Hari Raya Run @ MR with The SgRunners

SgRunners @ MacRitchie For Hari Raya Run

It started to rain last evening, after a few days of sunny weather. The SgRunners had planned for a Hari Raya Run at MacRitchie (MR) this morning 7.30am. We were supposed to run 2 loops of the MR 10.5km route. Because of the heavy rain, we planned for a wet weather program that allowed us to skip the muddy trails. We were happy we did that, because it rained till the morning. When I awoke, it was still raining. Immediately saw a few sms in my phone asking for weather conditions, and such. I sent back to the people that we should still go and execute Option 2 (From MR -> Thomson Road -> Lower Pierce -> Old Upper Thomson Road -> Upper Pierce -> Air-cond road -> back in reverse. That would be about 19-20km.

I just took a cup of coffee, since I was only going to do a recovery run, so no need for much breakfast. I reached MR at 7.30pm and saw Tiwazz, BrokenRunner, YankeeII, Roger, cosmic_wind, Sotong, Mrs. Sotong, Superboy already waiting at the carpark. Shortly we were joined by taz, Alvo, Meteor, yojanjan and hubby. Commando was around too, in his boots, and he planned to do a 21km x-country run and meet us later for prata. We waited for the last guy, CyberKinetic and started off at about 8am. The rains had stopped by then, and the weather was cool and excellent. We ran slowly along Thomson Road. Traffic and air was good as cars were few because of the Public Holiday. I was told that the MR25 and SAFRA groups had started off earlier at 7am. We chit-chatted as we ran, and there were some updates given by one another. It was fun. We turned into Lower Pierce Road after about 25min of running, and moved towards the toilets for our first water break. I left my fuel belt in the car, since it was such a cool day, and distance was not long. As we moved on towards OUTR, MR25 runners together with Carine were making their way back. I also bumped into the SAFRA runners, among them Jimmy, Eric, and many more. As we reached Casuarina Road, we were met by DO near the prata place. It was a pleasant surprise. DO decided to make his way there to meet us and show the SgRunners some interesting MR25 running routes.

The very scenic air-cond road

A very satisfied group after the air-cond road experience

We ran along OUTR in good weather. There weren't too many cyclists today; only a group passed us along the beginning of OUTR. We ran for about 3km and reached the main gate to Upper Pierce Reservoir. Brokie mentioned that she had not entered that road before, and had previously (in her run with Carine & Ultraman) taken only the whole stretch of OUTR. The rest of the people too had not entered that stretch. We waited for the rest to come in, and decied to take this more challenging road of 2 slopes and also leading to air-conditioned road. Along the way we saw the usual monkeys. Roger, Superboy was running ahead, while cosmic and myself and taz with Brokie, Yankee was just drafting behind...haha...Soon we reached the junction to air-cond road. Some went to take a water break, and we gathered for another nice group photo. Thanks to Sotong who had brought his camera along. We ran into air-cond road and tiwazz, Yankee and the rest really enjoyed the cool breeze in there. We were sharing some jokes about how nice it will be to bring gfs and babes to go running in these nice scenic places, and pretending to get lost, especially in the evenings...hehe. With such lighter moments, all of us felt strong and no fatigue was really felt. On the return, some more interesting photos of us running were taken...good for the album.

On the return to the start point, we decided to increase pace slightly. We had already covered about 11km, with 9km more to go. The kenyan-styled Brokie and Roger charged up the slopes effortlessly, and Superboy was enjoying the push too. I was following behind, and gestured to the rest a trail road we could take (next time perhaps) to Ngee Soon Rifle Range, and then to Seletar Reservoir. It was a nice tempo stretch of run for all. We gathered at the gates for all to finish, and again, nice photos were snapped. From there we ran back along OUTR, where we came from, and made a stop at the Lower Pierce toilet for our final water break. Over there we waited for about 15min, and decided to move ahead when we did not see Yojanjan, DO, Cyberkinetic. We found out later they had gone for early carbo-loading at Casuarina Rd roti-prata place...they were felling hungry already...hahaha. We about 4km left to MR, it was free for all, and we ran at a good fast pace all the way. The sun was still not out. This was one of the nicer runs for me along this stretch, cos it was normally very sunny when I reach here in my previous runs. We made it back to Little Sisters Of The Poor, then took the wooden bridge, and I did a final burst run with taz. There was a big crowd of people strolling along the pavement towards the entrance of The Northern Route. We had to zig zag to avoid colliding into them. In the end, taz got the better of me...hmmm, he is a strong finisher.

When all gathered, we did a quick wash-up, and proceeded to Casuarina Rd for our roti-prata and teh-tarik cum iced-milo carbo-reloading. It was fun. I tried the mushroom-cheese prata for the first time, and I loved it. It was a great, easy, fun run for all, and we covered about 18km without feeling much soreness nor any pains. All were wearing smiles as we joked. I look forward to another of these runs to MR again; the next time, we will probably venture from the other side of the Northern Route, where we will find higher-level, steeper slopes along the SICC road. There will be even nicer scenery there too. So, anyone game for that?

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