The school holidays are over and kids are back in school. With kids back in school, the nature reserve and the trail will be less crowded. So I ran trail.
In my last post, I wrote about how the trails in our nature reserves are being made too easy, and how it might be deny our kids the opportunity to develop antifragility. Click here for that story. This run was for me to see how easy the trails actually are. I had to split the entire loop over 2 runs due to schedules. This first one, as always for me, began at Lower Peirce Reservoir, entering the nature reserve at Venus Drive Carpark and onwards to Macritchie Reservoir Park and back. It is free parking at Lower Peirce Reservoir.
The picture on the left was taken on 5/2/2021. The one on the right was of the same place, taken in 2012. Seeing a marked difference at the beginning of the run, I was fearful that indeed the trails have been made too easy. The boardwalk and paved path continued all the way uphill to the junction where Terentang trail meets the Terap trail. There were some nice touches that tried to remind us that we are heading into nature. An example, is this stone stream bed section, that broke up a section of the boardwalk.
I had taken the unpaved trail, which was the old one I and other visitors have used in the old days. This old trail ran beside, Island Country Club Road. The boardwalk can be seen from this unpaved old trail. I ran on this boardwalk on the home bound leg, and I did not fancy it much.
The Terap trail, however, was as it was, all the way to Macritchie Reservoir Park, where it ended at the beginning of the Prunus Trail and the canoeing area. But I had the impression, that the trail had been widened a wee bit and the earth had been packed down. I guess a little housekeeping had been done. It is a little easier to run on, less slippy slidey. The challenging inclines, which, in my past runs I could not resist kicking up, were still there and were still challenging. This time though, I had gone on a more leisurely touristy pace, stopping here and there, to snap photos. I like the Terap trail portion, because it is just as it was before.
Then onto the Prunus Trail, I enter it at the canoeing area. This was entirely boardwalk. This trail runs along the beach of the reservoir, for 2.5km, winding as it follows the inlets and waterline. Steps break up some sections of the boardwalk as the trail follows the contours along the waterline. These steps break up the running rhythm. This though is not much of a bother as the steps are regular and uniform and you can bound up these easily. Which makes for a good workout as you vary your pace. The Prunus trail joins the Terap trail, which took me back to the Venus Drive entry to the nature reserve.
The part of run within the the nature reserve was 9.9km with about a third of which being boardwalk. Most of the boardwalk is on the Prunus Trail, the way up from Venus Drive made up the rest. So it was not an entirely urban sort of run, most of it was on proper trail with mud, protruding roots, uneven ground, slippy slidey inclines and puddles. All of the things I love on a trail run. I get to propionate.
NParks’ vision is “Let’s make Singapore our City in Nature”. I think in this respect they have done well. They have brought some city to nature within the nature reserves and have brought nature to the city in the various little parks that they have built and beautify within the city.
Come yoga with me in the parks.
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