To Bukit Timah Summit

The run to Bukit Timah Summit on last Sunday (27 Sep) was my first attempt and for Chua, his third or fourth I think. Got up at about 6.15am and arrived at Chua's place before 7am, he was already warming up at the carpark. Chua is staying at Bukit Panjang, fairly near to Bukit Timah. We used to have three musketeers, missing was Eddie.

From Chua's place, we ran to the forested pipeline heading to Rifle Range. The terrain was quite undulating, tougher than running on a normal tarred road which took us under half an hour to reach the fringe of Rifle Range where Eddie lives. We then made an u-turn to the mid-point, one of the routes up Bukit Timah summit.

Chua led the way, I followed behind. Unlike Mt Faber, the steps were uneven and not cemented. We had to watch out for the protuding roots, a mis-step could spell trouble. It was a long run up the improvised steps, as if never ending. I had to stop to catch a breather or two while Chua continued his ascend. We huffed and we puffed, we finally reached but the half-way mark only. I had to stop, my muscles were already aching. After a short rest, we continued again. And there we were but only just, we had reached the final assault base to the summit. We took longer rest, loosen up our joints and muscles. Chua signalled to me whether I was ready for the final ascend, and yes, I was raring to go. Almost immediately, we made a dash up. Chua was infront followed by me. He was inching faster and faster ahead of me, I pressed on but only barely. My legs were aching and tried I did but each step forward was getting slower and slower. After covering two third on the final ascend, I had to walk. Chua who was almost reaching the top, also stopped to walk. Finally, we reached the summit. We took picture of each other, clearly satisfied of our feat.

For our descend, we chose the forested path over the easier tarred pathway. We had to walk for most part, pratically not possible to run down. There was quite a crowd, many senior citizens and young children were slowly walking up. We finally reached the newly opened park, took a short tour around at the place before running back to Chua's place. I had breakfast with Chua, his wife and the children and by the time I reached home, I was dead-tired. Stayed home the whole day but still managed to do some house chores. In our next assault to Bukit Timah summit, it will not be complete without Eddie. We should be ready to conquer our 42 km marathon come December, I hope.