Tiong Bahru Challenge 2009

(Event Banner + Group Photo with the 2 new friends - stranger runners)

Note: The female with a blue cap behind me in the photo is the overall winner of the Woman's Open Category

This morning, I took part in my 19th running event for the year of 2009 with this event called Tiong Bahru Challenge which consists of a 5km road run + 30 storey vertical climb up a HDB flat. I think I only saw a few hundred participants for the race this morning as this event is just 1 week after the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon and maybe due to the lack of publicity since it only appears on the sgrunner forum.

My usual running buddy, KT is not able to join me for this run as he just got married. In the end, I joined this event alone. Before the actual run, I already went for a few trial runs with the organizing committee few weeks back, so I got to know the running route well and experienced the 30 storey climb before hand. Haha.

When the race started, I saw the front runners running like mad, dashing from the start of the race. Anyway, I did not really bother much but running in my own pace. Somehow as it was the actual run, there was some pressure as I was overtaken by quite a few runners along the way and I felt that I was slowing down in the process too. Along the race, the runners still need to cross 2 overhead bridges as it is part of the running route. ha :)

During the last stretch of the running route before I start my 30 storey vertical climb, I was even overtaken by the first female runners from the Woman’s Open category which starts 5 min later compared to the male category.

Anyway, I continued my race with the 30 storey climb up the HDB flat for the 2nd part of the race. Climbing up the 30 storey HDB flat after a 5km run can be quite a tedious task too, but it can really be done as one endure the way though. FYI. Male and Female runners are climbing up 2 different block of 30 storey HDB flats so as not to cause any congestion along the way. The organizing committee is quite thoughtful to think of that. : )

Upon reaching the 30 storey, I stopped my stopwatch and was surprised to see that I was actually around 2 minutes faster then my previous trial runs. Perhaps the trial run did help a bit in the process. Haha. In the end of the race, I made friends with 2 stranger runners by taking photo as a memory (I actually lead 1 of the stranger runner to the event venue before the start of the race). Haha

That ends my 19th running event of this year. I was trying to find another run to make it 20 runs for this year, but seem a bit tough. Anyway I already broke my own record this year by participating in so many running events in 1 year. My previous record was 10 running events back in year 2005. haha :D

Certificate of Participation - Only for those who complete the 30 Storey Vertical Climb

(Videos of the race)





(Video 1 - Start of race, crossing the overhead bridge. You can see me during the 1.01 min of the video. haha)

Thanks to market2garden for uploading the video in youtube.





(Video 2 - Start of the 30 storey HDB flat vertical climb. You can see me during the 1.06 min of the video. haha)

Thanks to market2garden for uploading the video in youtube.