Run for the kids 2007

Well, yesterday was April fool… and it was also the long anticipated Run for the Kids 2007 charity run. As mentioned in the previous post, I had been sick for the week and that severely disrupt my preparation and no doubt my physical condition on that day itself was equally affected.

Anyway, the amount of participants for the run is simply tremendous. more than 26 000 participants ran on that day and as reported in Herald Sun, more than half a million dollars was raised for the Good Friday Appeal for Royal Melbourne Children Hospital. That’s simply amazing…

Ok, about the run on that day… well, since most roads were closed for the charity run, tram services were disrupted as well. So, 8 of us (Boon Phiaw, Thow Kong, Boon Hon, Yong Chin, Freda, Chang Yang, Xuan Ni and myself) walked from Melbourne University to the starting line somewhere around Alexander Garden. And, that’s like already a couple of kilometres of warm up, ha! Though there were already heaps of people at the site, we somehow managed to get settled and met up with Sze Mei and Ee Syn, another two members in the team (there are 10 members in our PSD team; hehe, PSD is short for Public Service Department ie JPA )… By the way, we registered as Red Zone participants (Blue Zone for elite runners, Yellow Zone for regular jogger and Red Zone for other leisure jogger, hehe). So, at approximately 9am, off we started… everyone was squeezing through the massive crowd, trying to push to the front line and do their best to finish the run in their best possible time.

I started jogging all on my own at my own pace from the very beginning. Then as we ran through the tunnel, I overtook Chang Yang and Xuan Ni. After that, I found a pace setter, a middle aged man, whom I think is fit. So, having him right in front of me, I just tried my best to catch up with him and followed him closely so as not to let myself to lag behind… I managed to keep pace with him till approximately6-7km mark, when I sort of felt a little dizzy and decided to walk. Hmh… pretty impressed by myself for managing to run continuously for 6-7km, even though I am still not feeling very well. Yea, so after that I started walking, which I think is somewhere towards Bolte Bridge. Then, Boon Hon started to catch up with me on the bridge, followed by Thow Kong and Yong Chin. Not wanted to be left behind, I started jogging with them at their pace. Soon, Boon Hon started to leave us behind, followed by Thow Kong and eventually, I left Yong Chin. Hehe, somehow managed to catch up with Thow Kong near the finish line and overtook him:P

Yea, so I managed to finish the run in approximately 1 hour 40 minutes, 4th fastest in out team… Will have to wait for the official time to be published on Herald Sun tomorrow. I think it has been very good, for I targeted for 2 hour to complete the 15.2km after falling sick for the week. and hehe, sick owl still managed to beat other 6 members in the team:P By the way, Boon Phiaw and Ee Syn got off to a great start from the beginning and I could hardly see them anywhere near me throughout the run. Both of them finished within approximately 1 hour 20 minutes. Hehe, whereas Freda and Sze Mei were way way behind from the very beginning and the last 2 in the team to complete the race:P

(PSD team: clockwise from top left: Boon Hon, Thow Kong, Yong Chin, Freda, Sze Mei, Xuan Ni, Ee Syn, Boon Phiaw, Chang Yang and owl)

After the race, we received goodies bag with drinks and some lollies as well as a cap. Right after the race, 10 of us had lunch together at Red Silk restaurant and headed home after a tiring yet meaningful day!

Looking forward to some other long distance run or half marathon events in near future. And most importantly, make sure I don’t fall sick before the run! surely got to beat that fat Phiaw, or else he will be so big headed..:P

p/s: I reckon more well written posts about the run will be found at Boon Phiaw’s and Chang Yang’s (1, 1.5 etc)blog as well….