KLIM 2006 - 2nd Circuit Run

I arrived at the car park around 6.45am and made my way to the starting point near the boathouse with my umbrella. I already doubted my plan to do at least 25k today since it was still raining quite heavily.

Many runners were already there and the atmosphere was much better than the first circuit run. This time I was told they had over 3 times the number of runners from the first run last month. I chatted with some of the pacemakers and other runners I knew.

Tey arrived later and registered himself for the first time. As promised, he gave me 5 small packets of the plum powder, which I stashed in the small pocket of my running shorts. At 7.30 or so we were asked to leave the tents and go out for the briefing. We were allowed to start shortly after that.

The first 3 laps I paced with Tey and we were doing split times of about 12m40s per 2.3km. After the 3rd lap, I stopped for water and told Tey to go on ahead since I wanted to slow the pace slightly. I then ran by myself feeling quite good actually.

It was at the 5th lap when an accident happened. My spectacles were completely fogged up by then and I could hardly see anything. As I was approaching the playground near the carpark, I did not see a very high step and ran directly into it, falling face down. My right knee took a slight knock, but the worst was the huge swelling on my left shin which was at least 3 inches long and 1.5inches high. There was also some slight bleeding.

I walked for about 100m to make sure that I could still run before continuing. I had to slow the pace down a little more due to the pain. Later I was into my 6th lap when the lower muscles on my left calf started tightening. By the 7th lap the pain was quite prominent and I stopped to take a short walk break. I didn’t think this injury would have lasted so long after resting and with proper treatment since Tuesday?

On the 8th lap which was to be my final lap for the day, I also had to walk a little. Tey and Kevin Chow passed me when there was about 1.5k to go. They were into their 9th lap. That’s when I decided to put aside all thoughts of the pain and started running again. I pushed as hard as I could and completed with total time of 1h53m22s. Total distance covered today was 18.4km.

Later I hung around for quite sometime, having my photo taken with the others and also icing my new injury. Most runners were quite concerned and offered advice on what I should do for the swelling. PM22 was der best… he said “aiyah this is a small thing!”… haha. Thank you all, and congratulations to PM36 and PM41 for their wins. Now I just hope to recover quickly!