adidas KOTR (Koyak On The Road)

Like the title says, today's run was a disaster. After the high of the past two weeks' races, this was a downer. It had to happen, really.

The day started well enough, there was the gathering of the usual triathlete gang: Senn, Adrian, Jaja, Fadzil, Adleine, Patrick (who didn't run but was there to support Jason), Jason, Bernard, Gunter and a few others. At 6:45am, we were off. My pace started off well for the first 10k, looking like i might actually go below my set target of 2h15m.

Then it happened.

Pain. On my left foot. At the arch.

It was like walking barefoot on those reflexology pebble thingies. Every step I took, was like landing on those pebbles on my arch. Ouch.

I tried to run through the pain, telling myself the pain didn't exist. But with 8km to go, I couldn't fool myself any longer. so it became a walk for a bit, then run for a lot less.

Finally, at 4km to go, I saw the ambulance. Asked if they had anything for swelling but they gave me the same ointment they give for muscle tightness. Didn't help. And by then my left foot was throbbing. So I took off my shoes and limped all the way back to the finish line. Barefoot (Makes me wonder how people like Ngae run barefoot).

At 1km to go, Bernard caught up with me. He had problems with his knee and kinda gave up at 7km. So the two of us walked the last km across the finish line. It was the first time in my life that I WALKED across a finish line.

Total time: 2h45m, half an hour after my target. No medal, no hoo ha. Just a quiet finish.

Now as I sit here typing this, my foot is elevated and I've got an icepack on it. No more running for the next couple of weeks, might not even do the Desaru run, just swim, bike and call it a day.

Speaking of swimming, I went in the evening and that salvaged my day for me. did a total of 2.1k with a time of 50m05s. At least the swim bit is looking good for Desaru