On thursday I ran to Raffles Place again after initially having ran with A. an extra 5 km around NUS. I ran good and strong and managed to top the previous week's time by about 17 minutes. 17 MINUTES! That is a lot! I felt very very good and very light while running. I do no know what happened because the only thing that I had changed from the previous week was a) drinking oolong tea and b) climbing more the night before. Anyhow, I was queen of the road, master of my turf, chief of my chickens, whatever you want to call it. I ruled!
It was in this mood that I set the route for my Saturday run. First I set it in the morning, at around 8 am. Then I set the route: run on pasir panjang, then on south buona vista, then through campus and towards home. For those of you in the dark about this piece of west singaporean geography, pasir panjang is a flat 2-3 km road, south bunoavista is an uphill, sinewy, steepy 2-3 km road, and through NUS I have to go up a single hill, namely the Central Library one. As you see, a bit of a tough route, especially since I was planning to run it in the morning. This is because mornings. They be not my thing. But again, I was chief of my chickens and nothing could stop me.
That is, until Saturday morning rolled in. Woke up as planned, except my fingers were stiff from Friday's climb. My eyes were not opening properly and I was (still) super sleepy. I was no longer chief of my chickens, being ousted by unknown enemies during the night. Marian was kicking me to get out of bed and go running so I had to do what I had to do. There was no water to drink so I geared up and started right away. I managed to open my eyes fully after the first km or so, but I was still dizzy and very thirsty.
By the middle of pasir panjang I had super cramps and had to stop. Walked around for a bit and then started jogging (no longer running that is). Rain started to pour (or course, why not?!) but I continued my jog on Pasir Panjang. I jogged and I walked and I jogged some more. By this time I was super thirsty. I turned into South Buona vista and decided that I will take the 200 bus home.
I know that the bus comes once every half an hour so I decided to run uphill from bus stop to bus stop until the bus came. I would reach a stop, wait for a while (the road is sinewy so you can't really see much), then start running again. I made it up three bus stops or so. I stopped midway towards the next one to rest (too uphill for me) when I saw the bus coming. And now the chief of her chickens turned around and she and her flock started sprinting downhill towards the previous stop. And I mean sprinting because I was super desperate not to miss that bus. I barely caught it and only then because I waved it to stop right as it was passing me and the driver was kind enough to stop - was it my pink pants that did the trick? Or do you think he saw how desperate I was? I got off the bus then walk-a-ran home where I collapsed ashamed of myself and embarrassed in front of my chickens.
My sprinting was an act of supreme, pathetic lameness, and what better way to make sure I never forget it than to share it here...
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