Sheares Bridge Run 04.

I hardly have more than 5 hours of sleep last night before waking up at 4.30am to meet my bro, P.C Wu for a taxi ride downtown. We are both going to participate in the Sheares Bridge Run a.k.a Army Half Marathon since most of the runner are actually from Army units.

I reckon there must be over 5000 participants this morning from competitive runners going for 21km and non competitive ones running the 21km, 12km and 5km categories; I was in the 21km non-competitive instead of the competitive one since I never run more than 10km in my life and if I were to fall out half way through the run, it will not be too demoralizing. The run starts at 6am sharp and with a few minutes to spare I met my secondary school teacher who was also running 21km for the first time and have a quick pre-run chat with him. Before anyone knew it, the starting horn was sounded by some big shot from the Armor unit.

The first 5km took me from the Sheares Bridge towards One Fullerton and next a left turn towards Marina South. From 5km to 12km, I was running on ECP, through the East Coast park before reaching a u-turn that will bring all runners back towards the city again. I have never ever ran pass 10km at was quite surprise my breath and strenght was still holding well at the 14km mark, somewhere around National Stadium. Confidence took a better of me and I make a big mistake which I will suffer later, I pick up speed, change my breathing style and attempt to overtake as many runner in front of me as possible... a very very risky manuver.

At 17km, I start to feel my leg muscles straining from the stress of running above my normal pace. Not even those motivational sign along the path like "No Pain No Gain" or "Pain is temporary, Victory is forever" could lift my mine of the tingle feeling in my leg. My pace have obviously slow down a bit. Although I am not running out of breath, those shagged out legs just refuse to pick up speed.

18km, 19km...2 more km to go. 2km is just a short distance to me since I am accustom to running this distance below 9mins. Apparantly the last 2km seems to be the longest section of this run. I almost give up running and have the intention to walk the rest of the distance but the onlookers and cheering crowd makes it a bit embaressing to just walk to the finishing point. Bo pian, just keep on jogging...some ladies even over tooked me...ha ha.

I speend a good 20min on this last stretch of run and hit the finishing line happy that my morning 21km ordeal have finally ended and I can go home for a good well overdued sleep. Sadly, beside getting a goodie bag and a few packet of Marigold HiLo Milk...I fail to get my hands on the medals that were given out to those who complete the 21km competitive run. Haiz.... even if I crawl back and complete 21km, I should still be able to get the medals...just too bad.

Though I could sleep well after I got home but the strain in my leg kept me awake the whole afternoon, a testament of my first 21km run. Guess I will train well for next year run and hopefully get a better finishing time. Oh yeah, I complete 21km in 2Hrs 23mins...Hmm can buy 4D 0223, system bet,