TWO. Running routes.

… continuing the series on “Things I will miss…”

Running has been a huge part of my life for the past 8 years or so. I don’t excel in it but I’ve come to enjoy it. I love evening runs. For one, there isn’t that nasty sun beating down your back. It’s far cooler, though still horridly humid. I’ve come to really enjoy my post-work evening runs. The route — starting from the Esplanade Park to the Marina Bay Floating Platform, Helix Bridge, Gardens by the Bay, Marina Barrage, Gardens by the Bay (East), Kallang, and back the same way to Esplanade Park — is a good 1–1.5hour-long run. The first five ‘checkpoints’ are filled with people. Fellow runners (sometimes, the route brings to mind the running track in school), concert goers, al fresco diners, tourists (many!), dating couples, families with tireless kids… I’m surrounded by so much hustle and bustle. But the regularity of my pounding footsteps and heart brings me comfort and some degree of peace (depending what’s on my mind that evening). I love the sights, lights and sounds of this route. The crowd thins at Gardens by the Bay (East). It’s usually me, a couple of other runners, some cyclists and people on rollerblades. The usual few dating couples would be perched on wooden benches and staring across the Singapore River (that brings us life! winding through my Singapore! ~cue Kit Chan’s “Home”) and this is the view that we all take in…

(I know, picture resolution’s grainy but one’s gotta love one’s iPhone.) This is Singapore’s iconic evening skyline. From left to right — the Marina Financial Bay Centre, the Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay Domes, Esplanade (it’s hardly visible here), and the Singapore Flyer. And that’s Singapore River at the fore of this picture.

I’ll miss this running route. I haven’t quite figured out where I can take a long (and safe) evening run in the new neighbourhood. But till I do, the treadmill will have to do…