Uphill All The Way

Hills. Definitely not for me. At best, they are to be tolerated, a part of running that you sometimes have to do to be gooooooood (drag the word out for emphasis). At worse..., ok let's not go there. So if they already so hostile when part of a run, why the hell am I doing running a race that is all hill??? That's question I was trying to answer while taking part in the annual race up Penang Hill organised by Kwong Wah Jit Poh, amidst curses and gritted teeth.

The answer was none too obvious during that self-prescribed torture session, my body simply refusing to devote more energy to cogitating. Frankly speaking I don't blame it, I have long had a love hate relationship of epic proportions with hiking and hills in general. Normally, I avoid them like the plague, but for 1 special day each year, the planets align, the feng shui energies are at full blast, and I cast aside my hill aversion to enter this event. And just as sure that I would take part, I will regret that decision, usually at the point where I just made it up the first crest looking like a wreck.

This year was no different. To boot, I had done ZERO hiking in the run up to the event. Regardless, annual rituals are to be respected, and besides I am technically a member of a hiking team, so what the heck, crashing and burning can still be kinda fun, I hope. I started out quite well, but then the beginning is a run of about more than 2k, so there was not much consolation there. Things began to look grim as I was getting passed by runners I have no problem beating in my sleep. Come on! We haven't even left the ground yet!

My body soon clicked into normal hiking mode soon after the flat part ended. Long buried curses were dredged up and flowed easily. The long forgotten feeling of burning calfs only hiking could give started to introduce itself. Long story short, it was an uphill battle, pun intended. To stave off the grim outlook, I resorted to pumping in reinforcements. In my near catatonic state, the best I could muster were stuff like, "Pain is temporary, glory is forever" and "No guts, no glory". Creative huh.

Thankfully, I did get stronger in the 1 year since the last edition of this hike, and my pain was felt for a shorter time. About 3 minutes less in fact for a time of 53.39 mins, good enough for 7th place if I am not mistaken. Ah well, considering the circumstances, I don't have much to complain about. Most of the complainin' was done on the way up anyway. Would I WANT to try again next year? I doubt it. Would I actually try it again next year? Yea, pretty much.

I can't help it, go blame Penang Hill.