This story began a few months back when Weiting asked me if I wanted to join her and a few others in the Standard Chartered run... The distance was 10km... I was immediately thrilled by the idea and asked her how to register... As I was serving on a regular basis every Sunday, I needed to find a replacement... Luckily Limin was available that week to help me out, but by the time I settled the replacement with her, it was already mid-October and the registration had already closed... For awhile, I was quite sad as I reli wanted to take the chance to participate in the run... Amazingly enough, Josiah had a fren who wanted to sell his ticket as he didnt want to run... However the distance was 21km and I had doubts on my ability to complete the run... In the end, my eagerness to participate outweighed whatever concerns that I had and I agreed to purchase the ticket from his fren... The discounted price of $30 prob pushed me to buy the ticket as well =)
As the big day drew close, I was excited but a little apprehensive as well cos abt 10 days b4 the run, I had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted... Nonetheless, on the night b4 the run, I could hardly contain my excitement... It was quite last min when Josiah msged me and told me to wake up at 3.30am and pick him up at 4... Craziness la!! I drank lots of water and tried to go to sleep...
In the morning, I woke up even b4 my alarm went off, lolx... Drank lots of water again b4 I left the house... Its been ages since I last water paraded myself, hahaz... We reached the Esplanade area at around 4.45 and went to deposit our bags... At 5, we applied Deep Heat (some stuff that's supposed to relieve muscle ache) b4 commencing on 2 sets of warm-up with a 15 min break in between... After that we applied another layer of Deep Heat... Along the way we went to the toilet at least 3 times, lolx... At about slightly past 6, we made our way to the start line to prepare ourselves...
"Bang"!! After like 30 seconds we were still stuck at the same spot, lolx... There was simply too large a crowd to begin running... After awhile we made it to the start line and began to jog... I told Josiah not to wait for me as I suspected that he would be much faster than me... So he took off and I slowly picked up my pace... The start of any race was always fun cos u get to overtake lots of ppl, lolx... I weaved my way through the crowd and managed to keep at a constant pace... I was doubtful of how far I could actually run cos prior to that day, I had never run more than 10km in my entire life, and so my pace was rather slow...
It was relatively okay all the way up to the 5km mark and I sortof enjoyed myself =) However, when I passed the 8km mark, my legs were beginning to feel a little tired and I slowed down... When I reached 12km, I could not take it anymore and started walking... So I walked and ran, walked and ran... After the 15km mark, I suddenly experienced severe cramps in both thighs and had to stretch for a few mins b4 continuing to walk... By then, my legs were already screaming at me to stop and I had to force myself to keep walking... I tried to jog again but as I started my right calf started to cramp followed by my left calf, so in the end I ended up walking again... After much effort, I made it past the 20km mark and told myself that it was ending soon so I started to jog again... Managed to do so for a few hundred metres b4 walking yet again, lolx... As I rounded a bend near the end, I could sense the enthusiasm of the supporters from both sides and broke into a run again... 150m... My legs cramped but I continued running... 100m... I actually felt inspired by all the cheering and continued... 50m... Too close to stop now... Finally, I crossed the finishing line and a rush of joy and satisfaction surged through my body!! =) The feeling was great... Although my legs were dying, I felt truly happy that I completed the 21km run... The gun time was 2 hrs 48 mins and 24 secs...
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