A Great Night...

Well I started the evening by attending the PAYM Awards & Central Youth Council Installation Ceremony 2010 held at Resort World Sentosa last night. It was my first time been to Resort World Sentosa, luckily I joined the rest to carpool over, if not I am sure that I might get lost. This is my first time attending a major PAYM gala function so am quite lost and dunno most of the people, and my shirt hahaha dun talk about it. I wear formal attire very seldomly, thus I dun really dress up that well. You can call it my style, i feel total at ease with a tie that is not so nicely tied and unbuttoned top button. That shows my inexperience i guess but i dun really care.

Haha was randomly assigned to a VIP table, partly thanks to the advisor, who opted to sit with us. So the food was served in very small portion, lucky I am on diet anyway. My YEC came in 2nd in the end, all thanks to the good work by the previous committee, which in a way put a lot of pressure on the current office bearers to keep up the good work.

I committed to the dinner before remembering that it was held on the night of Sundown Marathon. I was thinking all this week to rush home after the dinner and change, and then take last bus to go over to ECP, and also committing to some of my friends that I would be there to support them.

But alias despite my planning, the first vehicle out from RWS is full already. That leaves me little choice but to wait for & join the previous committee for a drinking session. We have our drinks at Hard Rock which is not very crowded, as we have first expected it to be during a weekend. Have a pint of Erdinger - yeah bring back the memories of Germany again. Haha.

Finally we left RWS at almost 2am. I was thinking while on my way back home. I didn't want to break the promise that I have made, so upon reaching home, I immediately changed and booked a cab to go over to ECP. Only reached there at around 2.45am. The funny part must be a runner took the cab after I alighted, I guess he gave up already.

Didn't take me long to locate tiwazz and co, a few SGRunners and a few from Team FatBird who are already there. By then, most of the runners has already by pass that point where they stationed. I was getting ready to move across to the opposite direction when my sec class mate, Idris called out to me. My jaws almost dropped. Almost 3 hrs for 14km? I was thinking something must have went wrong, coz I really didn't expect to see him already at where I was standing, which I later learnt that he has started the race 1 hr late due to the shuttle bus issue.

And so I went over to the opposite direction. Met hohorunner who is taking some pictures. And find a good spot and look at the runners. Thankfully I managed to catch glimpses of the runners that I have come to support. Saw Jim, another of my sec sch classmate, doing quite well, 5hrs pace when he by pass 30km mark. And then I saw Meifang, my track junior, also doing good, should be under 6 hrs. Saw Kayano from SGRunners, who is struggling with his ITB. And then Idris, who is catching up fast from the back, overtaking many in the process, should be 6hrs pace I guess, considering that the 1hr delay. And Jiamin, who is attempting her maiden marathon, doing good by finishing in 6hrs 40 mins.

But I noticed that there are many pp walking. There are quite a few who simply throw in the white towel and sleep along the way. Well pp will think that it is easy to run in the night, not so hot. But I beg to differ, it's not so easy to run in the middle of the night when your body is trying to shut down. And the lack of support, yes there is quite a bit of screw up over from Passion Run last weekend, but at least they got this big group of student volunteers who cheered the runners all the way. This morning is silent. Not even some cheering from the drink stations helpers?

So it is just u trying to finish the distance, fighting the eyes which is closing, the legs which is aching, facing nothing but the quietness & silence, and given very little moral support, that's it. I personally think this is a bigger challenge than SCMS. I think I will stick to see pp suffer at Sundown than joining it in the near future. Haha.

I want to salute all the 84km ultra marathoners, 42km marathoners who has attempted the race, regardless whether you finish or not. This is one tough race.

I left for home at 6 plus and reached home at 8am. Haha now my body clock kinda screwed again. But haha i enjoyed it. At least I kept my promise to my friends to be there.

But this is another event with logistics problems. SCMS would have quite a big challenge as well. Three routes, three different start points, there is the need to transfer pp back from end point to various start points to get back their bag deposits. Hope that the organisers of SCMS would learn from the mistakes made by 100 plus Passion Run and Sundown Marathon, and plan for bigger capacity and resources to transfer the crowds from point to point.