I survived the Energiser (10km) Night Race

So..I did something different this time.  What was it like?

Being a first timer, it was an anxious wait before the flag off. As Gan said.."we just wanna get it over and done with".

The flagging off was cool and fun! But Jenny says there are much better and fun ones..tempt tempting me to join more marathons *blink*

Heard that there were about 4500 participants for the 10km category, largest turn out compared to other categories.  With so many people, it wasn't possible to go dashing off the starting line after flag off, hence, the starting was a very civilised slow jog for everyone.  Me inclusive. 

So I jogged. And jogged. And jogged. 

My friend Gan went ahead..cos she has a personal goal to achieve..that is to finish without stopping : o madness..i know..but she did it! Didn't even stop for water.  She went so far ahead..I didn't even see her shadow.

Basically..as we agreed earlier..we won't stick together...we will go at own pace and meet later at the finishing line.  I saw Jenny for a while..then I went ahead..eagerly.

It was indeed different running with so many people. You get so motivated to keep going non stop,,cos if you stop..everyone starts over taking you and it doesn't help when I'm such a slow walker.  I think I ran for about 40 mins non stop ..then I started to feel tired and started wondering when will the journey end.

From that moment onwards..it was a rather lonely journey.  All I saw was...the road. ....never ending road.  No indication of how far more I had to endure.

 

By the time I stopped at the 1st or was it 2nd water station..my legs became wobbly.  I knew then that I had to keep running or else my muscles will give up on me.

We were given this headlight to use mainly for safety purposes. Secondly, in case it gets too dark.  Thirdly, Energiser is the main sponsor ma.  Obviously..I didn't wear it on my head.  Most of us jus had it strapped either on the arm or hand. 

So..I went on ..pacing myself according to the music I selected for company.  I have a few favourites that perks me up to help me run faster.  Some tracks I will just pace slowly to recover.  Well, I learnt one thing though..even a 3 mins track can be bloody long when you are in a race.  Cos..if I'm slow jogging or brisk walking to a recovery track..it was impossible to be slow for the entire track when everyone's over taking you.  On the other hand, when I'm 'sprinting' to a faster track...3 mins seems to take forever to end :D

Anyway,..that was pretty much what I did to keep myself entertained and motivated through out.  Unlike Jenny, she prefers to keep her ears and eyes free so that she can enjoy the sceneries and listen conversations of people around her.

So.. I ran, joggged, walked, ran, jogged..lor. and was badly looking forward to end by the 60th minute.  My weak right ankle started to hurt..although it did really really well holding on for an hour of non stop running.  After some time the left ankle started to hurt slightly too..cos I was using more of it to compensate the other one.  Soon afterr the right and then left knee started to hurt :D

Oh...I forgot to mention ~ shorlty 5 mins into the run, I had a cramp on the lower right abdomen.  It has happen before when I work out at the gym..especially when I eat too close before a work out.  But this time,.I was like 5 mins into a 10km run..wth.  Soon..it became pain..all over the right side. of whatever organs / muscles..but it's familiar pain..cos I get that when I do too much RPM. But..then again...this is a run...not a class that I can walk out of a door.

And..I want to finish within the qualifying time of 1.5 hours.  So..there was a little bit of apprehension there.

Anyway..to cut the long story short....finally..it was a relieve to come to a junction where there were many of people..some in drums cheering us on to the finishing line.  Wah..finally the end. I quickly fast forward to my favourite running track ~ Billy Idol's Shock The System.  Guess what..it wasn't the end yet..when the song ended :s

I stopped my stopwatch, when I crossed the finishing line but had problems figuring out how much time I  took exactly, never seen such figures in watch after owning it for so many years, haha.  Anyway..I soon found out that I did finish within the 1.5 hours..cos there was a medal in the goody bag and we can wear it to take a photo at the photo corner.

Yay!

Guess..that's the end of story.  A little something that I did towards the end of Q1 2010 ^.^

Just let me..show off the medal one more time :