Meiji Run 2015 Race Recap: If Only All Races Could Be So Delicious!

I doubt anyone joined this Race for the run because when an event is promoted as “the world’s most delicious race” including a Meiji Buffet consisting of “a feast of chocolate, fondue, milk, yoghurt and more“, who remembers a 5 km run?!

The first ever Meiji Run 2015 was held the past Saturday on Palawan Beach in Sentosa. With the sheer amount of food, yoghurt-beverage and, race staff, it seemed no expense was spared to organize this event. Extremely well-organized from the Bag Depository system to the run itself and carnival thereafter, my girlfriends and I had such a good afternoon. My IG and FB posts from the event attracted heaps of envious comments and of course, many likes.

Let me first recap the most boring bit of the afternoon: the race route. The running route was part-road and beach. The running path on the road was cramped. A lot of weaving in between walkers. But as I mentioned before, NO ONE WAS THERE FOR THE RUN. I certainly did not mind. Running on the soft sand was hard but good. My thighs definitely got a good workout! We ran past many beach bars and many beach volley-ballers. I hope us runners were not too disruptive. In the middle of the route, there was a Meiji Cracker Maze. Doesn’t it sound amazing?!

Well in reality, it was not desirable. It had rained the entire morning before the race so the crackers were soaked through and either falling off the walls or squishy. And the smell was horrendous. So gross!! Soaked Meiji Crackers is not a pleasant smell. My girlfriends and I couldn’t fathom walking through the maze. So we walked out through the side.

There were distance markers along the way but we were certain they were incorrectly placed. When we saw this marker, we had only ran for 12 minutes. Was it 3km ran or left? Who knows. None of us remember after the race…

Another really bizarre but amazing part of the race was the sheer number of water stations for such a short distance: three. Plenty of water and sports drinks at every station. At the last station, full-size bottles of sports water were given out!

When the race ended, we were each immediately handed a plastic Meiji Land bowl and cup before heading into the Carnival area. A funny story. At first one of my girlfriend did not want the set but the volunteer remarked it was necessary for the “buffet”. Immediately she went back and grabbed a set. When we entered the Carnival area, those Meiji Land bowls sure came in handy because that’s when the real fun began!

There were EIGHT booths with each booth serving a particular Meiji product. Four of the booths were food and unlimited! I’m talking FREE FLOW of Hello Pandas! Do you know how heavenly it was?!

Us girls simply could not stop eating bowls of it.

You like Meiji crackers? This booth would have been your dream come true. I got a lot of packets for my brother-in-law.  You guys like Yan Yan?

Help yourselves to Strawberry and Banana-flavoured ones.

And very randomly and definitely can’t be Meiji-brand: Chicken Burgers

On the other side were the Drinks booths. Unfortunately these were only limited to one drink per booth per person. Still, it is wise not too drink too much milk, anyway.

I don’t usually purchase yoghurt or milk drinks but I sure enjoyed Meiji’s. This Paigen yoghurt drink tasted exactly like Yakult but in a bigger bottle.

Meiji milk especially the chocolate flavour is always yummy.

The new Bulgaria yoghurt – so tangy and YUMMY! New in Singapore, these were featured in the Sunday Life yesterday and rightly so.

There was a Photo Booth tent but the queue(s) was sooo long. 

The loot of five girls. We learnt from many around us and took a box to contain all our goodies. 

The Race medal and the chocolate crunchy biscuit pack at the back was very good by the way. None of us have seen it in the Singapore shops before.

UNFORTUNATELY, no one was allowed to leave the carnival with more than one pack of each food. A lot of big bags of Hello Panda and Yan Yan were seized by more than three security guards. Every bag was checked before we could leave. Don’t ask how I managed to smuggle the Meiji crackers out.

At the entrance of the race, there was a Meiji Fair. Super cheap snacks and yoghurt were sold. People were having a field day with this one. 

    

I wrote in the Feedback Form provided afterwards for this event to be held again next year. At the same time, longer-distance races to be provided. I cannot imagine a better way to end a race then a never-ending supply of Chocolate Hello Pandas. ❤

Training and eating for that 42

As mentioned (or freaked out) in my earlier post, I am running the Standard Chartered Marathon on 7th December. With less than 15 weeks to go, I have to get round AND aggressive about my training and eating plans. My first step was to find a suitable Training Schedule. Found one on Fitsugar which could not be easier to follow. Plus also included are a lot of various exercises to further strengthen the body. I just have to start from Week 3.

Next I signed up for a running club! My partner-in-crime i.e. my girl friend who signed up with me, sent me a link on three exciting running clubs that launched in Singapore last year. My girl friend is the best! Way to go to stay trendy despite our impending troubles. We decided on the Running Department because they do runnings on Wednesdays in Raffles Place (where I work). And a Weekend Feel Good Run on Saturday mornings. This Saturday we are going for our first training, and it is for 10km. Hur hur ha ha! Honestly, it is the pigging out thereafter at Creatory Singapore that is spurring me on. 

The next step is the Eating plan. I expect my appetite to increase during the training so I need to research at the same time on how not to get fat. There are so many articles out there on the rules of eating. But I found this short, helpful article on the six rules for healthy, whole-foods eating plan designed just for runners. Let me summarise it for you on the six types of food to eat:

1. Seeds or foods from seeds;
2. Five different colored fruits and vegetables daily;
3. Plant foods with their skins intact;
4. Drink milk and eat milk products that come from animals;
   
5. Eat foods that come from cold water i.e. seafood; and
   
6. Meat, poultry, or eggs from free-range or grass-fed animals.

Basically, eat NATURALLY and a lot of protein. Carbohydrate-loading only begins four days before (I am dreaming of carbonara already.) As long as I abide by the two simple rules of natural, protein foods, I am fine. Although I am so cheating this evening. I have ordered in Pizzas for the fornightly Assocates’ Drinks Gathering, and there will be a ice cream core-off. Will need to post about tonight, for sure!

This morning I began my training. I woke up famished so I had a slice of bread before heading out the door for a 6.3km run. It felt good. I have not perspired so much for a long time. But I was also sooo hungry and upper body slightly aching after! I thought I could hold off food till my lunch appointment but I was faltering and in a bad mood. So after alighting from the train, I ran to Huggs for a Vanilla Peanut Butter Protein Shake. I first saw this sign when I accompanied my friend to grab coffee. Peanut Butter!! I have been craving to try this since. 

I may be lactose intolerant but the thought of a thick cold nutty shake was not going to deter me. It was essentially a scoop of Whey Protein Powder and a great big heaping teaspoon of Skippy Peanut Butter blended with ice. I really wanted this to be good but it was o.k. only.  Not the most delicious as I could taste hints of a synthetic-ness from the Whey powder. Nasty.

Still it held me on even to lunch time and I watched my girl friend eat her lunch. Hope she did not mind me yakking the entire time. >_<

The Past Weekend

How was your weekend? Mine was fun and productive! I started off Saturday morning accompanying my parents to the supermarket where I got my hands on many fresh vegetables and bananas. The bananas were chopped up and put in the freezer for my favourite Smoothies. I foresee a week of delicious Smoothies to kickstart my mornings. For the vegetables, I made my own JUICE!

As you may know, I am a bit of a juice cleanse fanatic. I go on it once a week. However for this month, I am saving on the cold-pressed juice expenses because of this:

Facial products from the dematologist. I dropped some serious dough on them to treat the persistent light rosacea on my face. A costly invesment which should also hopefully restrain me from piling on the foundation. While at it, this also meant I blew my juice cleanse budget. Not wanting to forego my juices, I had to get creative and low budget. I got a list of recipes from the Suja Juice Classic range and blended the ingredients accordingly. Without a cold-pressed juicer, I HAND SQUEEZED them using a strainer bag. It was a tedious process and my arms were so SORE after. But I yielded a ton of juice! Very close to 1 litre per recipe. More importantly, I had full control of the sweetness level. As you may know, one of the downside of cold-pressed juices is the sugar from the fruits. This might result in diabetes and diabetics are also STRONGLY discouraged from going on juice cleanses. Me cutting back on the fruits meant the juices were not as appetizing with the flavour being very “green”. It took a while for me to get used to but it is all better in the grand scheme of things. I am definitely going to dedicate a whole post to the process. I promise.

On Saturday evening, I attended a Durian Party which I blogged about here. On Sunday afternoon, an uber delicious half-Family lunch at Pizzeria Mozza which I blogged about it here. Thereafter we headed to the BMW Motor Show 2014 where we came across this creative napkin in the pop-up cafe in the exhibition.

My parents and I did some shopping and my Mum and I walked away with two pairs of shoes from the Kurt Gieger store in MBS. Mine was a Miss KG pair of heels and my Mum got a Carvela pair. Hurray to sales!

Now it is Monday. Five-day working week, we can do it, guys!

Picnic Dinner at Ballet Under the Stars

It was a wonderful Saturday evening with my family at the 19th edition of Ballet Under The Stars. As it was her birthday, my sister treated us to the Singapore Dance Theatre’s performance at The Fort Canning Green. Between you and me, my family was more excited about the picnic than the performance. Until that evening, none of us inquired about the ballet performance!

The performance began at 7.30pm but my family reached at 6.30pm. I could not help but remark about our eager beaver-ness but there was an incredibly long, albeit fast-moving, queue to get in. Good job, Singapore Dance Theatre! When we walked into the performance area, my jaw dropped.

It was so crowded. As it turned out, my family was not the eagerest beavers…

The crowd must have arrived at 5.30pm?!

As we were pretty “late”, we headed right to the back of the white tents (above picture) and lay down our picnic mat and a plastic table cover for my family of seven adults and one child.

Then we lay out our spread. What a feast! My sister baked Korean Chicken Wings, my parents brought an assortment of takeaway from Dino Cake House and Cafe. For dessert, my eldest sister and brother-in-law got some traditional Chinese dessert soup.

It was Dino’s Fried Rice and Fried Bee Hoon that got us most excited. Weeks before, we were unisonly craving for the Fried Rice which we have been enjoyed since Dino first opened along Upper Thomson Road in 1993(!) My friends, I am so happy to tell to you the Fried Rice was still as fragrant and flavourful as the first day. Ditto the generous amount of ingredients. I turned down dinner during the week with my colleagues just for Dino and oh boy was it worth it! Another notable dish from Dino is the Chicken Pie. Each might be a bit small but packed with a delicious savoury creamy chicken filling encased by a flaky buttery puff pastry. Definitely my newest obsession.

Anyway you might be thinking surely we were not using our individual cutlery, and eating straight from the sharing containers? Oh don’t you worry, we are a hygienic family. See those black plastic container bowls below?

They used to contain takeaway salad from Spinelli but my Dad, who is a mega-fan of the salad, brings them home where they are given a good wash, and are as good as brand new. Those plastic containers are sturdy and tall, they can even hold slices of three-layered cakes! That evening, they served us so well.

And wait a minute, did you not think I would contribute too? Surprise surprise! I got us an assortment of cold-pressed juices from Daily Juice Singapore! The juices were a hit with my family. The cold refreshing drinks came in handy especially during parts of the wind-less stale evening.

Sitting on higher ground meant a lot of enjoyable people watching.

Some groups were pretty smart. They brought make-shift tables (above picture, bottom left). The party next to us brought an English Picnic Basket complete with cutlery and crockery tied to the inside cover of the basket. It was incredible! However I did notice the same party brought Sushi for dinner and ate with chopsticks leaving the cutlery and crockery untouched. Mmh… I’m not sure if the novelty of a picnic basket was worth the effort of lugging the whole shenanigans around.

In front of me, the party started off their evening with a tempting bottle of Bubbly…

Needless to say, I was pretty envious.

I whispered to my second brother-in-law, the only other person in my family who drinks, that next time I am so bringing Gin & Tonic, and he HAS to drink with me. I think that was the only time during the night I was not joking around. Aha.

I just realized I have not mentioned the performance which was better during the second half with the more energetic dance moves and music. However my head was among the clouds and I could not help but admire the low hanging clouds throughout the night.

We had a good time and the picnic made us consider watching another performance. If not for the multiple mosquito bites I suffered that evening, I will make my family go for weekly picnics!