I'm back! Where was I? I was all over the island of Singapore. To be exact, the central and eastern side of the island.

Today marks the successful completion of Let's Take A Walk 2008 by Raleigh Society, and MINDS as the Co-Beneficiary.
Let's Take A Walk, or LTAW for short, is a charity walk to raise funds and participants will attempt to complete the route they signed up for. There are 3 routes avaialble.
Jalan Walk - 10km
Power Walk - 50km
Extreme Walk - 100km

So naturally the participants of the 100km walk started first, at 8am yesterday at MINDS Margret Drive HQ, while walkers of the 50km walk started 8pm last night at Tampines Stadium. Then this morning, 8am, participants of Jalan Walk flagged off at East Coast Park BigSplash. Did you see any of our walkers?

I was there to take photos. I volunteered as a photographer, but luckily I'm not the only one. Phew~ Come to think of it, I didn't have anything to receive. I'm no longer an AJC student and so CIP hours mean nothing to me. Also, I'm no paid for covering the events. It was purely based on my interest. I worked from 7am to 11pm yesterday. This morning 7am I'm back there again, and left at 2.30pm.

I'm at home now and tired, but definitely not as bad as what the walkers have experienced. Yesterday I walked a section with some of the walkers, it was round 13.1km long, under the big hot afternoon sun. But my job was to take photographs, which meant I carried all my equipment with me for the walk. And for your information, they are not light. I finished the section in about 2hr50mins.
But well, the walk is not a competition, it's more of a personal challenge. There is no time limit, you do own time own target. If you want to cheat and take taxi then watch movie, no one will be stopping you.

So being a volunteer, I think I should be feeling spiritually satisfied. I hope I improved my skills. That's it. Ok la, I did get some goodies - I had free meals, water, an Old Change Kee curry puff from Ms Casey Goh and a LTAW T-shirt for free...

Some of the walkers are serious and trained walkers. They walk at some amazing speeds. Some are runners who have taken part in Marathons like Real Run, Standard Chartered etc, and signed up to walk for fun. There is also a group of walkers who have no experience, did no preparation and just participated anyway.
Another interesting sight would be the support teams. As there are checkpoints along the route, some support teams, comprising of family members of friends, would bring food, soup, aerobics mat etc and camp at the checkpoint to greet the walkers. Other supporting members chose to walk a portion of the route with the walkers, for example the last 20km etc.

It is a real surprise that some 872 people signed up. The registration period, I heard, was closed earlier than planned, due to the overwhelming response. The organisers have too few manpower and logistics equipment to cope. You have to pay to participate, and it's not exactly cheap, although the money goes to the beneficiaries. It's $60 for both 50km and 100km walk. $25 for 10km. You have nothing much to gain except for a certificate of completion. You make yourself sweat, tired, suffer from blisters, injuries and strain. Yet so many people still took part. One word to describe my feeling towards the walkers - repsect.

I think this walk is a biennial event. Anybody interested to join? I might try the 50km or 100km. Woot! But I think I'll still be in the army. I would plenty of opportunity to walk.

G.Y.