When September rolls around and kids go back to school, John Dave Ng will run his very first charity marathon—a 70 km event on behalf of children whose childhoods were stolen after being sold into Vietnam’s sex trafficking system. Ng’s efforts on behalf of an organisation dedicated to stopping sex trafficking—Australia’s Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation—may be his first effort on behalf of this worthy cause, but it certainly won’t be his last as he uses his legs and his heart to give these kids what they deserve: freedom and the chance to live normal, happy lives.

Close your eyes and imagine this with me. You’re hurtling downhill, surefooted like a mountain goat. Rocks, roots, steps, mud, nothing gets in your way. Suddenly the path ahead curves steeply up, beyond your line of sight. You shorten your stride and bump up your cadence, in effect ‘cycling’ up the hill in front of you. All the while, far removed from the concrete, traffic and pollution of the city. Just you, your feet, and the constant rhythm of your own breathing.

The ASICS City Relay Race was 42 km in total, whereby each of the team members had to finish a distance of 10.5 km to complete the race. The inaugural race took place on 1 August 2015 and saw a total of 672 teams taking part. Out of this number, there were 361 mixed-teams, 250 all-male teams and 61 all-female teams. My team, SuperF.I.T came in at number 9!

What would non-golfers be doing in a golf course? With a lot of recent ‘firsts’ on the running scene, we tip our hats to the event organisers’ ingenuity to host Singapore’s maiden golf course run. It will be on Saturday, 19 December 2015, and at award-winning Orchid Country Club (OCC) too!

This wasn’t my first 2XU race. I took part in the 2011 (12km) and 2013 (21.1km) edition before. I took part in the half marathon this year with the feel-good people from Running Department. It was supposed to be a build-up run to Sundown/Gold Coast Marathon for some of our fellow runners but the event got postponed due to the departure of Mr. Lee KY. I took part to soak in the atmosphere and took it as a bonding session with my team.

The fifth 2XU Compression Run saw some 20,000 participants gathered bright and early at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, 2 August 2015. The run, which was postponed from March to August in view of the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s passing, saw participants in high spirits as they pushed themselves to perform their personal bests.