the 10km salomon trail run

A second person view from a first person event

5.45am: In the morning you wake up groggy and unaware, until you come to your senses that this day will be your first run ever. You hop out of bed to wash up, realising you got less than 20mins before you have to leave with your parents. The day before you were wondering how to get there and realised that your dad is leaving for the airport at 6.10am. What a Godsend.

You gobble up a banana and a slice of bread, then you go to your room and don on your race gear. Thinking of keeping it light, you dont bring a bag, only a shoulder pouch, containing your ez link card, $5 and your keys. Your handphone you place in the back pocket of your pants. Having no where to put your race tag and pins, you just hand carry them in the plastic bag they came in.

6.10am: You are called to leave now. You run to the refridgerator and grab the big kit kat waiting for your consumption. The bar is packed with energy but is difficult to chew due to the morning dryness of the mouth. You forget to hydrate but still you head out the door, knowing that you already did the day before. You get in the car and your dad drives all the way to the airport.

6.30am: You reach the airport and headed to the train station. Realising you have missed your train, you wait impatiently, eager to reach tampiness on time. the train came after 6mins and only left after 4mins, giving you time to mentally prepare your self.

6.55am: you reach tampiness after changing at tana merah, finding many people like your self wearing the same shirt. You are desperate to find the way to the place, thinking that by following someone you could reach the place, but no.. you head your own way, trudging past a sodden field and almost deserted roads to finally reach the place.

7.15am: You glimpse at the first sight of the road marshels in green. You walk up the steep road past the long line of toilet waiters and headed to the holding area. You search for your friend who made it there earlier than yourself. You found him and his friend getting ready to warm up. You introduce yourself to zhen ping. Then you head to an empty area to warm up.

7.25am: the announcers call for all the runners to get ready to do a mass warm up. You head to the area, finding your senior gerald and samual over there already. You meet up with them and chat. Gerald comments that the techfit that you are wearing is going to kill you, but you reply that you have always been training with it.

7.30am: all the racers head to the start line, and when the time arrives, the MC announces: "on your mark, get set, GO!" and all the runners break off with a steady paced run. You follow them at the back, having no chance to head forward due to the crowd. The first patch of grass you land on is fairly dry, some parts were sandy, until you go deeper and deeper into the forest where the rain touched, and the place was muddy. The rest of the runners slow down to cross safely, but your head strong attitude pushes you to run in the mud and past the runners, but dirtying your entire leg in the process.

You continue to run, pushing and pushing through crowds, that are being snaked by the narrow paths, and into the bushes by the sides, or splashing through day old mud that has been 'disturbed' by the runners ahead of you. You finally see the 3km mark and realised that you have 7km to go as someone ahead of you announces. 7km more. you run and run, being paced by the person ahead of you, you see people lose their shoe in the mud, but you just carry on. The mud gets thicker and when you step into it, you nearly lose your shoe. This is your training, no one is going to stop you.

5km left: You run and run, and realised that you are out of the forest, but the rest of the 5km is not as easy as back in the forest. the sun beats upon you like a hot blade, and the road ahead of you is straight, meadering into the hills that you see. Its going to be a long 5km, you are wearing double layer, but you push on, at points of time running at the pace of the person ahead of you. you begin to see people walking, which makes you want to walk, demoralising. You see the first runner about to head to the finishing point, demoralising.

The sun continues to beat down upon you, and the series of uphills and downhills are making it worse. But thats not the end of the misery, as you see your friends whom were behind you 5mins ago are now jogging past you as if they had a speed boost. You see a water station up ahead and go in to have a sip of gatorade. you toss the cup to the side, not wanting to slow down, the same goes with the half a bottle of mineral water, which you need the water to cool you down with the double layers you are wearing. You douse yourself with the water and toss it aside, not considering the helpers who have to pick it up later. You just want to run. You see people walking or already with the medical teams. You hear reports over the radio that a man nearly fainted but had 1km left to go and still wanted to carry on. You see people fall but get up ready to go. But its not about them, its about you.

3 km left: The series of hills were killing you, your energy depleted and down to the last of reserves. you see people walking uphill, as your jog nearly breaks down to a walk, in an attempt to reserve energy. The downhills are no use either, the slight moral boost only is greeted by another uphill that awaits you, and you are unaware of the next uphill behind it. your eyes have been only able to do 2 things, look at the ground to see where you are running, or find distance indicators along the road to see how long more is there. Either way, your mind is only focused on pushing you to jog and not to walk.

2km left: You see your friend jog pass you on the return route shouting: " 2km more PAN!" and you reply: "I'm behind you". the stretch would be the last uphill that you are going to encounter. the sun is killing you, you feel the heat of the waves burning you from the inside. You realise you have two options: die here without any identification (as you did not remember to write it at the back of your tag) or push on jogging and not even drop to a walk. Dying there is not an option, so you reduce your speed in an attempt to conserve energy till the next water point. finally you see one, and the joy of noticing that the end is near. you take your last bottle and douse yourself once more to cool yourself off. you see the distance indicator along the roads, 1km then 400m. Its going to be a last stretch.

200m left: a man pushes past you as you break off in leaps downhill. You finally see the end, pacing behind a man who did not notice you behind him, and flings his prespiration on his hair to you. you see the final end point just less than 100m ahead, you break into a sprint, flinging your arms wildly enough to get the boost you need to get your speed.

You hit the end point.

Joy and a sense of accomplishment fill you, the first race you completed and there are more to come....

Conclusion: You walk to tampiness to have breakfast with tee and zhen ping, having being full of fluids after drinking to the max the free drinks after the race. You walk home with soggy shoes only to give you a bloody blister. Your friend comments that you stink, not having any clothes to change into, but you dont care. Its over already and you cant wait for the next time you run.