EuCHO0.NET - (^(0o)^) The Pigatory

Sun, 26^th Aug 2007

my porcupine-brother JH somehow convinced me sign up for this year's Army Half Marathon cum SAFRA Sheares Bridge Run.. never thought i would pay to torture myself in a 21 km run.. but come to think of it.. recently i'm actually enjoying running.. i'm wondering if i really like running or am i just distracting myself from the realities of life.. when your lungs and muscles are pumping.. it frees the mind from other worries..

early in the morning 4 o'clock.. pulling myself out of bed and calling JH to make sure he had gotten up too.. as usual he takes his time to leave his house.. my mum takes a shorter time to get ready can't blame him though.. i too was feeling dopey.. had only slept 3 hours that night..

still we made it just on time to the Marina Promenade to meet up with JH's colleague J.. the three of us began our run 15 minutes after the flag-off time.. but who cares.. we weren't really keen on competing or anything.. we started off real slow and we were practically overrun by the next wave of non-competitive runners..

anyway.. the 21.1 km route goes something like this..

things were going fine and we made our way up Sheares Bridge and then down.. J went on ahead after the check-point at East Coast.. i took my time and jogged slowly with JH who needed to do lots of stretching.. although we stopped several times.. we managed to maintain a relatively good pace and finished the race in 2h 42min.. not too bad for JH who had not trained properly for this.. i remembered my timing was 2h 30min during my NSF days..

it was nearly 8:30am at end of our run.. got a medal of completion for that.. then we went to link up with J and then joined in the free muscle rub service there.. also picked up a free 1 litre bottle of 100Plus

the darn "Water Fest" carnival starts at 10am.. which we decided to skip.. i could not believe they were holding a carnival so long after the end of the race?!? most of the runners probably went home already to get their much anticipated rest..

alas.. still we had to wait more than half an hour to collect our baggage.. i was really exhausted.. more due to lack of sleep than due to the run.. but exhausted nonetheless.. i could feel myself wobbling while waiting in the queue..

when we finally got out of there.. we headed to Marina Square to satisfy our hunger first.. only then did i discern what sad lives we lead.. JH has to return to work that afternoon to fix his company server.. and i too am returning home then heading to NUS to catch up on my school work..

and the day ends quietly this day..