Sunday, June 29, 2008

MacRitchie 15k trail run with SGRunners

June 29, 2008

Tin tin in Cleveland Ohio talked me into signing up for this run, organized by SGRunners. It is a 15 k trail run from MacRitchie Reservoir to Upper Pierce Reservoir. I have not run MacRitchie before (just goes to show how "swa-ku" I am), and always wanted to try trail running. So at 7 am this Sunday morning, I found myself fortunate enough to get one of the last few car parking lots at MacRitchie Reservoir.

Brokie briefed us prior to the run, and after a couple of pictures, we set off. Paced JJ for a while and chatted with him on how informative his blog is. Then caught up with tin tin at the SICC course, and that was when the slopes started to hit us. Had to walk up the "monster" slope (it was only 60m elevation), but then the stretch between Upper and Lower Pierce was sufficient reward! It was really lovely to simply enjoy the open-ness of the SICC greenery and water.
Took a water break at the restroom (about 5 ~ 6 km) and waited for the other runners. Met up with many folks - gentle, tiwazz, teelee, reno, LaserRunner, roadrunner3, feetofflury, TLR and many others.
Here's a pix (courtesy of kayano) of tin tin and lilu75 (go for the Sydney marathon!):



Spoke with feetofflury during the second water break. Good luck on your AHM and Korea run, and all the best in qualifying for Boston! Some stretches of the trail back was rather difficult to run ... had to walk down the slopes intertwined with tree roots.

Thanks, ultraman, for marshaling us and pointing out the location of the Japanese shrine. And also a big thanks to the other sweepers!

Towards the end, another runner ahead of me stopped at a junction and asked me which way to go. Fortunately, another runner (studs) came up and directed us the right way! Otherwise we might have gone for another 8 km. Thanks!
This is the route we covered:


View Larger Map



What's interesting for me, other than the trail itself, was to meet many other runners. The MR25 regulars made an impression ... many are veterans but they are likely to give some of the younger folks a run for their money.

That alone, is inspiration enough for me. For a long long time.

1 comment:

Lotus Fire said...

Glad I got to do this run before I leave. This is a great picture in my opinion, something I will take with me and tell others Singapore is not just an urban jungle. We has real jungles too!