The time has finally come. After training for so long with no chance, namely races, to validate my efforts, and get a feel for my current level, competition season is finally here. I had my first race last weekend, too bad this first competition happens to be the national university track meet (MASUM). Timing regardless, it is still good to race. While my performances did not exactly hit my targets, I still ran personal bests, so I can't really complain. On the other hand, the officials as usual were their petty and haughty selves. Besides being major pains in the ass, their gross incompetence cost me a place on the official standings of the 5ooo. I was not the only victim as my own teammate, Ivan, was just one of those mistakenly made to run extra laps. While I still had the consolation of knowing what time I ran, these guys did not even get the comfort of recording the time that they worked for. Among the other fuck-ups made by the Selangor AAA: setting the hurdle height for the 400m men's hurdles at 42 inches, which is the height for the 110, no officials around the track after the first 4 laps or so of the women's 5ooo walk, which somehow happens to be just after our captain who was leading the race got DQed, hmmmm.
Still, no point wasting any more words on such scum. On the the positives, I managed to beat my 10000 and 5000 personal bests, which have been a long time coming. In fact both were set during my first races at both distances waaaaay back in 2005. I would like to say I could have beaten both ages ago, but for some ridiculous to the point of comedy series of factors, still it feels good to finally do it. I can also say that these were my best runs since nearly 1 year ago. While I only finished 6th overall for the 10k and should have been in 6th for the 5k, I finished ahead of my teammates in both the races so that's another bonus.
Anyway, it's all in the past, especially since there's another meet this weekend, this time USM's very own track meet. Hopefully there will be more updates to my personal bests!
P.S.: Some final thoughts to take away from MASUM. USM definitely >>>>> UPM when it comes to chicks :P. I will win next year for my final year teammates who will not have the chance to win!
