My only exercise this year

There's something about stepping out on the streets in the wee hours of the morning. And there's something to be said when early departures to some relaxing vacation first comes to mind instead of staggering out of a club at the end of a wild night :p

Well, that Sunday, it was neither.


Source: H

Yes, I joined the StanChart Ekiden race!

Woke at an unearthly hour of 3.35 am, wrapped a blueberry muffin in a kitchen towel and left the house.

The air was crisp and the streets were quite quiet. The MRT station was deserted...



And the electronic sign reminded me that the station was not usually open at that time..



I took the lift to change to the East West Line. And realised what a joke it would be if I got trapped *.*

Then at the top, I realised I didn't even check if the escalator was working *.* Well, so far, only the ones on the EWL station were.

The Circle Line was pretty empty but the EWL had about 50% seats taken! Later, I heard from SQ that the North South Line from city to Orchard was packed like a weekday! This marathon thing is quite popular hur...

I stepped out from an exit of Raffles Place MRT. Strange to walk in the city at 5 am. And there were people. And many of them wore the same tee.

Eventually found the Promontory and waited for less than 10 min to board the bus towards Point 3. There were limited seats obviously but this girl with eyeliner* had a bottle on the seat next to her. At times like this, ask and it shall be given. Inconsiderate idiot.

* I cannot fault her eyeliner. After all, I put in blusher and concealer :p

Found colleague H at Point 3. Chatted and looked at (her) whatsapp as team members posted pictures. Our preceding runners arrived at 650 am. We took a picture to submit to office as proof and off we went!


Source: K, I believe...

H jogged while I walked. I kept about 100 m behind her until she had to go to the toilet. I ended up arriving at point 4 a minute before she did.

I didn't know 6.5 km was so long! My stretch was in East Coast Park. I passed by some trees etc before I reached the chalet, some shops and then the restaurant area. When I passed by a drain, I thought I must have cycled through here before, many years back!

Took a sip of water at the second water station I passed by. And my next drop of liquid was after the changeover at point 4.


Source: J, I believe..

I managed to get to point 4 in an hour and two minutes (or 1:02:27.4 as indicated on my stop watch :p) - not bad for walking! But we took some time getting to the shuttle pick-up point and waiting for our turn. By the time we got off the shuttle at the MRT exit opposite Capitol, we had finished for an hour.

It took a detour to the Padang before we eventually met a few others for breakfast at Macs at Raffles City. I was too tired and left while some of them waited for the last runners of our teams to return.

Had to have Sito massage my shins. Soon, I found my arms hurting too. I was so broken!!