The New Balance real run 2007 had just ended and this puts one more race this year being held in the East (and so to the dismay of my people living in the west but to the joy for those in the east). It’s so given the usual centralised Realrun event venue (gateway carpark in Sentosa) being permanently closed for redevelopment by Genting Resorts World, so technically speaking we are looking at a whole new place to run and possibility areas where the organizers can afford to mess up, how do they fair in this year’s race?

Pre-race management & Transport Options
First off, Having an event in such a remote part of Singapore requires some serious thought into getting the horde over, that was well planned with multiple direct shuttle bus locations all around the island (AMK, Jurong, Kallang, Outram, Tanah Merah & Woodlands) for a modest fee of $3, similar to that used by SCM as well. There was ample parking space for those who drive, with a whole aviation carpark worth of space, only that you have to be in by 7am or you have to park at the nearby Changi Beach carpark and make your way to the start line by foot.

There was free direct shuttle bus service from pasir-ris MRT itself for those who prefer to commute themselves and forgo the $3 direct shuttle. The interesting and commendable thing was that shuttle services was even extended to 7am, contrary to the last bus at 6.45am, which came very much as a welcome and relief who thought they “missed the last bus” and had to take public transport. Similarly for those who drove in late, the drawback for shuttle buses arriving after 6.45am was the need for the runners to make their way 3km towards the startline due to the roads already being closed at 7, further making them late and missing the start. Buses can’t go in either for safety reasons, despite them being all clear and being serviced by SCDP trucks as well.

Recognized was the organisers effort was for this category, but they would score top marks for transport if they could take up one lane for last minute service buses, so runners do not need to rush their way to the start in order to begin the race.

Other noticeable pre-race events would include the usual preludes and race pack collection were on for runners. Which all served their purpose and went on well.

The Route View Lonely Runner’s GPS Route Map
The route started with runners all set to conquer the long runway stretch. To my disbelief we actually had 6 full running lanes which was really spectacular for a flag off, though the obvious bulk and horde of runners, space was very adequate and there was plenty of room for overtaking. The runway kept on for slightly above 2km to space and distribute the crowd up to take on the bottleneck into a one way tarmac pavement on the first left bend along Changi Coast Road, which many transition in quite smoothly only that overtaking became more of a feat and space greatly reduced.

The return trip after the U-turn along Changi Coast road was sufficiently big and open again, very good running route with good shelter from the rising sun. Most of the trail area was covered and shady as well, except for some areas around the sand route where it gets really seawater musty and hot. But that will not beat the last 2km runway stretch being the ultimate runner’s mental test back to the finishing line without any shelter at all.

The organisers took effort into ensuring that the race route was fully understood by runners with maps and information besides the training run, with distinctively marked start and finish gantries so there won’t be last minutes shocks and changes to the route like the Mizuno wave run this year.

Terrain
The relief is generally all flat throughout, except for some minor gradient visible on the runway straights, all other parts of the course are perfectly flat, even the beach had some flat sandy areas on the bank tops where all the runners ended up running along too. With the exception of weather, the Sentosa course was very much more difficult to run than at Changi, especially being faced with hillys ups and down, not to mention large open beaches on the sand part- the Changi route was simply much more “soft” to be called an “ultimate cross terrain challenge”.

10km runners flagged off

The Start Line

The vast spaces

Post-race management
The post race was excellent, the whole changi exhibition center was booked for the event and air-conditioning was turned on all round – a perfect and open place for all runners to cool down after the scorching finish. There were lots of outdoor shelters and 100-plus umbrellas for those who wanted to acclimatise for awhile after finishing before entering the air-conditioned environment.

Race carnival
All the race carnivals and race booths are all situated in the exhibition center itself, with ample space for crowds without any congestion, and was space not an issue here – with the total floor area of few aircraft hangers, need more space and head to the back of the center where you will be greeted by a long big empty air-conditioned space to your hearts delight. No nearby food hawkers? Hungry? everything is cater for, all you need to do is to show the greens.

The lucky draw was held a the the central stage and 91.3 DJS Suzanne walker and Joe from the Morning show were there to keep the crowd chirpy and entertained, though being DJs they tend to talk more than what they usually should do, but that didn’t stop the crowd from staying till the end of the lucky draw with all prizes drawn out on the day itself to the crowd content, contrary to the rather disappointing “single draw or direct donation to charity if no takers” during the 2005 event. Glad they didn’t do this this year.

Collection Points
I finally came to understand why the 10km start time is pushed to 7.30am instead of 7.45am – having the 15km at 7.30am and the 10km 7.45am as opposed previously will only add to the congestion at the finish and possible large surge in crowds for the 2 events possibly converging and finishing together, (since only with a lag time of only about 10-15mins for the top runners). Having the 10km starting safely earlier will ensure all these runners clearing their league of the race first so there won’t be bottlenecks at the finishing line and bag collection points, and since that 15km runners will definitely come later than their 10km counterparts, everything will be clear and ready for the next 15km wave to be accommodated when they arrive.

I personally did not deposit any baggage, but heard baggage collection was fast and breezy having the need to pay $1 to deposit your bag, so it’s very much like having an ERP charge which definitely kept the numbers of bags down.

Goodie bag collection was a great breeze too and just like every year there were no long queues at all, it’s like dash and go, no matter when you finish. Maybe Mizuno waverun can learn a thing or two from the Realrun too, also given the fact that this is a new venue with lots of opportunities for things to go wrong, glad the organizing committee saw that through.

Exhibition Center

Our Prize winners!

My SGRunners Achievement Certificate!

Prizes
Top timings go to “superman” a Malaysian for 15km in just 52min. And for 10km opens, it was like 32mins. Results wise, 4 of our SP track and field runners came in within the top 20 of the Men’s Junior category and Brokie from the SGrunners presented me with my events certificate of achievement today as well! Cheers to the SGrunners, Yoke Thye and GuetPing who were there too.

Heading Back
The roads only open up after 10am, this is a technical and safety limitation so anyone who wants out before that have to make their way out by foot which quite a few runners were seen doing, otherwise the carparks and shuttle bus services towards Pasir-Ris will start at 10am sharp when the roads are re-opened. While those who drove will only be greeted by an oven hot car to head back home, there was a healthy flow of air-conditioned shuttle buses for those who needs a free lift back to Pasir-Ris. The buses kept up pretty well with the horde of crowds heading back, even at the end of the event- waiting time for buses never went past 5mins on a single wait, not only people were queuing up for buses, the buses were also queuing up to be boarded as well, well done!

Overall 8.5/10 (Highly Satisfying Race)
Good race! The Realrun team never disappoint with this year’s run, despite all the challenges with a new route and venue. Logistics to transport were all thought through. Commendable!

It’s also time of the year again where our year one students get to go through a series of course options in their path of studies, namely the second year specialization between the CIE (creativity innovation and enterprise option) or the TF (teaching factory) option. Our lecturers will gather all the year ones for a talk and showcase of our work to “sell” the course option to them, hopefully getting the bulk to their option.

As usual my lecturer took my team’s second year presentation video for the showcase and wow the crowd, only this year round, I do not actually need to present the project to the students themselves due to time and venue constraints (I personally do not like speaking to an audience in a cramped LT). In the end I felt that my video did most of the talking – our TSO told us that we are expecting about 200% more signups for our CIE course next year as compared to the previous, all because it “was all my fault for doing such a good job!” he said.

As flattering as that may sound, looking back I think I really did transformed the SP DME-CIE course since I stepped foot in it. The course started bleak with very few students and unproven teaching techniques. With the exception of the resignation of one designer lecturer to the relocation of another, glad the lecturers there took good criticism to the software they were using initially and adopted my suggestion for 3D Studio Max and the use of Adobe premier for product design. Now our design studio is a hot spot for final year students and potential new design engineers alike, because “It was my fault”.

“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give him the tools to fish he will be fed for time to come.”

Today is the IVP day 2 held at Gombak stadium, the highlight event today would have to be the 10,000m run. Darius and Alvin was in representing SP and Darius came in 4th overall and Alvin11th. I remembered my race in 2005 and it was not easy especially running in the overglare of the setting evening sun. Good thing no one came in last and it had been so for as long as I remember for the 10,000m event.

Days working in the school’s design hub took quite some time off my free time, especially this week being a critical week to get all our project purchase orders submitted in time for the project vetting next week. I initially planned to push the submission almost 2 weeks ago, but was set back but doubts our supervisor had over our design, being faced with changes and reaction from unrealistic project quotes from external fabricators to simplify our design. Nevertheless we got a final quote within our budget and a purchase order will be sent on the way. Glad our team can see this coming as it had been a very tough time pushing the orders in to be approved. Till now, I can’t provide more details on our project as it’s getting quite competitive in the gaming simulation area, just be rest assured that it will definitely be am exclusive show stopper in the upcoming Spinnovex 2008.

The last 2 project weeks saw disappointment being unable to submit our fabrication and parts order due to red tape in our school system and financial department to raise project budget. Hope things goes better this week.

Monday saw the first time we managed to get the actual simulator system running with few parts borrowed all round campus, which is mainly a proving point to our lecturer that things can be done/workable and we can finally move on with our project by confirming the quotations and the parts we require. We managed to source out a few other external vendors so we can raise 3 quotations in order to request for the budget. These few vendors also offered to do the job within our price range, but unexplainably there are always one or 2 who will always quote so high compared to the rest for the same job, funny makes you wonder are they cheating you or you will start to doubt the cheaper ones for a shabby job.

Despite being about 2 weeks behind schedule (this week is week 5), time was made up by pushing future work to be done now. I had to find work for my team to do during his eye of the storm if not everybody will loose their momentum and won’t be as motivated and driven as our first week. However, there are still limits to what we can do till the design is finalised, so finally tying down the final requirements for the pneumatics system will see the start of all the orders going in and finalizing of the design, till then, finally we can start on the media related materials which was left hanging on hold since 2 weeks ago.

Didn’t run much this week, due to lots of chores, work and projects to be done, man I should not let work eat into my lifestyle…

Went for a short 16km run this evening after a week of absence from the sport, maybe I am saturated with glucose or so, but the run was totally effortless and I never felt the “wall” at all, things look good to bump the distance up by another kilometer next week runs. The Alexandra canal route was exceptionally crowded today too, which added more to the buzz on the jog. Moreover, I’ve managed to get a contact who is able to get Polar watches at 25% off the standard retail price, making things looking niffy for my upcoming RS400sd which is most importantly, only available in Black! The RS800sd, silver? urrrghh!

On yea, lastly you may notice that my Final Year spotlight has taken quite a hush hush lately and the project blog and information mostly taken down. Yup it’s because of certain issues my lecturer raised to the whole class last week in school- Most of our final year projects are actually industry based projects, which usually have to be kept “hush-hush” to protect against competitors, especially when we are working on a new “secret ground breaking product”. Furthermore, he also highlighted that there were history of cases of students project groups facing infringements and possible lawsuits due to the leakage of such information. So the stand now is keep the project away from the public eye, which also meant taking all the project content on the site till the exhibition period – SPINNOVEX.

But don’t worry I will definitely check back time to time on the progress on the project, if not I will definitely bore myself which nothing on school, only minus the sensitive information. Stay tuned!

Popped by school today to meet up with Khowming who was already there with other coursemates. Danson could not make it today due to some last minute issue on his part. Part of today’s plan was to get our 2nd signboard up, together with doing some housekeeping to spruce up and PC and set it up in a more conducive manner.

High on the agenda was to meet up with our supervisor on finally finalising our design plans so we can actually get about ordering our parts., but that was all dampened when he was not around the whole day in office today. Our TSO was around and has always been a helpful person making setting our booth up. As he always said “We treat each other like family”. So things done all around in the design center are based on trust and responsibility. Would be looking forward to working with him for the weeks to come.

Building our new signboard

Gaming and Test Workstation

Our Booths

Our booth looks totally awesome and is the most funky around the design center at the moment. Man will it be impressive on the 1st day of school when everyones comes back to school. Not to mention a morale booster for my team as well!

The track camp and BBQ is on last night, well specifically the BBQ as the camp already started since Thursday. The camp saw a reunion of some old seniors, together with Juniors. There was Lan gaming at SP Moderly Hub before training from 5pm at the track. The BBQ started around 7.30pm. Besides the usual crabsticks and sotong balls, there was usual hotdogs, big and small cocktail ones which we found out is rather manageable to BBQ. Few of us left round 11.30pm so that they could catch the last mode of public transport home.

Prior to all that, I touched school around late afternoon, before having to leave to orchard to meet a client who I come to know have his own badminton club in Pasir Ris!

Had a light soupy dinner at Orchard (as I was recovering from somesore throat boring me over the past few days), so I can do with with lesser of the heaty BBQ food later in the night.

Homework for my Polar RS400sd
Dropped by the House of Times at lucky plaza (since I was around the area) to check out the Polar RS400sd watch, apparently they are the only few authorized sellers and repairs centers for Polar watches in Singapore iteslf. Widely known for this store are also their rates which are usually lower than standard outside rates.

The RS400sd is retailing at $715 in most watch shops, have them retailing in House of Times at $704 basic. I asked the assistant about using the upcoming New Balance Realrun vouchers for a discount on the watch, and she (presumably one of the owners of the store as well) told me no need and she could offer the RS400sd at 15% on the spot if I wish (ask for it!) thus effectively brining the price to $600SGD

So calculating, I can get the RS400sd at $369.90USD from amazon (buying from US is always thought to be cheaper), so that’s $555 excluding shipping and GST. Including GST and it will be way above $600. With this together with possible warranty issues if I purchase from overseas, it seems that all my previous homework about buying overseas are redundant now given the lover local rates.

I approached my Friend at the BBQ on the issue who told me that we can actually use Coach’s coach card to get discount for Polar watches, let be the regular lobangs for bulk order with Running Lab stores, having discounts rumored round 40% off. But whether that are for old stocks I still yet to confirm. It just makes me wonder should I commit the RS400sd now or wait.

My fifth semester results are out! Finally! a perfect score for this semester after failing to always hit the “prefect kill” mark for the last 2 semesters. This semester saw a pristine “Mon-mon-mon-monster kill” with 8 ‘DIST’ out of the 8 Modules taken and ‘A’ for IS module (Internship) in which the ‘A’ grade is the most students can get.

Yupyup so it’s a wicked sick wipe and whats’s more it’s my last academic semester too- with Final Year Projects fulltime next Semester, farewell to E-learning, Mid and End Semester Exams in Poly for now! Your all busted good, for now. Alta Vista Baby!

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