The NIE Director's Relay 2006

When I signed up for The NIE Director's Relay, I didn't quite know what it was, and had a hard time fathoming the rules of the relay run. All I knew was that it was for a good cause, and that we would meet many friends who will be there to participate. I was part of the Men's Competitive, a team of 6 of us formed from the adiRUN and SgRunners group. The plan was to run from 9pm to 9am the next day to chalk up as many 2.4km laps as we could. There was another Men's team led by Sotong, a women's team as well as a fun team from SgRunners. SAFRA MF also sent in a couple of teams. Of course MR25 and the Institutions were well represented too.

Babumouse, SportVenturer, WeiChong, Joao_li, DO, Bug, DreamRunner

DO and I arrived to the NIE campus at 10pm to a Carnival atmosphere. A string of runners had started the run from 9pm, and we could see them doing their laps diligently. As we drove in, we noticed that the Campus had very nice running routes, not to mention, lined with many slopes...can really make a few Demoralizing Runs...haha. We spotted IMD running very fast, and then Superboy Jeremy who had started running for my team. We met with with our SAFRA kakis, then moved on to the table reserved for our team. Angelica, Charmaine, Cfred, Babumouse, and the whole bunch was already there. We brought some curry puffs for carbo reloading later in the night. I noticed that the service support was very good...bananas, milo, apples, raisin bread, bottled water.

DO and I took over from the earlier pair of Jeremy and Simon at 11pm. Both of us decided to run together to chalk up sufficient mileage for our weekend. We will just record each lap as 1 person running. The 2.4km lap is made up of mainly downslopes at the beginning, then levelling offfor about 1km, and finally the 'killer' upslope of about 200m at the end. At the end of each lap, we will take a pice of paper and drop it into our team's box...C-18. DO and I took turns to carry the baton (cyalume stick). I took a rest after lap 5, and continued again from lap 7. DO took his rest at lap 6. We registered about 12min laps on average. Some marshalls were surprised we were running together, but not taking the lap slips of paper...hehe. The upslopes took its toll on us in the next 5laps. We ran on together in spite, and finished the 10laps within 2hours exactly (at 1am). Cfred and Simon took over from us. Brokie arrived at around 12am and joined in the women's team of Stazla, Roonz, Rainn, Delpine. Sotong, Cheow12, Balasing were part of the other men's team, and they were going to run from 9pm to 9am throughout...*salute*.

After 're-loading' with bananas and ice-cold milo, I went for quick wash up, change of clean clothes and join the teams in cheering on the rest. There were still lots of people running at 2am, with the MR25, VJC, SP and SAFRA MF teams all chionging. MightyJoe and his team were very fast too, with Joe clocking sub-10min 2.4km laps throughout. Ong, Bug, Teck Hou were the speedsters for SAFRA. Babumouse and SV went to get hot kopi for us, while we rested. Brokie finished her 10laps first as she had to leave slightly earlier. Simon also rushed through his 4+5 lap routine. The kopi-C with Old Chang Kee curry puffs, along with tuna puffs were yummy for our hungry tummies. The orange pieces and cucumber together with 'cooling' crysanthemum water from Brokie were great. Our team went down to 5men when Simon left earlier. The ladies team were down to 4.

DO and I decided to do our shift earlier, and complete more laps for our team, before passing on to Cfred, Babumouse and Jeremy to complete the 7am-9am final shift. The plan was for me to start off with 2 laps, then DO doing 2 laps, passing back to me for another 2. Each of us will do a total of 6 laps (14.4km) each. It took the first lap for my 'cooled-down' body to get warm, and I was feeling ok after the first 2 laps. There were very few runners by that time, and quite a number were walking the final upslope. I chugged up slowly whenever I reached the upslope, but always making it to the top at the end. By the time I ended my final 6th lap, dawn had broken. I averaged about 12.45min for these final 6 laps. The air for the whole night was remarkably cool and clear. It was a nice feeling to have finished, and I completed a grand total of 15 laps, 36km in all.

By the time DO ended his 6 laps as well, our team had caught up in terms of mileage...we went up a few positions. Cfred and the rest will see through to it that we make about 60laps...not too bad a performance, considering we were enjoying and taking it as a LSD run. Our ladies team were great, coming in 2nd position in the competitive category. Even our fun team comprising of joao, weiward, weichong did very well coming in second for their category. Sotong and his team also performed remarkably, and they were still running when I left the place at 7.30am. My legs felt quite ok, and I had a short nap in the afternoon to recuperate. This is the third overnight run I have done ever, after the Tsunami Run in Jan 2005, and The NTU 168km run in Oct 2006. I will definitely put this run down in my running calendar for next year.