.... the jackal rides and run....

The usual suspects met up at Casuarina car park this time around. JM, JvM and me at 6am in the morning. JvM's wise idea to do the loop anti-clockwise. It was something I did not expect! After 2km of Old Upper Thomson road, we found the entrance to Woodcutters and bashed in. Thereafter we found out that going this route has much more uphills than downhills. To add to the drama, it was pitch dark in a tough wet, muddy trail so there was a lot of up slopes and stop and go drama due to the terrain. I was destroyed within the first 6-7km. They had to wait for me quite a fair bit. I was on my h-streets and they were ok but as the terrain got a rockier, I could feel the strain of my soles hitting on every hard uneven surface. We managed to complete slower than the last time. Going this route counter clockwise, for some reason, is definitely harder. Had (too much) beer after that at Casuarina drive and I really do not think its a good idea! On Sunday morning, decided to wake up late ...

Courtesy of JM from his handheld POV camera. Short Excerpts from the run... Macritchie Start Rifle Range Road Zheng Hua Park Woodcutter's Trail Old Upper Thomson Road Casuarina Beer Reward Back to Start

I was pretty much psyched up for this run for the past couple of days. Kinda worried cause I was fighting a slight flu, cough and fever as well. Fortunately, today I felt much better, not 100% for sure but good enough to go. The target was to complete 20km (16km+ pure trail); I made up the route but using partial of what we did last week and adding Woodcutter's Trail, a much lesser known trail. This time, I wanted to make a route which allows us to do a true loop, meaning starting and ending at the same point without going through the same route again. The usual suspects included JvM, JM and me.....we set to meet at 6am, Venus Drive. At 5am, I received a message from JM that he is still not well and hence not able to join this epic run. Met JvM at Venus drive and we set off with our lights. As before, the night run was exhilarating. Good thing he still remembered the route as I was a bit blur at the time. Funny thing was here we were running with our lights in pitch darkness an...