Have to hang on

Bending down and rolling up the eyeballs and look beyond the upper tip of the glasses, i can only see a mist straight in front. Look straight from the spec, it was more foggy(due to the body heat) as i cycle past the coolest part of town. Along Neo Teow heading to Lim Chu Kang Cemetery. It was 5am+ whereby most are still asleep, this strange cyclist is cycling in the cool, misty and cow dung filled airspace. Not that he is out of his mind, he just have to do it.

It was 3:30am when the alarm went home. Again my sleep was interrupted. It is part and parcel of life, i am glad that i get to experience this. Before i head out of home, i head into room for the last time to pick up the car keys etc, Enver has lift up his head and look straight at me. Sigh, how i ever have the heart to leave him to his mom, where his eyes are calling for someone to attend to his needs at that moment? I felt bad. I told him, i need to get stronger to take care of him.

I believe that when you are healthy, nothing will goes wrong. When you have medical issue, first you have that ONE issue and subsequently more issues will develop over time as we aged. Medically those "medical check up" are like "traffic lights". It is for information only. Even it is green light, nobody can guarantee that nobody will beat the lights and you have to take everything with a pinch of salt and move along with caution.

I reached MR carpark at 4:20am. Ray was there slightly before me. We get our gears ready. KK dropped by to say Hi. He is doing his solo(BSKL) ride towards changi today. Hopefully his longest ride as he prepare for Busselton event.

We left MR around 4:37am. The 2 road bikes speed away. Nope, i am too slow this morning! Sigh.

I let them go and cycle on my own pace. There is one thing i learn is that it is about myself. No point following other pace and ended up struggling way before the end! A bit disappointed, but still able to bear with it, remind myself i struggle the last part of the "short 23km" yesterday. So take it positivity and move forward and see how it fare later. The most cut short the distance if necessary. Though speed is slow, but based on HR i am doing fine.

It seems rather strange with the speedometer distance indication early on, so i have to reset it along upper thomson(around Thomson Plaza). Guess i lost a short 2km of data.

It just me on the road as i slowly move according to the plan. As i move forward, i felt much better compare to the initial few km. I expect Ray to be in front and we should be able to meet up as we make our u-turn loop. Strange i didn't manage to meet up, most probably mean either he is riding slower than normal or took a short cut somewhere!

Almost 2 hours, i am back at Kranji toilet, about 40km mark + mark. Took a quick break and off i head towards Mandai for the loop.

Along Mandai area, there are quite a few bikers that overtaken me. What surprise is one rider on roadie without helmet! Just a jokey cap...and a pack of Salam on the back pouch(bike tee). Quite interesting. The group cycle in mass and go at effortless pace. I was thinking maybe i try to stick to the group and draft them! On the downslope, i was going at 40km/hr and they are just going further and further away! Sigh. I am that slow.

On the back stretch on Duneran road, HR get a bit higher and pace also pick up. Hmm...I expect the flat road to have faster pace, but the higher HR. Hmm...is it because i am getting tired? Maybe so...i don't remember this happen before on the bike.

Finally i reached MR - 3:39hr(bike time) and 82km based on the speedometer. Distance should be slightly longer due to the reset early on. Time checked 8:30am(almost 4 hours actual time).

Ray came back slightly above 8:50am. We rest for a while before we start our scheduled 10.5km run at 9:15am.

As expected we hopped like rabbit abit during the early session. I was going slow and conservatively. Ray just shoot forward early on and once we hit inside the trail, he stopped and start massaging. He has crammed. :(

Stop and check with him and proceed forward on my own as he try to soothe the ache and meet up again at Ranger station.

It was a slow moving, putting one foot in front and try to run non-stop till the opening of the trail. Which i managed! Time checked 25:27mins. I think that is decent timing despite the perceive slow effort.

Manage to reach Ranger station 31:03min feeling in good shape. Take a break and waited for Ray to catch up 5mins later. Cool. I was expected a long wait! :)

The watch is off as i run, walk and chit chat with ray on the return route.

We reached the end(finally) at 1:38hr. It was an easy run at the end.

Thanks for the accompany this morning my friend.

Time to hang on and work towards the objective.