I woke up on day 1 feeling nervous. The longest I had ridden prior to this attempt was 42km when I wanted to see how the route was like. Now I was about to embark on an attempt to ride 171 km over 2 days. Not something that I was particularly looking forward to.
The day started with me checking out the weather forecast.
Humidity 89%
Temp ranging from 26 - 32 degrees Celsius
Not particularly cooling either. Plus the humidity can make things really difficult.
Partaking in a bowl of cereal, I got my gear together in preparation of the ride.
With my gear all set, I set off at 8.30 am with the words "I AM GOING TO DIE" screaming in my head.
The first part of the journey was the Siglap Park Connector. It was relatively short and painless, although the route was a bit winding with numerous ups and downs. There were some pot holes here and there which made for a slightly more difficult ride.
Next part of the journey was to Bedok Reservoir. From here I was to proceed to SunPlaza Park
This was one of the more painful parts of the ride, mainly due to lack of objects of interest and also due to the road seeming like it'll never end. From SunPlaza park, I rode up to Pasir Ris, made a turn and headed up to Changi Beach park.
I was at the North-Eastern end of Singapore. I proceeded to turn South and rode the Coastal route, which brought me to East Coast Park. Riding along the beach, I would come back to Siglap Park connector and home, thus completing one round.
After a quick lunch of instant noodles, I had to set of again. I was feeling ok. A bit saddle sore, groin hurting quite a bit. I set off once again at 2.20pm having finished the first round at 1pm. Didn't have the mind to take as many pictures this second round as all I wanted to do was to finish this and get home to get some rest. I finished at about 7pm. Was feeling sore, dehydrated and quite a bit crazy. Total time taken for day 1, 10 1/2 hours.
1/18/2008
162
Start of a brand new day. I decided to start the day much earlier so I woke up at 6am and started off at 7.20am, after a breakfast of bread. Also, I decided to do things differently as I was getting slightly bored with the route. For day 2, I rode the route the otherway. Also, for the first part, I would ride one round around Bedok Reservoir to account for the 5km increase in total distance for me.
Weather forecast for the day:
Humidity 94%
Temp ranging from 24 - 30 degrees Celsius
I was pretty much gone in the mind. Wasn't thinking and pretty much zoned out by this point of time. It was all about putting one leg in front of the other. I reached home at around 12.30pm and had a lunch of Wonton noodles. I set off again at 1.30pm. I decided that I was too tired to try to navigate anymore, so I changed the route again. This time I would ride only part of the Siglap Park Connector (2.2km), the East Coast Park (8km), the Coastal Route (7.9km), the Changi Beach Park (3.9km) and then turn back and ride the same route again. This would give me a distance of 44km. The reason I chose to do so was that it was long straight routes most of the time. It would allow me to zone out.
I finished at 6pm.
I was sore and tired but elated. I had complete the ride. I managed to do something I had doubts I could do. I pushed myself to my limit and maybe even beyond. I was so dehydrated, I kept drinking water.