RUNNING WITH PASSION

The Road is Looong.... As I passed by the entrance to Nilai 3, I saw many runners from the 11K - school children category running down the slope under the archway. I joined them towards the Arab-Malaysian Industrial Park. This was where the bug nightmare started. I plodded on. Seen some very fast runners from the opposite direction. My my my! They had already completed the Bandar Bukit Mahkota round and I still got a long way to go. Then I saw a very familiar face – Yuan Yufang, our national long distance athlete running on the opposite direction! She was too fast for my camera. It took awhile before I saw the next female runners. Yufang is still the fastest long distance runner in Malaysia! The Women Open Category race belonged to her. I went on to battling bugs, fatigues, sun and slopes. I was quite relieved when I still have plenty of time to go upon reaching the checkpoint (4 km from the Finish line) after conquering a tough stretch of long hilly gradient at he Seri Mahkota housing area. I thanked the person who handed me the green string as I quickened my pace to overtake a few runners in the same category that I am. Bugs problem persisted. I persisted too. Then I reached the slope. The same slope that I ran down during the beginning of the race. This time, I had to do the opposite. Shudders! When the going got tough, the tough must get going, right? So, with the little energy that I had left, I dragged my feet up the slope. Bugs were still having a great time buzzing around the runners here. Pesky, pesky things!