Final ride for 2013

Been procrastinating about this ride for the whole of 2013, always wondering when will I be able to find the correct time slot to do this.

Dear finally gave me the thumbs-up to go for a mini SG adventure ride, to be done on the last day of 2013 :)

I didn't put in a lot of time to research which routes I'm going to take, where will be the pit stops and how much time I'm going to take to finish the entire journey.

Came across a blog that documented a round island trip done by a group of cyclists, and it seems that the route that they took pretty much takes me pass the places that I will want to go.
Kranji, NTU, LCK road, West Coast McD, Marina Bay. (I'm too familiar with the East so no specific place for me to ride by)

Started to write my 2013 review before this post, but I reckon that this should be included as well so I'll post the 2013 review probably in 2014 instead.

去“冒险”咯！

Check list for 2013

A quick look at the check list that I had wrote up for 2013, roughly about 1 year ago

2013 To Do List

• Vacation travels (Taiwan again, this time with Ryan!) DONE!
• Complete a Half Iron-Man Triathlon (DONE!)
• Regain IPPT Gold (DONE!)
• Learn to speak Thai fluently (jettisoned due to focus on HIM earlier in the year)
• Write up a proper business plan (only managed to write about 20% before I decided to focus on Tri instead)
• Double my stock portfolio (can't remember how much I  had last year, but reasonable amount invested this year so I should be able to tick this off safely)
• Go back to 32" - too fat now (probably 32" during HIM season, probably went back up after overeating at Malacca - well this is an ongoing perpetual mission so this cannot be ticked off)
• Cycle around Singapore in 1 day 

Looking at the To Do List, and with the little amount of time left in 2013, seems like Cycle Singapore is the only last feasible item to complete before the turn of the year.

I'm going to clear my annual leave during this week too, so I'll probably just go ahead with a 1 day adventure ride around Singapore and take lots of pictures.

End of 2013 is near

So it's almost time to do a review of what I had done in 2013, what I should have done, what I should not have done, what I should have done better, and what I should do for 2014.

Let's procrastinate for a few days before I pen my thoughts.
In the mean time, a sweet panda moment that parallels what Ryan sometimes do to me and Lishan

My take on the cheater at StanChart Marathon

SCMS 2013 Marathon Cheater

I believe cheating has already been ongoing for a number of years, just that nobody was stupid enough to cheat till the point of beating the champion and got his face plastered all over the headline news, forums, FB and all sorts of social medium.

The cheater claimed that he just wanted the finisher tee and medal, and wasn't trying to get the prize money for winning the run.

This just confirms my long running belief that completing the StanChart Marathon has become more of a fashion statement for everyone to make nowadays than a proper health & fitness event where people challenge themselves to make a break through on their mental and physical limits.

I believe that there is nothing wrong in wanting the finisher tee and medal for the sake of showing off, only if the person has earned it by finishing the race prim and proper.

However with cheats being caught like this, there is little pride or glory in wearing the SCMS finisher tee now. I hope that this does not deter those who wanna earn the tee to show off from joining the event again.
Ultimately if one gets healthy and fit from doing the race, then it doesn't matter what their motivation is, if it sees them completing 42km then it means it is good enough!

Much as I dislike how the StanChart marathon has evolved over the years, there is no doubt that this event has delivered a much needed boost to the local population's interest in running.

Proud Daddy!

SCMS 2013 race report

Jarred knee strikes again.

Think I'll need to get some professional sports medical help on my knee before it gets any worse.

4 months to go to the next event, so I should have a bit of time to sort my knee out before KL 70.3 comes.

Guess I completed the run around 5:15 this time.

Weather was fine, pretty cooling.

Fueling strategy was ok, gel at every 8km mark and salt stick at every X2km mark.

Pre race logistics went horribly wrong.

Went to fetch Weicheng at our promised time at 3.45am.

Called him umpteen times but he failed to pick up the calls. 

Had to leave him behind and went for the race alone at 4am.

Didn't manage to get my routine McD breakfast and realized that my car's fuel was running low so I had to make a detour to top up the tank before going to the race venue.

Reached the car park slightly late and had to take a dump before taking the MRT.

There was only 1 train in like 15mins of wait.

Reached Orchard at 4.53am and the race was supposed to start at 5am.

Tried to go to the sub-5 pen but it was closed and I had to make a big detour to the back of ION to join the rest of the running mob.

It took me about 15 minutes after the start of the race to reach the starting line, and I was consistently stuck behind huge mobs of slow runners.

Could start to feel my left knee acting up again at around 14km, persisted in pushing the run till 23km before I put on my knee support. Managed to last till the exit of ECP at 30km before I finally gave up running on the bad knee.

Had to walk the remaining 12km, but I chose not to chiong at the speed that I did for Taiwan HIM since timing wasn't really important to me for this race, and it's best not to aggravate the knee any further.

Managed to catch Dear and Ryan before the finishing line, and took a few pictures with Ryan, before carrying him all the way to the finish line. I wasn't sure if carrying Ryan with me to the end point will result in a DQ, but it doesn't matter since I had already done this more than 10x!

This is the first time Ryan crossed a race finish line with Daddy!

Daddy is proud!

Pros:

1st time bringing Ryan across the finish line!

 

Cons:

1) Poor logistics control. Stemmed from trying to fetch Weicheng, which snowballed into a lot of issues later

2) Bad knee strikes again. Need professional medical help

3) Not sure if salt stick is working, but I had cramps on my right quad after ECP exit. This is probably caused by my unbalanced running form due to over reliance on the right leg to carry most of the weight after the bad left knee struck.

Lesson learnt:

Call weicheng before going over to fetch him to make sure he is awake already.

Or I should get him to make his own way to the race. This isn't the first time that I have a late start that messed up my race due to him being late/missing. Either he has to get more serious about racing or I have to drop him as a training partner.