EastSide FaCai CNY Run

.
FatBird Weekender 2010 #04
Organizer: EastSide Runners & Team FatBird
Photography by AC Leong, Hazel/Mohan, Tekko

EastSide FaCai Chinese New Year Run

The second Team FatBird Location Weekender Run coincided with the Lunar New Year Period, and planning got underway early in January by the EastSide Runners to bring us a distinctive flavour of the East. AC Leong, Tekko aka Chris, Nicholas, Min, Merci and the regular SgRunners EastSide runners put in many sessions of discussions, route recce and scenic spot identification to bring us what was a most memorable Sunday New Year morning.

About 70 runners gathered by 7.15am at the Sun Plaza Park, many of whom were newbies to the rustic place, so close to the hustle and bustle of Tampines Central. When I first arrived to the spot, I recalled having ran past it during some of the past Sundown Marathon recce we did in 2008 and 2009. It was great to see many of the FatBird Runners, SgRunners as well and new runners joining in after a long festive break, all eager to burn off the festive goodies in an easy, fat-trimming pace along the scenic routes.

After a nice route brief by tekko, followed by the customary group photo, we all started off towards the Tampines and Paisr Ris PCN. I remembered those nights when we ran through the ‘bouncing’ bridge and along the canal during the Sundown Marathon training sessions. As we ran, we discussed about what we went through during previous Sundown(s), and how this year’s route might not be the same anymore. As we reached the turn towards Down Town East/Loyang PCN, we went straight ahead into ‘No Man’s Land’. We always wondered if that stretch was passable, and this morning we got to experience one of the interesting finds of the day.

Bu Bu Gao Shen

We were led onto a rustic pathway, and soon we came to the first Lucky Stop – The Observation Tower. All the runners took the flight of 3 stairs to the top in a lucky gesture to ‘Bu Bu Gao Shen’, which means to progress towards the top in terms of career and personal development. Some of the ladies who were reluctant to ‘climb’ eventually rushed up, upon hearing that they might have some good progress in finding the right hunks too…hehe.

FatBirds @ Bird Sanctuary

From there we headed off to the nearby bird sanctuary….as the Fat Birds descended onto the wooden bridge, I think many of the ‘live’ birds kept silent and hid in the bushes and trees. The patient photographer was not too bemused after having waited for hours on end for the birds to rear...sorry about that, but we were quite a large group in high spirits this morning :)

More photos and chit-chats later, we moved on to the animal farm where the beautiful white horse was to be found. There we all were glad to ‘Ma Dao Gong Chen’ or ‘Horse Reach Work Success’ and Ma Da Ge (Brother Horse) was led out to welcome us. The group of red were all smiles when they saw the small ponies coming too….it must have been some time since such a large group of people gathered around the area. This time we behaved and kept the noise levels down, although it was difficult to contain the excitement and the urge to shout ‘HUAT AH’.

Nian Nian You Yu

Then we all revved up for the longest part of the journey to the highlight spot of the day, the Pasir Ris Farmway area where all the fish, dog and animal farms were located. We were taken through a most interesting run through soft, covered trails, with rustling leaves and soft mounds. It was nowhere near Winter Sonata country, but was definitely quite a romantic and scenic stretch…haha. We were lucky to emerge onto protected area, and had the good fortune to pass through with the gates open. We were later told that was rare, as there were some obstacles to overcome in normal days….that lucky Observation Tower, and Brother Horse must have helped lah. We finally reached the farmway stretch of roads, a little like the Lim Chu Kang area, but the metallic roads are a lot more developed. I was told by acleong that there are always guard dogs keeping watch in the area after dusk, and it might not be a good idea to do a night run there (which I was thinking).

When the runners heard that we were going to get some fish spa therapy, they quickened their paces, hoping to be first in line to get their feet nibbled off the dead skin and get a nice massage of their sore soles. The fish farm was set in clean, sprawling grounds, and house to the largest freshwater fish in the region. The large fish that we saw was bigger that quite a number of the female runners in our group *eyes almost bulging*. It was really a FatBird’s eye opener for all, as the crowd gathered to admire the sheer size of the fishes. And that fish spa, it was there, just that the runners were a tad lazy to take off their shoes for the massage, and were also concerned that they might kill the fishes with their stinkies…haha. After a round of refreshing isotonic drinks from the shop, and a series of interesting group photos, we set off for the final 3km back to the start point. This final stretch was a slight challenge to many of the runners as the sun was already up and smiling down on us. The scant cover on the roads made us more determined to run a little faster to get into those small pockets of shades along the way. The final RV point along Sungei Api Api was a welcomed relief for all, and we immediately felt a lot cooler just by watching the river flow.

GongXi FaCai...Hu Nian Xing Da Yun

We reached Sun Plaza Park again at exactly 10am…talk about spot-on! Everyone had that satisfied look on their faces, and were especially happy with the new places visited. We gave a good round of applause to the organizing team and running guides who made such an interesting route possible. As a runner who have been to quite a number of running routes in Singapore, the route was about 70% new to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole journey. With the ante up, we hope to have a WestSide run for the next Location Weekender. Some of the west side recce team volunteers may get together to bring us a flavour of the West? We would like to take this opportunity to wish all runners who joined us for this morning’s Weekender, FatBird Runners and the running community to more good heath and great wealth in this Tiger Year 2010….HUAT AH!
.