The Road to 40 Day 314/365: Singapore Running

It’s been a little over a month since I’ve tried living a more active lifestyle, and on this day, I wanted to see how far I’ve come.

I’ve seen visible improvements. I also don’t feel as bloated as I did before. I could see my neck again. From a regular weight of 88 to 90kgs, I’m back down to 83-85.

Thus far, I’ve been running on intervals of 30 seconds without a problem. I wanted to step it up a notch to see if I can go beyond it. Seeing friends go through marathons, I thought I’d give it a go at some point.

However, after speaking to a friend, I realized that a full marathon would be 42 kilometers, which is a bit too far for me to shoot for within the year, I think. Sure, nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it, but I thought I’m going to aim for a half-marathon first and see how that goes.

I asked Nicky, a friend of mine who has been participating in multiple sports races, what the cutoff time was for marathons and half-marathons so that I could try to see if I could be up for it.

He said it depends on race organizers. He suggested that if I wanted to simulate it, I should maybe try to run a full kilometer without stopping. I tried it and I stopped by the 800m mark.

I guess I wasn’t ready for that just yet.

On this day, I tried running 400m intervals. I programmed my app to notify me if I ran for 400m and rest for 200m 10 times in total, with a 10-minute break halfway through.

The first 400 was ok. By the third 400, I was gasping desperately for air. I was thinking maybe I’d do just 5 reps this time around. However, I was in the middle of a huge park connector, so I would still need to walk to get to a bus stop or something. So I thought I might as well just try and push myself more.

The 8th rep was the next challenge for me, but after getting through that, I was able to finish the run. I walked another 2 kilometers to get to the bus stop, and walked a total of 10kms in close to two hours.

I think that’s a decent time if I tried to run a 10km. I’ve seen my friends go for runs and aim for podiums, but personally, I’m just proud of them for finishing those races. If I ran a race, I think I won’t be gunning for any podiums no matter how long I train, I think.

Maybe I’m not that competitive. I mean, I do enjoy competition and sport, but most of all, I enjoy playing. I don’t care much for winning or losing as long as the experience was fun and fair.

For now, what I’m enjoying the most with my runs here in Singapore is exploring new places. This park connector is huge, and I didn’t realize how far I’ve ran until I checked my map.

After the pandemic, there have been a lot of people out and about at any hour of the day, so running is never lonely. While I enjoyed walking around Ho Chi Minh, I don’t think I’d be able to run as freely as I could here in SG.

What’s cool is that they make parks really friendly for running and walking, with small resting pods all over the park. It’s a common theme in parks that I’ve been to. While running around the city is nice, doing it in parks is much better.

I’ve been able to explore my neighborhoods during my recent runs, and I think I’ll try to check out other places in the coming weeks.