Kissed my Grandma at the 15 km mark

Went for a run with the Mt Faber SAFRA gang this morning. There were around 15-20 of us there, including Babumouse who was joining us for the first time.

We started at 7.20 am from the Clubhouse. We went along Depot Road - Alexandra Road - Queensway - Portsdown Avenue - Dover Road - Clementi Road until Ulu Pandan Canal. That was about 9.5 km, and it took me 1 hour. Along the way, I had felt my chest getting tighter, my breathing a little bit more painful, my throat itching and my nose sniffling quite a bit, so I eased my pace. Seemed like I might have caught the flu bug without realising it - or maybe it was the poor air quality, thanks to the haze - but I reckoned I could keep the situation under control by adjusting my speed downwards.

We went down the canal until Buona Vista MRT station where I stopped to buy a bottle of 100 Plus. Then I followed Eng Hwa and Guna down Commonwealth Ave. When they stopped for drinks at a petrol kiosk, I went by myself down Queensway, where I met my grandmother who was on her Sunday morning stroll downstairs with her maid. As my grandmother's memory was quite poor, she couldn't remember who I was, even after my repeated attempts to introduce myself :) But I kissed her on her left cheek anyway, and went on to run to Alexandra Road - Telok Blangah Road - Kg Bahru Road, passing Harbourfront (19.5 km) at a time of 2 hr 10 min.

At the 20.5 km mark, I arrived at the foot of the revered Mt Faber. I tried to keep a steady but slow pace up the slope, but it proved too difficult. I ended up walking. And when I finally got up to the top, I had no energy left to run the originally planned 1.5 rounds around Mt Faber Loop. And so, I just walked-jogged half a round, and then exited via Morse Road back to Telok Blangah Road.

It was a punishing stretch, running up Henderson Road back to the Clubhouse. I had rather bad stitches (which I wasn't able to out-run), my shoulders ached terribly (need to improve my running posture) and I was getting cramps in both feet.

But I pushed on and finally finished the distance of 24.5 km at a (rather dismal) timing of 3 hours 10 min. I'm glad nevertheless that I had finished it. It was good to be finally able to sit down in the shade with the other runners, enjoy a cold can of 100 Plus and eagerly discuss how the run went today.

Derrick was asking me to consider going for the Hong Kong Standard Chartered Marathon in late February/early March 2007. Sounds enticing, but I don't have any guarantee that I would be able to get my leave approved for that period...

When I got home from the run, I received a reminder SMS from Superboy about a 洗尘 dinner for Balasing who just came back from Shanghai this morning. Maybe I can catch up on some sleep now before going for the dinner...