The Day The Big Guns Came Out To Play

Have dragged myself out of bed, I quickly refreshed, grabbed my gear already laid out the night before and dashed out of the house. Only to find a lump of dog shit right in front of my door step! The strays were making a nuisance of themselves and this was the 2nd time they're making their unwanted presence felt. Cleaning up delayed me by 10 minutes but I was soon on the way to Bukit Aman. The heavens opened up not 5 minutes later but it slowed to a very light drizzle when I got to the car park. You can always tell if it's marathon season when at 6am there are more than 15 people waiting to take off for their runs. As Jason had decided to join Coach Chan's entourage at 8am (intending to run under the Singapore conditions no doubt), I plodded on into the darkness alone. The Penguins had already taken off at 5:30 for their own 30K.

Pretty soon I passed a number of runners and then found myself making my favourite 30K circuit. I carried some cash with me to top off my fluids at Petronas. Surprisingly I didn't find running alone this long that difficult to handle. I had been expecting a boring time. Perhaps it had to do with the number of familiar faces I encountered on the road. From Kelvin, Adam, The Penguins, Don Khor and his band of triathletes, Li Sar in her Skins tights, KLCC Yong, Abot, PK, Ang, Chuckles, Shine among others. The tough sections of the runs were the 18K and 25K marks. Luckily I was joined by Penguin 2 (who may be running the Phuket Marathon next Sunday) and his company and the weather played a big part in me finishing my run strong. The weather was unbelievable throughout. The coolness reminded me of Awana Genting and when the heavens opened up towards the end, it proved to be a refreshing end to a tough run. I did encounter Coach Chan's gang near the BNM section and spotted Ah Toh, Ah Wah, Ronnie, CM and Jason among others.

 

The crowd was missing at the car park due to the weather and only some PACM EXCO members were there to handle some race registrations and merchandize sale. After changing into a dry shirt I gobbled up a banana and a cereal bar and made my way home. I had home cooked pasta with spicy tuna and drank plenty of water.

 

Oh yes, I watched Cinderella Man on Saturday night and I thought it was a fantastic movie. Touching and inspiring at the same time. Some scenes of the movie provided me with some much needed push in the difficult parts of this morning's run. If you've not watched it, go get the DVD.