It has been years since I've last joined a running event.

In fact, I don't think I ever had. The only ones that I've joined are usually those boring school walkathons which requires us to get on one's nerves with a donation card back in my secondary school years.

Well, that was walkathon. This time, it's different.





The Olympic Day Run is held every 23rd of June to commemorate the birth of modern Olympics.

I came to the event fully unaware of the distance that I'm supposed to run.

It is open to everyone and is divided into different categories.

In my category, which is for MEN with huge balls aged 49 years and below, I will have to cover 10km. Other categories are for men aged 50 and above, the special-needs, women and etc.





Before the run began, we have to register ourselves inside a hall next to the indoor stadium.

There, we were given our number and a free t-shirt!





However, the organisers didn't really do a good job in making sure each person gets ONE t-shirt only.





I knew a guy who actually queued up in 2 different categories and got 3 t-shirts in the end! How he managed to convince the organisers that he's 50 years old and above, I do not know.





This is the shirt. Good to learn that McDonald's has been involved with Olympics since the 1960s. I'm lovin' it. ;)

To be honest, I didn't take this run seriously and thought those who'd be joining are n00bs like me.





See those runners in orange singlets? Them's so cool they don't even need the free t-shirt.

The event is officiated by none other than His Royal Highness Prince Haji Sufri Bolkiah, the President of the Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council.





As always, there's always a warm-up session in events like this. And this one's no exception.





After the warm-up session, everyone moved on to the starting line, each category followed by another.

When it's my category's turn, I got myself positioned up front, which is the 2nd row to be exact, to ensure that I get a good start. As the buzzer went off, everyone started running.

Barely just after 200 metres or so, already I felt tired and started to wonder why did I even join this run in the first place. I could've been sleeping at home! As if my sucky job which requires me to stand for most of the day isn't tiring enough. Obviously, I can't keep up and subsequently slowed down. Next thing I know, a whole bunch of people overtook me! Wtf!

Damn, must've not stretched well enough during the warm-up and now I paid the price.





Alright, I wasn't surprised by that throng of people overtaking me actually and I bet neither are you. I have my reasons.

My only breakfast that day was a small cup of coffee. I've got with me my phone, my camera, my earphone and keys all in my pockets. Yes, all of 'em.

Besides, I was wearing a slightly heavier shoe (basketball shoe) that day to run. Oh, why did I???

So you see, everything went wrong right from the very start. Can't blame me for me slow and unstaminaful. *making up excuses*

Note to self: Gotta invest on good running gears when I'm rich.

I couldn't help but notice that whenever I overtook someone, that someone overtook me back. And when I try to overtake him again, he overtook me for the second time! So much for overtaking someone.





This is how being overtaken looks like.

Every few kilometres, there are people distributing bottles of water. I kinda hoped they'd supply us with 100Plus instead.

There's a problem though. There were no rubbish bins anywhere! So we're basically littering empty water bottles on Olympic Day.

While running, I saw a friend, Ahmad Faisal! We ran and chatted at the same time but I couldn't keep up with him so he got in front of me in no more than 5 minutes.

what was an Olympic Day slowly became a walkathon for me. I knew I had to resort to walking pace eventually, but I never thought of giving up.

Then, as I walked, I met 2 more of my friends! It's Hamid and Abang Hadri! Ironically, the three of us basically just walked from that point all the way to the finishing line. I felt kinda bad because I knew if I hadn't called Hamid, I guess he must've ran all the way to the finish, with Abang Hadri. But Hamid did admit he's too tired to run.

After an hour or so, we reached the brick red pavement of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium where the banner of the finishing line welcomed us.





There was a guy standing next to the finishing line and he was distributing certificates of participation to everyone crossing the line!

This is what I got.





Though some details, including my name, were left out of the certificate, I was glad to have it anyway.

10km may be nothing compared to a marathon but clearly, I under-estimated this 10km run. Because of this, I'm starting to respect people who have successfully completed a marathon race which could be more than 3, 4 or even 5 times the distance of this 10km I ran.

As a token for participating, I got treated a bowl of Kolo Mee by my uncle right after that.





Oh bugger. I must've gained back all the calories I burned during the run. :(
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:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 9:25 PM |

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