36:53

Not a great time for 5k, but I never walked, even during the hilly bits. Yay!

Now that I’m home, a report. It started raining the moment I made my way to the shuttle bus that would take us to Tanjong Beach on Sentosa, where the run was starting and ending. By the time one of many buses dropped participants near the beach, people were seeking shelter where they could. I was quite concerned about my phone, but I was wearing a top that could protect it somewhat.

I was in the middle of the five kilometre group, which meant a very, very slow start. I found myself running sideways and diagonally frequently during the first 10-15 minutes of the run. Then most of us who were running managed to break free of the tangle of walking bodies, and it was good going from then on, pretty much. I knew it was going to be a hilly route, and I was determined to run the entire course, so I made sure to take care whenever I was heading uphill or down.

The rain was actually rather wonderful; it kept the air cool, so I didn’t sweat much. I wolfed down a banana immediately after, and I even got a small towel (yay, I’m so cheapskate). The serious look I have on my face in the photo is due to the fact that I couldn’t work out how to save pictures from my cameraphone to my microSD card — it only seems to work by saving directly to the phone’s internal memory.

Running (well, jogging) five kilometres wasn’t a problem — which led me to think that I should’ve signed up for the nine.

• 17 Sep 2006