Army Half Marathon

I have never fucked somebody for 4 hours continuously before. But if I did, what I feel like at the end of it would be something akin to finishing the 12km run at the Army half marathon today.

I'm not talking about the post coital high and the cigarette. I'm talking about the girl telling you to stub out that damn cigarette and having another go again and again and again until you are fucking sian. (Or are sian fucking.)

But at least I completed it. Which is OK.

Lost Shingo and sniper early on. Walked 1 side to warm up. (I started without stretching my muscles! Would have been a big mistake.) Didn't see them thereafter. Bumped into my boss blinky, who was there probably with his church buddies. I think he had noticed me first so I said hi to him. Exchanged a few words, and then tried to speed up so that I wouldn't have to keep talking. (ie firstly I didn't want to talk to him, and secondly I am not that fit that I can run 12k and talk all the way.) Then 5 mins later I felt some chest pain and I had to slow down, and almost immediately he came up behind me and asked if I was alright. I said, yeah I'm fine. Damn! I didn't manage to outrun him and he was on my ass all this time! I'm wondering if I should feel more embarrassed that I didn't succeed in getting away from him, or that I couldn't outrun some 40 year old.

Oh, about my chest pains, it's probably nothing much, my heart not fully awake yet. It went away after a bit of walking. But I'm not used to running in the morning. And I read somewhere that it's very strenuous on the cardiovascular system: from sleeping to waking to pounding the pavement 1 hour straight - no good. That's why when we got to the end the ambulances were pretty damn busy.

Bumped into sniper again when I walked out from Kallang McDonald's after taking a leak there.

Anyway they were asking me why I didn't run with an iPod. First I don't have an iPod. Second I don't need one. I am an iPod. I have memorised around 1000 songs and I can summon them into my head at will - guitar parts, bass parts, everything.

Anyway here's a tracklist for running music:

1. Teenage Riot - Sonic Youth
My all time favourite 2.4km run song. They wrote this when they were 30, so it's still good for me.
2. Behind Blue Eyes - the Who
Sniper mentioned CPR to me and the phrase "put your fingers down my throat" came to mind.
3. Sing a Simple Song - Sly + the Family Stone
4. Family Affair - Sly + the Family Stone
5. Thank You - Sly + the Family Stone
6. Endangered Species - Parliament
7. Surf's Up - Brian Wilson

Anyway I'm targeting the half marathon at the end of this year, which means I might have to do this 12km thing on a regular basis pretty damn soon. I'm running a 9km stretch every week, so it's OK. Then I signed up for the Real Run, which is 15km, and I think maybe I'll try to finish the half marathon running all the way (but I can stop for chest pains, that's fine. It's OK because I want to finish the race alive.)

Ran past a few casualties, and we see them as par for the course. If so many people take part, then it's inevitable that you'd have some who can't take the heat. Unfortunately somebody died, even before we started. There was this guy who did the half marathon in like a hour flat, and collapsed and died thereafter, even before it was time for us noncompetitive runners to begin. Well we've been inured to this. Anybody who's been through NS would hear stories about people exercising too hard and collapsing and dying. It happens on a fairly regular basis. i only heard about it later on. I'm not surprised because the field hospital at the finishing line was fairly crowded.