thirty long long long kilometres

8.42 am, somewhere out of Hartamas:
"knees. giving. way. can't. feel. feet. must. drink. water."

2 hours and 40 minutes before...
The announcer was asking people to report to the starting line. unlike most races, this one was actually nerve wrecking. i had doubts about completing it. owell, i was at the point of no return. :)

for the first 7 km or so, the skies were pitch black. it was almost eerie when it came to stretches of the route with no headlamps. for that reason, i was ever grateful that Isaiah was running alongside me. i was going slow, but i didnt know how slow until i reached the 10 km point at t=1:10.

i tried telling myself that this was just 3 rounds of 10 km. so after i finished the first 10 km, i chanted in my head Round 2 a few times. Isaiah had already gone off, somewhere. Round 2 was HARD. there was this freakin long U-turn along Hartamas Shopping centre. and when i say freakin long, i mean, endless-where-the-hell-is-the-bloody-end long. it just kept on and on. there are reasons why i absolutely despise U-turns. 1. you keep seeing people on the other side, which demotivates you in an evil way, because the harder u try to run to keep up, the further "behind" they'll be from you. 2. for every darn downhill you enjoy now will become an annoying uphill slope once u get on the other side.

it was at this bloody U-turn that i met a lot of people, namely, Uncle Choi, Ben, Meng, someone who yelled "Karen", Ashley, and many others. many times i felt like quitting, like maybe 25 km was my limit. but for some reason, whenever that thought crossed my mine, someone would show me, in one way or another, some form of encouragement which made me pull through.

when i was finally done with the U-Turn, i ecstatically chanted Round 3 to myself. someone, somewhere mentioned 6 km to go, and that lifted my spirits a little. but with every step i took, my legs felt more and more like bricks. it came to a point where the soles of my feet felt like they were burning through the shoes and hitting straight on the tar road. every step was painstakingly taken. my heart burned with every breath i drew in. i was suffering. somewhere back in KL, a man told me to look up, face the world. At this point, i was already crying. only thing was tears did not fall. i bit back pain as i tried to numb myself, whisking my thoughts to other matters like college and friends and family.

somewhere up ahead, with about 4 km left to go, i spotted Isaiah. I gave my strides a little bit more push to catch up with him. Somehow i managed a brief laugh as he didnt expect me to catch up. the remaining kms of the race, i was trailing behind, but closely. Until finally, pulling into Lake Gardens, i sucked in my breath and my pain, and made a dash for the finishing.


30 kms, i completed. 30 long, tiring kms. in 3 hours and 26 minutes. i know people run the 42 km race all the time. but to me, this 30 kms was a major major achievement. i bet that my mental power have never been tested so before.