2007 HBF Perth City to Surf

Last Thursday, Danny and I went to Perth Convention Exhibition Centre to collect our 2007 HBF Perth City to Surf racepack. We had signed up for the 12km walk category.

More than 15 counters...

This is our final year in uni (HOPEFULLY) and we thought this is the best chance to do something outside uni.

My race tag.

Transponder.

The race pack contains one race tag and one transponder. The transponder is for timing purpose during the race. No more using stop watch!

After getting the race pack, I fell quite sick the next day. Flu and sorethroat to be exact. I slept and had all sort of medicine to get well in the shortest time.

Last night, I was feeling better and decided to go for the run. However, the weather was quite bad with strong wind and rain.

Sunday morning, I was welcome by the strong wind and rain again. I was thinking twice before I decided to give it a go.

Starting line.

The race was scheduled to start at 8:15a.m. at St. Georges Terrace. When Danny and I reached there about 7:30a.m., the street was already packed like sardine.

Count how many people are there.

Most of the people were wearing disposable raincoat. Some were so creative that they use bin bag to create their own.

Participant 25522, wearing a jacket with two t-shirts inside.

Our race then started shortly. It was so difficult to walk/run with thousands of people. Since Danny and I aimed for below 2 hours, we ran here and there, trying to overtake some of the people in front.

I was quite slow today compared to the other day when I trained. My sickness as well as the bad weather were the factors which slowed my pace down.

I won't give up!

I asked Danny to go without me. I ran and walked and ran and walked. That's what I did for the entire race. At some point, I felt like giving up but after giving a second thought, I pushed myself forward.

While walking/running, people at the side of the road were cheering for us. Some of the participants even encouraged each other by giving high five. Now, tell me, how could I stop half way?

After running and panting along the race, I finally reached the finishing line at City Beach Oval. People were shouting "well done" and I am glad I had gone this far.

Kok with his commemorative medallion.

Danny with his commemorative medallion.

I met Danny in the oval later. I didn't expect to meet him since there were lots of people there. He finished the race about 10 minutes earlier than me. That's mean I was not that slow eh? Hehe.

It was still quite windy at that time. I suggested to take the bus provided back to the city straight after that. Danny agreed since we were still sick. Yes, Danny is sick too!

A commemorative medallion to be proud of.

Anyway, I am quite proud of myself. I challenged myself to participate in this marathon although I'm not a long distance runner. My Baba is better than me in this but he hasn't even participate in any marathon before. I think I can show off to him this time. :P

Although it's merely a 12km run, it's a great achievement for me after considering the worst case in a marathon; sick, bad weather and least training. Well done to all who participated in this charity marathon! :)

P/s: It's quite amazing that I felt much more better after the run.
P/s/s: I'll start to bloghop soon after I am fully recovered. :)