are CLEAN. Its always dry, not reeking of urine, toilet seats are clean and they have toilet seat covers in most of their toilets. Not to mention their toilets that can play a tune to mask the noises one make while answering the call of nature, cleaning after you etc. Its so common its the de facto in any toilet that we visit. So much so the guide was SOO shocked and surprised when we told her no, SG has no such facilities. She thought it was something we would have equipped ourselves with long ago. Ah bummer to us.


3. Eco-friendly. In addition to being clean, they have good civic responsibility towards the environment. You don't often spot litter in Hokkaido. There are few (if any) trashbins along the streets and according to the guide, their kids are taught in school to bring a trashbag with them whenever they leave the house so that they can keep all the rubbish in the bag. They would only dispose of the rubbish when they are home, and they would SORT through the garbage and separate into different categories (they have gone so fine grained as to separate the bottles from the caps etc.). When I see trashbins, its always separated into 2 (combustibles, non-combustibles) or 4 sections (magazines/newspapers, PET bottles, others etc.). Its amazing how eco-friendly they are.
   


4. They walk a lot. The subway stations can be huge. Switching between trains can mean a very long walk including climbs up flights of stairs (and no, they don't pair every staircase with an escalator. They climb. Period)

Oh, and what's with Jap women ?? Why are they all so slender and petite ?? Even the many mothers that I see with babies/toddlers in prams still managed to maintain a very good figure. My friend's theory was that the fat ones stayed at home and wouldn't be out shopping or strolling in the crowded areas :P True. I'm seldom seen at Orchard. haha

Now back to the reality of life ...