Fun Run 2008 - Making the impossible possible...

16/11/2008 (Sunday)

0500: My handphone alarm rang... actually, I was awake before it started to ring... didn't sleep much... no thanks to my neighbour's car alarm which went off around 1am.

0520: Tried my newly bought muesli breakfast... took one bite and threw the rest away... how can anyone eat that kind of stuff? Opted for energy filled Snickers instead (the fun size... not the normal size one)

0535: Almost rammed my car into a roadblock... the notice said that the road would be opened from 4:30 am onwards! Great, now I have to park my car even further away...

0550: Finally found an empty space for me to park my car in... and I had to walk several kilometres away to reach the starting point... I supposed it is intentional... to force the participants to warm up adequately before the official run.

0615: Arrived at the starting point and registered myself... which basically meant exchanging my registration card with a yellow wrist band. Tried to look for my friends... but can't find them. Listen to the great music I downloaded to my brand new super handphone...

0630: Suddenly, there was a bang and people were shouting. I saw the crowd which consists of masses of orange clad clones moving forward. The marathon has already started... and I didn't even realise it. Saw a clown giving out yellow digi balloons... tried to get one but was elbowed away by screaming girls... ah well...

0635: The crowd is not moving! My goal was to complete the 10km track within 90 minutes... and I have barely moved 100 metres in 5 minutes! Move away, slow turtles... honk... honk...

0640: Finally, the road widens and the losers started to drop behind... now I can start to run... I will run like a wind... as light as feather... as fast as lightning... as steady as storm... and woe to anyone who get in my way!!!

0650: Next time, I must be in the pole position when the marathon starts. No matter how hard I run, there is always someone in front of me... and walking too! A simple 10km marathon is now increased to 15km marathon since I had to run zig zag to avoid those road hoggers who walk in a straight horizontal line as if they owned the road. I had to scan to my left or right whenever I wanted to pass someone in front of me since I don't want anyone who is running behind me to slam into me when I swerve to the right or left. It's almost like car driving... only without the rear and side mirrors.

0655: This is impossible... I am already out of breath and I still haven't reached the bridge yet! I've completed less than a quarter of the trek and 25 minutes have passed by... which meant that I have only 20 minutes to reach the turning point... which is halfway of the marathon. I looked back and was relieved that I am still considered to be in the front half of the group... must not let anyone pass by me.

0700: Argh! The road narrowed again and I have to walk beside those uncompetitive morons! This lane is usually jammed too during after work hours... and now it is like 15-20 lanes of cars driving at the same time into a road made for two cars... further up, the two lane road narrowed to one lane making matters worse.

0705: Finally reached the main road of the bridge and I'm waaayyy behind schedule. I looked ahead and to my horror, I saw an endless wave of orange in front of me... right up to the edge of my vision! OMG... how far is halfway? Why are there no markers? My lips are parched and I desperately need water... where are those water stations that are dotted all over the map?

0710: I look across the bridge and did not see anyone there... basically, if the turning point is near, then there should be someone running in the opposite track... and having no one meant that the turning point is still bloody far away! There are also occasional vans which drove past us... mostly those who packed up their stations and is leaving... and those stupid, stupid runners actually run after the vans. It's like those irresponsible drivers who drive behind the ambulances in order to get to their destination faster since the lane used by the ambulance is definitely the fastest lane... hello... that was a car following an ambulance... haven't you heard of exhaust fumes before... I couldn't help but snicker when the moronic runners who ran behind the vans coughed and wheezed before they finally keep themselves away from the van's exhaust pipe.

0715: I need to stop... no... I must not stop... I have to stop... no... I cannot... oh... there's someone running in the opposite track... what are you smiling at, bugger? You want me to come over and give you a piece of my mind huh? Huh? By now, I had to resort to one of the most powerful mind technique ever invented by humans... sure I still have a few techniques created by immortals themselves... but I reserve those for life and death occasion... anyway, this method is developed by CIA... Central Intelligence Agency... yup... western stuff. Basically, you have to separate your mind from the reality... which normally is dangerous but since the track is pretty much straightforward, it should be okay. It is used by spies who are captured by the enemies and forgot to wear their poison tooth to prevent their enemies from extracting confidential information. There's this one spy who was caught and in order to withstand the pain inflicted by his captors, he imagined himself catching fish... yup, that's right... he took himself to a faraway island and catch numerous fishes on his little boat... catching and releasing them back into the lake... all the while the black thundering clouds gathered around the lake... as long as he kept on catching the fish, the storm will not come over the lake... once he step off the lake, the darkness would swallow him whole... what's my dream?... well, I'll have to kill you if I tell you that :P

0720: I think I'm starting to get a blister... I can feel my feet starting to hurt and the muscles turning into mush... OMG... where is the f****** turning point? It also suddenly struck me that this is the time where diseases are transmitted easily... SARS, which was popular last time, is transmitted through bodily fluids too... and there are numerous people who have contacted me bodily when they ran past me... in fact, the air is so thick with their sweat that even diseases that cannot be transmitted through air can do so now...

0725: Just in front of me, there are some people giving out something from their boxes... is that water? Yay!... and he gave me an orange wrist band... I was too disappointed to even rejoice the fact that I have reached the turning point.

0730: Passed by the section where the top half of the divider is missing (not intentionally)... and I saw that there are still a lot more people coming up from the bridge... I can't help but feel smug about it :P

0735: The strangest thing happened to me... my shoulder blades actually felt sore! How is that possible? It's not like I'm holding on to anything at all and I did not swing my hands in large angles that some people do... it was so sore that I couldn't even lift my arms while running... imagine running with hands on the side... I felt like Mr. Bean... and I'm feeling pain in my tibia! Yup, that's right, most people would have sore thigh muscles or calf muscles but I actually have pain in the tibia... well, I guess that makes me special, doesn't it.

0745: Well, my 17 songs from Westlife had just finished... changed it to Clay Aiken... did you know that eyebrows sweat too? And in front of me, there's this guy which those long almost shoulder length wavy hair and his hair was actually bouncing airily while he ran! I look around and saw that others hair were already matted with sweat and this guy is not sweating at all! I supposed this is not International Marathon but Intergalactic Marathon.

0750: I can actually feel heat from the soles of my shoes... it's like the rubber is actually burning! Even with Clay Aiken singing inside my head, it was still quite a boring run... and as an engineer, my mind started to wander to engineering direction... did you know that initially I was able to run non-stop for 15 minutes straight and walk (brisk walk of around 5 km/hr) for 5-10 minutes before starting to run again... now I can run a maximum of 10 seconds before slowing down to walk for 15 minutes before running again... I shall call it the Bamboo's Reduction Theorem... BRT...

0755: Finally, I'm off the bridge and in the main road! Tried to run again but there is this excruciating pain in my stomach whenever my flabby stomach started to bounce about. It even tingles when I reduce myself to brisk walking... my legs are sore but I keep on telling myself that the pain in my midsection is actually a good thing... meaning that my stomach has run out of things to eat and is finally starting to work on the fat!... the greater the pain, the more fat it will bust! Come on, give me more pain!

0800: Finally! A marker of some sort... and there's still 1km left! Well, my plan to reach the destination in 90 minutes did not work... but the official time limit is 120 minutes... so that means I have 30 minutes to walk for 1km... even crawling could have done that...

0805: 500 metres left

0810: 300 metres left... is it my imagination or my speed had decreased dramatically? I thought people usually will achieve greater speed when nearing the finishing point.

0815: Tada... the finishing line... and there is someone giving out the certificate of participation... I hurried over and get mine... as soon as I got my certificate, my legs started to buckle... had to hold on to a railing to prevent myself from falling down onto the road... I look at the certificate again... and I felt just so happy! I have made the impossible, possible! And Clay Aiken hasn't even finish his 15 songs... and the battery used was less than a quarter of the total battery... less than one-eighth actually... my super perfect handphone :P

I'm sorry if the pictures are not clear... it's taken with a 1.5MP handphone camera which does not have flash at 6:30 in the morning... so you'll have to forgive me on the quality... anyway... this is the swarm of people when the marathon started.


More unclear pictures of the orange swarm...

There's this child who is carrying two water filled 1.5 liters bottle while running... definitely not human... and yup, that's someone who is walking in the opposite direction... in search of her friends kua... they are in front, dear :P


This picture is taken in my returning trip... the sky has brighten and the picture I took look much better... if you look at the top, on the right hand side of the bridge, there are still lots of people who have not reached the turning point... losers... muah... hah... hah... hah... :P

Proof of my participation... Bamboo the Great... sounds nice... doesn't it?