Two consecutive public holidays make Chinese New Year (CNY) a great chance to catch up with friends and family, indulge in festive treats, or catch up on sleep.
Or — if you prefer — to cycle a masochistic 157km for 19 hours while braving the sun and rain.
That's what Gerald Cacas and two other avid cyclists decided to do this CNY from 7am on Feb. 12 to around 2am the next day.
In the process, the trio traced the outline of a dragon holding a pearl, complete with all four limbs, horns on its head, and whiskers around its nostrils.
Photo courtesy of Gerald Cacas.
The dragon shape was traced onto the map with ride-tracking application Strava, which uses GPS tracking to record users' activity.
The phenomenon of using Strava to trace shapes and words, instead of merely recording one's athletic endeavours, is known as Strava art.
But wait, you might be thinking. Surely that too-round-to-be-true pearl held by the dragon wasn't really the route they took. Surely they didn't swim in Bedok Reservoir with their bicycles.
Indeed, this was a question posed by a Facebook user commenting on a post about the ride:
Screenshot via Facebook.
Which Cacas responded to gamely:
Screenshot via Facebook.
He also explained that the technique he used to create the dragon drawing involved stopping and starting the app's ride tracking to achieve the desired shape.
Screenshot via Facebook.
Another cyclist from the group also posted the actual map of the ride:
Screenshot via Emeraldo Macario on Facebook.
But... why?
Cacas, the organiser of the ride, is no stranger to Strava art.
Speaking to Mothership, he traced the origins of the CNY dragon ride to 2022, when he created a dragon that spanned from Pandan Reservoir to Punggol.
Screenshot via Gerald Cacas on Strava.
Friends asked if they could join Cacas to recreate that ride for the year of the dragon, and he decided to create a shorter alternative route that would cater to more potential participants.
He'd planned for this year's CNY dragon ride to take around 14 hours (instead of 25), but it dragged on longer than expected due to wet weather.
The group hadn't even cycled for an hour when the rain started, he said.
Photo courtesy of Gerald Cacas.
On the upside, traffic was thinner than usual thanks to the public holiday.
Seeing the sights
The ride took the group through lesser-known corners of Singapore.
"Ceylon Road, Geylang, Charlton Road, Maplewood Park, Defu Avenue, Aroozoo Park, Hwi Yoh Green, Tavistock Park, Chuan Green, Colchester Grove, Bidadari Park, Harmony Park, Balam Road, and more," said Cacas.
One of the highlights for the group was Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery near Paya Lebar, where one of them stopped to pray while the others took photos.
Photo courtesy of Gerald Cacas.
Despite taking breaks for meals and drinks, the longer-than-expected ride took its toll on the riders.
"During the last 3 hours of the ride, I can feel that they’re already tired and wanted to sleep already," said Cacas.
"But none of us wanted to quit, so I just keep pedalling and stayed focused on the route."
“Life is like that," he mused on Facebook later. "When you focus on your goal, everything else just blurred out, and you dont run out of energy," he wrote.
He said the ride felt shorter than it actually was, thanks to his companions.
He joked that the "constant laughing" made him inhale too much air and gave him a stomachache.
"19 hours doesn’t feel that long since we never stopped laughing during the ride," he said.
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Top photo courtesy of Gerald Cacas