Story and pictures by Les Tan
Hort Park, Thursday, April 17, 2008 – When you become a Member of Parliament, you expect marathon meet-the-people sessions, marathon parliamentary debates, marathon grassroots events.
In future, perhaps potential MPs will be asked if they can run an actual marathon at People’s Action Party tea sessions.
An email from Senior Parliamentary Secretary Teo Ser Luck to his fellow MPs drew in Michael Palmer, Dr Fatimah Lateef and Jessica Tan to commit to running the full 42 km marathon while Christopher de Souza will run the 10 km at the adidas Sundown Marathon.
“There is something to be said about the (marathon) route. I’ve never tried it before,” said Michael Palmer, MP for Pair Ris-Punggol GRC. The MPs are regular runners and find it a time to think things through and just relax. “I really enjoy running,” said Jessica Tan, MP for East Coast GRC.
The idea for the ultra-marathon came to organiser Adrian Mok in 2005 when he was training for the NTU Run Round Singapore, a 168 km event. Starting his run at 7 p.m. in the evening in the west, he was joined by Teo Ser Luck at 11 p.m., and they continued running until 5 a.m., when out of sheer exhaustion, they fell asleep for 20 minutes at Singapore Expo. They then hit the East Coast Park at 6 a.m., just in time to see the sun coming up.
“The colours were really beautiful. The sun was coming up in the east, the storm clouds were coming in from the west. It was a memorable experience,” said Adrian. “But I was too tired to notice the nice colours,” said Ser Luck, to much laughter.
When the storm hit, their plan to finish their run in the city with a roti prata meal was washed out and they had to be rescued by Ser Luck’s wife coming to pick them up in a car.
A distinctive feature of the event is the opportunity to bid for your favourite bib number. The four MPs made an undisclosed bid for their favourite bib numbers with all proceeds from the online bid auction going to Beyond Social Services, a charity dedicated to reducing delinquency among children and youths from disadvantaged backgrounds. The minimum bid is $50 and the online bid auction will end April 30, 2008.
The adidas Sundown Marathon is scheduled for Saturday, May 31, 2008 and is Singapore’s first night race. It is also the first officially recognised ultra-marathon covering 84 km. The race will be run along the National Parks Board’s Eastern Coast Park Connector Network, linking the East Coast Park with HDB heartland estates such as Bedok, Tampines and Pasir Ris. The winners of the Ultra-Marathon will get a trip to the Berlin Marathon.
For more details about the adidas Sundown Marathon, go to www.sundownmarathon.com.
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[…] Articles: While you were sleeping, thousands ran Singapore’s first midnight marathon Teo Ser Luck rounds up parliamentary colleagues for overnight marathon Thousands of eager runners of the adidas Sundown Marathon 2008 lined up behind the starting tape, […]
Our young and vibrant MPs are leading by examples. Be active and stay healthy by running regularly for more than 40 mins per run would make our Health Minister happy and smiling with less headaches to budget more for the health bill in the near future.
Running is effective and also economical and does not require partners as in badminton or soccer. Our MM Mr Lee is the most classical role model who is in his pink of health with much running then but now slowing down with swimming n cycling.
However, observing the trend of road race and marathon events going on over the years, running is no longer cheap. Prices for such events have risen over the years as compared to 5 years before. Many organisers are milking their cash cows excessively and making lucrative sum; judging by the turnouts of the participants which are usually in thousands.
When times is bad with economy slowing down, we not only have to consume less on basic necessities but also tighten our belts on such essential needs such as sports events.
Be selective about chosing of events now and cut down from more than 10 events from last year to about 6 events this year. Look out for budgetary ones that are organised or sponsored by the government organisation. Running with a group of buddies more often to build friendship as well. Give those events a miss if the prices have inflated by 50 to 100%. Ultimately prices would fall; as in the case of properties where buyers sideline while investors fleed overseas.
See U at AHM, RealRun, 2nd Link Run & SCM 2008.
Mr Michael Palmer is St Andrew’s old boy, and he is currently also the lawyer advisor of the St Andrew’s Schools and St Andrew’s Alumni.