Race Day - Subang 10km

The day started at 5.45am for us when the 1st alarm rang (We have two). I was really too excited to sleep properly the whole night and was ready to get up. However I decided to give my body all the rest it needs so I lie back down on the bed. Unconsciously and without much effort, Psalm 23 came up in my mind and I recited it.

What a way to start the morning!

Just after about 5:50am, I got up. Sat on my throne (wash hands first ok!) and then fixed myself 1 glass of apple juice 1 glass of milo. For energy, I ate up 1 mini sneakers bar and 1 mini mars bars. Leftovers from the KK trip. 'Yes, dear' was playing on the TV.

At 6:25am Jit and Kavi arrived and we made our way to Ronnie's house where we all meet.

We reached Ronnie's at about 6:50am. After a short introduction, everyone - Jit & Kavi, Ronald & his friend Kenneth, Viviana, Rosalyn, Ronnie, Liping and I made our way to MPSJ. The excitement is building up as we can see Jit talking, running and jumping. His excuse - needs the warm up :) The veteran runners - Ronald and Kenneth was cool. Ronnie Khoo is also cool. At this point, the three ladies: Kavi, Rosalyn and Vivianna decided that they're going to do the 5km distant.

Prompty at 730am a gun was fired, signalling the start of the run. Wife and I decided that we're going to take it easy at the beginning and stayed right at the back. We can see a large pool of people surging forward. What a sight! We started slow and then wife stopped to tie shoelaces... and we must be really taking it easy when I see that the police bike trailing us! hahaha.....

The morning air was cold. Since we do most of our training in the evening, we could still feel that our muslces were tense. The slow start helped warm us up and we got on to a good pace 5mins into the race. It's a good feeling to start slow, catch up and over take people. As I look around during the run, I was just happy to to know that all those training paid off!

I think our pace was about 7mins++/km. We put many people behind us but still there was so many many many many people in front of us. There's just this long trail of human traffic. At the same time, there were many many runners overtaking us.

Throughout the race, the scenery was okay. USJ does look quite nice in the morning. I also found out that running on asphalt also gives more cushion than running on concrete in Kiara park. There was this part though, the factories were burning stuff and the air smelt foul!

At about the 6km mark we caught up with Jit, who hasn't been well for the last 2 weeks. Poor chap. He was still positive as ever. Somehow I had more fuel today so I ran ahead then.

Soon I found myself pacing this young couple. College kids -girl in blueshorts and blue top, guy in black shorts and yellow top. Whoever you are thank you! While I was panting, they were talking! While my legs were hurting I think they were 'dating'! Somehow they don't look like they were pushing..

Although I was unfamiliar with the route, the signs were clear. In fact I just followed the crowd. Kinda like a herd la.

The last km was the toughest really. I thought the last kilometre was coming up when I saw MPSJ looming ahead. Oh glorious MPSJ! So I started running faster and faster.... Arrgh to find out that I have to run past MPSJ all the way to the end and then make a U-turn back. Ooi play cheat! Hahaha.

Nevertheless, I pushed on. The last 300m run was super painful but it was well worth it when I finished my first 10km run in 71mins. Jit came in at 73mins and then wife at 75mins. I was so proud of her when she crossed the finished line. Kenneth is the champion among us coming in at 61mins with Ronnie close behind him. All in all, we felt really good completing the run.

Liping and I are happy with our time as we aimed to come in at about 80mins+. After cooling down, streching and some free drinks. We finanlly get to ajourn to the main event of the day - breakfast.

Awesome. I really had fun today. I0years ago, I wouldn't have thought I'd enjoy running at all!