T6

YOUTH

STARTWO, WEDNESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2009

Sea of red: Runners filling the streets of Singapore during the Nike+ Human Race 10k 2009.

The Nike+ Human

Race 10k last
weekend was
such a blast!
By NIKI CHEONG
niki@thestar.com.my
HE sight of 10,000 people
donning the same T-shirt was
expected, yet I could not shake
off the goosebumps as I lined up
behind the starting point at the Nike+
Human Race 10k in Singapore last
weekend.
This years instalment in its
second consecutive year was held
in 26 cities around the world, and
once again, Singapore was the only
South-East Asian country to play
host.
I had taken part in the inaugural
run last year. I remember being overwhelmed by the sight of the thousands of runners from around the
region who were there to soak in the
sights and sounds of Singapore as
they challenged themselves to a
10km run.
That the run was held
early in the morning this
year did not deter anyone
from being pumped up and
eager to challenge the other
participants and themselves to clock in their
personal best times.
Runners came from all
over the region for the sole
reason of being part of the
Human Race.
The actual physical race
experience was nerve-wrecking yet really exciting. I actually wanted to do the run in
Singapore last year but didnt manage
to because of work travel plans, said
Malaysian Marcus Chan, 25.
Like last year, runners who are
unable to participate in the physical
race held in cities such as Rome, Tel
Aviv and New York City could join
in virtually, thanks to the powers of
technology.
The technology, which consists of a
chip to be inserted into a Nike+ shoe
could be synced to a Nike+ sports
band, an iPod Nano or iPhone 3Gs
which would capture running information, not unlike a pedometre. This
information is then uploaded to the
Internet and allows runners to see
how they fared among other Nike+
runners around the world.

Biggest
race of all
This year, to encourage more
participation, the Nike+ Human Race
10K Ambassadors Challenge was
organised. In Malaysia, selected local
personalities from TV hosts to radio
DJs, from bloggers to journalists
formed two teams which competed
to recruit as many runners as possible
to clock the most number of kilometres, in a run-up to the physical
Human Race on Oct 24.
8TV Quickie host Zher Peen, Era DJ
Nana, blogger Jason Goh (aka
Smashpop) and I made up the
winning team Rojak Runners, clocking in almost 2,000km

The band Estranged playing to

an enthusiastic crowd at the race.
in about three weeks. The Sambal
Sprinters, made up of Hitz.fm DJ Rudy
(who also ran in Singapore), parttime model Amanda Choe and footballer Zaquan Razak, clocked in over
1,500km.
Like last year, there is also a charity
element to the race, and Nike has
pledged RM2 for every kilometre
clocked in for the Ambassadors
Challenge to a charity of the winning
teams choice.
Marcus, too, contributed to the
Rojak Runners and the training obviously helped him during the actual
race.

Im happy with my time of 57min,

and my placing at just above 1,000th,
but theres certainly room for
improvement and I will definitely be
back next year with more training
and kilometres under my belt! he
shared.
The carnival atmosphere at this
years physical race in Singapore was
reminiscent of last years. Some of the
regions finest bands, including
Indonesias Agrikulture and
Thailands Thaitanium rocked the F1
Pit building as the race was happening and runners were coming in from
their run.
However, the honour of
kicking the race off went
to Malaysias Estranged
who conducted the race
countdown during its
song Reach, which was
written specifically for
the Human Race in
Singapore.
Being part of the
Human Race was definitely an experience for
the band. I think its a
real cool concept,
combining the run
with music, said
Estrangeds drummer Azwin
Andy. Weve never played a gig as
early as 7am, so that will go down in
our record books!
If the band had any trouble dragging themselves out of bed to rock
the socks off the runners, it didnt
show. But no amount of excitement
could top the collective energy of the
approximately 10,000 runners
decked in their red and yellow Tshirts who awaited the sounding of
the horn to mark the start of the race,
and then made their way across
Singapore.
From the look on the runners faces
at the end of the race the smiles
despite the exhaustion you can tell
that they are already anticipating
next years instalment, with bated
breath, pun truly intended.