The Death of a Fun Run (updated)

in Finally the day came. Two company recreational clubs (rec clubs) locked horns on their annual sports friendly. One of the 10 events is cross-country. However the victor would be the winning team out of the majority of the 10 games. No prizes for indivitual winners.
This fun run was meant to generate participation & held on the relatively undemanding 3km female route at MacRitchie Reservior. However the weather was less than kind & opened it's gates. Runners were treated to a mud bath on the lower half of their bodies & so will be their shoes. I was reluctant to even start this run. No prize, no glory & all fun.

Off we went, starting half an hour later for the weather to clear, but the ground was still a pig's haven. We started from the parade square carpark. 2 of the opposition team runners took the lead at an easy pace. Once we hid the dirt trails or rather mud trails, I assessed the condition & looked at my pristine shoes. It's only 500m away from the start, I was following the fast pair with ease & I was not even red lining, unlike other similar races. Then I closed my eyes & stopped. No way am I going to risks an injury on the slippery trails or dip my shoes into the mud puddles. I walked back against the flow of runners, who were bewildered at my decision, I just smiled. I've never dropped out from a race before. But wait a min, this is just a fun run & I stopped voluntarily. On my way back I learnt to appreciate nature from a different view.

The winner completed in 18min30sec over 3.5km. I smile again, knowing that I'm capable of 17min-ish. But I'm clean.

Aftermath:
When the results were released, if I came in first (which also meant knocking the other runners down by a position each), both teams would had tied on points. Which goes to show that my team needs me. LOL

Losers All P1

Many things irritate & now some of my blogs will detail my take on these bothers.
However, if you should take offence to the contents or feel that it strikes an uncanny resemblance to you or your life, then no coincidence was intended. It's just my opinion in general, nothing personal.

Sports rims are nice on cars, they are meant to accentuate the beauty of the vehicle. What sticks out like a sore thumb are such vehicle assessories with the IQ of a potato. Oh no, potatoes has eyes & these drivers do not. Flashing sports rims are sleek & they also bare the muscularly beautiful disc brakes. Nothing looks dorkier than drum brakes in their full glory. Please! Visible drum brakes belong to farm vehicles. They are the genitals of a car, vulgar but necessary. Don;t upset the fashion police or your expensive sports rims, cover those drum brakes if not replace them with discs. (I'll post pics soon so you can get the picture)

Nothing is for Fun

When I train, I train seriously. Otherwise it's a waste of time & may even be detrimental to health. A run is never supposed to be fun. Fun Runs are an Oximoron.
We get up, sweat, strain our joints/ muscles, welcome free radicals into our system when we exercise. It's an irony that what makes us stronger, makes us weaker at the same time. It's all about the net effect. I only train at 2 speeds: so slow snails yawn or so fast my eyes bleed. The rest feel good in no-man's land, the middle speed, where it's too fast to go long to train endurance or too slow for any race-pace training. Going all out in mediocre speed is false security. When I join a race, it's competition. To kill the opposition. But to do that, training & arsenal are important.

Don't just do it, do it right.
Don't waste my time. I don't run fun runs.

National Karting Championships

It's my first step towards attending the coming F1 race next year. Tickets would be too expensive & there's no better than way to gain access to places even the most costly tickets cannot buy. That is by being a marshal or a volunteer. So when volunteering at the National Karting Championships during the 1st weekend of October would add weight and provide the training & experience of motorsport marshalling, I jumped at it.

It's my 1st time volunteering at a race or any event for that matter, even I have taken part in numerous races before. Three days from 7 to 7 under the hot sun. What was I thinking?

Well it was a nice experience, had some freebies like a cool polo T, miserly $10 per day & food even unfit for the army provided. I really do hope this would add dividents to my resume when being considered for F1 marshalling next year. Of course, we had an opportunity to try out the karts. The feeling of travelling with my butt inches of the carpark tarmac is undescribeable.

I was tasked to do Flag marshalling at the first turn & witness some wheel banging action, even though the races were supposed to be a time-trial.