Catching Up with Friends in Singapore

Celebrating International Volunteer Day

I caught up with one of my nonprofit colleagues while I was in Singapore.  I met Jason Wee at the International Association of Voluntary Effort conference in Panama this past April.  Jason works on nonprofit engagement at the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre so you can imagine why we hit it off. 

"Established in 1999, the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) is the national body that promotes and develops volunteerism and philanthropy across all sectors, functioning as a first-stop centre, catalyst and networking agency to foster the giving spirit in Singapore, whether of time, money or in kind.

We work in partnership with non-profit organisations, companies and public sector bodies to facilitate and strengthen Community Giving efforts through our promotional and networking platforms, public education programmes, training in volunteer management (including employee volunteering) and fundraising, as well as grants, research and publications. (NVPC's website)"

Coincidentally, I went to the NVPC offices on International Volunteer Day.  International Volunteer Day (IVD) was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1985. IVD is now celebrated world wide with thousands of volunteers involved in a range of IVD initiatives including clean-up campaigns, conferences, exhibitions, and many other activities all aimed to highlight the role of volunteers in their communities. Though I was not able to perform direct service that day, I was visiting the agency that helps coordinate and promote it in Singapore.

An Early High School Reunion

One of my friends from high school, Jeremy Findley, is living in Singapore with his family.  Jeremy was our high school valedictorian and attended University of Michigan.  I hadn't seen him since our high school graduation but through the magic of Facebook, we were reconnected.  I met up with him and his wife, Olivia, at two different occasions for dinner during my time in Singapore.  Jeremy was the fourth high school friend that I have caught up with during the trip.  Next year is my 20th high school reunion and meeting up with these friends during my travels have reminded me how much I enjoyed my time at high school. 

A Michigan Nonprofit Small World Experience

The day I arrived in Singapore, I opened up my e-mail account and found a message from one of my former employees from the Michigan Nonprofit Association. Gylin and her husband, Boon, were in Singapore for a family reunion before heading for the holidays to Malaysia and saw on the website that I would be in Singapore at the same time.  We were able to get together for breakfast on the day they were leaving Singapore.

The Singapore Half Marathon- It is the humidity that gets you!

The next stop after India was Singapore.  I chose Singapore because I thought it would break up the flight between New Delhi and Sydney.  After I found out that they were hosting their annual marathon during the same time frame, I put out a notice to my friends that I would be running and I was looking for people to join me.  I had two takers, my friends, Pam and Steve.  Pam has a ton of frequent flier miles so the trip was a cheap one; Steve on the other hand had a score to settle with Singapore and the Singapore Marathon.  When I had e-mailed him about the race, he said he laughed because he had already sent in his registration.  He tried to run the race last year and ended up getting food poisoning the night before and was up all night.  He is crazy enough to have tried running the race which he had to drop out of because he was too dehydrated and weak to finish.  This was his chance to beat the race that beat him.

I was warned by my cousin, Mayank, that Singapore was a pretty boring place and it is really no different than a New York or London but with a little less charm.  After day two, I realized that he was right.  Singapore was nothing more than a cleaned up version of Hong Kong.  Up and down the streets were restaurants and stores that could be found in any major western city.  We had gone to Siloso Beach to check out the scene.  The beach was man made and had the wonderful view of the hundreds of ships and freighters bringing their goods to the country.   The redeeming quality for me was that their history and stages of development were very interesting to the history major/urban planner in me.

 Pictured: The beautiful view from Siloso Beach. Now look behind the "Sil" and see the ship waiting to get to the port. 

Though I had hoped to run the full marathon, my training was not sufficient and I was only ready to run the half marathon.  Pam was in the same boat, she had hurt her Achilles heal in the training period between her last marathon during the summer and this one.  She was initially worried that she would not be able to run at all.  Steve on the other hand was ready for the race. He had run two other marathons in the previous two months.  I had met Steve during the race in Antarctica in March and he had finished in the top five there. 

On race day, the full marathon started at 5:30 am and half marathon at 6:30 am.  They start so early because of the weather in Singapore.  It is incredibly hot and humid and by 8:00 am it is difficult to run.   There were close to 45,000 runners for the three major events- the marathon, half-marathon and the 10 km.  The first half of the run was good with the exception that they didn’t have kilometer markers for the half marathon runners. It made it difficult for me to gauge my pace.  The first marker came at 12 km point a little bit after half way.  The heat and humidity eventually got to me and I struggled during the last five kilometers of the race.  I finished at 2:22 five minutes later than my New Delhi time.  Both Pam and Steve said they struggled during the race.

We were ready for a beer.  We had a couple at the hotel before a new friend, Joe Hickman, picked us up.  Joe is a friend of Laurie Smith, who did a Habitat for Humanity Build with me in January in Costa Rica.  Joe took us to one of his favorite seafood restaurants, Jumbos, which was in one of the entertainment districts of the Clarke Quay area.  Joe was a great host and you will be hearing more about him because he and Laurie are joining me in Bali for New Years Eve.

Pictured: Sam Singh, Pam Lauroff, Steve Hibbs, and Joe Hickman.  Post race celebration!

A Shameless Plug
Pictured: Sam Singh and Marathon Travels founder, Steve Hibbs.

I want to let all my readers that like to run or like to travel know that Steve just started a new company called Marathon Travels.  He quit his job with Northwest this year to become an independent businessman.  He has combined his love for running with his love of travel to create a travel company that specializes in marathon races.  I love it when someone puts their dreams on the line.

Marathon Adventures is a specialty travel company that brings running enthusiasts to the farthest reaches of the globe to run Marathons, 1/2 Marathons and shorter races. We combine both tourism and running into an unforgettable 7-10 day adventure.

Marathon Adventures is owned and operated by Steve Hibbs. Steve has completed 78 marathons in all 50 U.S. States, Washington D.C. and on all 7 Continents, with a personal best of 2:31:46. He is a member of the 50 States Marathon Club, the 50 States & DC Marathon Club, Marathon Maniacs (Platinum) and the 7 Continents Club. Steve is also the founder of the Marathon Adventurers Club, which recognizes runners who have completed marathons in both the 50 States and 7 Continents; 50 States and all Canadian Provinces and a host of other running feats. Steve has traveled the world extensively, in addition to running marathons, having traveled to over 30 countries on all seven continents.

Whether you are a runner or will just be making a New Year's resolution in a few weeks, I encourage you to look at his website and challenge yourself to a 1/2 marathon or full marathon in Tanzania, Sydney, Frankfurt, Singapore, Athens or Buenos Aires.  Why wouldn't you?