Yet another LaKsa RuN...the Katong type

The Merry Recalcitrants

The plan was to join in the SCSM Pacer training, and with the promise of Katong Laksa after the 26km run, many SgRunners and SAFRA Runners showed up. We reached the meeting point (inline skating ring next to MacDonalds) at East Coast Parkway (ECP) 6.25am....nope, Pacers not there yet...I showed DO around, and soon met IMD, Yee Hua, Fennel and littleant. Then the group of Cheow12, Bug, Alvo, Meteor, trencen showed up. RealRunner and MF Ronnie came too. Lai Chee was spotted running as I called out to her...6pecs kk walked up to introduce himself...then we saw Aichai and Kok Sin walking towards us...Aichai mentioned that David Tay (SCSM Pacer lead) could not make it, and we would do our own group run of about 26km...from MacD to NSRCC and back for the first 16km, then MacD to Canoe Centre and back for another 10km.

I did a last scan for Highbury and others, before meeting up with DO, Lai Chee and Bug to catch up with the rest in front. Met littleant for the first time and chatted with her about the nice running routes at MF and ECP, and her plans to do her first full marathon at SCSM. Met spiffy, SC5, watergal, Vivian Tang doing their ninjas. IMD, Yee Hua and Fennel were running at quite a fast pace...we caught up with them at the Canoe Centre, and proceeded all the way to NSRCC...with the 42min we took, IMD and I reckoned we covered 8km up to that point. Bumped into Kayano at F2 and high-fived...guess I will collect the powergels from him another time :). Soon aichai, Caroline and Kok Sin came along...we chatted about the Pacer plans, and how the runners can benefit from the Pacer training. By that time RR, Bug, trencen, Danny, kk, Cheow12 and the faster runners were already way in front.

On the way back, I spotted more familiar faces as I moved ahead to complete the first part of the route quickly. Jamessoh was seen running strong...told him to RV at MacD later. Though the weather was cool, my throat was quite dry. Lai Chee and DO were running alongside. Saw Highbury, Dasher and then Ripley coming up...good, they were late, but at least they came for the lasksa...haha. That stretch back was pretty mental, and I reached back to MacD in 1hr25min...decided to wait for everyone to be back to go for another lap. The remaining lap of about 10km was taken at a 'babe-watch, sight-seeing' pace, and all ran together as a group and chit-chatted all the way. Spotted a familiar animiles runner, then astrogal...its been a long time, then Cosmic, then WeiShan....always nice to meet friends and familiar faces running. After some plodding, we reached the Canoe Centre for a second time, and took a final water stop. littleant and Yee Hua were glad we had covered 21km up to that point...anything after that was extra 'buildup' mileage.

With 5km back, the rest got ahead, and I ran with aichai and Caroline for half the stretch at about 6min/km pace. Both of them have good form, but were taking walks along water stops as part of training. Aichai shared with us a lot more about the SCSM Pacers and their training, and what to expect in the upcoming training runs. With about 1km to MacD, the sky was dark, and light showers came. I saw that the group were in the shelter, and ran straight for them...phew! made it before the raindrops got bigger. DO handed me a cup of 100plus...wow, refreshing... thanks. A big crowd of SgRunners had gathered by then...Kok Sin remarked that this was a large group...we joked that aichai should have taken a group photo and show to David Tay the number of potential pacers he might recruit...haha. Aichai calculated that we did 26km, and all were pretty happy with the distance and time covered.

The highlight - 328 Katong Laksa & Otah-Otah

Then it was time for the highlight of the day...we decided to stick with Katong Laksa. Some had to leave for early appointments...the remaining group of about 10 of us went for a nice wash-up at the upgraded shower facilities at ECP toilets, before driving our way to 328 Katong Laksa. Bug, DO, littleant, Cheow12, Fennel, Ronnie and myself each had a bowl of yummilicious laksa with lots of taugay, and a slab of otah-otah. Dasher, Highbury, cfred and Ripley went separately to another branch of 328 along the same road. We later gathered up to have more drinks and running talk...really shiok. This is the 3rd type of laksa we have had for runs already, as we explained to newcomers littleant and Dasher...there's Claypot Laksa at Alexandra Village, Curry Laksa at Kovan Heartland Mall and then the famous Katong Laksa at Katong, of course. A well deserved laksa meal for a good workout with great company...well, its no wonder that Ronnie asked us to include him for more of such future runs :)