it's within: Akira Swift Cross Country 2017

It's great to be running with the NTU lads yet again.

We all raced this morning. For most, it was the IHG Road Relay. For me, it was the Tembusu Vertical Marathon.

Representation.

Credit to Syed Taha Aljunied.

Flag-off was prompt at 4pm. It was a pretty small field. Yurong, Sunil and I probably lost track of the number of participants that overtook us. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say about 85% of the field. However, with the plan of running a conservative first portion, Yurong and I were certain we'd catch quite a number.

Credit to Syed Taha Aljunied.

The route took us along the pavement. Seemed like my Salomon's weren't required after all (I had expected much more trail). A few hundred in, we started catching people one by one. I could feel the residual soreness from my AM race. It wasn't helping that my eyes were getting rather dry, having worn my contacts since early that morning. However, I knew this conservative approach meant that we would get faster (and faster...hopefully).

The climb began around 2km in. First came the gradual, manageable hill. Then the steeper one. I slowed considerably (and deliberately). Yurong started to pull ahead a little, before we mounted the hill and I slowly drew a little closer. Nonetheless, there was a bit of a gap. I was confident of his pacing and focused on sticking with him.

At the bottom of the hill, we finally hit the trail portion of this cross country race. Bedok Reservoir isn't the nicest of trails to run as the terrain is somewhat sandy. A greater degree of friction would have been desirable. It was time for some catching as we gradually passed other runners.

All this while Yurong had a decent gap over me of perhaps 3-5 seconds. Though I wasn't comfortable, I wasn't particularly willing to dig deep. I was content to treat this race as a workout (which meant nothing too hard). However, as I gradually started to see the Finish across the water, I attempted to marginally pick up my pace. I could also see Chun Hong further away in the distance.

At the rate I was going, it crossed my mind that I could catch Yurong.

Until he picked up the pace as well in the last 100m or so. And then I got lazy.

It was all smiles at the Finish. No expectations, no pressure, just sheer enjoyment at racing with the team.