(6/8/05, Saturday)-Larian Cinta Alam

Now I remember why 2 months ago I didn't sign up for this race and only sign up on Thursday ( 4/8/05) , coz its cross country and I don't like cross country coz there is risk of injury and falling .


THE ROUTE

I thought it wasn't going through that steep uphill but the other side into the flat park . I was wrong coz when I arrived , I saw the starting and finishing banner . It looks like the starting is all the way for 1.5 km up and ending mad rush down the same way . I confirmed with the official and he told me yes , its going up . I wasn't that afraid coz i trained there a few months ago .


STARTING

I was at the 1st row at the starting line The race started 30 minutes late . At the sound of the siren , we shot off , even though I was at the 1st row of the starting line , a number of people overtooked me . I was wondering , was i too slow or they are too fast ?? Anyway , at the top , I looked at my watch , it showed 7 min 30 sec , it was faster than my trainning time of averaging 8 min 45 sec !! .

CROSS COUNTRY

We then ran down hill all the way and made a detour from the normal road into the jungle path . I think its at least 2 to 3 km of running on the path . It was very narrow , one false step and either you will be injured or fall to the side hill ! I wonder how some people managed to run so fast on this path coz after awhile , some people started overtaking me , I actually let them go coz i didn't want to be injured and i was tired too . Whenever they past me , they said TQ . I counted almost 5 to 6 people including Yuan Yu Fang from the women open who started after the men .

UP HILL DOWN HILL

I was relieved when we came out of the jungle path into the familiar tar hilly road . I was slow on the hill and fast on the slopes .At the back of my mind , I was hoping my hamstring won't give way . It didn't . The last 1 km is a mad rush all the way down hill to the finish line , I think its below 4 min per km pace.

POSITION


There were 100 over runners and medals were for the top 30 . I got 25th and very happy . This is the most tiring race in my life . Heavy breathing all the way ! Makes the medal even more precious coz I managed to overtake my rival ( CHXX) :)


Next time if have choice , I may not join this race again coz its too hard .Hard on heart , hard on knees , hard on hamstring and hard on thighs !


Distance : 7 km
Duration of work out :28 min 46 sec
Location : Taman Aboroteum@TTDI


# of times used
Asthmatic inhaler and remarks : 0 time used inhaler , breathing normal , WANTED TO USE COZ RACE AND JUST IN CASE BUT SURPRISINGLY FINISHED ALREADY !!