Lost in Botanic Gardens

This evening's run from SAFRA Telok Blangah was to take us to Botanic Gardens along the usual Ridley Park route. We started promptly at 7pm, and was joined together by 2 new runners, one of which was Lee's son, Joshua.

Chairman was leading today, and the pace was a tad faster, after we have past all the usual traffic junctions. I was chatting with Colleen for a a while about her preparations and experience in doing vertical marathons. I did not even realize we took a nicer route along some canal? Anyway, we soon reached inside the old Mindef, and out we came into the entrance of Botanic Gardens. Lo and behold, we saw two of our runners just coming out from Botanic Gardens. They have started much earlier, and even went quite far in. When we reached the mid-point where the fountains were, we decided to continue. We broke away, and I found myself trailing Ong and Paul. They were running at quite a fast pace, and I was following from about 25m away, not wanting to lose sight of them.

Botanic Gardens have recently undergone some renovations, and now a lot more paths were through. We ran through a series of ups and downs, and I was following till suddenly, I realized that the 2 were gone. I continued running ahead, and tried to look for an exit to the roads. After a series of wrong turns, I finally arrived at the Singapore Management University (SMU) campus @ Bukit Timah. I was surprised that Botanic Gardens could lead me here. I found a toilet here, and took a few sips of water, I continued on, and very soon I found an exit to the main road. It looked like Bukit Timah Road. I was amazed. How did I end up here. I checked my time, and I have been running for about an hour now.

When I exited to tha main road, on the left were signs pointing to Adam/Farrer Road, and on the right was Bukit Timah Road leading all the way to Sixth Avenue and beyond. I decided to turn right, and continued running along Bukit Timah Road. After about 1.5km, I saw SMU campus from the main road this time. The lights were bright, and I saw the famous track that Chairman and Teen talked about. This was the place they ususally got for swims. I turned in Evans Road, and continued on. Then I saw a nice restaurant by the road called The Prata Place. Ahhh...this must be the place that Teen told me the group go to for dinners afetre their workouts and swims at SMU. I would like to visit it some time. I continued on, ans asked directions from a fellow jogger, who confirmed that if I carried on that long straight road, I would hit Botanic Gardens.

So, on I went, and along the way, passed a few groups of runners. There was even a group of 5 girls running along that road. It was about 8.30om when I reached dempsey road area. I continued ahead along tanglin road, then to henderson road, all the way to ClubHouse. I was down to a slow jog the last 3km of the run. I wasn't prepared for the extra km from getting lost, and somehow, mentally I was tired. I must have covered at least 20km. Later on, Chairman confirmed that that route was easily 20km, and that they used to run that route all the way to Dunearn Road and back for 20km. Though I got lost, I earned a bonus run of 20km. I ate a pieceof banana, did a quick bath, and joined the group for a hearty dinner at our usual dinner haunt. Overall an unexpected but relatively pleasant run.

Distance Ran:20km___Time:1hr45min___Pace:5:15min/km
Average HR:160bpm____Max HR:170bpm____KCal:1400 est.