The end of Ramadhan marks a new running chapter for me. After one month of good rest, it is time to get going again with higher hopes and bigger goals (Hint: another ultramarathon coming really soon!). Coincidently, 2016 has passed it’s second half and so it is also a good time to reflect on the progress of our New Year Resolutions ; How far are we from reaching our goals? Have we completed any New Year Resolutions yet? Have we even started working towards our goals yet?

2014 vs 2016. Same race, different venue, different distance

Time is of the essence. When you have limited time to work towards your goals, every mileage and work out counts. Not wanting to waste another moment, I signed up to run for 10KM in the TM Fan Run. Plus, signing up for an event in the midst of Eid celebration made me feel less guilty about enjoying the high calorie foods such as rendang and cookies.

Who says runners don’t celebrate Eid? This was our carbo-loading on the night before the run!

Lining up at the starting line, I realised how much I missed the smell of the morning air before dawn, the rays of light during sunrise, and the immediate jolt of caffeine and sugar in my system. I missed the cliché, annoying pop songs played while some random instructor did an aerobic warm up on stage, the buzzing crowd building up the excitement, the sight of your running crew and a few familiar faces. There was nothing quite like the feeling on race day!

As soon as the gun goes off, I took a deep breath, ready to give my best shot. The route was mildly easy with minimal elevation. Starting from Dataran Putrajaya, we passed by the usual landmarks if you have been running in Putrajaya regularly such as PICC and Persiaran Perdana Bridge, so there was not much excitement about the route. Overall, the 10K route was short of a few hundred meters but by my books, I ended up running my fastest 10K anyways by shaving 10 minutes of my previous personal best record.

So far, it looks like my running calender is off to a pretty good start. I’m feeling rather optimistic about the second half of 2016, with more races and work outs in the near future!

Until next week,

The Weekend Runner.