5th place, kinda...

I took part in a run yesterday morning, and in a first for myself, I was not registered beforehand. Nevertheless, I decided to go because I was told that this was a free run by the people from my running group and even if I don't get to register myself, it will still be a chance to do some speedwork. On the other hand, I am going in totally without a clue, whether it is the course, the organisation, the prizes(if any), or even the name, which by the way is Larian Harmoni something something.

Anyhow, last minute registration entailed some extra measures, like waking up early, since I also didn't know what the starting time was, which I nearly failed to do. Thankfully though, I got there with more than half an hour to spare, or so I thought. Getting there on time was the least of my troubles, as there was a huge crowd in front of the registration desks. Thinking that there sure was a lot of latecomers, I quickly took my turn at the queue, only to find that they were doing the t-shirt distribution on race morning itself. Definitely a total faux pas and a sign of a noob organiser. After much waiting and watch-glancing I did manage to put my name on a sheet of paper, by which time I also gleaned some important information like who the organisers were and what kind of runners I was up against. The race was organised by Keadilan and yes, thoughts about being arrested for whatever reason did crop up but thankfully the dozen or so police officers there were just to help with traffic direction. As for my rivals, I did not really see any lethal runners except for a state 800 meter runner who I have beaten over the longer distances, other random state runners and of course a couple of speedsters from my own team.

After the customary pre-race speech by a dignitary which in this case was a state assemblyman we were set off. As expected the young tykes from the state team took off like rockets, but sticking to my mentality of approaching this race for speedwork, I never let them get too far and sure enough, most of them ran out of fuel. All except for two. They were able to sustain their pace and were taking a toll to stick close. Having got among the front of the race, my immediate next thought was the length of this race, since I had expended a lot of energy in the early surge and was deliberating whether to surge again to gain ground on the leader. Just around this moment, I heard some footsteps approaching from behind along with a feeling of dread. It turns out that the owner of this killer aura was one of my fast teammates (the other way already in front stalking the two youngsters). He had started slowly, but had been rapidly closing the gap. As he was faster than me, I couldn't hold him back for long and was overtaken. The excitement didn't stop though as I was engaged in a skirmish with another runner of similar calibre. My initial overtaking move was countered soon after. To make things worse, the course took us near the starting area, and my lack of knowledge about the route ensured that I am not sure whether we will finish there. Once again, doubt crept into my mind whether to push hard to regain that position of to be patient. For better or worse, I elected to do the latter.

My gamble paid off, it seems we will in fact not be ending where we started, which is quite rare for a local road run. No wonder too, my watch showed less than 10 minutes had elapsed. Even for a funrun-ish race, that is still too short. That worry resolved and with a huge gap to the next runner, I bode my time while wondering where the race will end. In the meantime, my teammate had taken over the lead and was pulling ahead, having run with him countless times in practice, I knew it would be next to futile to chase him down. The next option was to target the state junior runners who were starting to flag a little. The runner I was tussling with earlier slowed down a bit, and I was able to overtake him for good this time. Soon after that we had to turn into a small street, only to be confronted by the finish less than 500 meters ahead. I swore under my breath as that would mean I had too short of the race left to make up the gap to the juniors. I still kicked hard, though maintaining an intense pace throughout the run took a lot out of me and I would guess my efforts looked as bad as it felt. I finished in 5th place behind my teammates and the juniors, though it was not an official race and there were no medals or prizes. Not long after, my erstwhile rival finished followed by... noone. Seriously, the few of us were waiting there at the finish with the officials and for a long time there was no runners crossing the finish. I mean I knew the gap between the leading group and the rest was big, but surely not this BIG.

Our confusion was answered though, as it turned out that the rest of the runners weren't directed into the junction and the police mistakenly directed them to continue along the road instead. As for us, we were lead by a motorcycle so there were no troubles. Most of the runners took it in good humour since the run was pretty short anyway, barely 4km, and they took it as getting some extra exercise. I couldn't say that though for one particular junior runner whom I knew though. He was always the arrogant sort and his attitude does not befit his ability and true to form, he was quite pissed and criticised the organisers, not openly of course, just to fellow runners who he deems to be worthy. Inwardly, I was just glad that I was able to comprehensively clean him up in the run instead.

The minor hiccups aside, the race was quite fun and water bottles and buns were generously distributed and there was also a lucky draw. For the first time in a long while or maybe ever, I won a lucky draw prize. It was only a bell like paperweight thingy but still it was something. Oh and it was my adidas Chiba Pro's race debut. So all in all a good effort.

Running Hard, Hanging Tough

The past few weeks have been tough, as far as training is concerned. In less than a month, I managed to lose my fire, find it again, and it's burning brighter to boot. Unfortunately, a perfect parade is just asking to be rained on, and my renewed vigour was countered by a nagging ankle injury. Despite my often flippant replies to injury worries raised by family and friends, getting injured is a real boogeyman at the back of my brain. I might have been more callous about this kind of thing when I was younger (heck, I sound so old saying this), but the knowledge gained made me realise that injuries are not to be trifled with and I naturally think the worse whenever I feel any pain.

A usual scenario the past few weeks have been something like this. I would be about to go out for a run and then the moment I take a few strides, the pain in my ankle would be like a warning klaxon on a sinking ship. Basically that is the point where I would have to make a decision whether to suck it up and just press on or just quit. The outcome has been about 50-50 and dependent on my state of mind. Anyway, I chose the suck it up option for my past 2 runs, lo and behold, I discovered that my pain actually goes away when I run. It's just that I have to get past the initial moments of discomfort. Of course, I have completely no idea whether I am actually doing more harm than good but what the heck, the time has come for me to just throw caution to the wind if I am to achieve any of my goals.