Run Round Singapore 2010

Event: Run 218km Round Singapore, 27-28 March 2010, over 36h, to celebrate the 55th anniversary of NTU.

9 brave souls signed up for this unhuman undertaking. And I personally knew 5 of them (says a lot about the people I hang around with! Haha). I did a quick calculation, 218km was equivalent to me driving to-fro home to work 7 times. My gosh, I don't even drive or cycle that distance, let alone run!

On Saturday, I drove along the Upp Bt Timah and Woodlands stretch of the route and took some pictures of the runners. I saw Teck Hou, Chin KK and others, all going strong and steady. A familiar sight - traffic escort motorbikes, black support vehicle with the runners' names, and the runners with their pacers. Lai Chee, pacing for Teck Hou, saw me waiting from afar and waved. Henry was driving his support car. Then I saw Chin KK's group, with Ah-Ping running with him. I spotted Melvin's group ahead. Benjamin was pacing that stretch, and later handed over to Shirley, Eddy and Simon. I was to pace for Melvin on Sunday morning. He was going on so strong that he was 40min ahead of his schedule. By midnight, he was an hour ahead. All the pacers scrambled to get to their assigned checkpoints in time.

I did not sleep much that night, being awaken every hour by sms updates of his location. I had to coordinate with Yean on the time to be at F2 ECP. We were so worried that we would miss him, we woke up before 5am and arrived at 530am. But we waited until around 630am when Melvin, Jimmy, and Trevor arrived. Zhilei was in the suport vehicle. They had all stayed through the night. Ong, Jaime, and Henry had also run with him through the silent of the night.

The pacers before us had taken good care of Melvin. We hoped we could continue likewise! *Stress* The four of us (Jimmy, Trevor, Yean and myself) started on a slow pace, alternating between walking and jogging. The pacer's role was like a running-stewardess, constantly running to get things for the racer from the support vehicle. Sponge, run. Coke, run & open. Water, run & open. Melvin's brisk walking pace had us trotting along to keep up! Despite his tiredness, he could poke fun at Yean and asked why she was running when he was walking. No choice, we had shorter legs!

There was a pit-stop at Mountbatten Katong CC, where Melvin was weighed and given an ice-bath and massage. We were 1hr ahead of his plan. Freddy joined us there, and we headed off. Jimmy and Trevor left us at that point. Another pacer, Steven (who came all the way from KL to support the event), joined our group. Freddy knew him from several Malaysian triathlons and races, and we chatted along the way. Freddy set a good pace timing, keeping precise track of when to run, when to walk. I learnt quite a bit from Freddy, observing the pacing strategy today. Melvin was making good progress, 3rd in line.

Another Safra runner had joined in along Harbour Front. Yean and I stopped at Depot-Alexandra Road while the guys carried on. We ran about 25km in 4-5h, including the pit-stop. She sent me to F2 to collect my car. The runners' next pitstop would be the West Coast Mac, and I was trying to rejoin the group there. I hurriedly drove to NUS, gobbled a quick lunch, bought some drink supplies, and checked location status. Horrors, Melvin had left and was just moving away from Mac. I quickly drove over and thought I had missed them. Luckily I caught sight of some strolling runners and it was them! I left my car at West Coast park, dumped my bag into the support vehicle and ran alongside. The entire stretch would be another 30km to NTU.

The afternoon sun was hot. It was now the 3 of us (Freddy, Steven and I) keeping Melvin company. I kept passing cold sponge to Melvin to cool himself. Freddy forced him to eat some powergels and sweets as he needed the energy. Melvin bravely followed the pacing instructions set by Freddy, who was very experienced. Awesome! We counted down the rolling bridges along Jln Buroh - not unfamiliar as we cycled there several times. Then came the long, boring and exposed industrial stretch through Benoi Road and International Road. That was really really mental.

We ran in silence, sometimes breaking into jokes to keep the atmosphere light, and urging Melvin to hang on. We kept checking the checkpoints, counted down the kilometres, psychologically bringing down the distance. The support vehicles joined us in feeding us updates on the next checkpoints and distance markers. Less than 30km now, you can do it. 25km left, psychologically in the 20s. Last 20km. 18km now. Last bit now. 90% of the run down, just 10% more. Hang on....

Finally we reached civilization, Jln Boon Lay/ Jurong West area! Melvin was really tired, evident from his non-responsive face and wobbly stops, but he persevered. He kept up a steady and consistent pace. 8km, 6km, slowly we crossed the checkpoints. One Safra runner joined us near Jln Boon Lay, while Jimmy, Zhilei and Trevor joined along Jurong West. Last 5-6km, we were winding through the Yunnan housing estate, all the while checking our backs to see if Lim Nghee Huat's group had caught up. We were all ecstatic on clearing the last checkpoint with 3.6km to the end. That last 2-3km into NTU was particularly emotional. All the hard work was finally ending. We entered NTU, homeground now for Melvin. He crossed the finishing line at 33h. It was an emo moment, tears welling up, thankfully I had shades! All the pacers shook hands and congratulated one another. It was a magnificent display of sportsmanship, human endurance and perseverance.

A few of us decided to go back out and look for Teck Hou. Just slightly ahead, we saw Lim Nghee Huat's team, all dressed in blue tee, focusing on the finish. We did not have to look far, he was nearing NTU as well. So we thought we would give him some support, afterall long, how tough was it to run 3km right? Totally wrong! He upped his speed, and when he saw the NTU gates and LNH's pacing team ahead, he just sprinted off. Fast. Uphill. Uncatchable! His pacers had problems giving chase and started dropping off one-by-one! He closed the gap with LNH and made it back successfully as the 5th runner.

5 runners completed the ordeal, out of 9 who started. It was an awesome feat, totally super-human! *Salute*

I started off thinking I would simply run 20km on a Sunday morning and be done with. Afterall, I was on a low-mileage phase after Langkawi IM. Yet today, totally unplanned and unwittingly, I did almost 60km! Uhh.... But I was really glad I was part of this event and experienced it for myself with the runners. Truly Inspirational!