Trek 88: Mission Accomplished
Alright ppl, finally I have the time on a lazy saturday to do up my entry on our trek 88, which began on the 8th of Aug and ended on the 9th. Basically a one day trek which allowed us to go as far as our legs would take us around Singapore. Although I wished I could have gone more westwards and eastwards, I knew that I realli pushed myself to the max and could not have done anymore than I could.
Anyways, as I mentioned in my earlier post, this was something we had planned in 2003, but only decided to do now in 2007. I had been working out consistently for about 1 1/2 months before this trek, especially working my core muscles to ensure that I would have enough strength. Sufian was kinda outta shape, which was the reason why he wanted to do this anyways. Ok enough chatter let me bring you through the whole process.
The above was us at the starting point, East Coast Carpark G, near the sailing centre, and as you can see we were in realli high spirits, wide smiles, looking fresh. I did not manage to sleep much, having watched the Departed the night before till 3am, and then having training the next day in the morn. But at this time I was still feeling ok, no regrets as yet. Time: 1830hrs
Our first stop, 2 hours later at the National Stadium. We were ahead of schedule, cos we were planning to stop at ECP Carpark A, so we were confident that we could meet the time. I insisted on pushing hard early on, cos I knew when fatigue set in, we were gonna be in for a lot of delays later on. We took about a 20min break here. Also, we made sure that we only answered calls/SMS during breaks so as to ensure we stayed focused.
In the background, through my lousy-ass camera, you can roughly make out the Esplanade. It felt kinda weird walking with that hat and a standard issue field pack, but it was something Sufian realli wanted so I entertained him lar, its fun to look quite pro at times, and nobody realli stared at us.
Next rest was at Harbourfront MRT, time was about 2245hrs. Here the crowd was starting to thin out as it was getting late, and we were definitely on schedule and no longer ahead of time.
Our first main stop, of which we rested about 1hr, this was NUS Business School. where I downed my Rendang Chicken, plenty of bread and drink wherelse sufian didnt realli eat much, which would come back to haunt him later on. But yeah this was a good rest, though there were a lot of people around preparing floats and what have you, for Rag day I think, haha both of us are so past that freshie mode.
This was along Clementi Road, after NUS, by this time it was already past midnight, and we began to have realli bad aches, for both of us it was mainly behind the knee area, and the bag, realli felt like a ton, Sufian was having it real bad though and he slowed down to a crawl, cos of his toes and his groin. Sadly, this was to be the end of his adventure as he had to stop along Woodlands Rd. I had to make a realli tough decision as to whether to carry on, but in the end, I decided that it was too far too stop and I decided that I had to carry on alone. What followed were the worst few hours of the whole trek.
First of all, it was past midnight, and I was alone except for the stray vehicle every now and then. There were no flats and all, it was basically just trees, so yeah I will be lying if I were to say I was not scared. Secondly, it rained realli badly, and my poncho tore, so I could not go very far. So the combination of rain and loneliness and of course the silence realli began to mess with my head, and I was so tempted to give up. But I kept telling myself that this was to be the turning point for me. I was sure that if I could tahan this part the rest would be fine.
Finally light came, at around 0645, and I was waiting outside Mandai Rd, cos I realli didnt dare to go in that strecth of road in the middle of the night. If you can see behind me, that grey thing is actually the KTM railway. It was cool, almost felt as if I was in Malaysia, and I was happy that I still managed a smile. Although as you can see, 12 hours on I was still wearing the same shirt, so it was high time to change.
The beautiful Upper Seletar Reservoir which lies on one side of Mandai Rd, rumor has it that there are crocs here, but anyways the serenity and all was just worth it lar, at this point I was glad I didnt give up.
Ok and this is Mandai Rd, or rather a small part of it, at around 830am, as you can see it was realli long and lonely, undulating, with dense undergrowth on the sides. No vehicles even at this time of the day. So I felt happy with my decision to wait till light before entering. Yah lar I admit I'm quite the scaredy cat!
Afte Mandai Rd, it was down Sembawang Rd, Upper Thomson and finally I reached Ang Mo Kio, where I stumbled on Xiang and Lorena's beloved Alma Mater, St Nick's. This was my second long break, and I managed a one minute nap, before a bus that came along horned me thinking I was gonna board. I ate some field ration thing here and could not even finish half of it cos just felt funny to me. Time: 112ohrs
From here onwards, it was realli about cutting through the estates, and here I was at Serangoon, at 1330hrs. although I was dead tired, I knew that I was near the end already. sorry bout the pic though, trying to take pics of yourself was not very easy, basically here I was trying to take a pic of myself writing in the journal I brought.
Ok this is underneath Eunos MRT at 1620hrs, ok I know the bottle on the left looks like pee, but it realli is not, it was my green tea and on the right 100plus, this was all I had left for the remaining two hours, but was fine realli.By this time I was so close, but Eunos never felt so far from ECP.
Of course, I had to make a pit stop outside my second home, VJC. Although by now, it was realli hard to summon even half a smile. And yes, that hat looks realli weird now.
Finally, I had reached ECP! It was a beautiful day, and it was about 1730hours when I entered ECP near Mandarin Gardens. By this time I had proudly changed into my VJC Jersey, although still wearing the cap in honour of my fallen comrade.
Still walking and I was just trying to focus on my breathing to get my mind off, it realli felt so god damn far.
Here, I caught site of my end point, which is where the two pavements meet in the pic, where the person in the cap is standing. haha no "congratulations" banner or anything, and I realli looked out of place with all the families around. On second thoughts, the pic is actually quite nice with the little girl on her training bike in front.
I finally did it. Total time taken was 23hrs 48 min, which is quite blur in the above pic.
A very relieved me at the end point, although I was dead tired, I was realli very happy that I managed to finish this, even though it was alone but I felt good that I didnt give up. Trek 88: Mission Accomplised.Below is a list of the timings and stops I took:
Start Time: 1830hrs, 8th August (ECP Carpark G)
1st Rest: National Stadium - 2027hrs
2nd Rest: Harbourfront MRT - 2245hrs
3rd Rest: NUS - 0035hrs
4th Rest: Shell Station Along Upper Bukit Timah - 0315hrs
5th Rest: Oppo. Assumption English Secondary - 0436hrs
6th Rest: Bus Stop after Yew Tee Flyover - 0600hrs (first stop alone)
7th Rest: Opposite Mandai Rd Entrance - 0700hrs
8th Rest: Bus Stop LP 199 Mandai Rd - 0820hrs
9th Rest: Sembawang Rd - 0940hrs
10th Rest: Outside St. Nicks - 1120hrs
11th Rest: Outside St Peter's Church, Serangoon - 1330hrs
12th Rest: Hougang St. 22, near Yuying Secondary - 1445hrs
13th Rest: Eunos MRT - 1620hrs
14th Rest: ECP Underpass near Mandarin Gardens - 1730hrs
End time: 1818hrs, 9th August
The ones in bold were my long rests, wherelse the other rests ranged from between 10-20 mins depending on how I felt.
All in all, I think that the trek realli proved to me how much I could push myself if I realli wanted to. I know this sounds cheesy, but as I was walking I kept thinking about Terry Fox, and he walked thousands of miles with one working leg and cancer in his lungs, and I asked myself why I could not do so much less with so much more. Although the next few days recovering were realli tough, I think Trek 88 was a good experience, and now its time for me to think of a new challenge. Sorry for the late update though.
Out.
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