Multiple yellow lines: a weekend two-fer

A first-timer's Yellow Ribbon 10K

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, when I was just a baby reporter, all the rookies went on a field trip to the courts and watched a few cases of people being sentenced - from drug offences to petty theft. I used to wonder what would happen to them when they got out of jail.

As it turns out, the best rehab programme in jail means nothing if society at large doesn't give an ex-con a second chance. That's why the Yellow Ribbon Project was started by a group of government agencies and community organisations: it campaigns to give people another chance, and helps ex-offenders find work, get family counselling, and stay off drugs.

The Yellow Ribbon Prison Run is a 10K/ 6K fun run meant to highlight (in bright yellow) this cause, and runners get a chance to fundraise for the project or donate directly. Oh, and you get to run around the prisons at Changi - a part of town most of us will never see (at least not from the inside).

The race is astonishingly well-organised. Shuttle buses are provided from the nearest carpark/ MRT station (Expo) to the start point (except for one minor quibble: the bus ride took nearly 50 minutes including 15 totally unnecessary minutes of being stuck in traffic). Husband and I got to the start point half an hour late and started with the 6K runners - this was our own silly fault.

The course has gentle rolling hills, and can be narrow in places. It's way out at the eastern edge of Singapore, and is completely different from all the city road races that take you around and around downtown. To give you an idea of what a normal-sized race in Singapore is like - 10,000 people did this run. If you plan to PR, do not for the love of all that is holy start with the 6K fun runners and wrassle your way through the tail end of the 10Ks like we did.

This was a regular old tempo run for me - I'd just run 14km the day before - so I wasn't too fussed, and simply enjoyed the view; I wound up moseying in in 59:17, no PR but a decent enough time (I've been doing sub-1h 10Ks consistently for only a year now), and to my astonishment was 18th in my age group. At the start, husband immediately zoomed off ("I love you! See you at the finish") and was done in 49 minutes. This is testament to an unjust universe, as his entire training consists of running 4 to 8 km home from work four days a week.

Schoolchildren came out to cheer - so cute! Even the guards at the women's prison were out cheering us on. And the goody bag we got at the end contained a miniature mooncake (it is mooncake season) with a yellow ribbon on it - baked by a service run by ex-offenders! Unfortunately I had to go to work right away after that, so wasn't able to stick around for this...

Photo from the Yellow Ribbon Project Facebook page. 

I'll probably be signing up for this run again next year. Everyone deserves a second chance, after all...


I have these in yellow: A short, tight review - Mizuno Inspire short tight

I have two pairs of these - one has that bluish-purple stripe and the other has a yellow stripe. I wear them a lot (though I did not wear them for the Yellow Ribbon run, alas). The length (3 inch inseam?) is perfect. Note - I am 165cm/ 5'4 with stubby legs and I won't get arrested for wearing these in public. If you are taller, you may disagree. Despite the name, the size S was neither too short nor too tight for me. So what's the catch? Read on.

The tights have TWO pockets - a small one in front (I put my keys in there and there was no bouncing) and a larger one at the back (my Ezlink card, ID and a bit of cash fit in there just nice). With so much pockety goodness you'd think they'd be perfect for a long run.

So I took them out for a long(ish) run on Saturday, a lovely, unplanned, go-where-my-feet-take-me morning run. (This is what I do when I'm not training for marathons.) I ended up running about 14km downhill, uphill, and through to a trail that took me halfway around Macritchie - one of my usual routes, with some variations.

And then I got on the air-conditioned bus to go home. And I froze my butt off because my shorts were so soggy.

Use for: short sharp races (10K and under) to carry all your essentials around in if you don't want to deposit a bag, short runs before work, track workouts when you are running late
Don't use for: long runs, anything where you might sweat a lot and can't change out immediately after, sitting around straight after a soggy workout if you mind leaving damp butt-prints

double feature: 'fast shoes' & 'undertrained'

ladies and gentlemen - I present to you a special weekend double feature!

'the fast shoes'

When I was a kid we would run all over the place, light and fast like little kids are, in canvas sneakers with a thin rubber sole, or even barefoot. (There was the one time with my two boy cousins - this was after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when we all watched the UK's Linford Christie and US' Gail Devers win the men's and women's 100m - when we had sprint races around the estate and I ran till I nearly puked. I beat one of them, though.)

At home we walk around barefoot ('what, shoes in the house? that's just barbaric'). And to this day I can't stand having anything on my feet - not even the coldest of New England winters could induce me to ever sleep with socks on.

Which is why I also like to feel the ground when I run. So I really like my pink New Balance Minimus trail shoes - I got them in July or August 2012 and I think they're the original Minimus Zero Trail. They don't have much of a difference between heel and toe, they're super lightweight and have very sticky soles. (The difference between the heel height and the toe height is called the heel drop - just like a platform heel can be 4 inches at the heel and 1 at the toe.)

I definitely remember getting these last year and immediately going out gleefully to run quite a lot of the local trails in them. Like 16km worth of trail. (Don't try this at home, kids.) I've not been injured doing this, but if you're anyone else I strongly recommend starting slow!

If you look closely I am wearing the Minimus during the Green Corridor Run. That is probably how the rips happened...

These days I think of the pink shoes as my 'fast' shoes, even though the tread has completely worn off and I am not fast. There is a 1.5-inch rip in the little-toe side of each shoe, just from wear and tear. I might be replacing these sometime this year.

So that's three pairs of shoes in my current rotation: a normal 'cushiony' kind, the Nike Lunarglide 3; a lower-drop kind, the Saucony Fastwitch 5 (review later...it's very firm but still bulky/ hefty enough that I don't feel fast, and I don't like it as much as either of my other pairs...but they were on sale at the local running store); and my go-to trail shoes, the Minimus Trail Zero.

As a talentless, genetically challenged, non-elite mere mortal who has never won anything in her life, not even an age-group plaque, never mind hundreds of dollars worth of shoes, I can't afford/ don't deserve to have more pairs than that! (I wonder what other people do when they come to the realisation that they'll never win anything in their entire lives. Do you get fed up and stop running? Do you keep running, like I do, because it's really for your sanity and mental health? If I ever did run fast enough to place I would probably die of shock.)

&
'undertrained' - a run350 race report 

This morning I wore the 'fast shoes' to run the Run350 10K. The weather was incredible (for running - if you had wanted to go to the beach, different story), the route was wide open and well marked, the volunteers were both helpful and plentiful...

My so-called 'race strategy' was to paint my nails purple and try to stick with my faster friend Hilary! I got as far as the purple nails. While threading my way through the crowd (late) I got stuck behind a clump of people and then the starting horn went off, so I never did find Hilary. Which is a good thing because she finished in a very healthy 49:45. This is at least six minutes faster than I can run a 10K.

I spent the first 2km of the run still weaving through people. Saw Coach Rosie and Coach Hollie coming the other way from a turnaround in quick succession. Had exactly enough breath and time to yell GO ROSIE and before I could take another breath to yell GO HOLLIE they had vanished. (They eventually made it to the top 4, finishing in something ridiculous like 40 minutes.)  Picked another rabbit, lost her too, picked another rabbit, overtook her eventually (thanks, lady in the blue tank top), and spent the rest of the thing wondering nervously if she was trying to chase me down as well. (Does anyone else do this misattribution of mental states to fellow runners thing, or am I the only loony on the block?)

Finally I saw the 1-hour pacers just ahead of me, going through the finishing chute (pacers! how cute! there were 3 pace groups: 1:00, 1:10, and 1:20! this was ADORABLE), and I sprinted through. I honestly have no clue what time I ran, because the 1-hour pacers started right with the starting gun and I...definitely did not. I never did start my watch or my phone, and it was fabulous.

Afterwards I went off to look for Holly the one-woman cheer squad, found her cheering the half-marathoners in, ran another very scenic couple of km along the river, ran out of water (I DISLIKE being out of water), and took a bus home.

Still, I'm a little disappointed in myself because I haven't really been training terribly hard. I've missed three weekends' worth of long runs (BAD! VERY BAD!) for all sorts of reasons, and it's a miracle if I manage to run thrice a week. (To any coaches reading: I may be determined but unless I quit my job and suddenly have scads of free time, I am at ZERO risk of overtraining...trust me on this.)

Anyway - off to run more next week. The next time I post will probably be from Hong Kong...

update! my eventual time for the run350 10K was 58:04, which is all right for an undertrained, slightly disappointing race.

obligatory running photo. thanks Running Shots!