Thanks to Lim Pueh Tian for the photo.

Well I am back in Singapore after an 8 day trip to KL. Its always good to be back. I missed my family, the dogs, the food, the slower pace of life, and generally, the comparatively relaxed atmosphere (the political turmoil in Malaysia aside). Nothing like a trip back home to calm the nerves, release the stress and just chill. Silly as it may sound, I also missed driving my car. The freedom and flexibility that comes with having your own car is priceless, instead of constantly relying on the public transport, no matter efficient it may be. And make no mistake, a student's life here isn't quite a walk in the park by any means- I have a written assignment due on 15th March (which accounts for 30% of my final mark in this particular subject); also, as mentioned before, because 20% of my final mark goes towards my class participation, I have to do a certain amount of reading-up to make a meaningful contribution in lectures. Plus the kiasu-ness of students here does rub off on you (and I don't mean it in a good way), even if you don't want it to.

Anyway, back to the FT City Day Run. A quick check at Ronnie's site revealed that I last ran this route during the KL Power Run in April 2007, when I finished with a timing of 49:16. I arrived in KL on Saturday night, the night before the race, feeling loose and relaxed. I wasn't exactly in the best shape of my running life, but I wasn't in the worst shape either. So there wasn't any pressure placed on myself or (indirectly) by others.

I dined on my comfort food for dinner- fried rice at a coffee shop called Choy Kee's, located near Kolej Damansara Utama (I've loved their fried rice for a long time now- I've been patronising that joint since I was 15 years old- I used to fantasise about it even when I was studying in the UK), went home, settled down and went to bed at 115pm.

Woke up at 5am, brushed my teeth, had a quick bite, a cup of coffee, got my stuff ready and left my home at 6am. Parked my car by Bank Rakyat (despite the fact that PM2's car was broken into), and walked across the road to meet PM1 by Dataran Merdeka to collect my bib. Saw Choi, Kelvin Ng, Raymond, Kenny Tan, CM, Kei Ming, Adam, Draco and the rest. After pinning the bib on to my vest, I walked to the starting and the usual "kandang" (a k a enclosure). While I was there, I also saw the other usual suspects there- including a runner known as Gua Cinya Unfit who was quietly running into the enclosure!

The race started at 730am sharp and within minutes, many of the faster runners overtook me. I settled into a pace that was comfortably hard and soon I was running side-by-side with Chen (PM8).

At the only water station by the Jalan Duta roundabout, Chen upped his pace and soon, he was gone. Try as I could, I was unable to get near him. The runners slowed down considerably as we hit the incline but I felt pretty strong, overtaking a few runners in the process- must be the spinning/biking sessions that helped. Past the Indian Embassy, my legs lightened considerably as the road was on a slight decline before it eventually flattened out. I maintained my pace as 2 other runners overtook me before the left turn into Parliament/Lake Gardens, but I was also starting to really tire at the time so it was just a matter of survival. The incline towards Lake Gardens looked ominous because I was tiring, but I told myself to "just keep moving" and I negotiated it very quickly.

As I passed Lake Gardens, my heart felt like it was beating out of my rib cage but I had the finish line in sight and pushed on.

With the finish line another 100 meters away, I ran as hard as I could and outkicked a runner 50 meters from the finish, to complete the route in 49:01, a full 15 seconds faster than last year's time. So it looks like I'm getting faster as I get older! Jokes aside, I think that my hours on the stationary bike, coupled with some running (of less than 30k a week) helped.

Posed for a few photos, then queued up for drinks with PM5.

I spent the remainder of the week nursing my sore legs. Although I've cycled plenty, it seems that my legs have not become accustomed to hard running on the roads.

Anyway, I'm back in Singapore. I arrived at Novena Square around 5pm yesterday evening. As 80s pop group Soul 2 Soul sang, "Back to life, back to reality..."