City2Surf / Malay & Brain birthday dinner
Waking up somewhat excited on Sunday morning, I didn't even think for a second about what to eat before the race. All I could think of was getting the bib on my jersey (Malay would later lend me some safety pins) and what not to forget - phone strap, phone and keys.
I met Malay at my place and we caught a bus out together. There were lots of others on the bus who were also wearing the race bibs, so we didn't feel alone. We decided to wait for Shuing at Hyde Park, and I messaged him saying we were there. We only left for Malay to use the bathroom in the shopping centre and then returned to wait. But while we were at the shopping centre, Shuing sent me a message saying something like "not going to bring my phone, if I seeyas I seeyas".
WTF?
We weren't sure what the fuck that meant, but we waited for him anyway. The time he suggested was 8:50am, but by 9:00am we still hadn't seen him and had to leave, as the gun goes off at 9:05am for our group. Turns out we were even later than expected, because we had to walk all the way around the park to join the pack. The whole street was filled with runners from our group.
Even after the starting gun went off, we had to nudge towards the starting line, that's how many people there were. Finally when we reached the start line, we managed to get off to a jog. Malay was going a bit fast and I thought he was captured in the excitement of it all and hoped he would spare his energy.
It was quite a unique sensation to be jogging amongst so many people on a road depleted of cars in motion. I tried to soak it in while maintaining a steady pace. It was only till we got into the tunnel that we realised we hadn't turned our running apps on, so stopped to do that before resuming jogging again.
I think we had made a fair bit of progress, until I started feeling pins and needles in my right leg. I tried to jog it off, but it was only getting worse, as I was losing more and more feeling in the leg.
Was it my knee? Or was it the kneepad?
Finally, I had to stop at the next drink station. We grabbed a cup of water, walked a bit and resumed. The pins and needles were still there, but not as severe. Later on, Malay had to stop for a toilet break, but there were huge lines, so all up waited for about 10 minutes. I was stretching out my pins and needles in the meantime, which seemed to work.
We started jogging again, only for me to hit another obstacle when we got to the hill. I was tired, and wanted to walk it. So we walked a bit until there was downhill again where we resumed running. There was a bit more stopping after that, including one where my pins and needles came back and I had to stretch it out.
I said something to Malay about struggling, and he said "dig". For some reason, that was enough motivation for me. It made me realise I wasn't digging hard enough. We basically ran the rest of the way, with me keeping a slow jogging pace while he would run up ahead and constantly look back to check that I was still around. I gotta give him credit - he's not only lost a lot of weight, but he had more energy than I did for this.
At one stage I spotted the ocean and figured that was the beach. It was close, I told myself, only to then see the road bend away from the ocean. Very cruel.
We must've ran the last 5-6km non-stop. I really tried to take advantage of the downhill slopes. When there was about 4km left, Malay said to me something like "come on, just one lap of Centennial Park". But even without him saying it, that was how I pictured it. That made it seem easier - a lot easier. But at the same time, I wondered to myself, how did I ever get to the stage where I thought four more kilometres to go would be a 'short distance'?
I just kept going and going, not thinking of much, yet at the same time reflecting upon the whole Erica experience. When we made a left turn into a street full of shops, I knew this was nearing the end. I was glad to see the "1km to go" balloon later on, but I swear to god that wasn't 1km. I ran and ran, and thought "fucking hell, this isn't 1km!!!" I was further demotivated when Malay pointed out the finish line was after a steep bend and back along to where we almost were.
But I couldn't stop now, the crowd was cheering everyone on. Even though there were people walking this last stretch, I couldn't let them or myself down. Finally after the bend, I saw the finish line in sight. I sped up and Malay and I both passed the line at the same time. We gave each other a high five.
I wanted to collapse, or at least sit down somewhere, but the momentum of the people behind me kept me walking on. I collected my medal and finally stood to one side to stop my app.
We wandered around for a bit before taking the long walk to find Tayyar waiting for us with his girlfriend Perl. He drove us to the Wick KFC where we pigged out. I have never ever tasted a KFC chip so good. I saw it was plastered in salt, I dipped it into the potato and gravy and...mmmmm heaven!
My legs were dead. I was surprised I could still walk. Tayyar then drove us home, and on the way we picked up a slurpee.
I went home, had a shower, and decided to rest on my bed. I ended up sleeping for an hour before getting up to play Last of Us. I went to the newsagency to get a bag to hold the presents, and that walk probably took me half an hour to get back. I was pretty much limping, but not in an injured type of way, just due to soreness. I was surprised my right knee wasn't in any type of pain at all.
I then picked up Malay and Scope and we drove out to the restaurant on Crown Street. We arrived right on time, and saw Thai and Brain walking towards us as we approached the restaurant.
We all went in and waited for Shuing and G. We caught up with Scope because we hadn't seen him for a long time, and also pushed for Brain to do the run next year. After a while, Shuing and G arrived. I couldn't help but feel that each time they come together, it reinforces the factions in our group - always us and them.
I felt Shuing was a bit hostile towards me at first, for whatever reason due to not meeting at the race today, but he seemed to be ok with Malay.Not really sure what I did. But he did seem to warm to me later on during the dinner, and we all seemed to avoid talking too much about the topic of meeting up at the race.
The food was good, but the servings were small. It was pretty much agreed at the table that we'd all do it next year, especially now that we had Thai and G agree. Scope was reluctant, and Brain just looked back at us blankly.
When it came to the presents, I think Malay liked the parachute more than the Jawbone wristband lol. His facial expression just showed it all. And Brain really liked his new watch, saying he didn't wear one and needed one. I agreed with Shuing when he said we got a 10/10 in terms of present ideas.
After dinner we went to that cafe on the same street for coffee/dessert. G left because he had to pick his parents up or something. We spent the rest of the night talking more about next year's run, Tough Mudder, and forcing Brain to train for it. Brain revealed that one of his interests was to watch those Chinese dating shows. Interestingly, Shuing mentioned that the one thing guys said that turned girls off the most was something like "I hope she's loyal" and "I hope she stays with me forever". Can't say I was exactly surprised, as I thought it showed neediness, but just seemed hypocritical because this is what most women claim they want.
We walked back to my car and had to wait for Shuing's dad to pick him up as my car could only fit five (again, faction). Then I drove Thai home and the rest of them home. When I dropped Malay off last, he thanked me for the day and seemed really touched that I had gone through the race with him, again shaking my hand.
I met Malay at my place and we caught a bus out together. There were lots of others on the bus who were also wearing the race bibs, so we didn't feel alone. We decided to wait for Shuing at Hyde Park, and I messaged him saying we were there. We only left for Malay to use the bathroom in the shopping centre and then returned to wait. But while we were at the shopping centre, Shuing sent me a message saying something like "not going to bring my phone, if I seeyas I seeyas".
WTF?
We weren't sure what the fuck that meant, but we waited for him anyway. The time he suggested was 8:50am, but by 9:00am we still hadn't seen him and had to leave, as the gun goes off at 9:05am for our group. Turns out we were even later than expected, because we had to walk all the way around the park to join the pack. The whole street was filled with runners from our group.
Even after the starting gun went off, we had to nudge towards the starting line, that's how many people there were. Finally when we reached the start line, we managed to get off to a jog. Malay was going a bit fast and I thought he was captured in the excitement of it all and hoped he would spare his energy.
It was quite a unique sensation to be jogging amongst so many people on a road depleted of cars in motion. I tried to soak it in while maintaining a steady pace. It was only till we got into the tunnel that we realised we hadn't turned our running apps on, so stopped to do that before resuming jogging again.
I think we had made a fair bit of progress, until I started feeling pins and needles in my right leg. I tried to jog it off, but it was only getting worse, as I was losing more and more feeling in the leg.
Was it my knee? Or was it the kneepad?
Finally, I had to stop at the next drink station. We grabbed a cup of water, walked a bit and resumed. The pins and needles were still there, but not as severe. Later on, Malay had to stop for a toilet break, but there were huge lines, so all up waited for about 10 minutes. I was stretching out my pins and needles in the meantime, which seemed to work.
We started jogging again, only for me to hit another obstacle when we got to the hill. I was tired, and wanted to walk it. So we walked a bit until there was downhill again where we resumed running. There was a bit more stopping after that, including one where my pins and needles came back and I had to stretch it out.
I said something to Malay about struggling, and he said "dig". For some reason, that was enough motivation for me. It made me realise I wasn't digging hard enough. We basically ran the rest of the way, with me keeping a slow jogging pace while he would run up ahead and constantly look back to check that I was still around. I gotta give him credit - he's not only lost a lot of weight, but he had more energy than I did for this.
At one stage I spotted the ocean and figured that was the beach. It was close, I told myself, only to then see the road bend away from the ocean. Very cruel.
We must've ran the last 5-6km non-stop. I really tried to take advantage of the downhill slopes. When there was about 4km left, Malay said to me something like "come on, just one lap of Centennial Park". But even without him saying it, that was how I pictured it. That made it seem easier - a lot easier. But at the same time, I wondered to myself, how did I ever get to the stage where I thought four more kilometres to go would be a 'short distance'?
I just kept going and going, not thinking of much, yet at the same time reflecting upon the whole Erica experience. When we made a left turn into a street full of shops, I knew this was nearing the end. I was glad to see the "1km to go" balloon later on, but I swear to god that wasn't 1km. I ran and ran, and thought "fucking hell, this isn't 1km!!!" I was further demotivated when Malay pointed out the finish line was after a steep bend and back along to where we almost were.
But I couldn't stop now, the crowd was cheering everyone on. Even though there were people walking this last stretch, I couldn't let them or myself down. Finally after the bend, I saw the finish line in sight. I sped up and Malay and I both passed the line at the same time. We gave each other a high five.
I wanted to collapse, or at least sit down somewhere, but the momentum of the people behind me kept me walking on. I collected my medal and finally stood to one side to stop my app.
We wandered around for a bit before taking the long walk to find Tayyar waiting for us with his girlfriend Perl. He drove us to the Wick KFC where we pigged out. I have never ever tasted a KFC chip so good. I saw it was plastered in salt, I dipped it into the potato and gravy and...mmmmm heaven!
My legs were dead. I was surprised I could still walk. Tayyar then drove us home, and on the way we picked up a slurpee.
I went home, had a shower, and decided to rest on my bed. I ended up sleeping for an hour before getting up to play Last of Us. I went to the newsagency to get a bag to hold the presents, and that walk probably took me half an hour to get back. I was pretty much limping, but not in an injured type of way, just due to soreness. I was surprised my right knee wasn't in any type of pain at all.
I then picked up Malay and Scope and we drove out to the restaurant on Crown Street. We arrived right on time, and saw Thai and Brain walking towards us as we approached the restaurant.
We all went in and waited for Shuing and G. We caught up with Scope because we hadn't seen him for a long time, and also pushed for Brain to do the run next year. After a while, Shuing and G arrived. I couldn't help but feel that each time they come together, it reinforces the factions in our group - always us and them.
I felt Shuing was a bit hostile towards me at first, for whatever reason due to not meeting at the race today, but he seemed to be ok with Malay.Not really sure what I did. But he did seem to warm to me later on during the dinner, and we all seemed to avoid talking too much about the topic of meeting up at the race.
The food was good, but the servings were small. It was pretty much agreed at the table that we'd all do it next year, especially now that we had Thai and G agree. Scope was reluctant, and Brain just looked back at us blankly.
When it came to the presents, I think Malay liked the parachute more than the Jawbone wristband lol. His facial expression just showed it all. And Brain really liked his new watch, saying he didn't wear one and needed one. I agreed with Shuing when he said we got a 10/10 in terms of present ideas.
After dinner we went to that cafe on the same street for coffee/dessert. G left because he had to pick his parents up or something. We spent the rest of the night talking more about next year's run, Tough Mudder, and forcing Brain to train for it. Brain revealed that one of his interests was to watch those Chinese dating shows. Interestingly, Shuing mentioned that the one thing guys said that turned girls off the most was something like "I hope she's loyal" and "I hope she stays with me forever". Can't say I was exactly surprised, as I thought it showed neediness, but just seemed hypocritical because this is what most women claim they want.
We walked back to my car and had to wait for Shuing's dad to pick him up as my car could only fit five (again, faction). Then I drove Thai home and the rest of them home. When I dropped Malay off last, he thanked me for the day and seemed really touched that I had gone through the race with him, again shaking my hand.
posted by toey | 21:09
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