Limping Marathon Runner

My day started when I woke up at 6am. I washed up and ate 2 slices of bread. With my backpack on my back, I hailed a cab to EC. Reaching EC, the entire place was already packed with people. Scouting around for familiar faces (since, I registered the race alone), I walked to the registration to grab my race pack. Proceeding to mark my limbs by officials using huge permanent markers, one of them wrote a huge 637 (my race number) on both of my arms and thighs. I was looking around for 619, guessing if I can spot "Rey Mysterio". No luck. I prepared my jogging gear, by pinning my race number at the front and back of my singlet. I left my shoes, socks, singlet and shorts at my transistion spot. By chance, I spotted a familiar face, Pioneer P., a camp mate. Didn't know that he would participate in such events since he is not really a sports person, except for soccer. I needed a "locker" service and went to deposit my backpack sealed in a big bag marking my race number. While waiting for the race to start, I did my warm-ups. I bumped into another familiar face, Kenneth, the swim coach.

There were 3 waves this morning. 1st wave Men's Open, 2nd wave Men's Open (my group) and third wave Ladies Open, Men's Veteran and School Challenge. 1st wave flag-off was at 8am. 2nd wave was at 8.10am and I was among those that were ushered to the holding area for Sarting line. A quick brief by an official and the horn was blaring off signaling a start. Sensing much congestion at a start, I let the entire crowd rush into the open sea. There were 3 floatation devices (big buoy) to go around. Finding my way to the 1st buoy wasn't difficult at all. Suffered several "shadowless" kicks and "buddha" palms along the way. While going around the 1st buoy (my mistake, I should have taken a bigger loop), lots of swimmers were jamming, treading water on the spot. I guess everyone is trying to turn at a shortest path around the buoy. Navigating to the 2nd buoy was a killer. The sun was facing us and everything was silhouetted. I could hardly spot the buoy which was in bright yellow. The waves didn't help either. So, aligning to the buoy was a skill. I could see lots of swimmers disorientated. After turning at the 2nd buoy, heading to the shore was the easiest. After getting out of the water, I changed into my jogging gear to get ready for my 10km route. My run was okay. But, around 4km, my old injury came back. A sore right knee accompanied me for the rest of the 6km. I had to slow down the pace for my knee, just in case. I complete the entire race in 1hr 47 mins. I took 50mins for the 1.5km swim and 55mins for the 10km run. I was a little disappointed because of my knee. But, come to think of it, I am only slacking behind 5mins for my usual 50mins timing in 10km runs. I was really tired, seems like my lungs were on a hyper mode and I enjoyed the rest of the morning hanging out around the area, watching the prize presentation. 1st places for Men and Women category was around 1hr 10mins. One of the female winners was only 15 years old. Amazing.

After collecting my finisher medal and goodie pack, I met up with Conan and went to get his Oakley, Half Jacket. This uncle keeps claiming that he did not like the Half Jacket. Guess what? Yet, he bought it. This time, the sales assistant was a friendlier staff. But, still, I did not proceed with my purchase. I'll hold for a while. Someone has cool new shades.