Barcelona, Spain - An Architectural Delight

Early morning run at Barcelona

15 October 2014

Whenever I mentioned to fellow runners that I did a run in Barcelona, the first thing that they asked, "Ah! So you ran on the beach of Barcelona? Did you enjoy the beautiful bikini babes and the morning sun over the horizon?"

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Singapore Chinatown Litter Race

Chinese New Year is around the corner again and Big Bone Guy suggested visiting Chinatown to take a look at this year's decorations. The fact is, we are more keen on the breakfast choices around Chinatown than the decorations, but it is as good as any excuse just to visit Chinatown for our morning run.

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Lower Peirce Reservoir - Trails, Stairs and a Traffic Free Road (2.5km) (9km)

Beautiful cool morning at Lower Peirce Reservoir

The start of 2015 started with a Bang! A gunshot that heralds legions of work held back by the chains of the year end festival. It has been non-stop working week-days to week-ends for the first 2 weeks. The 3rd week of Jan me saw me down with a severe cold, thanks to over exhaustion and my running stamina is totally busted by a week of bed rest.

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Bordeaux, France - The Wine Capital of the World

11 October 2014

Between Paris and Bordeaux for the city to visit in France, I will pick Bordeaux anytime.

Paris is expensive, noisy and overcrowded, with half of it's population seemingly made up of tourists. I never got to appreciate what's the hype of Paris being one of the most romantic place in the world.

If you want to serenade a girl with good wine and food, romantic riverside walks with many kissable/huggable moments and country side drives with beautiful towns to explore, Bordeaux is definitely the place to be.

A Kiss The Girl moment at the reflecting pool at the Place de la Bourse

 It is also a great place to run with so many options.

I took the easiest option for me to run along the River Garrone which offers kilometers of undisturbed run with a spectacular view of the city.

I set off from one of the busiest road in Bordeaux along the Cours Victor Hugo and at 730am in the morning, traffic is very light with few other pedestrians along the way. One of the biggest issue I have encountered while running in cities, especially those is Asia, is poorly maintained pedestrians pavement with ankle breaking potholes. Here at Bordeaux, the pavement is so smooth and well-paved, that even well maintained Singapore foot paths have to take a second seat.

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Farewell Run on the Decommissioned East Coast Parkway Expressway #Throwback

Early Morning at ECP

Introduction
1 year ago, the new Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) took over East Coast Parkway (ECP) on the work of routing the traffic around the downtown area. There was a small stretch of time when there are absolutely no vehicles on the decommissioned expressway and there were no barricade barring the public from entering the disused expressway. I decided to post this run 1 year after the closure of ECP to prevent the word from getting out and attracting hordes of runners to do a farewell run on ECP. There are all those heavy vehicles and construction materials lying around which could pose as a risk for irresponsible and careless runners.

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Why Companies Should NOT Spam Collaboration Invites to Bloggers

 As most of my readers will know by now, I run 2 blogs:

SG Unfit Runners - A running blog where I share with my readers some of the cool short distance runs around Singapore and the World.

Xeolyenomics - An economics & gaming blog where I share with my readers some of the experiences I went through, as a money manager and as a game designer.

I have a fulfilling professional practice and business and have absolutely no need for sponsorships for my blogs. Neither do my unfit runners friends. They are successful professionals in their own industries.

However, as the readership for our blog grows, we started to receive media invites. This invite from Lazada tickled me so much that I decided to share with my readers, on why companies should not spam collaboration invites without doing sufficient research.

Wow, an invite from Lazada. Let's see what they can offer!

 

Wow, they rejected me because I have no readership (ranked 0/10), which is fine. However, why did they contact me in the first place?  The way this lady worded the reply is like lecturing a young kid and I should not have wrote in asking for sponsorship in the first place since I have nobody reading my blogs and will generate zero ROI for them...

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5 Possible Motivations for Marathon Cheating and the Solutions

Running a marathon is often listed as one of the bucket list among many of my friends. Marathon is always associated as a revered sport, associated with strength, determination and perseverance. If you are a guy and you told people that you have completed a marathon, your social status immediately rockets and beautiful girls will flock to you and want you to share your experience. If you are a girl and you told people that you have completed a marathon, men will queue up to want to marry you.

The recent blog article by runningsucks.blogspot.sg created an uproar in various Singapore's social media circles, and the topic of cheating in a running event became a hot topic among the runners. The saga started by a passionate runner/blogger who was taking pictures of Singapore Marathon and noticed quite a number of runners wearing the slow runner's bib clearing the marathon within 4 hours (An extremely good timing by marathon standards). He checked the bib number against the official timing and found that some of the runners skipped some of the check-points, effectively reducing a 42km marathon to 25km. The blogger posted pictures and names of some of the suspected cheaters. The Singapore Marathon organizers later clarified that some of the slower runners were asked to turn back at the 13km mark as they have to reopen the roads closed by the event. The runners who were asked to turn back were still promised the coveted race medal and finisher T-shirt.

The big question now is that Singapore Marathon, being one of the Gold Label road race awarded by International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), along with the most prestigious marathons in the world such as the Boston Marathon, is setting the right standard by forcing runners to take a shorter route and still awarding them the finisher rewards despite not completing the marathon. Is that the standard the organizers should set for a Gold Label marathon event? Should a qualifying timing be set just like the Boston marathon?

While the debate rages on in the running community, I took some time to take a look at some of the marathon cheating cases around the world and the motivation behind and possible solutions to deter marathon cheatings.  

"I only want the T-shirt and Medal!" 
(2013 Singapore Marathon, Singapore)

Picture from Straits Times

 Mr Tam Chua Puh created an uproar at the Singapore Stanchart Marathon when he emerged as the winner of the local category of Stanchart Marathon. He ran 6km, took some time to drink some coffee (I made that up, but what else to do while waiting for the race to end on an early Sunday morning?), and made a heroic dash to the end point. The tightly knit competitive Singapore marathon community was confused as to who this new-comer was and how he managed to beat the top marathon athletes in Singapore. The organizers took a few hours to verify the records before they disqualified Mr Tam. Mr Tam later made an apology and said:

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Why Has Singapore Become a Pay-To-Run Nation?

Singaporeans must be really training hard to combat the potential rise of the transportation cost in Singapore.

With the price of ERP, COE, train fare, taxi fare, bus fare going up, the pragmatic Singaporeans are finding a potentially new way to save on their travel expenses, support a cause, get a nice running Tee and keeping fit at the same time.

They have been signing up for running events in doves.

Looking at the running calender, there seems to be a run every weekend and the traffic police in Singapore is getting very proficient in setting up road blocks and redirecting traffic as more and more of these running events pops up.

I often wonder why are there so many running events for an activity that is essentially free and why Singaporeans are so crazy about signing up for running events.

Perhaps it is due to social media that drives Singaporeans to sign up for these expensive running event. In fact, the more expensive it is, the faster the tickets are being snapped up.

Why social media makes a difference?

When I go on my normal run around Bedok Reservoir during my evening runs, take a selfie and post my run route on my facebook/instagram, I get 2 likes.. top...

No likes! Not even for my FCbarcelona Buff scarf

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New Mizuno Wave hitting Kallang

by FangTaiTai (芳太太）

A Suave-looking President Kiyoshi Tatani elaborated on Mizuno's Strategy for South East Asia

South East Asia's first Mizuno Concept Store was officially launched by President Kiyoshi Tatani on 6 November at the Singapore's Kallang Wave Mall.  Aptly located near the Sports Hub, its opening represents Mizuno's strategy to woo sport enthusiasts with its new look, new shopping experience.

The SG Unfit runners received an invitation to attend their event at Kallang Wave Mall and even had the opportunity to test-run their Wave Rider 18 limited edition trainer (retail price at SGD 199)!

Opening of Mizuno South East Asia's first concept store featuring local Sport ambassadors.

The Wave Rider 18 Limited Edition, a sleek lightweight daily trainer, was introduced as Mizuno's best model yet from its Wave Rider legacy line. The limited edition colour ways are available only in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

This model in particular has features for enhancing the running experience:
- Refined toe-spring for a smooth, effortless toe-off
- Upgraded premium sock liner that provides more rebound and resiliency at every foot strike
- New out-sole design with durability and shock attenuation

Check out their vibrant colours:

Rainbow hues exude vibrancy and precision

Ladies' cut in bright pink and rainbow-coloured sole

Men's version came in electric blue. Nice!

The shoes were such a eye-candy that everyone fought for the best angle to snap their pictures. 

Now, I wondered if I would be receiving the bright pink ones for the test-run. In fact,I was tasked to run in those for the coming 10 km run at Great Eastern Women Run in 3 days.

Enough talk on shoes. (which lady could resist?) I'm supposed to get back to talking about the Concept Store itself.

Warm and comfortable feel of the Mizuno Concept Store at Kallang Wave Mall.

The Japanese authenticity was our key experience as we stepped into the store designed to reflect the quintessential Japanese elements of wood, handmade paper and traditional colours inspired by Kimono house. It brought about a sense of peace, warmth and comfort.

Origami display of a blue Crane in a Kimono house setting as its window display

Displayed trainers aside, the store actually featured a good selection of sports apparel suited for men and women. The feminine racer-back tops from the women selection came in bright pink and yellow, which really stood out from the racks. They seemed to be beckoning to me to grab them. Besides, the special opening discount of 40% provided the best excuse for executing another good buy! 

You could even get yourself a pair of baseball gloves here too!

Mizuno showcases its cool range of baseball gloves~

After browsing through its range of products, I got pretty impressed. The designs are practical, sleek and their materials so breathable and soft.

So, no prize for guessing that I finally bought both the yellow and pink racer-back tops from the women series. Their prices are pretty decent after all!

Yet another selfie with slacker (Xeo). Happy as a bird after a good buy. 

I was secretly exhilarated when I received the vibrant pink Wave Rider 18 limited edition trainer that matches with my pink racer-back top. Yay!

From 2015 onward, all concept stores as well as their shop in shops within the company region will aim to upgrade the shopping experience. Definitely looking forward to visit another Mizuno concept store in the near future!

Wave Rider 18 Limited Edition at Great Eastern Women Run 2014!

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Marina Bay Cruise Center - The Noah Ark of Singapore

Marina Bay Cruise Center. Has a Battleship feel to it.

Sg Unfit Runners have explored many places in Singapore but there is this infamous place at the Southern tip of the island which we haven't explored yet. And what is it infamous for? It's infamous for its 600m walkway from the newly opened Marina South Pier MRT station to the Marina Bay Cruise Center. So we decided to swing by Marina Bay Cruise center while starting from our usual starting point at the Helix Bridge.

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