Bad patch

It was Tuesday and my plan was to leave the office by 6pm in the hope that I would arrive at Kg. Pandan by 630pm for track work.

Despite the dark clouds and the rain from around 3pm to 5-ish, I was still reasonably confident of my planned 630pm run.

That confidence turned out to be misplaced. I left my office at 6pm, only to be greeted by a long queue of cars waiting to get onto the main road. That queue started at around the rear of CIMB building. I finally got on to the main road some 10 minutes later, and to my horror, the traffic was absolutely horrendous. Jalan Duta was badly jammed. Every road that I took was badly jammed. It took me almost 1 hour to reach Kg. Pandan.

At 655pm, I arrived and saw that the runners were doing their laps. Rain was pouring down by then but that didn't seem to put them off. The hardcore fellas were there- Ronnie, KNN man, Ah Toh, Ah Wah, and others. I got into my running gear, wore my cap, and proceeded to ask Coach what the menu was- he said- set time for a distance of 5k, and told me to warm up by joining the 3rd group. I duly complied and ran about 7 laps with them before they stopped. I ran another 3 laps before stopping momentarily to ask Coach and the group whether there was any more in the menu. The answer was- no.

I saw that it was only 720pm at the time, so I decided to run more- after all I already braved the hour-long jam (which by the way, really tested my patience- in fact- most Malaysians, especially on the roads, aren't a patient lot) and it would be a complete waste if I stopped. In the end, I ran a total of 10k, at my usual half marathon pace, around 4:30 per km pace. Time- 45:15.