Nike Human Race 10km

I must say, first time running this type of race where everyone wearing the same running top.....and my favourite colour RED......the race got delayed for few minutes before started off....ran over esplanade bridge, made a loop at marina south, ran thru boat quay and clarke quay and finished at padang....managed to finish just below an hour

The organisation did well to contain 11k runners and separated they by 2 waves although some part of the route is just too narrow for the big crowd...the end of the race started with a concert at the muddy field....

every finisher are given a tube...like those graduating certs container

Open it up and we will see a aluminium tag on a red nylon band.

Supposed to be wear on the wrist

Unfortunately, I am not very impressed with it.....at least must put the event name and year on it lar...

Rainbow day LSD.......

I was on the right side of the bus on my way to work when I this car in the opposite side of the road stopped, winded down his window and took out his camera to shoot at the sky.....I was on the wrong side of the bus to see what is it....

My bus happened to turn left to TPE when I really saw what he shooting at:

Yes...is a RAINBOW!..not only is rare to see rainbow in Singapore...and it is even more rare to see it in a raining day.....i was lucky to see part of it from the bus..and I guess..it must have a big full arch which my bus happened to go under it......I saw it for about 5min before the rain got heavy and it disappeared from my sight

After a long day of work....it was a rare day in the late afternoon that we see the sun blasting its power......my fren flew aeroplane and my appointment is cancelled....so I decided to do a long run in such good weather

I put on my favourite new shoes and headed out....the path is still wet from this morning downpour but the air is cooling and weather is superb....I did a 8min run and 2min walk break and went for a LSD.....feeling good and went for 18km in the end in the following route:

A very good run completed in just under 2hrs......This is my longest run so far after my recovery...(excluding the junk half marathon last sunday lah)....the start of my training to complete this year end big event....

Post-AHM wet Run......New route!

The weather nowaday is really freaky.....it was raining heavy in the afternoon but turned drizzling.....when I got home...the sky was cleared and the rain stopped...so I decided to go a much needed run after the junk miles last sunday

I decided to explore new 10km route and found this one quite suitable and much better than the punggol one...much less traffic lights to cross and no need to cross over to another estate:

Headed out to the road with my frees....my legs has already recovered from the 3hrs "run" and 4 hrs queuing.....managed to finish the 10km maintaining a good 6min/km pace and finished the 10.6km in 1hr 3min.....I will free my legs for this sunday evening city run....

Lunar by Nike

You have seen running on pillows and moon...so how did this come about?

Nike Lunar trainer....run light...by Nike Just do it!

Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon 2008 results

From Singapore Bay Run website

Chip Time 02:53:34.34

Gun Time 03:01:14.14

That's a personal BEST!

Running on the moon?

junk mile, junk hours : SBR,AHM,Nike Human Race pack collection

Honestly.....I dunnoe what to write here.....I ran 3hrs and stood in a queue for 4hrs today

Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon

The first thing I want to say is whoever is smart backside that decided to start the competitive 21km with the non-competitive together need to get a knock on the head for not using their brain

This is probably the first time I see this happening....and I pity those slow runners who actually paid and train for this event and din get to do well becos of the overwheming crowds especially at the waterpoint.....i pity the ladies who tried to squeezed thru a wall of non-competitive runners trying to get just a cup of drink....I pity those who went zigzag around and probably ended up running 25km....

It was a late start for this event at 6.30am....the sky threaten by a little drizzle then stopped....grounds are wet...air also very damp....ended up starting at the back and unlike previous years...the non-competitive crowds were not holded back and all squeezed together...in the end..cannot squeeze to the front half.........

The Start gate is just in front of the ERP gate....and everyone went passed the start mat and went beep beep like the ERP beep....but all nvr bring cashcard lor....

I basically got blocked all the way from sheares bridge to ECP....at ECP..when a waterpoint reached....everyone just wait and crowd around...causing more jams.

then we went thru the side of the marina golf course and reached tne highlight of the run...the Marina DAM!

View of Sinapore CBD skyline was good

The 16km mark was right in the middle of it

and the route went into the exhibition centre and out at marina south route before going back to padang

And I broke personal "Best"....gun time 3hrs....most value for money run per mile

After the whole day and nite rain...the padang was filled with mud....can do mud roll there...and everyone shoes were in state worst than this....cos I clean up a bit liao

And the finishing medal

.........................................

The Nike Human Race Pack Collection at Central Square Fountain, Clarke Quay

After running 3 hrs....went to food court to have laksa then I decided to go collect my race pack for next sunday run...cos no point for me to go home and come back later or come down from yishun after work tomolo

I reached and some the queue....it took me 10min to walk to the queue end at carpark behind liang court....the queue is long but was moving very fast for first 30min and we are into the sheltered area o the center square when we saw this

the queue moved and still this

and moving

We went pass the collection area

and the queue went the other direction

After 3hrs 30min of standing....someone asked me to moved forward and there I became evil and cut the queue to enter the main queuing area..and it took me 30min to collect my stuff...i think if I dun cut queue...it will take me 5 hrs and this it the queue I took

The race pack consisted of the unique tee with bib number...championship chip, livestrong wrist band, and a very goo Nike water bottle...july chinese I-magazine, runners' guide and vouchers and flyers:

The DJ announced that they have up to 12k runners...good luck next week...not a very friendly route for large crowd lor...

I cannot believe I done so much junk miles and had so much junk time today....good luck to those collecting the nike human race pack tomolo

Running on pillows?

Speedy fumble at Olympic

The US 4x100m RElay women and men team fumble during the heats

....And the expected winner and even record breaker women's 4x100m team of the Jamaica also fumble at the 2nd to 3rd leg during the final....and the Russian won

ERP causing distress to Hitler

Must watch!!!

Brooks Axiom3 Vs Nike Air Zoom Elite+ 4

Here I am doing a shoes comparison between 2 lightweight performance stability trainer in the market...cannot remember when Elite 4 is out in the market but I think is about 5-6 months ago but the Axiom 3 is out only a month back

Nike Zir Zoom Elite+ 4 VS Brooks Axiom 3

Midsole foam: Axiom:MoGo ; Elite:EVA(dunnoe if got a name for it or just normal EVA)

Main Cushioning Technology: Axiom: Hydroflow ; Elite:Air zoom bag

Mesh: Axiom silver coloured mesh consisted of 2 layers...very breathable

Mesh: Elite white coloured mesh also consisted of 2 layers...but the inner layer holes are smaller but still OK

Forefoot: Look by the side, you can see that the forefoot for axiom is more curved up which actually guided the feet to have a smoother and faster tos-off

Flexibility: I tried the bending the forefoot for Elite and this is the most I can do it with much strength...very stiff

Flexibility: compared to Axiom, you can see that I can bend at least 100% more easily

Lacing: Elite has normal holes lacing

Lacin: Axiom has an interesting change in lacing method at the middle which give a better hold and easier to tighten and loosen

Medial support: Elite is using a full medial arch support which uses a dual density compressed mold EVA for pronation control

Medial support: Axiom uses an unique Split Diagonal Rollbar (DRB®) presents a high-density post at the medial arch allowing for pronation control.

Outsole: Comparing the outsole for both left side shoes with Axiom on the left and Elite on the right, you can see the triangular pod under the arch for pronation control.....the groove concept is also different.....Axiom resulted a better and more flexible midsole as a result

Shoes Tongue: Looking at the tongue for Elite, it is long, looking like something poking out and irritates and can cos abrasion to the bottom for the shin...not very friendly there

compared to the Axiom which is much shorter and in fact, the shape actually wrapped nicely around the feet

lastly, looking at the heel with Axiom on the left and Elite on the right. Elite provided a softer landing becos of the softer foam inserted at the landing side. Axiom has a broader midsole at the heel landing area and is actually a bit thicker than the elite

Conclusion: I will not conclude which shoes is better...to each its own..every runner's feet are different...even not the same for your left and right...running style also affects the type of shoes to be used.....some may prefer the stiffer Elite but some may prefer a more flexible Axiom....both shoes are almost the same weight...Axiom does felt light after a longer run and the more curved forefoot makes it a faster shoes than the elite...both I would say these shoes should be OK for neutral runners who need a little support and runners who has mild over-pronation...

Other Options of the same type: New Balance 903, Saucony tangent 3, Asics DS Trainer, Mizuno Elixir, Adidas Adizero Tempo

Olympic 2008..........some random takes

Rafael Nadal took gold in Men's tennis and overtake Roger Federer as Number One in Ranking

Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a new WR in the final of the 100m sprint at the Beijing Olympics even with deceleration after 80m

Michael Phelps with 7 WR and 1 OR and 8 golds

Liu Xiang of China limped out of Men's 110m hurdles heats due to injury

Angelo Taylor, Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson were the best three in the Olympics, becoming the fifth U.S. trio to sweep the hurdles medals but the first since 1960.

Tomescu-Dita, a 38-year-old mother from Romania won the Olympic women's marathon gold medal Sunday in a time of 2 hours 26 minutes 44 seconds and she was 22 seconds ahead of silver medalist Catherine Ndereba of Kenya who is the defending world champion.

American record-holder Deena Kastor of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., who won the bronze medal in Athens, collapsed onto one knee about three miles into the race and clutched her right foot.

Liu Zige gave China its first swimming gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, winning the women's 200m butterfly in a world record with her teammate Jiao Liuyang taking the silver. - AN Australian swim coach has sparked a storm after admitting selling the training programme used by his protege Jessica Schipper for 'big money' to the Chinese girl who beat her at the Olympics.

World record holder Kenenisa Bekele secured what he hopes will be the first leg of the long-distance double when he retained his Olympic 10,000 metres title with a devastating last lap on Sunday...it was an OR....The rapid closing speed was too much for Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie and his bid for a third gold after triumphs in 1996 and 2000 fell short as he fell back to sixth in the final 200 metres.

Lin Dan of China overpowered Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei in straight sets Sunday to win the gold medal in men's singles at the Olympic badminton tournament....saluting the crowd, throw his racket and his shoes to the supporters...how I wish I was there catching them

Germany's Jan Frodeno sprinted down the final straight to claim a shock win after a thrilling Olympic Games men's triathlon on Tuesday

Congrats Team Singapore Women's Table Tennis Team

Congrats to our women's table tennis team of Li Jia Wei, Wang Yue Gu and Feng Tian Wei for putting up a good fight in the Table Tennis final......they win with pride and hardwork....the China team of Zhang Yining , Guo Yue and Wang Nan are just too strong

Beijing Olympic 2008 - 100m Final

Incredible run by Jamaican Usain Bolt ....slowed down at 80m somemore...I guess, he want to break world record bit by bit....so that the list of record break will have several entries to his name...hahaaa

Pre-SBR run/walk LSD trial....

The Half marathon is just a week away and my longest run is only 10km....I had a lazy afternoon sleeping away becos of the heavy downpour.....I woke up with clear sky and good weather and decided to try out my run/walk with my new shoes...and today will be the 3rd time I using it ever since I got it a week ago

I decided 15km will be a god distance to gauge my run/walk fitness and plot the route at runningahead.com when I found this suitable route:

The route mainly encompass the 10km route I used last week and 2 days ago plus going further round punggol park..Starting at 6pm when the sky is still bright...I get to run pass places where I always run in the night...

Started slowly and warming up...i maintained a good pace for the first 5km during my 8min run and relaxed 2 min walk....

I managed to hit 10km mark in 65min which is just 4min behind my continuous run timing last week.....but after 10km...my body started to feel loosen and smooth....my aim today is to complete the distance so I maintain a comfortable pace....a few long waiting traffic lights after 12km was a good extra break

I hit 14km in 1hr 34min and still got reserved....I push a bit harder to finished the last 1km within 5:30min and the whole run in 1hr 40min flat.....

5.0km 0 33:01min@6:37min/km

4.9km - 32:17min@6:36min/km

4.2km - 29:16min@6:59min/km

1.0km - 05:28min@5:28min/km

Still in good shape at the end of the run....i think should have no problem finishing the 21km next sun.....

Singapore Bay Run 2008 Race Pack

Went to collect the race pack this afternoon....got this big carrier bag from GNC and I thought got some goodies....instead...all papers except for one bottle of NewWater and another bottle of drink from magnolia...

However, the papers are interesting....one adverts from Mount Alvenia Sports Medicine Centre, spa vouchers, specs and contact lens vouchers, food vouchers and a discount voucher for GU Gel from GNC, Singapore flyer family membership form, SAFRA membership drive, Swing KPE tunnels Run adverts..a big introductory flyer on Marina Bay, Singapore and Singapore Bay Run 2008 handbook

Probably the most useful will be the food discount vouchers and the GU Gel vocuhers where getting more than 12 packs, it will cost only $1.99 per pack

This year dri-fit tee is probably the cleanest, neatest and probably the best looking design for the past years....ever since the dri0fit tee was introduced, the design in front is too flashy and messy with cartoons on singapore skylines..

front:

back:

The theme for this year run written on the back of the tee:

The I realised something is missing......Reebok discount vouchers.....for past few years...got up to 40% discount vouchers on Reebok at Royal Sporting House...and it was missing (cos I always use that to buy something to wear)

Checking the handbook....there is no official sports wear brand this time...Rebok is no more.....after supporting this run more than 10 years...

After 48 years waiting....finally an Olympic Medal for Singapore!!!

Finally after 48 years of waiting for a medal, our women's table tennis team finally made it to the final of the 2008 Beijing Olympic women's table tennis with a confirmed medal....remember that during last olympic, our Singapore ladies lost to the korean and the tides has turned this time round........kudos to our ladies, especially Feng Tianwei, who won the 2 singles matches.....

Feng Tianwei (SIN) bt Dang Ye Seo (KOR) 11-5, 11-5, 11-2

Kim Kyung Ah (KOR) bt Li Jiawei (SIN) 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9

Wang Yuegu/Li Jiawei (SIN) bt Park Mi Young/Kim Kyung Ah (KOR) 11-7, 11-6, 11-9

Dang Ye Seo (KOR) bt Wang Yuegu (SIN) 11-8, 14-12, 11-9

Feng Tianwei (SIN) bt Park Mi Young (KOR) 11-7, 12-10, 3-11, 11-9

Late tired run.....

Had a bad run on monday morning....so wanted to do a better one later...tuesday nite worked late so din have a chance...weather also not so good.....last nite busy...so rested so many days, finally got chance to go today....

Stayed in office till a bit later then 7pm also.....came back and change up already 8pm...decided to take my new shoes for a spin again.....this time wanted to do a 10km......so I went my usual 10km in the past

Too long nvr run also cannot....body very lazy and tired after a long day work also.....so I just went slowly...hit a down slope at punggol and went a bit too fast...suffered for last 3km.......stopped at 3 traffic junctions for more than a minute...a well needed rest before I finished the whole run in just over an hour...

First vehicular tunnel race in Singapore

There is a 10km tunnel race as well!!

More details at http://www.swingkpe.com.sg

Burning new rubber.....

Today was no work for me...to compensate for last sat national day...A lazy morning as usual...so difficult to get out of bed when there is no work....but I dragged my body up at 7.30am.....leg itchy of run...because of the new shoes lar...so I hooked my gears on and put on my new shoes...

My body was still tired because of yesterday swim which I up my mileage from 12-20 laps.....my legs are actually fine....started to run at 8am.where the sun is up and shining brightly....i decided to do a short 6.3km route......

The shoes felt good..light and swift.....the curve up at the forefoot makes the feet toes off easily and faster...one of the few shoes which I dun feel anything uncomfortable or pain on my first run.......hit 2km then I realised I went too fast...so i tried to slow down...but my body started to feel tired....i pushed on and on up the slopes.....no pain from the feet, no discomfort....just tiring upper body and heavy breathing....i decided to stop at 5.6km...and indeed, I went too fast....20s faster than my usual pace....

My new baby on its box:

All I can say is I love my new Rubber

Tao Li came in 5th!! Susilo lost to a better player....

One fo the most anticipated race of the olympic for Singapore is the Women's 100m butterfly final held this morning at 10.24am where Tao Li will be featured in the finals....the last semi-final swim got her the new Asian record and her personal best....Unforunately, she did not performed better than that in the final...coming in 57.99s for 5th...losing to the China ger who came in 4th...as the swimmers came into the pool..u will notice Tao Li being the shortest but with one fo the broader shoulder and wings...and she is one of the two 18 years old in the line-up...so she got more room to improve...probably going under 57s one day.Here the final Results

Another event holding at the same time was Men's single badminton Men's Singles Round of 32 where Singapore Susilo Vs Malaysia Lee Chong Wei who is seeded 2nd....too bad for susilo to meet him so early...no way he can matched Lee Chong Wei's speed and power...so Susilo lost 13-21,14-21...Here is the final result

National day 2008 Surprise Gift!

Today is National Day 2008..had a family lunch at Tampines and did not plan any programme after that...so I thought, I will shift my monday plan to visit Queensway Shopping Centre to find Brooks Axiom 2 today....I intended to get a pair of it to motivate myself to train for this year marathon

Reached Queensway and decided to head for the market for my Favourite Avogado Juice first...also had a plate of fried carrot cake to boost my energy for shopping later...

first thing I noticed about this old shopping centre were the big advertisement on this month end Nike Human Race...stepped into the entrance and first thing i did was to turned right to Sportslink...as this is the only place to find Brooks running shoes....so many months never come here....the whole shop got renovated and re-shuffle their products layout...

Brooks was right on the left side of the entrance and the whole rack of running shoes....saw a miserable pair of Brooks Axiom 2 on the ground and ask for a pair to try on...but was told that it was the last pair available and was going at $97..quite disappointed that the last time clearance sale selling at $69.90 also dun have my size

No choice lor...so I browse around the shelf and this pair of red/white/silver shoes caught my eyes...never this on the shelf here before....and DAMN! It was the NEW AXIOM 3!!!!And I also saw the attractive Racer ST 3 nearby...

I was so Surprised that this shoes, only released in the states less than a month ago was actually brought in!...no hesitation, I asked for a pair of size 12 and try it on!

First feeling was that it was light...and the fit is sufficiently wide for my feet even it was a width D..jogged around the shop and felt good....I can even felt the hydroflow pad at the forefoot.....

I also ask for a pair of Defyance, which Runner's World awarded the Defyance its "Editor's Choice" award in its Summer 2008 Shoe Review.

Felt OK too but the Defyance is a lightweight cushioned trainer that has a curve last and a broader base for neutral cushioning and Axiom 3 is a lightweight stability trainer with a straight last a medial support....Defyance also has a bigger heel landing area which is irritating for non-heel striker like me....No difficult choice...I took the Axiom 3 as my National Day Gift this year....somemore colour got red and white...

With a shelf price of $139, it is probably one of the most value for money shoes in the market...Probably the cheapest among other shoes under the same category like ASICS DS Trainer, New Balance 903, Nike Air Zoom Elite 4+, Saucony Tangent........if you checkout the website here which also mentioned similar shoes, the price for Axiom 3 is the lowest

My new baby on its box:

Then my wife commented...Isn't this the same as your Nike shoes??? then I realised that it has the SAME colour combinations as my Nike Air Zoom Elite 4...OK...see the similarity there below??

Let me go for my first run with it and I will write a comparison review of the 2 shoes since they belongs to the same type of running shoes...watchout for it!!!

And here is my latest collection of shoes with RED:

080808 Olympic Day Run .........

As everyone has heading home to catch the long Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony, I head home to change up for another run of the week.....planned to do it last nite but whacky rain dampen the mood and I was tired over work

If I want to make it to the big day on 7 Dec...this is not enough.....I decided to go slow and up my distance again since I have a full 2 days rest since my last run.

Took my elite out this time....then I realised...I should have done a run on this 080808 at 8:08PM for 8km and complete in 88min...anyway, I not so bo liao enough to do it......so I decided to start from my usual junction and end up at punggol plaza

Tonite is also cooling and good weather for a run...i controlled my speed so that I will not push too hard too early....and never hit so long for so long....after this run...i better back out a bit before I push again....run/walk 21km should be no problem for AHM this year....

Long time never run this route....not much changes....except I notice that there used to have a fence up and work at the punggol east side beside sungei serangoon for a driving range. But it is now empty....wonder if the project was shelf or waiting for the grass to grow...

managed to finish 9.8km in exactly about an hour.....a good run with a constant pace of about 6:10min/km on the Olympic day

Still managed to watch the last 2 hrs of the cermony after the 100th nation marched past....and managed to catch Singapore team which is the 188th country to come out...what an auspicious number as well...hopefully, an Olympic medal will be possible this time....

OK...tomolo is National Day...no run for me....sleep time

Monday is closed!!!

I went down to Sengkang Swimming Complex again to check out the weekday crowd and saw this pasted at one of the door:

At east they spend one whole day to clean the pool here...hopefully next time it gets cleaner

The competition pool has some class going on...but at least is only one group occupying 4 lanes...all swim very fast...seems to be some swim team....even small boy also swim very fast

The pool is cleaner now...at the least the mud stain at the walls are removed...but still got stains at the floor....

managed to swim 12 laps continuous......but not very good form...need to swim more...but at this pool.....coming here 2 times equal to going somewhere else 3 times...btw, stored value card discount does not seems to apply for this pool as well....so weekday is still $1.50 compared to other normal pool which cost $0.90

Sengkang Sports Complex or Sengkang Swimming Pool or Anchorvale CC is here on the map:

running a little longer..........

After a long rest since the last run, I decided to get one with a longer one today.....nowadays....workload increased in office so everyday when I reached back home, I was getting more and more tired......a short run will be good to get more blood flowing

I decided to up the stake to about 8km tonite.....one of the easily available route will be running along the deserted LRT line at sengkang west until fernvale...then turned right to my usual route to the "hilly" part...

Only managed to start the run at 8pm...took my Nike free again....the weather is good, a little breeze long the way does helps to make the run more enjoyable.....running pass the deserted Sengkang Sports Complex and Anchorvale Community Centre....i wonder how empty Sengkang Swimming pool will be at this time....

The air along the deserted LRT track is very good due to the vegetation and little trafic on the road..the air started to get bad when I hit Yio Chu Kang Road all the way to the end

managed to maintain a good pace to finish strongly and took 50min to complete the 8km route....if I will to slow down for the last 2km...to complete a 10km should not be a problem...a satisfying run feeling which I have never felt for a long time...

At the rate I going to use my Free....it will breakdown in just a few months to come.....my pokect getting itchy

2nd day of the newly opened Sengkang Swimming Complex

Took the LRT from Renjong station to Farmway to reach the newly opened Sengkang Swimming Complex...the view of Buangkok mrt and the newly built flats

The Sengkang Sports Complex:

Beside the Sports Complex is the Anchorvale Community Centre

From the swimming pool entrance, this is what you can see......it actually consist of 6 sections: indoor olympic size training pool of depth 1.2m, olympic size outdoor competition pool, playground pool, baby pool, jacuzzi pool and slides pool..click to see bigger photo:

The indoor 8 lanes olympic size pool...i thought is another competition pool until i swam a length of it and found it to be 1.2m thruout.....water here is cold...i think because is sheltered......not many pple swimming here...pool is cloudy when I swam there.......

you can see the jacuzzi pool in the foreground....it got 3 outlets for a person....one for lowerback and 2 for each calf of both legs.....good for post-run massage...background is the slides area...I tried it and is fun...like last time big splash but shorter......favourite of the kids and teenagers

The playground pools for the families

another view of the playground pool

the slides from another view:

This is the compeition pool...I was shocked at the condition under water.....the water is clear but a lot of sand particles at the pool floor.....mud stains also....and one side of the pool wall was full of mud stain.....not a lot of swimmers....but cannot justify the condition......although stadium construction is beside but 2nd day of opening cannot cause so much mud stain.....i complaint to the lifeguard about it...........like pasir ris beach water....8-(

stayed till 8pm...the flood lights are strong..the whole place was very bright at nite...click to see bigger photo:

the indoor training pool at nite

openning hours and entry fees

saw a club-fitt gym nearby

the machine inside