First NUS Hill in 2008

Went for a warm-up run at NUS Hills Wed evening, ahead of the weekend's GE30km. A good turnout, and quite early too, all ready to test out the NUS slopes, which served as a good indication of the double hill, rolling slopes and longish hills to be experienced in KL. When I arrived at Guild House with DO, Brokie, Vincent, xdd, dkw, Passion, kk, wend88 were already all changed and ready. tktan came a tad later, followed by IMD joggin in from his place 3km away.

We started promptly at 6.45pm to be in time to climb the first slope at Haw Par Villa. A good run-up to warm up the tired legs at the end of a hard day at work. Without stopping, the group proceeded along the quite enclave of private housing and out onto 99-winding road, and up the 'killer' Vigilante Drive. It was a good run-up for those who were expecting the slopes, while a 'new' experience for the first-timers. Suffice to say, all were pumped up at the top, car-park area. Away we jogged down into Kent Ridge Park for a nice breather, and as usual, I took a quick water stop at the Science Park gym.

As all were anxious to move along, we carried on along Science Park Rd and turned back onto Buona Vista Rd. DO, xdd and wend88 took another route to meet us along the PGP slopes later. dkw, kk, Vincent, IMD and the rest of us ran along the series of NUS slopes, culminating with the PGP slopes at the end. I felt quite good actually, as was encouraged to see all the first-timers and old-timers enjoying these slopes alike. It was a very good workout indeed.

Passion ran up the PGP strongly, after a short walk break...bravo. From there, I moved on to show Vincent the remaining 4km of the 12km xdd/tktan-certified NUS Hill Route (Level 3). Vincent was conservative and reserving some energy, which served him well in the end. We finished up at the Guild House strongly, feeling quite good. The rest were not far behind, and all gathered to enjoy the nice reward of 100plus and cut-fruits, courtesy of xdd, tktan and dkw....thanks.

The highlight of the NUS Hill Run...the NUS Hill Makan! It was a great 7-course tzi char selection, all medium sized, topped with very thick fish-maw soup....very nice. I was stuffed, even without finishing all the rice. We had a good time discussing the various alternatives of even more challenging NUS Hill routes, and planning for some of the upcoming sundown Marathon training and familiarization runs. Overall, a very enjoyable evening run, which took off quite a fair bit of stress from the daily grind.

Photo SlideShow

Distance: 12km__Time: 1hr15min__Pace: 5:50min/km