Romancing The Hills

New Balance 15 KM 2009 marked one of my earliest participation in competitive running *though I don’t run to win. The route for this race was a runner’s nightmare *at least to me, as the organizer included the vertically challenging and brutal hills of Bukit Tunku. It is still firmly etched in my mind how I struggled my arse out to complete the distance up to the point of blurting out vulgarities and cursing myself. LOL! I clocked 1 hours and 46 minutes to complete the whole course and swore to never get myself running on that hell-ish route again. But, sometimes people don’t mean what they say, and first love is hard to forget so they say. I registered myself for New Balance 15 KM 2010 last December for the sentimental value of it and to see how much have I improved as one year has gone by since the 2009 edition.

So, the memory lane of NB15 km was strolled down again last Sunday. I was a bit prepared knowing what to expect *the mean double hills of course, how to tackle the hills, and how to run during the whole course but still the jitters never ceased to haunt me. Tortures of the hills still remain though. Punishing enough to those who didn’t wisely plan on how to conquer them. And the scorching morning heat was equivalently evil, draining every bit of energy there were in grasping-for-breathe runners. The only salvations throughout the course were the time going downhills. Just only when one thought the suffering was over, just before one could heave a breather of relief, there came another hill mounted infront waiting to be scaled up!

But, Just like Yim and Nadya, I love them hills especially when going up. It is the time where I gotta sayur back people who overtook me at the corner of somewhere flat earlier. Contrary to many people, I kinda dislike going downhill because this is the part where people sayur me back. I don’t know, I guess my stubby legs couldn’t take the speed and the momentum of going downhill. Sometimes I feel like fumbling forward when I was going too fast running downhill. I’d rather maintain my cautious stride and don’t give a hoot when other runners overtake me when racing downhill.The idea of my body rolling down the hill doesn’t fancy me much.. LOL!

The last stretch going downhill from jalan parlimen to the finishing line was heaven-sent. I upped my pace and strived bigger aiming to overtake a Chinese uncle, maybe participating in the Men Sr Veteran Category, whom I paced on the 2nd half of the run but to no avail. He was just too fast. Nonetheless, crossing the finishing line, knowing that I have improved my timing from last year’s is just enough to give me a runner’s high. :)

NB 15KM RUN 2009 VERDICT

Time : 1:46:41             Men Open Placing : 423      Overall placing : 926

NB 15KM RUN 2010 VERDICT

Time : 1:15:34             Men Open Placing : 37        Overall placing : 77

p/s: Met the usual suspects at the race – syuk, diket, det, ian, yim and kak haza. truly weekend warriors!

p/p/s: thanks to kaki lariks – irwan, babart, aliff, ted and amir for the company and for the sinful-but-justified nasi lemak session after the race.. :)