Comrades On The Trail (Pounding MacRitchie Part 3)

“Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.”

- Jesse Owens, 4 times gold medalist (1936 Summer Olympics, Berlin)

26 December 2010, Sunday

MR25 Ultramarathon, MacRitchie Reservoir Park
Loop 2 - Loop 5


Shortly into the second loop, I bumped into a returning line of runners, nearing the completion of their first 10.5K. Most of them were in good form and visibly ready to clock more repeated miles.  Among them,  Mohan, the Marathon Man and Fatbird's cheerleader, whooshed by as we exchanged greetings. 

Mohan's a welcome sight in every races he participates. Armed with a whistle and upbeat optimism, he usually accompanied mid and back pack runners as he perked their spirits up to the cheery tune of his whistle and slapped high fives with passing friends. I'm glad he's not the only good guy along the dirt trails of MacRitchie that day.

In the midst of crossing the rugged Northern Trails, I tailed behind a pair of runners who were geared in black apparels and tights and pacing each other. As the trail sketch got a little hairy, one of them shifted to the left, making way for me to overtake. I was hesitant for a moment but accepted his kind offer. 

How courteous of him. 

One would not expect such graciousness to be readily exemplify in some local running events. 

But the MR25 Ultra is a different story. Not even Stanchart came close. 

It seems just about everyone is friendly here. "Hello" and "All the best" were freely offered during the short-lived contacts when runners from both directions glided or sped past each other. The camaraderie was truly alive and in a short time, strangers at the starting line became support buddies in the race.

 Participants running the Northern Trails during the MR25 Ultramarathon'10.

(photo courtesy of Tey Eng Tiong) 

Except for a few serious racers, there's otherwise a milder atmosphere of competitiveness among participants. The ultra, with humid weather, rough terrain and longer-than-norm distance, is enough an issue for us to focus on. However, it is these elements that enabled us to bond and empathize with fellow runners who were experiencing similar conditions.

I continued to meet and receive encouragements from friends for the next several hours, some of whom I finally broke the ice with after many weeks of being 'course mates' at the Operation Sunbird marathon training sessions a while back. On a return trip to the MacRitchie Amenities Center, Jacqueline Tan, one of the leading female racers and another Fatbird resident, popped out from behind.  

"Hey, Terry! Are you Nat Yrret on Facebook?", she asked.


"Yeah, that's me", I replied.


"Why do you named yourself like this?"


"Oh, it's my name spelled in reverse. Just for fun."


She chuckled upon hearing the answer.


The rest of the top-tier racers were warmly responsive to peer presence as well; people like Henry Yang and Ben Swee who would become top finishers at the end of the day.

I managed to keep my feet going throughout the race. Everything seemed to be fine despite the obvious aches and fatigue in my body. 

Soon, I ran up to a total of three loops which added up to 31.5K in mileage.

Midway, I met a colleague with her group of friends but they were here for trail trekking. I did a 'run-by' greeting and was confident I should be able to see her again when I started on the 4th loop. Sure enough, I caught up with her at the Terantang section. After checking on her well-being (she took medical leave during one of the weekdays before), I sped off into the distant, a steep climb waiting ahead for me.

By afternoon, I completed my fourth return trip to the MacRitchie Amenities Center for lap recording and re-fueling. The MR25 committee had catered lunch for participants in the form of Nasi Lemak in Styrofoam boxes but I wasn't hungry enough for that. Instead, I depended on my self-prepared slices of bread, spread with honey, for nutrition and it worked fairly well as a mid-race diet.

As I headed out for the wild again, I looked at my Garmin GPS watch and realized I had reached the marathon distance of 42K. This was the second time in my entire life that I had ever ran such distance whether the record's official or not.

However, the real task was in finishing the present 5th loop so that I can qualify for finisher status at 52.5K. I managed to abide by the '2 hours per lap' rule set by MR25,  completing each loop in near-consistent timing so far. Can I do the same for this critical round?

After enough walking, I switched to a slow paced run and took off.... without much time to lose.

A Long, Steady Battle (Pounding MacRitchie Part 2)

"Going slow does not prevent arriving. "

- Nigerian Proverb

26 December 2010, Sunday

MR25 Ultramarathon, MacRitchie Reservoir Park


Over 200 pairs of feet came stomping down MacRitchie at 7 in the morning. Over 200 pairs of feet belonging to owners who can't think of anything better to do than to torture their rubber-cushioned appendages in a 12 hours run.

Somebody wore a shirt with a quote that best describe the mental state of these adventurers. 

"Any idiot can run a marathon. It takes a special idiot to run an ultramarathon", it goes.

The horde of us soon arrived at our first challenge of the day: the roller-coaster slopes of the Northern Trail.

 Participants of MR25 Ultramarathon'10 heading towards the Northern trails.

(photo courtesy of Tey Eng Tiong) 

I maintained as much a  cautious pace as I can, not wanting to burn out too soon. Other runners soon catch up with me, one by one cruising past as I was tempted to pick up a little speed. Fatbird Chief, Anthony Sum, was about 25m ahead and I used the space between us as a rough guide to keep my pace.

Other than the challenges of running discipline and the rugged terrain, the weather is forgivingly cool. I had a good feeling that everything is going to be slow and easy, with hours of pure running ecstasy passing by.

Tackling the slopes was not much an issue at the moment so long I stick to the game plan. Go slow when running up. Restrain from speeding when running down.

At 3.5km, we made a left turn and temporarily ran on road past the Singapore Island Country Club. One more left turn and via a short upslope, we reached the mid-route water point at the barrier-blocked entrance of the Terantang Trail. I grabbed a cup of Pokari Sweat before entering Terantang.

Once there, I quickly noticed plastic drinking cups being strewn by the side of the trail. It wasn't a pretty sight. While I'm not a die-hard environmentalist myself,  I expect most runners to have a respect for nature reserves like MacRitchie and keep these areas from pollution. Except for the water point, there's no proper dumping containers in sight but that's no excuse. I continued to hold onto my empty cup.

The ride along Terantang is quite bumpy but without as much of the elevation gains and losses as the Northern Trail. Soon after, we made a turn into Sime Trail where the grounds are much rockier than any part of the race route.

Approaching the U-turn checkpoint along Sime, I met Chris, one of my friends from Ops Sunbird, who is running on the opposite direction and a good distance ahead of me. Soon, more familiar faces, mainly the people of Fatbird, showed up including a heavily-equipped Alan; hydration gears, compression tights and all. He was late for race start but somehow managed to catch up with the rest. Another friend, Winston, showed up in a bright pink shirt and wore a 'devil's horn' party headdress. With the festive mood still in the air, runners could be seen donning fancy headgears, usually of a Christmas-theme.

The final portion of the path leading out of Sime Trail is a short but steep climb to the edge of a water storage facility. At this point, many runners choose to walk up the slope instead of running it. David Ong once cautioned, that it is nearly impossible to maintain running pace throughout MR25 UM as there are countless slopes to deal with. It would be good to conserve strength, by walking over the inclines, for this 12-hours run.

Moving past the water storage facility, I headed back to the MacRitchie Amenities Centre via the Northern Trail and reached there 70 minutes later, completing my first loop. I was a little tired but quite full of energy and the sight of the pretty girl, handling out cups of Pokari Sweat at the start-line water point did perk things up. After chomping on a slice of bread with honey, I embarked on the second loop. 

The loop registration checkpoint near the start line & MacRitchie Amenities Centre

(photo courtesy of Tey Eng Tiong)

Pounding MacRitchie (Part 1)

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
- T.S Eliot, 20th century English poet.

26 December 2010, Sunday

MR25 Ultramarathon, MacRitchie Reservoir Park

Boxing Day might not have been ideal to do a LSD. With the holiday spirits still in the air, the norm is for me to relax before serious work commenced. 

Including running.

Yet, here I am at MacRitchie, the day after Christmas, up and ready for my virgin ultramarathon experience. This came three weeks after I completed the Stanchart 42K race, a first for me as well.

MR25 Ultramarathon is slightly different from other ultra distance events held locally (not that there's a lot of such races in Singapore to begin with). Runners are required to complete as many 10K loops as they can within the MacRitchie trail areas and in a time frame of 12 hours. 52K or 5 loops will qualify them for finisher status and a commemorative singlet. Of course, one can choose to go beyond the minimum requirement but that's another part of the race where a fewer number dare venture.

Since I had never ran above 42K, my participation in the race was a personal gamble of sorts. It's not just the distance being the main concern. A recent change in route this year will get runners to shuttle back and forth along the Northern Trails for each loop. This particular stretch is famous for its series of hilly inclines and declines and at 3km of rugged terrain, is enough challenge for most runners.

Ground conditions aside, I'm glad that many Team Fatbird runners, including alumnis of the Operation Sunbird marathon training program, are participating the race. Other running clubs joined in as well including MR25, the event's host club, and Punggol Runners.

Early Birds: (from L-R) Me, Steven, Kerk & Alex.

(photo courtesy of Tejinda Peh)

I reached the MacRitchie grounds around 6 in the morning, about 1 hour to gun-time. By then, a good number of runners had already formed and some were registering and collecting their race bibs. Although this was the third MR25 events I participated, I still found myself being humbled by the presence of these athletes who seemed to be of a higher calibre of fitness I'm probably not on par with. Maybe it's the tanned skins or the apparels and gears they wore, I don't know.

Team Fatbird & friends at the MR25 Ultramarathon 2010. 

(photo courtesy of Tey Eng Tiong)

In a group of like-minded strangers, there were familiar faces like Mika Kume, MR25's ultra champion and Sean Hart, the Caucasian guy with a thick beard, who beat me by seconds in my first time trial. Soon, more Fatbirds appeared; Mohan, the club's cheerleader, in his bright yellow singlet, Sammi and Kerk, among the handful of marathon couples, Anthony 'The Chief' and David Ong. The usual warm-up ritual commenced with chats about the day's event and pep talks to get us ready for whatever's in stored for us in the next 12 hours.

A few minutes before 7, runners started to gathered behind the start line outside the MacRitchie Amenities Centre. Fellow Fatbird Danny had some trouble with his new Garmin 310XT and as I helped him to calibrate the data settings, the race official blasted the horn.

The race had began.

"Never mind, you go ahead", Danny said.

Together with a fielding of 253 runners, I embarked on what might be, the longest race of my life.

 Runners at the start line outside MacRitchie Amenities Centre. 

For many, the MR25 Ultramarathon might be the longest run of their life.

(photo courtesy of Tey Eng Tiong)