SINGAPORE - The afternoon drizzle did little to dampen the spirits of the 29 participants at the Eat And Ride session on Saturday (April 21), the first build-up activity for this year's The Straits Times Run.
Chef Gary Lim, who was cycling for the first time in five years, said cycling in the rain was a fun experience.
"You don't feel the heat of the sun and the weather is cool," said the 35-year-old, who will participate in the 5km category of the Sept 23 ST Run.
His wife Sherlyn Lee, competing in the 18.45km category, agreed. The 38-year-old added: "Because it was drizzling, there were also fewer people in the park, which made it easier to cycle."
The 19km cafe bike trail was tackled at a leisurely pace at the north-east of Singapore, and featured three pit stops at cafes.
Starting from Punggol Park, the cyclists rode 3km along the Punggol Waterway area on bicycles provided by oBike, before stopping at Seoul Good cafe at Punggol East for Korean fried chicken wings and iced tea.
They then made their way to Punggol Settlement for chendol, courtesy of Inspirit House.
The trail ended at The Summerhouse at Seletar Aerospace Park.
For engineering executive Desmond Lee, who participated in the Eat and Ride event with his twin brother Ivan and their friend Lee Jia Hao, a highlight of the session was discovering parts of Singapore that he usually does not visit.
Said Desmond, 27: "The places along the route today are those where I normally wouldn't plan to go because it's quite far from where I stay."
Ivan noted that their weekend cycling jaunts usually take them from their home in Tampines to Pasir Ris Park.
The youth worker added: "What interested me about this year's ST Run were the pre-run events, and today's event was very well-organised with good support and enough water points."
The build-up to the sixth edition of the ST Run will feature a range of fitness and lifestyle activities geared towards getting participants ready.
They include a Bounce Fit trampoline session on May 5, a CrossFit session at Innervate Fitness on June 17 and a cardio three-way session at TripleFit on July 22.
Visit www.straitstimesrun.com to register for these events in the Pre-run Activities & Workshops section under the Race Info tab.
