Sundown Marathon 2015... Thoughts and Experience Sharing

"Butt cramp... I can't run..."

"WHAT?! Stairs?! I HATE stairs...."

"Wah! So dark?! Got to walk..."

"HUH... Another U-turn again!"

"Sorry!" (because I almost collided with the opposite lane runner or accidentally shoved the person at the front as I badly need to overtake to keep up my rare momentum."

These are some of the much repeated comments that I made during my 10KM run in Sundown Marathon 2015. Did my first attempt last year and decided that it would be fun to join again despite being not my birthday run like the older editions of Sundown Marathon.

Some review and experience below: (At least to what I experienced and felt...)

Baggage Deposit/Collection
This is my very first time using the baggage deposit/collection service as I came by public transport. Not much to comment about it since it's my first time using the service but I find it rather neat in terms of how the racks are arranged and queue organisation, and the crews are polite and took proper care to deposit my bag instead of my much feared of throwing the bag to the designated spot that I saw in some other races.

Good job, team!

Start Pen
Came in early this year because of my past experiences with the previous edition and other races for being late. Seems that it's useless as I got stuck at the 3rd-4th wave despite going in 5-10 minutes before start of the race. Waited for close to 30 minutes before our turn... Did some warming up throughout the wait as I didn't really did a proper one before I went in the Start Pen. But the momentum and warm-up keep going off for some reasons that I am not sure of. Maybe it's the girl behind me who kept stepping on my shoe as she wasn't paying attention or it could be because I am feeling a little unwell from getting some pre-race jitters.

A little complain about the Start Pen was that it wasn't really clearly indicated at the Race Village and it's quite dark along the way. Managed to find my way there from the distinctive timing stands with the 2 brown totems design at the sides though. (This year's slogan was 'Pulse Of The Tribe' if anyone is curious on the totem designs)

The Run
The route is new to me, so it's quite interesting and fresh to me. Partner who ran with me also finds it nice to run for future runs. Would be much better if the route do not have or at least have lesser of the below:

• U-Turns without timing mats: There are quite a number of U-turns, no issues with U-Turning, but it bothers me when the lanes are not properly barricaded like last year. Cones with super short barrier lines were used that were long destroyed by the time I went pass them, almost got into the wrong lanes for a few times when I wanted to overtake from hoards of walkers. Partner also mentioned to me that too many loopholes for people to make illegal shortcuts and there are no timing mats to catch these 'rats'/cheaters. 

• Poor Illuminated Paths: I can't really comment much on this as it was partially my fault for not bringing my own source of illumination from last year's experience and despite being a night run. And I understood that there may be some logistic restrictions that causes the organiser not to be able to provide proper lighting at some places. Not much complains about this, but I find that the path underneath the bridge (the one after Double Helix Bridge, ESPECIALLY) is way too dark and dangerous to run. Walked slowly throughout the area as I can't really see well and I don't want to risk tripping over something if I run)

• Cyclists (Excluding the Crews' and not really organiser's fault as this cannot really be controlled): First reaction when I saw them ramming through the runners, "WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE?!" The pathway may not be closed and all, but please lah! Can you guys be more automatic and don't sped pass runners like that! So dangerous! Almost yelled at a small group of cyclists who got into my way but I didn't as I ran low on energy to even jog as I wasn't really feeling well throughout the journey. 

The Route 

Only mentioned a few here as some I have forgotten or I find it 'normal'.

• Helix Bridge: "WHAT?! Stairs?! I HATE stairs...." First few words that I grumbled as I pushed myself to climb the stairs up and waddled my way down the stairs. Don't think it's an issue for me if not for my leg cramps, but I will definitely slow down at the stairs as I generally hate stairs. Not a good choice if I was aiming for PB during the race. 

• Cloud Forest and Flower Dome (Gardens By The Bay): When I went pass the area, first thing I thought of when I saw one of the service entries were opened. "Maybe I can take a quick 'air-con' break" Took a quick breeze from the air-con by brisk-walking and I have to pull my partner away from the area as he was there for quite long and people started watching him. 

• Temptations From Food From Satay By The Bay: No issues with this, just reminds me of some dis-motivating jokes/requests that my partner and I made when we smelled food and somehow slowed down to enjoy that short imagination and contemplation from hunger and cravings for iced stuffs. We are the bad jokes duo anyway, and some laughs somehow eased my discomfort from cramps at the upper thighs. Pushed ourselves harder and back to reality as we wanted to break our personal records as a duo. Rested a few times for water break and tried to relieve the annoying cramps along the way as well.

• Marina Barrage: One word to say is. "SIOK!". As it is one of my dream routes to run at, the wind blowing from the waters also helped with the humid weather just after a short isotonic water break from the hydration point nearby. Lanes were slightly cramped and the crew have to yelling at us to keep to the left as the 2 lanes are in opposite directions and the barrier (made from cones and tapes) is not that strong enough to keep off runners from going over to the opposite lanes for whatever reasons. (If you get what I mean....)

• The Route Along Marina Bay: Chilling, relaxing and saw a few funny stuffs as we ran along. Generally not much comments as I was quite lethargic from not feeling that great and spent most of my time to push myself to at least jog a little. One of the funniest thing that I saw while jogging along the U-Turn lane is a couple drinking wine in glasses at one of the benches. Not in a position to critique people's definition of 'romantic', but it's just funny to me. Wonder how can they enjoy the scenery with hoards of perspiring runners wheezing pass them. Hahaha. 

Post-Run Stuffs...

Nothing much like the usual, doing sprints of drag-race with the partner. And making bad jokes about dragging to race. Smile at the cameras, etc. Only difference is that the counters to collect our drinks, banana and medal are quite empty. Not sure whether is it because I am one of the slower runners or because I am slightly faster than usual. Got some free Counter-Pain cooling samples while on the way to find a spot to rest and eat.

Shoe tag was not returned since no one enforced on returning on-site and by the time I realised that I forgot to return the tag was already too late as I had already gone home. 

Some Pictures... Didn't managed to take pictures during race day as I wasn't in the mood to take pictures.

Pardon me for the background, don't know what's with me for using backgrounds for my pictures. Front and back of the race singlet. Material is not bad since it doesn't caused much abrasions but it doesn't soak well during humid conditions.

The Finisher Medal for 10KM 

Spotting And My Thoughts

As per my recent post on Instagram about rude spotters who ruined the spotting experiences of others, after some thoughts, I realised that maybe I should elaborate further on my thoughts and perhaps share some of my experiences with these people. Sorry if I have used some swear words in the post though.

A little introduction... 

I started planes spotting back then when I was in Polytechnic, somewhere in 2010 or 2011. The days as a rookie are GENERALLY quite peaceful as there aren't really much teen spotters around (at least to what I saw and noticed). No issues in general, but there are few notorious ones mentioned in forums that I only get to know about them when my spotting partner shared the posts with me.

The hobby start to grow as I learn more about planes and reigniting the very old sparks with aviation that I had when I was a kid. Life was simple back then as a rookie spotter when time is not really a luxury as I have some day-offs from classes from projects and study week for upcoming exams. (Which I don't really need an entire week to study as I am somehow prepared long ago)

As the years goes by... 
Due to work commitments and stuffs after graduating from Poly, I start to get less active from random spotting and will most likely to appear only during special flights or when I have the time to drop by. The hard work did pay out well; allowing me to upgrade my little compact camera to a proper DSLR and telephoto zoom lens. This is also when I start to heard more about the bad guys in the spotting scene which all of them are teens. (I am no longer one though, I am more of a youth now.)

Initially, I thought these complains are just boys' quarrels and stuffs, read them, get to know better of what is going on and just laughed off like an old lady. This stops when one day, I decided to show up at the Changi Airport Terminal 1 Viewing Mall (where the alleged incidents took place for most of the time) to sort of have a reminiscence on the good old days as a rookie spotter and my short-lived teen life. Saw some guys seem to have some quarrel or sort of thing, of course I decided to ignore and do my own things since I do not know them nor know what is going on and neither do I want to ask for unnecessary trouble.

These guys have been lurking around at the Viewing Mall for almost every time when I visited during my free times. So far so good, I don't really give a damned since I do not know them. Till one day, one random rare sight appeared which I wasn't really aware of since I only dropped by randomly to just stand at a spot and looked around. Those horrible guys started coming over to the good spot (where I was standing for quite sometime) and just pushed me away! Goodness for crying out loud! If you guys need some space to shoot, I will gladly stepped away, you don't have to squeezed your way and knocked into my lens etc. So fucking rude! Where are their manners?!

I was of course, really pissed off and just walked away. The good stuffs were usually snapped by my partner. My partner did witnessed some of these pushing and squeezing incidents happened to me and asked me if I was pushed or whether am I ok, etc. Of course I stopped my over-protective partner from confronting them as I am not really the kind that will pick a fight over petty things like this even though I did cursed and swear loudly for their rudeness and because I couldn't get a proper view of the plane.

That was just years ago when I wasn't really that mature, funny as it seems when I think back. But this is not the end, after getting to know more local spotters through social network, etc. And that's how I got to know better on the spotting scenes now, and updated myself with the spotting scene. Those guys that I have seen quarreling or having some sort of stare-downs etc, they are not a bunch of childish kids who fought over small matters, it's about rude spotters (what I always code named them as 'Those guys' since I do not know them) VS normal spotters.

Sigh... I may be inactive from spotting, but it saddens me to see such stupid conflicts just because one group being a prick. Why do you guys have to do that? Causing unnecessary troubles for the rest of the spotters? Just because you guys have good equipment? Eh, come on lah, being rich with equipment doesn't give you the right to bully others who are in smaller groups and does not mean that you can put your manners at home.

You guys don't feel ashamed of yourselves, I feel ashamed for you, bunch of soon-to-be grown ups behaving like some egoistic boys just because you want to monopolise the spotting scene over good equipments and group of big bullies? It's not like the Viewing Mall is solely owned by you guys, please show some basic respect to other lone spotters because we lone spotters are not losers like you who only go around in packs.

If this goes on, it's just the matter of time when someone will get hurt in the process or even have to get the security personnel to stop your nonsense. I wouldn't want to come to one point when we spotters are barred from the Viewing Mall because of your idiocy. Please spot with class and put those rivalry and egoism aside. We are around to learn, make new friends and share our passion with the world.

As I was about close this post, I got reminded of something nice. That was during the Angry Birds X Finnair event happening at the Viewing Mall. One of the representatives of Rovio approached some of us, praised our enthusiasm with plane spotting, and even gave us some of the food served in the buffet.

Hope to see less of these lame antics and everyone to get along or get out of each others' way if you disliked him or her for whatever reasons.

Returning From Hiatus - Running

Has been a while since I commit to personal trainings and having plans to train with professionals when chance and time permits...

Below are the race(s) that I will be committing/ had done to close this year and see where I stand after running for nearly a year:

1.  Sundown Marathon (10KM) - 31 May 2014 [Done]
2.  Singapore Airlines Charity Run (5KM) - 2 November 2014 [on-going training to adapt to day-running and increase pacing]
3. Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2014 (still contemplating on the category since I am short of time to train) - 7 December 2014 [on-going training to see how far I can go without busting the cut-off time] 

Some may know that I had shown some interest in some runs etc, but ended up didn't go due to many reasons, such as I missed out the deadlines to register... realised that I can't really make it if I did commit etc...

But I will do my best to reach my target ability to run 21KM by end of this year regardless of commitments to race or not. There are many other races waiting for me, health and safety comes first. :)

Thoughts About Running...

I just realised something after months of running, I keep finding excuses to run just because of emotions ever since I had been sitting on the fence over the upcoming runs in September till December. 

The feeling of running over emotions versus the feeling of wanting to achieve a certain goal is definitely different and the risks involved are different too. (ok, this is just what I feel, different individuals varies) 

True, running does make me feel better and like I am in my little world, but I realised something, just like in reality, running away from your emotions and problems does not give you the solution to end it and neither does it gives you the right mood to run either since your mind is occupied with something else. (and it's dangerous in safety aspects too!)

Maybe I am slow in this aspect, now after a break of running long distances, I came to realise something: "Hey, Yumi, you idiot! Do you know why can't you clear your target mileage all these while?! Quit running away! Face it! Clear your clutters, bring out the spirit that you have! Life is short, stop wasting time on things that you had already decided on! Move on! Keep running to your goals, don't stop hesitating over the past!"

It's exactly what I told my friends and boyfriend too! And why aren't I doing the same? Tsk tsk! Quit acting strong, face your weaknesses and conquer them to become your strength! 

I got to carry on and move on to be a better person and a better runner. I will and I must work harder to reach my target mileage by end of this year. Not because I want to impress others, it's because that is me, the one who challenges herself for the sake of herself, not because of others like what I did when I was younger. 

This is how running shapes up my personality, this is how running makes me both physically and mentally stronger. This what defines me; the challenger.