There were practically no races organised during the Puasa month and the Hari Raya period, many runners were looking forward to this run.
This morning, I arrived very early and there were already many runners around the stadium chatting and warming up. Everyone looked fresh and energetic. It was a bit cloudy and it would be the perfect weather to have a race. (Note: I was wrong, many slower runners complained about the scotching sun in the later part of the race).
The race as usual started with the Men Open, Men Veteran and Men Senior Veteran flagging off first while the lady started slightly later to avoid over-crowding for the first few hundred meters.
I started together with Lok & Tan Wah Sing just few meters away behind the starting line. Once the whistle blown and I managed to squeezed through the crowd and taking quite a comfortable pace. Tan Wah Sing zoomed past me just after 1KM from the start line, I tried very hard to follow him but the pace was definitely too fast for me and I eased myself back to my comfort zone and have to let him break away from me.
Along the way, met Sham, Suresh and Chen from the Pacemaker, it was soon and reaching the water station, without wasting much time took a few sips of 100Plus and continued with the run. Since I couldn't find any distant marker, I was not so sure how long more to go when I reached the check point, collected a ribbon and heard someone reading out "C068", which I immediately reckon it was my number. The voice continue to read out "C101" and I was shocked there was this guy so close to be, I thought that there was nobody behind me since I did not heard any "heavy" breathing sound except my own. My sense told me that it must be Lok but I was wrong again and I saw Sowoto trying to overtake me. I increased my pace to match his and soon he eased out and let me took back the lead.
I sneak at my watch and it was closed to 40 minutes now, I heard some heavy breathing sound very close and I thought Sowoto was closing the gap again. But this time it was Lok that I was expecting all this while, we paced together until we saw the stadium on our right. He sped and soon opened up a big gap between us. I was lucky to finish at the 5th position for the Men Senior Veteran while Sowoto was just less than 100 meters behind me.
After collecting the price, went to breakfast with the Taman Bukit Jalil running mates (Managed to capture a few photo for the "Endurance" friends).
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