Gei Gei Runners CNY Run 2016|PrisChew.com

Most people probably have heard about Journey to the West and the epic pilgrimage of Sun WuKong – the Monkey King, to the Western Heavens and bring back the scriptures to China.

But while on his journey, WuKong, together with the monk who had rescued him, Tan San Zang, is regularly attacked and captured by demons. The demons want to eat the monk’s flesh to attain immortality.

The fun run attracted about 300 runners.
[Photo by Yeo Hock Chuan-Lucas]

We already know this as well, though.

Sun WuKong is teleported to Singapore

And it is during one of these battles with the demons, that WuKong is separated from his master. And he found himself transported forwards in time – to a foreign land that he later finds out, is called Singapore.

Upon first being transported to futuristic Singapore, thanks to the transportation powers of one of the evil demons, emerges from the Raffles Place MRT Station in the Singapore CBD – without a single clue of his whereabouts and how he should continue his pilgrimage.

The Monkey King strikes a pose for my camera.

At the same time, he is very worried about his master, and whether the monk can fend off the demons without him around…

Gei Gei Running Club’s CNY Sweet Honey Run

Exploring his surroundings and trying to figure out how to return to ancient China, this is where Monkey King accidentally stumbles upon a group of enthusiastic runners -who had organised a Fun Run to celebrate the Chinese New Year cum Valentine’s Day.

He discovers that this run had been organised by the Gei Gei Running Club and playfully called the “Chinese New Year Sweet Honey Run”.

Runners and the Monkey King at Marina Barrage.

So WuKong thus decides to join in – to see if any of the runners know anything about what happened and how he can return to his master, the monk San Zang. After all, what is this 8.88km run to him – the Monkey King who is capable of travelling 108,000 li (54,000km) in a single jump?

Route brought runners through icons such as Boat Quay and Marina Bay Sands

The running route, beginning and ending at the iconic Fat Bird statue at UOB Plaza, attracted about 300 runners in total and brought runners through the Boat Quay area towards Raffles Place, the Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay, before finally U-turning at the Marina Barrage.

As the run had started around 7am, which is quite early, the weather was not too bad at the beginning and I was able to maintain an easy conversational pace for the first half of the run.

I managed to get a picture with Sun WuKong too.

At the Marina Barrage we ran up the slope and had the chance to catch our breath, and taking group photos at the same time.

Second half of run got hotter

The second half of the run got slightly hotter though, and I felt my heart rate getting a bit higher. But despite the heat, I felt it was still pretty bearable – and there was one thing that kept me motivated to complete the run: The generous food buffet at the end point.

This generous post-run buffet kept me going.

For this run, the food buffet turned out to more than what I had expected, with several runners sponsoring a wide variety of food and drinks, ranging from 100Plus and coconut water, to watermelons, and Chinese New Year goodies such as pineapple tarts, bak kwa, love letters, cashew nut cookies and even kueh lapis. There were even some delicious “cheese rocks” which had been home-made by one of the runners.

Love letters were addictive

While all of the food was really tempting and I could not help but taste everything, there was one thing that I could not stop eating – the love letters, probably because of their lightness and the fact that they don’t really stuff you up. I possibly lost count of how many pieces I had eaten!

Tired but happy after the run ended.

But of course, I do realise that these can be very deceptive though, as love letters are far from healthy despite their appearance and thin texture…

At least I ran though, so I could afford to take in some calories…

Sun WuKong’s search continues…

Throughout the whole run – right from the flag-off to the finishing point, WuKong, of course, had been very popular amongst the runners – with everyone clamouring to take photographs with him.

Everyone seemed to recognise him, but by the end of the run, the Monkey King had been left slightly disappointed – even though these runners were extremely fun to be with, they weren’t able to provide him with the information that he had wanted…