10.10.10

I think I outdone myself last Sunday.. I did the 30km run in the morning and climb the tallest peak in Singapore later that afternoon.. with just 4 hours of sleep..

10.10.10
It was a wet drizzling Sunday morning.. Ended up sleeping only at 1am cuz I was too caught up in the tvb firemen show on vv ( despite knowing that it would still be available for next seven days after screening..). The streaks of lightning that woke me up after the 4th snooze of the alarm almost deterred me from changing into my gear and head for the Playground. But my prayer was answered and no thunderstorm preceded and it was a cool, windy morning to run. :)

@ Playground..No signs of the sun cuz it was drizzling.. :(

 the Starting Point

Official flagoff was at 7:10, by then, it was getting brighter but still windy.. The route was three loops from the Playground to the loop at the jet ski area after the seafood stretch..(Apparently the 3 X 10km denotes : Strength, Speed & Stamina.. hence three loops of 10 km instead of one long route.. or perhaps to tie in with the date 10.10.10!) Regretted not being the 18km race instead when I enviously eyed those who turned into the finishing area after their second rounds.. :(

Highlight of the run (for me) was @ the 24km mark (i.e. 3rd loop @ the 4km marker), cuz i spied chilled mini mars bar at the chiller @ the water point! Energy booster.. though that probably wasted 2 minutes or so cuz i was trying to finishing chewing and washing it down with the non-carbonated icy cold 100plus. :)

Wasn't my best run cuz I spent at least 5 minutes walking throughout the run cuz my left foot started giving me problem after the second round.. which later I realised was the blister formed at the second toe! :( Nonetheless.. made it through after 3hr15min.. (I was much faster in round 1, slowed down in the second, progressively slower @ the 3rd 10km..).. the fastest female for the 30km category came in like 2hr15 min.. (whereby I probably just started on my 3rd round..). Still glad i made it to the Finish line. :)

 Final destination

my blistered toe! (i deflated the blister! see the pic on the right) But a new blister formed over the my bukit timah hike! :( :(

Later that day ,after lunch, met Jac & Ziv to 'conquer' bukit timah hill.. Never been up the highest peak in SG [though I thought mount faber seemed to be taller.. but judging from the time taken to reach the peak, i conclude that bukit timah should be taller.. :) ]

We hailed a cab from clementi and travelled in luxury.. cuz I was stepping on 'lush LV' carpet.. LOL

Arrived at the foot of the Singapore's tallest peak (standing @163m) approximately 16:00. Was surprised to find the entrance to the nature reserve was that near the prata place /Beauty World/ bukit timah plaza that i frequented during JC days... very sua-ku indeed..

@ the visitor centre

the map! At the advice of the park ranger, we took the green route up and the red route down.. Adventurous Ziv wanted to take the yellow route all the way.. (but no go-ahead from the gals..) Next time bro..!

I like this picture.. like a scene in the fairy tales.. walking towards heaven.. :)

towards the peak here we go! (actually it was taken on our way down!)

After a few groups of avid mountain trekkers that passed by us, we realised our group was the most audible group.. (it's part of the "forest etiquette" to observe silence so as to not cuz disturbance to the animals..) and we spotted trekkers with the walking sticks too! Very pro indeed!!

taken with the lomo app and tweaked it a bitsy.. so retro! :)

oh yeah.. i made it to the summit too! :) Ziv snapped a very old-school of Jac and me but he did not bump the pic to me. (yet)..

After conquering the hill.. we popped over to the Hindhede Nature Park to view the abandoned quarry.. Highlight of the mini trail walk was the failed crossing the pedestrain path of a foot long monitor lizard.. which our screams sent it shuffling itself nerviously back to the woods.. poor chap! :(

We spotted tortoises swimming in the manmade lake! They were so cute! :)

There were at least 5 tortoises spotted.. Not too sure how they got in there.. Perhaps they were released by people due to some religious practices? :)

Snapped this on the way out to the main road randomly, underneath the rail track.. I like the fluffly clouds against the bright blue sky.. Doesn't feel like being in Singapore at all.. :)

Dinner time @ this prata place frequented during the JC days.. the Al-Ameen Eating House. It has been a while i ate these.. thanks to e. :( Nonetheless enjoyed the plain prata with curry chicken and the uber sweet teh-cino... (wonder why indian tea is usually uber sweet.. perhaps I should order it 'siew dai' the next time.. lol).

Maybe this hike is preparation for higher heights to scale? :)