I woke up this morning feeling as if I prefered a warm bed to a cold run. I was unexpectedly tired, and cold too. I checked the temperature: 45 degrees. That was an unfamiliar, extremely cold temperature, and it reinforced my fatigue. I did not know how my body would hold up in this weather. So srew the homefield advantage, I mumbled to myself, I am going back to bed. Into bed I climbed. Thankfully, however, no sooner did I do this than the ease of participating in this event weighed all the more heavily in my mind. I knew the route, and the distance to the venue was short. In spite of my grogginess, couldn't I just treat the race as a tempo run? I hopped out of bed.
I drank fast a cold can of Nestea coffee. I then began the slow ascent to the Peak. At 3.5 kilometers, this would I would be to a race venue all year. But my warmup to get there would be the hardest. I wondered if I would have anything left in the tank after running uphill for 3.5 kilometers. At least I knew I wouldn't be freezing after such a warmup!
At the Peak, I quickly got my kit and headed into the mall to change. As always, my body wanted to drop all its deuces and thankfully, God provided yet another clean, mall toilet for me to do so. That was good -- although I wonder how my body will react, and how God will supply when I have to run a half-marathon in the early morning in a week and a half. Please no poop!
Since the weather was so fierce, the crush at the line only began ten minutes before the start. My knees were shaking. I felt the chill in the air and in the wind. The people beside me helped only to a degree, maybe one or two degrees Fahrenheit. I longed for the gun to go off.
In spite of the wet road and cold temperatures, this race was fast because of the pacemakers. For the first half of the race, I followed two familiar faces: the Postman and Choi Tat Ming. Later, I followed a CSD officer who had surpassed the Postman's pace. I followed this man through the narrow undulations on Lugard Road. He tired at first on the final hill. I saw my chance and sprinted by him. However, I grew complacent in my charge and did not complete it to the finish line. (Perhaps I would have had I both knew precisely where the line was and turned my head to check on the CSD officer.) When I let up slightly, 20 meters from the finish, although I had such strength to persevere, the CSD officer passed me. He beat me by one second. That was an embarrassing gaffe on my part. Nonetheless I shook his hand and congratulated him on being an even more strategic runner than I. He deserved to beat me.
Nonetheless, I was carried to a PB. I ran 26:42, 12th overall and 5th in my group. This was better than my 27:49 in 2009, when I came in 10th overall and 5th in my group. I ran with sub-36 speed today. Maybe one day I'll have an opportunity to run, officially, a sub 36-10K. At this point, I feel running a sub-81 half-marathon is likely and a sub-80 is, in fact, within reach!
I went home immediately after the race. With the wind in my knees, I felt weak. I couldn't wait to sit in my shower and soak in the hot water.
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