Now is the Time

My trusty Kayano 16s 

My 'office' gear

Its exactly 6 weeks till the Standard Chartered Marathon, and I have been training intermittently for the last 2 - 3 months. This post is a timely reminder to me to get going and be serious about the runup for the 5th full marathon I am attempting. The target I will set for myself is 4 hours 45 minutes which broken down to 2 half marathons (of 21 k each) is 2 hours 22 minutes. As the famous ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes put it into perspective during his 100 miler (consecutive) :

"you run the firs half with your legs, the second half with your mind". 

My ultramarathon running friends, Jane Peng and Thaddeus Lawrence have another similar quote :

"your run first with your legs, then you run with your mind, finally you run with your heart"

I will be aiming to hit  around 60 km to 70 km per week in training so, I plan to be running almost daily, with the odd rest day, and I plan to hit the road even when I am overseas travelling in Europe (in late November) and Thailand (mid November). So its no rest for the wicked I guess. 

Time is of the essence, I hope that by using the running techniques like Pose running, and landing on the midsection,  I can improve my running speed, and distance.

4 hours 45 minutes - the goal for 42.195 km on 5th December 2010.          

120 mm Mortar Fire Mission on Armoured Personnel Carrier Video

   A video (US Armoured Artillery) showing how the 120 mm mortar is fired off in the vehicle. The commander is at the top of the APC (near the copolla) and the person loading the mortar is called the Loader or No. 3 Man. Normally the Fire Mission Officer would call "Fire Mission Mortar No. ###" and only 1 detachment would be called to action. In those days, that was normally done by my buddy Chong Wai Kiong.The entire Battery consisting of 6 vehicles would first secure the deployment area and the lead vehicle would then be required to fire off the first round of mortar - within a maximum time, normally less than 2 minutes. So the ranging 'piece' is  first required to find the target by shooting 3 times and once the bombs reach within 100m of the intended range, then the rest of the Battery would follow suit and a full fire mission would take place. The range of the mortar is normally about 3 - 6 km depending on the elevation of the mortar (trajectory) and also what incendiary flares (circular and flammable)  are attached to the mortar to ensure it flies as far as it should.

   Normally, the ranging mortar fires to get the range of the bomb,ie. to ascertain that the bomb reaches the target within the intended distance. That woud normally take about 3 rounds maximum, following which the entire battery (platoon of mortar soldiers) would be called to 'fire for effect', that is for the entire 6 to 10 mortars to hit the target at the same 'line'.

   A tough vocation but fun.

Army Days 1980 - 1983

My Army Detachment No. 4 in the Battery

Left to Right : Goh Gek Piau (Loader),Loh Swee Chuah (Driver),

Me(Commander),Tan Beng Chong (No.4 Man),Yeo Ah Seng (Layer) 

                                                             120 mm Self Propelled Mortar

    This is some history of my past days when I was doing my National Service. In thoses days, young teenage youth of 18 years of age are enlisted for 2 and 1/2 years and sent for Basic Military Training in Terror Camp (name is there for a reason) after which we are sent either to army units or further training to be a commissioned or non-commisisoned officer (NCO).Most of the enlistees at that time, were a mix bag of school dropouts, poorly educated, secondary school, or pre university college students like myself and my friends. It was a tremendous eye-opener for me to share the same sleeping quarters as men who mianly spoke Hokkien or had a very basic command of English.

     I was selected to be undergo the Commissioned Officer training  but I  ultimately chose to be a Non-Commissioned Officer, and underwent training as a section leader at Pasir Laba Camp in Jurong,  I underwent further very rigorous training at the Artillary Command Center at Kangaw Camp (12 weeks). The going was very tough, as we were trained by hardened regular sergeants and other corporals who were themselves trained by Army rangers. To say the training was tough was an understatement, we had an entire week of field exercise whereby we had only 2 hours sleep per night for 5 nights. We had some trainees who suffered injuries and dropped out before the end of the 12 week training course. Only about 2/3rd completed the tough course. On our commissioning parade, we proudly put on our '2nd stripe'or corporal (and later sargeant ) as all of us earned it through (literally) blood, much sweat and (some) tears.

     I was posted to the 46 SAR Armoured Regiment and served in the 120mm self-propelled mortar battery of 6 APCs (Armoured Personnel Carrier) in the ranging mortar unit (selected as the best and fastest team).My team of soldiers were all 'Hokkien Ping' or Hokkien speakingsoldiers. Although we had some teething problems first, with them adjusting to my hard style (I was a very tough trainer, my men can attest to that), we ultimately bonded well as a unit and were awared the 'Best Detachment' (out of 6) and even put up a show of our coordination for the entire armoured company to see.

     Those days of rigorous training taught me to be mentally tough and take whatever difficulties physically or mentally that come along the way as challenges and try to surmount them in the best way I can. National Service is a fine way for our youth to grow into responsible men.

Now thats what I call music - R & B classic

Singapore's Ultramarathoners in Sahara 250 K Desert Race Oct 4 - 9th 2010

From Left : Jane Peng, Trish Tan and Vanessa Tan

    Today 9th October marks the final torturous day of 6 days of hard running in the sand, in the Sahara desert no less, for 3 of Singapore's ultramarathon ladies. They are Jane Peng, Trish Tan and  Vanessa Tan. All of them completed the race with Vanessa Tan taking 10th position for the ladies category. Trish and Jane Peng both completed in what can be described as a 'take no prisoners' race where one has to train for at least 6 - 9 months with exposure to sand and high heat and sunlight. How do I know ? I am 

proud to say that I am Jane's 'running khaki' or running buddy since the early part of 2010.

  

                                                                       "V" for victory

      From those early days of running 10 to 15 K per run at Macritchie to East Coast Park to completing in a 50K combined run in May 15th this year. Jane has improved her distance to an ultramarathon of 84 K the following week (!),  Since then, she has set her sights on 'racing the planet' and decided to sign up and run 250 K in 6 days which included a murderous 94 Km on Stage 5 ; (it took many competitors upwards of 24 hours to complete this segment !). All this with  a 9Kg backpack and running on sand, with temperatures hitting 40 to 45 deg C in daytime, occasional sandstorms (I hope not) and metres high sand dunes. There are a total of 4 such extreme 6 day marathons, they are :

- Sahara Desert Run
- Atacama Desert Run
- Gobi Desert Run
- Antartica Run

        Well done Jane, Trish and Vanessa !

22 Sept 2010 4pm St Andrew's Cathedral Service Vol.3

The hearse leaving for Mandai Columbarium

Section of the friends and family

John doing the Scriptures Reading

                                                             Close Friends and Family

22 Sept 2010 4pm St Andrew's Cathedral Service Vol.2

Mrs. Belinda Charles,principal of St. Andrew's Secondary School

                                                                           Mr. David Mitchell

Family and Friends