03 December 2007

Ten Kliks Part Deux


The morning started at an unholy hour of 4:50am. I slept at 11pm the night before, with vague anxieties like "Will I run halfway and need to use the toilet??" haunting my mind before blessed sleep took over. My brother left a bit of a sweet potato in the fridge for my high-energy slow-release (something lidat) breakfast and I had a mug of glucose water to perk me up. My veteran runner friends told me that coffee is a Bad Idea as that will dehydrate me further, hence the glucose.

In the car, my colleague and I were lamenting...
Me: Why are we doing this?
She: I don't know! Why are we paying $40 to torture ourselves?
Me: I don't know! I just know I want to sleep!
She: Yah me too!
We: *Wail!*

When we reached there, however, we were singing a different tune. The atmosphere was charged with energy as the DJ blasted fast songs into the air and thousands of people stretched and did their warming up. All sorts of people were there: the old and saggy, the young and lithe, the pale and pasty, the tanned and toned. The sky was a clear blue and the cool breeze invigorated our senses as we stretched every discernible muscle group. Believe it or not, we were SO PUMPED to start running.

As we waited in the holding pen for our run to start, the DJ and the camera man flirted with the thousands of ladies, getting us to smile and wave for the camera or to do the "YMCA". At one point, the DJ dedicated this song "to all you sexy ladies out there!" and blasted my perennial favourite: "I Got It From My Mama" *rolls eyes while brain cells commit kamikaze*

Finally, the run begins! I started with a slow jog since I didn't want to tire myself out too early. The side of my stomach started to cramp up and I was like, Darn it! Am I gonna walk all 10km?? but I soldiered on and thankfully, the pain subsided before long. As I maintained my comfortably slow pace, I can't help but notice (and be a tad demoralised) that a lot of people who... who look decidedly less fit than me are over-taking me. With ease. My ego took a bruising, but I decided that I will not be foolhardy for once and just keep at my pace.

The route was a pleasant one, going from the Esplanade to Marina South before doing a U-turn back into Shenton way and finishing at the Padang. As I approached the half-way mark at Marina South, I kept thinking to myself: Hit the 5km mark before walking! 5KM MARK! DO NOT STOP! and when I got there, I realised I could still go on for a bit, so I did some self-pep-talking. "Hit the next lamp-post. Hit the next bush. The next water-station. Go on, go on, go on."

Beyond the 6km point, I started to walk and realised that once you start walking, it's so hard to get back into the jogging mode. I just walked, then jogged for about 50m, then walked, and this continued until I reached the 9km mark. When you feel like walking, only a few things can keep you jogging. One was whenever the route was on a down-slope. Jogging then becomes a breeze. Another was whenever you spy a camera pointed in your direction. The thought of a picture of me WALKING being taken spurs me on like nothing else can. *Jog, pant, jog, look cool for the camera, pant pant*

At the last 500m of the run, you can hear the loud music and the cheering (jeering?) in the distance. The leaden legs pick themselves up reluctantly and start to jog again. When you reach the Padang, hear the crowd cheering, the music blasting and see a big sign "FINISH", the adrenaline starts to pump and you jog ("don't walk, don't walk. go on."). 200m. 150m. 100m. 12 seconds before the next minute. My vision tunneled and all I saw was the ticking seconds and I sprinted to the finishing line, just as the timing registered "1:15:00".

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, that's really good timing. Congratulations! :D

Quirkz said...

hey vicky! Thanks ^_^

and thanks too for covering for me on sun morn :P haha!

Anonymous said...

You are so amazing! Must psycho Bren to join you. :P

Jac

Anonymous said...

u run so fast... i can't catch up

Quirkz said...

jac: i am totally psychoing him to go for the 21km run :D

anon: catch me if u can! ; )