YT and I took part in this cycling@night event held by Senja-Cashew CC last Sat.
There were altogether about 170 ppl who participated, plus volunteers and organising comm, journey about 38.3km (though I suspected we did more than 40km), lasted from 8pm all the way till next morning 7am.
Yes you've read correctly, 11 crazy hours on the bike! All the way from Senja to East Coast Park!! Don't ask me why I joined,
ask YT I just thought it would be simple cycling event at east coast, perhaps with some social events. And yeah, I'm dead wrong.
.jpg)
It started officially at 10pm, with all the 170 peeps lining up with their bikes, ready to go, everyone excited and all. It's really a grand atmosphere. What's more grand, is that later as we started on the road, there were
police excorts leading the way and paving 1 whole lane just for us!! Woohoo.. you'll feel as important as the president sia.
"(the organiser) are friends with the MP is it..." someone from behind commented jokingly in Hokkien.
From Senja, to Bukit Batok, to Jurong, then to McDonald's at West Coast Park, where we had a pit stop with refreshments provided. The night breeze felt great as you ride along the roads. Everything was great at the start.
Not bad...for a young comm like Senja YEC to run this large scale event smoothhly. It's definitely no easy feat to rent more than 100 bikes, to liase with the traffic police, to get Sheng Shiong as sponsor, and also to get Dr Balakrishnan (though I don't remember seeing him at all) as GOH. Pretty impressed.
Ok after the pit stop, we were on the road again, along the road passing by Telok Blangah, Harbout Front and Sentosa, before we had another stop for toilet break.
By then, my legs are pretty tired already, and my butt also became sore after the 2+ hours of ride.
After that pit stop, everything was a blur, I can vaguely remember we stopped at several places for photos, like Esplanade, Fuliton Hotel, and Padang, where the countdown of YOG was held.
After which we made our way non-stop to ECP. At this point, my palms are sore with gripping the bike handle bars, my leg muscles are stiff with all that pumping of pedals (yea, the last time i exercised is actually half yr ago!), and worse of all.. my butt!! It hurts till the point when you dare not lift your butt from the seat, cos you know it'll hurt even more! And... I still barely see anything that looks like ECP.
After some time, we finally see the familiar roads of ECP, and far ahead I
finally saw some familiar blinking lights of our fellow cyclists. Relieved and elated that we're nearing our finish line, there was a new-found energy. We cycled right ahead without stopping or slowing, but alas! our relief was short-lived. Those cyclists were merely taking a break, and before long, the blinking lights gets smaller and smaller, just like stars.. you can see them, but no matter how fast you cycle, you can never reach them...
My legs were not really happy about this, and they just refused to cooperate after that. No choice, I had to get down from my bike. (Owww.. my butt)
The break ended pretty soon, as we decided to end the torture quick. Cycle, cycle, cycle... AND WE FINALLY. REACH. THE. BIKE. RENTAL. SHOP!!!
OMG... omg.. my whole body aches like nobody's business, my butt hurts like no tomorrow... But I SurvivED!!! A Milestone has just been created. Woohoo.. yeah a major ONE indeed, cos I'll definitely NOT do it again if god forbids.
All in all, I felt really proud, though it's not like Olympics, not can it be called a marathon, but I'm still proud.. after all I cycled West to East leh, don't play play ah.. =)
.
.jpg)
