Limping Marathon Runner

Eyes wide. Time check. Damn!! I'm going to be be late! Needless to say, I overslept. Showered, changed and grabbing all my stuff, I raced out of my house. "One bagel, please?" I had a take away and hurried off in a train to the meeting area for the "Smile For A Mile" charity run. Just in time to finish my bagel and reaching at the start point, Roentgen, KJ, Angelica_wonders, Simon, Chip and Eliza were already there. Eliza did her Osim Tri Sprint distance yesterday and came to do this charity run today! I deposited my bag and took my mobile phone as a backup camera device since my digital camera went ka-put yesterday. This morning, I did gave it a last try to fire it up again. Sadly, it failed to respond. I stretched and did a quick warm up (which could have been the cause of today's problem). Runners for first wave gathered at 8.30am and there was a short briefing by the organiser before his attempt at imitating a horn sound off signifying a flag off. "Porrrrrr" ... there were plenty of us laughing at flag off. Thanks to Roentgen for leading most of the run, since it is his home ground route. I must admit that it has never been my running route at this part of town, apart from MILK runs. It is certain a scenic route! KJ exclaimed half way during our run, "River reflection! Shweeee. Take picture, take picture." That a cue for official camera man (me) to start work. *Click* We continued our run and cross an overhead bridge with Borders just within our sights. That was our U-turn point. 5km mark and we headed back. Other runners must be wondering why are these few crazy people running with cameras. It was Great World City that we saw the second wave group (starting at 9.10am) led by a NJC teacher who did the Death Valley run. Reaching Sir Stamford Raffles' statue, we heard loud emcee voices across the river. There seemed to be some dragon boat race that was taking place. At the last stretch, three crazy runners ran side by side back to the finishing point. Finished 10km! I took a few shots and chatted with the lady whom I met at Phuket Marathon. She remembered me and was shocked at my back to back Phuket - Penang race. After chatting, I joined the briefing for third wave just in time for the flag off. I met Zeus for first time as we introduced ourselves.

Another artificial horn sound again. "Porrrrrr" ... LOL! Zeus led the third wave and he continued strong. For some strange reasons, I had a left pull on my ITB. I walked for a short distance before continuing. The muscle strain was quite a big deal, bigger than what I had felt on previous ITB feeling tight. I reduced my speed and maintained small steps. At one traffic junction, I stretched my ITB while waiting for the green light. Once I started running again, the initial few steps were really bad. As I carried on, it was better. Since then, I did jogging on the spot whenever I had to stop. At one of the junction, I started a conversation with a few runners asking for direction back to the start point. They joined me on my way back. One of them asked for tips on achieving a half marathon run. I shared with them on reading more and trying LSDs too. Chatting along the way, we soon reached the end point with a few rain drops on our heads. Within seconds, it poured heavily! Roentgen and KJ were waiting for me to shop for our digital cameras. So sorry! I took my stuff, wrote some encouraging words on "Smile For A Mile" tag before I bade the young runner goodbye. I hope to see him next week as I will be doing "Smile For A Mile" too for wave one and three. It sort of sums up as my LSD mileage.

Ooops... Roentgen and KJ were disappointed to find one of the camera shops closed. There was a shop who offered us some look and feel on those cameras we have in mind. Roentgen had to join his family for lunch where KJ and I had lunch before looking New Balance shoes. Since I was in New Balance, I registered for Real Run '08.

At around 3pm, I met EndlessTrail for picture viewing. It was difficult to get the group together and Eeyore was going to fly off again. Before meeting the rest, we shopped around a little and had a chance to press our cheeks against an outdoor shop selling climb gears. We looked like school kids outside an ice cream shop. Too bad it was closed today. We had little peeks at the gears hanging in the shop from the glass panels. With the rest arriving, we went though the pictures where EndlessTrail and WeiWen related their experiences in Peru. There were plenty of pictures and videos. We drained the battery on the laptop completely.

Upon reaching home, I searched for ITB stretches immediately via the information highway. I know the usual stretch. I tried but it just wasn't good enough. With luck and good keywords, I stumbled upon this website. I gave my ITB a good stretch. It feels so much better!