There is certainly no doubt that the running and triathlon scene here is well and alive. One merely needs to visit the Sg Runners site (just google with the keywords “run” and “Singapore”)-a quick look and you will see the list of (many) races in the past and current year. See also togoparts.com, a bludgeoning site filled with the private advertising of buying and selling road/triathlon bicycles and accessories. For those of us residing here, we are also aware of the sprouting of “specialty” running and triathlon shops. Most of us have visited them too.

What has frustrated me though is the prohibitively high cost of entering races here, at least for a miser like myself. Cost is relative of course, but having to fork out more than $20 for entry/registration fee (at minimum) to run a race is expensive at the moment. Disregarding the exchange rate and assuming that the currency here is on par with the RM, there are no so-called “cheap”, no-frills $10.00 types of races here, and with the economic gloom and money being very tight, I can ill-afford (literally) to enter the races here. Which is unfortunate because I miss the buzz of running races. I have to be picky with the races I run here. Of course, the Standard Chartered Marathon at the end of every year is a sure-thing. The other race I am considering is the Sheares Bridge half marathon, but I haven’t decided yet- at $32 the entry fee is just a tad cheaper than Standard Chartered Marathon; and if the previous years’ races are anything to go by, there are just too many runners to run a good race. Also, I’m not entirely certain if I’ll be back home in KL during that time.

I don’t know my exact travel plans in the months of May and June, but I have signed up for the New Balance 15k to be held on 17th May. Like the GE 30k route, the 15k route is not one of my favourites, but I’ll just tough it out. There’s also the Larian Bomba on 10th May which I am interested in. Of course, there’s the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur International Marathon on 28th June too. If all goes to plan then I hope to run these 3 races. For now, between today and May, there will be no races for me, just training.

Speaking of training, I’ve done little of that since the FT Day Run. Resumption of training began in earnest 2 days ago when I ran 11k in the evening. The treadmill in the gym is now working, but evidently it wasn’t a good repair job- I ran 35 minutes on it before the belt came loose, making every step slippery and dangerous, so I stopped and headed to the stationary bike instead, riding for an hour 15 minutes. The possibility of running the full distance on 28th June is becoming bleaker by the day. I think I’ll run the 21.