Waking up at 4am, tolerating the cold and the early drizzle, getting mud all over my shoes, breathing in the body odours of the surrounding runners, getting a blisters on my feet after 10km, cramping up 500m away from the finishing point.

Part and parcel of COMPLETING MY FIRST EVER half-marathon! Woo HOO!!!

All in 2 hours and 24 mins. I heard over the radio that the winner completed his in 1 hour and 7 mins. Sure made me feel like I was crawling.

I didn’t exactly pushed myself as I was trying very hard to make sure I could last the whole thing without stopping. I realised that wasn’t possible when I hit 17km. At 19Km, my legs really became jelly.

But it felt really good running back into the city after crossing pass the IR. It reminded me of those movie that has crowds running away from some monster or natural disaster.

But the supposed new route through the Marina Barrage was a huge disaapointment. The road is barely good for walking, let alone running. Getting mud all over your shoes is really a mood dampener. And as if these isn’t enough, the ending point at Padang is practically a mud fest.

But the (rather heavy) medal all made up for the effort and sacrifices. It also made my next run (Nike Run) on 31st Aug seemed like a piece of cake.

Til then, I think I would be laying off running. I had never felt so physically tired before. This is going to take a fair bit of time to recover from.