A Recce Run; A Pleasant Surprise

I was at SAFRA MF last evening to do a recce to prepare for this Sunday's location run. The planned route will take us into Canterbury Estates and then Kent Ridge Park and finally to Mt Faber itself for a 15km distance. There was another good turnout, with more than 20 runners.

I ran at a very comfortable pace, mostly lagging behind...hehe. I enjoy such easier runs once in a while, to take time to smell the roses, admire the scenery and chat with friends. There was a nice sunset, although mostly hidden by the thick clouds. From Canterbury Estates, Chairman led us off track into a small trail which was a short-cut into Kent Ridge Park. According to the old-bird members, many did not know about that short-cut whilst 1-2 vaguely recalled having gone there before. At Kent Ridge Park, we took an easy run up the reverse slopes and stopped at the toilets up the hill for water. We assembled by the tank and chit-chatted a little. That will be a photo point for Sunday's run.

We ran on along the wooden bridge, and then the steep downslopes onto Pasir Panjang Road. I ran slowly down, heel landing first, to avoid too much stress to my knees. Wong, wee san, cm, Jaime and Ong were running as a pack, a nice safe pace for that 'not-too-fun' stretch. Upon reaching Telok Blangah Road junction, I continued on towards HarbourFront alone to get some additional distance in. The rest of that pack did not go along that route as they wanted to cut short the run. My pedometer recorded a 13.5km distance. I did not time the run, since it was a sort of fun run for me.

Seen here with The pretty SAFRA MF Babes

When I reached the ClubHouse, the whole group were already back. When they saw me, they suddenly blared out a Happy Birthday song for me. There was a nice Black Forest cake awaiting the hungry runners...Haha... how did they know about my birthday? Although its not the day, they got the month correct at least, not bad...hehe. We snapped a few photos, and in good MF tradition, 1 photo of the Birthday person with the gals, and one with the guys. Everyone enjoyed the cake, especially good for carbo replenishment after the run. Thanks to san who went to buy the cake at Raffles Place...really appreciate her efforts. Must also thank David, Jaime and cm for initiating and organizing this surprise :). We went for dinner, and Alan Chao bought me Cheng Tng too...haha, not bad at all. I had mee sua in 'red-date wine Chicken' soup, a good symbolic meal for birthdays. Thoroughly enjoyed the run and food, and looking forward to this Sunday's location run.

Seen here with The SAFRA MF macho runners