The Route Is The Way

Image by Getty Images.

Running can be a tedium — non-running detractors aside, even the most footloose of runners would admit some days just feel a tad dreary than usual.

In the pre-COVID years, many of my Sunday afternoons were scheduled with LSDs. It was not the most favourable time of the day as my body did not feel like moving much. We know what’s like when our bodies have their own mind.

Perhaps, for the sake of a less hard start, I planned a particular route that included Jurong, Teban Gardens, Pasir Panjang Road and West Coast Road. Sometimes, the runs ended at VivoCity in the southern region of Singapore. Occasionally, they wrapped up a little earlier at the Alexandra Retail Centre (by Alexandra Road), or later, further to the northeast at Serangoon NEX.

Along the way, a few hills might be passed through if I could garner the motivation. Kent Ridge Park and the Southern Ridges supplemented variety to a generally flat route.

The goal really was to make the route more interesting if not the run. Spending the weekends on a 30km under the heat isn’t most people’s idea of fun; which is probably why many runners like to do their sessions in the morning.  

And I still reminisce about those days on the road, regardless, but not because of how well I performed. At least half of those runs were premature gassed outs — a worrisome fact, given that I was mostly training for some big races.

The memories that matter have more to do with the locations. Of lasting impression, there was the balmy serenity of Pasir Panjang Road with a number of churches in its suburban section (I, therefore, christened this stretch, the Bible Belt). On some days, I went past Japanese adults and kids playing baseball on the patchy field of the Japanese Secondary School. I did slope runs at Vigilante Drive, reaching the top of a quiet Kent Ridge Park and enjoying a respite from the water cooler there.

Those places are, by no means, a stimulus of great excitement. I could only posit the simple joys they provide on the contrary to the mundanities of working adult life. If they could not stir me to go any faster, they at least helped me to clock the mileage.

On the other hand, how far can I run without these experiences? By its nature, a long, slow run accentuates the doldrums of a long, slow work week. You are essentially fighting boredom for hours on the move.   

One then has to exercise the bandwidth to reimagine how the same, old route can be changed. Indeed, it wearies the soul to record identical GPS tracings on Strava for days. A little adjustment — like cutting from the usual to less frequented paths — can do wonders. That’s basically what I’m doing for my morning runs for a year or so.

More structured training can elevate race fitness, but the freedom to break away from the norm would be better.

Consistency, in that case, needs fresh routes to thrive on.