On 20-Dec-2008, it comes the day for the long walk. 298 participants for the 100km walk gathered at MINDS in Margaret Drive. My team is named ZLers with 3 male (me, Gopi and Chun Sing) and 2 female (Teresa and Corrine) team members. The flagoff is at 8:10am. The route is all over Singapore and pass at least 10 national parks.
Our initial speed is slower than planned, only at 4.5km/h. We had our lunch in the Longhouse eating place along Upper Thomson Road. Chun Sing's wife has landed support and bring us apple, banana, Milo, Pocari. No dramatic issues in the first 50km. We arrived CheckPoint 5 right at 8pm. The same time as the 50km walker starts their walk. Corrine has planned right at the beginning to stop at 50km mark. Therefore, no surprise for us that she dropped out at 50km. I had a foot massage at CP5. We have the drop bag in Chun Sing's wife's car. I got my shoe & t-shirt changed and move on at around 8:50pm. We arrived Pasir Ris Park at around 10:35pm and re-start at 10:52pm towards Changi Village. We arrived Changi Village at 1:20am. My wife went their to support us. We had coffee, Coke, sandwich and rock melon.
The next 13km is tough. The walk along the endless Changi Coastal Road can be demoralizing. We saw many teams dragging their feet. Chun Sing suffer from blister in the toes. Even after some padding, the situation does not improve enough. He finally decided to quit at the SAFRA resort. I had a blister developed on my left heel. But with a heel gel and slight change to the walking pose, I am able to move without pain problem.
Teresa, Gopi and me continue and arrive CP8 at around 5:12am. After a break, we move on and decided to skip breakfast. We arrive CP9, the last checkpoint at around 7:28. For the last 10km, I pace Teresa. We move slowly at 4km/h and stop a few times to air the feet. We finally finish at 10:09am at the SMU. Even though Corrine and Chun Sing did not complete, they came to the SMU to cheer us as well. Thanks for both of you!
For the 298 participants signed up for the 100km walk, only 99 completed the distance.
Congrats, Joe!
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely not as easy as I hope it would be.
It was a tough decision to drop out, but it was tough for my team mates to walk at my pace.