My Itchy Fingers

Wow Wow Run! Wild Wild Run!

Itchyfingers’ first race for the year happened just last Sunday at the Singapore Zoo. Yes! We were back for our second Safari Zoo Run – In memory of Ah Meng. Last year we did a 6km fun run cos we couldn’t resist the cute looking medal…Actually all the medals for the different categories were so cute but we settled for the 6km since it had all the different animals. Haha…

This year, the same thing happened again. Just look at the cute medals…

So cute again! Why does 6km Fun Run always have all the animals? And I
would love to have the grouchy tiger and elephant ones if I were a kid! 

Eventually, we decided to join the 12km run to have two different medal designs…hahah….But the route is similar to last year and 12km run is running the same route twice again… :O

The day was cool and a bit overcast. The starting time for the 12km run was 7.30am but we were at the back of the queue and had to start at the second wave about 11 minutes later.

The starting line was far far away…

Itchyfingers had done mostly 10km and a few 21km runs, and Tisu Boy did a full 42.195 km marathon two years back. This was the first time we were doing a in-between 12km run. The weather was cool but felt somehow quite humid with not much wind, probably because we were surrounded with tall trees along the relatively narrow paths. The first 2 km were a bit congested, and Night Safari route has a few slippery up slopes to negotiate. We were not as familiar with the route at Night Safari since we visit it less and also because it is dark during the opening hours. So it felt somehow longer to run, even though the route was supposed to be 3km at Night Safari and 3km at the Zoo. I wasn’t sure how fast we can finish. But at a venue like the zoo with animals looking at you while you run, it was hard to really concentrate and run seriously…hahah…At the zoo, we had the leopards giving such deafening roars that I am sure some of the runners would have stopped to check them out!

All my photos while running turned up like Blair Witch Project…hahah.
The overcast sky wasn’t helping much too! 😀

Tisu Boy went ahead to shoot pictures of the Indian Rhino cos he said it
is tough to take decent photos under low light at the Night Safari…I caught 
up only few minutes later

The second loop felt much smoother. Eventually Itchyfingers finished and crossed the finishing line together slightly off my projected time of 1:20 hour. Might have done better if I were to push harder but it was difficult to ignore the animals totally…hahah…and I nearly slipped at one of the slopes but luckily I was able to stop in time to prevent a badly sprained ankle. Overall, quite a pleasant run with nice cool weather and adequate drink supply. It was the first time I don’t see much congestion around water point…

Queuing up for drinks after the run…

Itchyfingers with our cute medals…

We had wanted to hang around the zoo to take some photos but look at the
sky! Here the kids were getting ready for their 2.8km dash…I heard it poured
quite heavily half way through the 6km Fun Run…

Our cute medals on my equally cute running tee…Dunu why the tiger and
ele are so grouchy…hahah…Maybe cos they had to wake up early?

Nice thing about the medals is that it is detachable and you can use it as 
a key chain if you like…

Also see related posts:
> Running Wild
> In Loving Memory of Ah Meng
> Goodbye! Our Beloved Singapore Girl Ah Meng (circa 18 June 1960 – 8 Feb 2008)