My whole lower half of the body has been aching since yesterday.

1 yr 5 days after my 1st full marathon in my life, I took part in this shit again. And this is my 3rd marathon.

3 times I ran, 3 times i get the same shit feeling. A viscious cycle. That is to feel freaking shitty in the middle of the marathon, cursing and swearing deep inside your heart why the hell were you there and what the freak were you thinking when you agreed to participate. Then at the end of it when you feel shiok, you dun feel shitty anymore, and somehow you get tempted to join the whole shit all over again the next time. And when the new shit comes again, you start cursing and swearing one more time. The whole cycle repeats from there.

But it was good. I had a good workout, and it was fun running with many many people. And I really mean tonnes of them. I remember last yr i commented that no matter how much you overtake, or how much you slow down, you won't be the first or last. There's just too many pple.

Din go for timing for this marathon because firstly, I did not train (very lazy and unmotivated)  and secondly, i thought my timing last yr was good enought (5h30m02s)

I suddenly have an urge to participate in next yr's marathon again. This freaking proves paragraph 3 is correct. I have an urge to participate because I want to get sub 5hrs for my next run. This year i clocked a pathetic 6h22m50s.

I saw some pple wearing their nus/ntu hall singlets.... And I thought that even if I promise that this is gonna be the last time, I guess I will be "peer-pressured" to sign up again next time when I get into hall.

But these 2 yrs of army training has taught me something. I get used to achieving longer, bigger aims by focusing on the shorter aims in the process. And in yesterday's marathon, I had to apply it. Focus to reach 10km, then 20, 21, 30, 32, 36, 40, and finally 42.195km. If you start thinking of how far you are from 42.195km when you're at 10km, you will feel damn demoralised.

Anyway, the logistics support was good! And the route and weather were all great as well. I started off worried about my knees. Bought glucosamine a week earlier and have been taking them everyday hoping that my kneecaps can survive through the long distance. Well, it did. But around the first 10km, I felt a bit of knee pain. Luckily, I could change the way I run to minimize the friction in the joints.

Also, I had a bit of diarrhea and I din want to use their toilet because it would be used many times over and over again (yucks). And to make things worse, I felt hungry, and so I ate 2 bananas they gave along the way. Imagine how those bananas worsened the diarrhea. Luckily, it died down along the way. Haha, anyway, I ate 4 bananas throughout the marathon. Lol. The last 2 came after 30km.

I also suffered from headache and that sucks as welll, but it was minor, so not much of an issue. Haha, kept seeing the same people along the way. Can recognise who is around my pace de...

Anyway, I was running along with my buddy until around 20km, then I asked my buddy to go first as I was slowing him down due to my knees. It's his first time, and usually the first-timers will go for timing. Yup, and my mp3 player became my partner from there on.

The power gels came at around 22km, and I took 3. Ate 1 right there, and preserved the remaining 2 for 30km point and 36km point. Reason is that the 30km point is my next personal checkpoint and so that power gel can be used as my reward. And from 30km to end point, there is 12km left. Divide it into 2, and you get 36km as your following checkpoint. Ate 1 powergel at 30km, but not at the 36km la, cos after 30km, the bananas came....... Haha.

This is the photo i like best. The rest look damn c**k.

Towards the end, the cramp came again....

Yeah, you can see the cramp....

My buddy says I look tulan.... Lol.

Ah... I was running in all the photos. Not bad...

I dunno if I was walking or jogging.... but it should be a super slow jog.

Wow, the photographer managed to catch me looking up at the timer!

Yup, as shown in the photographer, my legs were whitish. Those are actually deep-heat rub. If they did not flake off everytime I rub a new layer, the large amount of deep heat I zam on my legs would actually be thicker than my skin!

Anyway, each of those photographs are expensive. They have different packages. The simplest and cheapest one is a 12X17 photograph which costs $16.95. A digital super pack with all my 7 photos in all formats in a CD costs $85. Wow, that is ex.

Anyway, all other people I know have only between 1-4 photos taken of them... and I have 7!!! Haha, quite happy, but sad thing for them is that I am not buying any. I guess last year I looked poorer to them cos I only had 2 =D