First and foremost, a big up to Captain Ronnie See’s invite to the family of Pacemakers.
I have never thought myself to be much of a runner. I mean, I ran short distances, the 100m and 200m during secondary school days but not the competitive regional kind. Right after school and even when pursuing tertiary education, I was not into running, but instead dabbled with karate and basketball and the occasional medium term couch-sitting.
Fast forward to the past 3 years, a close friend decided one day that she wanted to get fit and suggested hiking. She managed to band together 5 to 6 pax and initially this group was dead serious. All of us wanted to lose some weight and ‘just to sweat’ and for weeks on end, we hiked a couple of hours. At that time, it was pretty intense and serious, having to get up at 5am, eat light breakie and be at Wawasan trail head by 7am. We did this on a weekly basis and I thought, hey, what a great way to lose weight and sweat at the same time.
But alas, for 1 year of hiking, sweat I did but lose some inches I did not. What was also visible was the group got smaller, some got pregnant while others decided that getting up at 5am then is too much of a hassle already. I was then alone already, at the juncture of either going back to semi-sedentary lifestyle or continue to plough on.
Let’s plough through until I give up then, I thought. One fine Saturday while in Wawasan, I decided to jog in same trails that I have been using for the past year. Yes, jog instead of walking pace where there was flat trails and lo, I sweated, panted and got tired a lot more. Hey, I found this was even more exciting than just the usual hiking/walking pace, and to try to assimilate my 100m 200m sprinting of yesteryears into jogging or sprinting in Wawasan trails.
Lo and behold, this was a ‘new’ sport to me. The name of ‘trail running’ wasn’t a term I even knew then but that was what I was doing, and doing it alone, whether it was during the wee hours of the morning or at 6pm in Wawasan. Torch? What torch? I didn’t know I needed one. I was only concentrating on moving quicker every time, cover 3.5km loop and be out back to the car park before 7pm, and I was a happy birdie. Tripped many times and ‘seen’ some things too on the onset of darkness in the jungle, but that’s a story for another day.
From thereon, I was just hooked. This is about the only sport that I can get up at 4am (still cussing about it every-single-time until today) with only less than 6 hours of sleep and still be pumped as I set foot into the trail head, rainy day or not. This is the only sport that I find absolute solace, dropping off the everyday hustle bustle of work and worries right at the doorstep at the trail head and be with your own thoughts for a few hours.
From 3.5km, 10km, 21km and since last year, I embarked on my 50k ultras. Every distance bears different race strategies and since getting together with the family of Pacemakers, a lot more types of training have been in the offing as opposed to just running and just running blind. Tempo, intervals, uphill, downhill and what have you. Great place to learn and great overall camaraderie.
Will I go further than just 50? There’s poison everywhere! On a serious note, who knows but what I do know that age is catching up and that 70km 80km distance over the yonder sounds captivating enough.
As I sign off, I leave you with this saying which I find absolutely hilarious yet undeniably true:-
“If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon. If you want to talk to God, run an Ultra.”
And I have talked to Him many a times.
brought 2u by Jackie Yee @ PM59
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