A brief background about this event. I’ll just pull it out from their website:

The full length of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway will be opened to motorists on 20 September 2008. To celebrate the completion of the longest underground vehicular tunnel in South East Asia, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is organising the Swing KPE to provide an opportunity for the public to be one of the first to walk and run in the unopened portion of the KPE tunnel (Phase2). Participants will also get to enjoy exciting activities in the tunnel!

Before I get started about my wife’s exciting event, this was my day to test out the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM pro-grade lens as well. Read about it in my upcoming post (link not available yet).

My wife, Vio, started jogging about 2 months back as a way to get fit while waiting for Yoki to get out of school. Our neighborhood jogging track has been her most visited place outside our flat and she’s truly enjoying it.

Vio blew out her knee a decade ago in karate and she’s lost quite a bit of lateral twist resistance with a severely torn Anterior Cruciate Ligamen (ACL). She loves sports, but unfortunately, her knee prevented her to seriously partake in raquetsports and martial arts again. Even with a metal brace, the knee gives way if twisted the wrong way.

When we moved to Singapore, it was inevitable that jogging/running will catch on to her routine as it is the most popular sporting activity for most Singaporeans.

When she first started out, she can do a lap of around 250 meters (fine, metres) then have to walk the rest of the way because of our lack of cardiovascular activity. The neighborhood middle-aged “aunties” can do lap after lap without breaking a sweat. Instead of feeling embarassed, it actually is very encouraging to know that you’re never too old to run – and run well, at that.

After a couple of months of daily perseverance, she can run our neighborhood, hilly track for half and hour or more straight before resting. Even then, she walks several laps before slowing down just before picking Yoki up from school.

Last month, a good friend of mine, Yvee, called her and informed her about the Swing! KPE Tunnel Fun Run. She’s aware that Vio’s been running for a few months and it would be nice if she can get her feet wet with a 5-kilometer route while having the luxury of running/walking indoors in a tunnel instead of running in a hot, scorching Singapore morning. Vio signed up for the 5K leisure walk/run route and a couple of weeks later, we picked up her free shirt and race number from Suntec City.

After Registration

Leading up to the big day, she’s been having butterflies in her stomach and couldn’t get much sleep. She was both excited and worried as this’ll be her (well, our) first time to join any sort of running event. So when the Sunday (Sept 14) arrived, she was awake 2-hours early and was raring to go by the time I woke up.

Yoki wasn’t all that excited as he was still tired from our activity the day before.

Took me a while to get going as well and I had to bribe Yoki with a cellphone game to get him up and running.

We waited a little while for the bus but decided to take a cab to the MRT station instead. Once there, Yoki got hungry so he had his packed sandwich for breakfast before getting on the train as it’s prohibited to eat inside the station and in the train itself.

The train ride takes about 30 minutes to reach the station where the shuttle buses are. The morning sun broke through and it was a nice, clear day to have a family outing.

The train reached the Tampines MRT station and we saw A LOT of runners in the area already. Sensing that the line (ahem, queue) will take a while to clear up, I looked for a McDonald’s for some breakfast. McGirdle to go please!

After a while, we got on the shuttle. The organizers did a great job by supplying ample busses to keep waiting to a minumum. Even if the line was long, it took us less than 10 minutes to get on a nice, clean, and cold bus.

We got to the venue in about 20 minutes, the place is still sealed off from public so there aren’t any public traffic to worry about and the participants were able to walk around freely across the dual 3-lane road.

There were people EVERYWHERE, but you don’t feel like a packed can of sardines while you’re outdoors because of the space. People from all walks of life and age group were present. There were A LOT of under-5 kids and over 60 year-old seniors ready to participate. I sincerely doubt that you can get that much turnout from those age brackets in most other countries.

We met up with Yvee along the way. She’s a relative newbie to running as well, but she’s already more advanced than Vio and light years better than my fat ass. It was nice seeing a familiar face in such an event.

Apart from the “inauguration” of this new tunnel, the organizers were hoping to achieve another (pointless) goal, to form the longest lantern parade for the Guiness Book of World Records. Today’s mid-autumn festival for the Chinese, so they gave out little red lanterns for the participants to carry into the tunnel where a section of it will be pitch black and (hopefully) the lanterns will be flooding the darkness.

As the participants wait for the announcer to start the event, people were stretching and warming up all over the place.

It was like a carnival. You get TV celebrities, fire eaters, folks on stilts, balloons etc. It was interesting but the venue wasn’t really ideal for such shows as the performers just get overwhelmed by the sheer number of the crowd.

The 10K runners were placed ahead of the casual runners and walkers. They get a head start so that the slow-pokes won’t be blocking their way. The avalanche of 5K participants was a sight to behold, while it’s not as numerous or prestigious as the Boston or New York marathon, you don’t get to see babies, toddlers, seniors in such events that often.

Vio was already part of that crowd while Yoki and I waited for her. We really didn’t know what to do while she’s running because there aren’t a lot of places we can go to, so Yoki and I decided to just join the crowd as he was anxious to “race”. He just kept saying “C’mon Dad, let’s race with mom… We have to win!”. I don’t know about winning a race, as your Dad hates jogging, but let’s give it a shot.

You’ll see all sorts of strange warm-up and stretching routines from the older folks, quite entertaining.

The marshalls and event crew had quite a bit of a task of keeping order of the crowd, and it’s not the young ones that are causing the raucus. The elderly were very anxious to get started and they used the side path to go around the other 5K runners you see that are positioned near the balloon arches. The marshalls had a blast trying to SLOW DOWN the oldies.

Soon after, the 10K runners were a kilometer in and the 5K runners are off!

Some 10K racers were late, so they had to contend with the mob. As Yoki continues to look for Mom…

The annoucement of the Guiness record plan gave the crowd a lot to cheer about as they raised their red lanterns up in the air. Oh, and I did mention there are a lot of elderly, right?

Celebrities (I have no idea who they are) were cheering the crowd and announcing all the significance of the event while side show performers were there as well to keep the crowd enthusiastic.

The entrance of the tunnel was quite a scene, if this wasn’t in a country where jogging and crowding are routine, a stampede would be inevitable, yet there were no complaints or hysteria going on as the crowd inches their way into the first few meters of the tunnel. The excitement and happiness were genuine, and the community presence was impressive as several community centers joined in as a group, waving their own flags and all.

Then finally, Yoki and I saw mom…

Soon after, the three of us was part of the event. Yoki wanted to run, but the crowd was still thick. So Mom and Yokes weaved in and out of the crowd while I was busy shooting the frenzy. In less than 30 seconds, I could no longer see them. I ran my way though the crowd but failed to see the two of them, so I gave Vio a call and found out that they stayed behind, so we decided to meet at the first marker, which was a very colourful and loud light show. Oh, this also was the starting point where the tunnel was pitch black to give the lanterns a better effect.

We finally regrouped and Yoki was telling me not to wander off… Soon enough, we saw the turning point – the indicator where you’ve completed 2.5KM and start heading back to complete the race.

The turning point merged some of the 10K runners with the 5K crowd. Some of the 10K runners were gasping for air and resting along the railing as the air is quite thin as you get deeper into the tunnel and the humidity is quite high with all the 5K participants adding to the ambient heat and humidity, eventually, some folks did pass out.

Found out that most of those who were wheeled out were the 10K runners, the oldies are fine, surprisingly.

I asked Yoki to come with me so that Mom can really run as the path is a lot clearer now, we’ll just meet before the finish line.

After hiking a couple of kilometers, we saw the Mom and the finish line was within sight! It was literally a “light at the end of the tunnel” moment. At that point, Yoki was extremely tired, so he had a piggy-back ride on mom. Mom was excited as well and started running towards the end zone. It’s amazing how adrenaline pushes a someone. Normally, she can’t even walk 5 minutes with him riding on her back, now she’s RUNNING.

Just like that, we’ve completed 5K together as a family. It wasn’t even planned for all three of us to join, but how can I document the event without joining? And how can we finish the race without Yoki with us? We can’t… So we made it, as a family Wish that Nicole, our cousin, could join us today, but she’s down with a bad cough so she had to stay home with her mom.

As we walked out of the tunnel, we collected our goodie bags that contained some food and gift items from the sponsors. Vio and Yoki got certificate of completions too.

We got out of the tunnel happy and tired. We met up with Yvee as well and she has completed her 10K as well, I think this was her first 10K race and she looked satisfied with her performance – as she should be! We rested a bit and trickles of runners walk out from the tunnel.

The run itself would’ve been a nice ending, but the organizers have another surprise for the crowd, something that both Yoki and I would love to see – a motorcade!

The Harley-Davidson motorcade showed up first with their familiar rumble. The last time I saw so much Harleys was back in 96 at Daytona Beach, it sure was nice seeing those beautiful bikes around.

Then the classic cars rolled in. Yoki immediately saw his favourite car – the SMILEY CAR, an Austin Healy bug-eye that he saw 8-months ago in the city. Then came a whole bunch of others.

This was taken last Feb 2008.

Yoki cheers on as the classics roll off to make way for the Lamborghinis. Murcielagos and Gallardos galore! The exotic Italians are showcased and some kids were pre-selected to ride with the car owners for a lap around the tunnel, lucky chaps!

As the Italians roared, the zippy British Lotus Elises starts to come in. I could almost hear Jeremy Clarkson screaming “This is bloody brilliant British engineering right here!”…

As the motorcade ends, we started our slow march under the sun towards the shuttle bus. Along the way, some attractions were available but are not suited for kids under 12, so we didn’t get the chance to try them out (yes, I’m under 12 as well).

The comfortable bus ride rejuvenated us a little and we capped off our morning with some early lunch. Yoki had a plateful of his favourite pene with marinara and sausages while Vio had mushroom pasta and I had my baked spicy dory pasta.

I still dislike jogging, but this wasn’t a jogging event, this was a family event that allowed the three of us to have unhibited fun as a tight-knit family.I’m so proud of Vio going through with this and Yoki as well for dragging his little legs for 5 kilometers.

I don’t need anyone to convince me to participate on that