nike+ human race 10k

the crowds were overwhelming and the race didn't start on time at 4:15pm as scheduled. the skies were overcast and threatened to rain, yet it was warm and humid. i sweated buckets before the run even started.

i had arranged to meet up with ts to run together. but i lost him quite early in the run 'cos he was weaving through the crowds while i was too lazy to bother with that. furthermore, the organisers didn't close the esplanade bridge or shenton way so the route was rather congested.

yeah, i'm blaming them for my slow timing for the 10km run. :P haha...

the heat didn't make running easier either. i stopped for drinks at all 3 stations. the last 5km along the singapore river past boat quay, the central, riverside point with the u-turn at robertson quay and clarke quay while fun and interesting, was too congested at some points, especially at the many underpasses.

whenever i encountered any upslopes, i would walk... sigh, i guess my 1 month plus of thrice-weekly runs of 6km wasn't enough preparation for a better timing. guess i need to work harder for my standchart 21km this december. gosh! >_<

just checked the results online, the singapore men's open winners did it below 35 minutes and the women did it below 40! wow...

my results and worldwide ranking? click on the picture to see. :)

1 hour+ wait

went down to collect my nike+ race pack at 12 noon, gosh, the queues were crazy. snaking all over the central square at clarke quay. it was super crowded and many seemed to have just hopped over from the safra bay run/army half marathon.

argghh... decided to give up and go for my lunch and appointment before coming back this evening.

reached clarke quay at around 7:20 hoping for the best. the queue is still there but is determined to be more humanly possible compared to this afternoon. joined the queue and entertained myself with mahjong on my phone for slightly over an hour.

it was raining rather heavily throughout this afternoon. let's hope the weather is great for the coming sunday run. and i'll be running with 1 other million people around the world. :D

sighted @ clementi

not a sighting of a haunting at the clementi mrt station platform but a lady who was sashaying up and down the platform as if it's her own private catwalk runway.

so naughty me decided to whip out my phone to capture part of her performance. :P hehe...

cute music video

one of my favourite songs, 童话 done in "lego".

so cute, right?! :)



the original is here...

olympics fever

doris asked to go watch the table tennis women's team finals tonight.

since i was out watching 12 lotus with the guys, i dragged them along to robertson walk for the match against table tennis powerhouse, china.

as much as i had wanted singapore to win, i knew it was an uphill task since the chinese team had the home ground advantage, not to mention the crowd fervent support. even president hu jintao was present tonight at the match!

the pressure was on the chinese team as they were expected to win. wang nan and zhang yining were jittery at first conceding their first games to feng tianwei and li jiawei respectively before finding their footing and outplaying the singapore team.

the doubles of zhang yining and guo yue [world no. 1 & 2 respectively] beat li jiawei and wang yuegu in 3 straight games, resulting in china winning the gold with 3-0 score.

after a 48-year wait or lapse, depending on how you look at it, we got another silver olympic medal. finally.

brunch @ zenden

we're celebrating kl and ts birthday today. both of them are august babies.

gordon suggested this cafe restaurant at the gallery hotel. this is a boutique hotel in the robertson quay area noted for its facade and its unique swimming pool. i've not stepped into this hotel before today.

brunch comes with a complimentary beer or mocktail and we all chose the mocktail. the buffet spread isn't very big but we were glad that oysters were served. didn't overeat too much today.

terry is in a rather good mood today and very energetic. running all over after he had his fill of food. tried to take pictures of him but he likes to approach the camera until it's too close.

by the way, it's my first time taking my father's pentax dslr for a spin. so not very familiar and took some getting used to. had to delete quite a few pictures due to the short depth of focus for near shots.

overall, it was nice to catch up with the guys over a lazy sunday brunch.

check out the pictures here.

七月十五

i went for a run today after dinner at around 8 plus.

my mum asked why i had to run after dark so i complained to her it was her fault since she had called home to ask me to heat up the soup and rice earlier. i couldn't have left the stove unattended.

on the way to the sunset way canal, i saw this whole long stretch of pavement by the side of the road all lit up with candle light at regular intervals. it was quite a nice and magical sight if you don't see that they're those red candles on a wooden stick used for prayers.

fortunately, there were still some runners and cyclists on the track and the moon is full and bright tonight. after warming up by the canal, i tried to get my ipod nano to start recording my run. something happened...

it returned an error message telling me to attach the receiver before i can power up the workout option. this is weird 'cos i've never had this problem before!

the sensor on my right shoe is already switched on while the receiver has been firmly attached to my ipod before i left my house. hmm... what's wrong?

i fiddled around with the sensor and the menu. didn't work, still the same error message. must this happen tonight?!

then i removed the armband which held my ipod so that i can look at the screen more clearly and also to make sure that the receiver had attached itself properly to my ipod.

in my mind, i was telling myself that if i can't get the nike+ to record tonight then i'll skip the run and walk home. after a few more minutes of fiddling, i finally managed to get it to work!

so i ran and came back in 1 piece with nothing else interesting to blog about. :)

was it a coincidence? or something spooky?

well, i seriously have no idea! >_<

sms from japan

i received an sms from my sis on her first working trip to japan today.

i am sorry i broke your camera lcd screen. i will get you a new camera when i am back.

wah liao... so careless, right?

i wonder how she did it and the extent of the damage.

duh!

do us in

hehe... i enjoy mrbrown show podcast very much and always make it a point to download them onto my ipod. they comment on current issues and are always creative enough to get away with it hilariously.

check this one out. :)

happy 43rd birthday

happy birthday, the place where i call home and where i belong.