November Birthday Celebrations

After an intense month of competitions in October with SUNIG and IVP, November feels less hectic. For me, circuit training and fartlek feels different and fun.

Yesterday, we celebrated the November babies’ birthdays. Mich, Kenny, Steven, Chun Meng, Mel Tan and Tricia. It was rather crazy since Jackie and I tried to sing the birthday song while skipping. We failed miserably. Lol.

It’s nice sometimes knowing that we always have something to look forward to at training- the fun and laughter, the friends and last but not least, the rewarding workouts

Stay tuned as Cross Country continues its many exciting activities…

Melvin (Oi Roy! Upload the photos please

Sustenance for Runners!!!

Hey all!

Just in case you wanna try your hand at baking… these are the recipes for Apple Crumble and Lemon Meringue Pie (kenny ur request!) we had at our lovely baking session last week!

Apple Crumble

1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c coarsely or finely chopped walnuts
1/3 c sugar (white or slightly golden)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp cinnamon (not mandatory)
1/4 c or 65g butter, cut into smaller pieces
4 granny smith apples, sliced
1/4 c sugar

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Place the flour, 1/3c sugar and butter into a bowl. Cut the butter in the flour and sugar till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add in the vanilla essence and chopped walnuts and mix around a bit. In an approximately 8 inch pan, put apples at the base, sprinkle 1/4c sugar and cinnamon over the apples. Spread the crumble mixture evenly over the apples.

Bake in oven for about 40 to 50 mins or until browned (depending on how powerful your oven is).

 

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Lemon Meringue Pie

Tart Crust:

175g butter
75g castor sugar
215g plain flour
40g cornflour

Mix all the above ingredients together until well combined. Press them into little pastry moulds. Try to make the pastry bases as thin as possible because they tend to rise quite a fair bit when baked. Create little holes in them with the fork and bake the pastry bases for about 35 to 40 minutes at 180 degrees C.

Lemon Curd:

1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water
2 lemons, juiced and zested
2 tablespoons butter
4 egg yolks, beaten

To Make Lemon Filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter. Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of hot sugar mixture. Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick. Remove from heat. Pour filling into baked pastry shell.

Meringue:

4 egg whites
6 tablespoons white sugar

To Make Meringue: In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, sealing the edges at the crust.

Bake 10 minutes or until meringue is golden brown.

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Interesting Runs

Tiong Bahru Challenge (5Km run + 30 Storey Vertical Climb) – 13th Dec 2009

http://one.pa.gov.sg…t=14503409&CWT=

 

MR25 Ultra Marathon 2009 – 27th Dec 2009

Entry Fee:
MR25 Members: Free
Non-Members: $30 (Early Bird – Entry received by 13 December 2009) $35 (Late Entry including on race day)

Registration and Cash Payment is accepted at MR25 Time Trial (on 4 & 18 Oct, 13 Dec) and Progressive Run (on 1 Nov)
For Overseas Participants ONLY: Cash Payment will be accepted on race day itself. Entry fee will depend on when the Organiser received the registration.

If you have any queries related to this event, please write to ultramarathon@mr25.org.sg

For more details and to download registration form: http://www.mr25.org.sg/?p=391

 

 

Men’s Health Urbanathlon 2010 – 31st Jan 2010

Date: Jan 31, 2010 (Sun)
Time: 7am-11am
Route: Marina Promenade
Distance: Approx. 12.5km, with 7 obstacles
Fee: $128 per participant

http://urbanathlon.menshealth.com.sg/

 

Safari Zoo Run 2010 – 6th Feb 2010

Date: 6th Feb 2010 (Saturday)
Flag off time: 1600 hrs (Adults in Fun Run)
Start point: Coach bay between Singapore Zoo and Night Safari
End point: Singapore Zoo
Categories: Fun Run (6.2 km) for Adults and Kids (3 to 12 years old) & Competitive Run (3.2km) for Kids only (10 to 12 years old)
Registration Fee: Fun Run Adults ($38), Kids ($18) & Competitive Kids ($25)

Official website: http://www.safarizoorun.com.sg/

Yongqiang

Aviation Run 2009

For those interested, there will be a run called The Aviation Run taking place on Saturday, 21 Nov 2009. More details at the following website:

http://www.aviationrun.com/

No registration fee needed. The run is for charity so just donate. Race includes 5K & 10K categories. The route is roughly the same as the New Balance RealRun route (at Changi Exhibition Centre), minus the beach run.

But do consider the date. Since 21 Nov is the very first day of our exams, I won’t be running. So this run is for all those who either have late papers. Or have no exams.

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shelter

The North Face 100. 100KM Duo Open Category

heys!

here’s my race report!(:

http://baldwinchoy.wordpress.com/

if you just want the results!

TNF Result (Baldwin & Lucas)

IVP 2009 Day 2!

For the rest of the photos, click here.
Ben. =]

NUS Cross Country, For the Love of Running.

SUniG, bye for now

SUniG

for many of us, our first competition for NUS, for the first time we don a TEAM NUS jersey.

MPSH 2 for once was devoid of the usual blue & black classroom tables & chairs, replaced by a sea white, orange, red & blue. 4 UNIs, after weeks of tough races, sweat & emotional highs & lows, gathered as ONE for a night to celebrate the end of SUniG.

honestly i never knew that SUniG was such a huge event, as a freshie, as someone who never raced for his school before, needless to say been to any prize presentations, it was a indeed an impressive sight to behold.

sitting right at the front in front of the stage, the music (which patrick found really disturbing compared to his soothing classics) was blasting right into our ears. looking around, we were all surrounded by the presence of our fellow sportspeople,  be it from NUS, NTU, SMU or SIM, instead of the frowns we held during our matches, smiles stretched across each of our faces.

As each different individual, pair, team went up, one could tell the pride & joy our their faces. we too, were waiting eagerly for our medals. after Bowling was done, it was time for Road Race! reading thru the individual results, Top 3: EE GHIM, GIRRI, DARREN. ALL FROM TEAM NUS! i doubt there were any other sport that did a clean sweep like ours. the girls went up first, both MELs collected the medals, as i snapped their photos, i thought ,”it must really feel good to be up there on the stage, the medals were the results of our tough training, we deserve them” then next it was the guys who took the stage, Ee Ghim, Girri, Darren, Melvin, Patrick & Me! the feeling of winning GOLD, winning it as a TEAM, it makes the medal so much more worthwhile.

after the prize presentation, it was time for pictures!(: happily snapping away while we waited for the buffet spread. Melvin, Patrick & I were eyeing the mango pudding for the longest time!

I wasnt able to stay for the food, my dream of mango pudding was dashed sadly, but i’m sure everyone else enjoyed the spread & really had a memorable time. tonights gonna be a good night!

to everyone who went up, who was there, you are already a winner of your own.

SUniG 2010, here we come!

IVP 2009 Day 1

For the rest of the photos, click here.

Ben. =]

NUS Cross Country, For the Love of Running.

IVP 2009 is here!

Yes the highlight of the year for track is here! All the athletes from both cross country and track&field had gone through crazy trainings for the past 2 months, sacrificing precious mugging/dating time. Its really the big ‘exam’ day for many of us! Following are list of crossers competing on the 1st day:

1500m Men’s:
Madan, Ee Ghim (Reserves: Patrick, Yannick)

1500m Women’s
Mel Tan, Zhiyun (Reserves: Siew Min, Zakiyah)

3000m Steeplechase:
Dex, Darren (Reserves: Guochen, Alan Kwek)

10 000m:
Mok, Aaron (Reserves: Girri, Ee Ghim)

All the best to the runners, do NUS proud! For the rest, lets flood the stadium with orange and cheers!

GuoChen

Sunig 2009!

And here are some of my jumbled-up thoughts about Sunig Today..

After not running competitive for 2 years, the horrible cranky stomach feeling before a race was most unwelcoming. And it doesn’t stop until you’re like halfway through the race. All you people out there who don’t get it are lucky ducks!!

To all the Supporters, you were so wonderful cheering all of us on, it meant a lot to all of us. And all of you were so great strategically planting yourself in various spots and screaming and encouraging all of us. It makes us run faster really! Thank you Ameera, Meiyi, Hui Xiang and Michelle(we missed you!), for coming down, it’s so encouraging to the girls team!

Special mention goes to Ben with his camera, taking such wonderful shots, capturing the moment.. like the ones you see in the post below and on fb, and Teshil the uber-cool Mauritius dude decked in sunnies and a bright headscarf, with his entertaining commentaries as he waves his video cam about in his attempts to become Singapore’s next biggest talk show host.

To the guys team, all of you were absolutely brilliant. And congrats! It was so inspiring to see all of you running so close to each other. And I was so insanely happy and excited to see you guys on my way to the dog run area I think I was smiling for a bit to myself while running, the passers-by thought I was mad.

Girls I’m so proud of you! You did a great job and are such an encouragement to the team. Zhi Yun you were fabulous!! All the wayy in front..

Today was the first time I felt this little bit of patriotism towards nus. But of course, I love the cross country team like 3847294298734 times more than I love nus!

- Mel Tan