"Heavy Transport Vehicle"...

By Frank

I guess there is nothing to hide now since most have found out that I will be running long this weekend. Darn... should have worn a cap (or maybe a coconut shell) while collecting my race pack the last Saturday so nobody recognise me. :p

Well... I was not suppose to run this event and instead was actually interested to run the The North Face Thailand 50KM. However, the idea was called off as I can't find friends to go along with. And when a friend told me that she will be running long this weekend, I told myself that I will support her as she is currently injured. And so the idea came, to run as a support role since the event did not allowed support or pacers. With the registration closed, I had no choice but to contact the event director directly and was glad that they opened a few slots. And so on the 3 January 2014, I am officially registered in the event.

My Comrades training had to be modified a little to accommodate this event in and that was one of the reason that I actually trained very well in January, well at least to my standard. And currently in February, the whole training went up by another level as I felt I improved so much since a quarter year ago. However, too early to tell yet so let's not get over confident. Anyway, this event will be part of my training too and hence, I've gotten myself a spanking new pair of Saucony Kinvara 4 to be worn as it will be my shoe of choice come the big day in June 2014.

A new pair of Kinvara 4 in red overlooking the first yellow pair in the background.

Training for this weekend, I spent a pretty huge amount of time on my feet. Pace was reasonably slow as I need to get use to spending long hours on them during the event to go along with my friend's pace. As my role is more like a "heavy transport vehicle" rather than an "assault tank", I will be carrying a pretty heavy load with me too.

You will get the meaning of this picture if you watch Mask during the good old days and also know my nick.

So yeah. Running is no longer a personal thing for me. It's more than myself now and hence the charity and fund raiser I do nowadays together with the runs I do. And now, a role where the camaraderie is something yet more important compared to the achievement of crossing the finish line. And the longer the distance, the stronger the bond.