Wrong Category

I am very happy. I achieved the goal that I set out to accomplish. That is, to finish the whole 10km of the SWIFT run without stopping or walking.

I was off to a bad start as my mp3 phone was getting funky with me. The headset connection coming loose and what not. I can see the Pear, Philip, and last guys disappearing in front of me while I walked and fixed the problem. I finally gave up trying to put the thing in the holster attached to my left upper arm and ended carrying it in my hand throughout the run.

I completed the run in about 70 minutes. This timing is about double the time it took for the men's veteran who finished 1st for his category. This long haired Indian guy passed me by like the wind close to the halfway point. Running like the he's walking on air, like he was gliding past everybody. And I had a 15 minutes headstart over him!

Soon after that, the boys (under 18 I think) were passing me by. At about 3 quarter of the 10km, I saw Philip running past me. I don't recall overtaking him in the first place, but he mentioned later that it was at one of the earlier upslopes. I tried to keep up with him, but my knees just wouldn't listen to me.

By now, I was running up slopes and skipping down slopes, allowing my right leg to take most of the impact. I tried to maintain my pace, so at least I won't finish last for the men's category. I felt like I belonged to the veteran's category, such was the slow pace which I was running at.

I was expecting at any one time that someone from the women's open category will overtake me soon. Luckily for me, it didn't happen.

I think I'll have to sort out my knee and build up it's strength before even thinking about the next 10km run in future, and to improve on my timing. I'll definitely make plans to run this very same route again and try again next year.

Next up, the Tiger Final 2nd leg!!! Yes!!!