Da Run!

2359hrs (15th) / 0000hrs (16th) - after watching Predator in the telly, i bathed and prepared myself to gather at school - for the bus that will be taking us to Penang.

Was asked by Wong to gather there at midnight sharp, but even as we all gathered there, he and his familiy was late - no surprises, as they live in Bandar Puteri Jaya. Got our "rations" from Pn Gwee - a can of 100Plus, and a Fairy hotdog bun. Grateful anyway, even with the cheesebun in my bag that my mom packed for me.

Our journey started at around.. at around.. oh crap i forgot the time, XD. Sometime between 0030 and 0100 anyways. Couldn't get a wink of sleep in the bus, as friends all over the bus were chattering here and there, occasionally giving a huge orchestra of laughter - mostly coming from the siaokia group at the back of the bus. Couldn't get a wink of sleep, yet i couldn't stay fully awake too. Stuck between unconciousness and conciousness - grogginess, that's sooo evil!

Reached Queensbay Mall (walked quite a long distance there from our bus) at around 0200hrs, only to find out that the starting point for us Quartermarathon runners is at the Pantai Jerejak beach.

Diagram 1:

(Click on diagram for larger picture)
Legend (Key): Red arrow - our initial direction
Green arrow - the correct route

Thanks to Pn Gwee (-.-), i was supposed to lead all of them to Pantai Jerejak to gather there. So i started walking and walking (refer to green arrow), while asking the voluntary guards for directional assistances occasionally. Actually i was abit inconfident: "What if im leading them the wrong way? I'll surely get scolded or whatever by those who're following me..". So i did the only rational thing - I asked them to wait there first, while i run up front to check whether we're on the right track.

Gosh, the distance between us and the jetty was around 1km! Confirmed that the jetty is our starting place, and i placed a call to Pn Gwee - asking her to "scoop up" all the remaining students at Queensbay Mall. What i DIDN'T expect is her asking me to make a detour back to lead her pula.. Damn.

*Fast-forward*

After all the preparations i made for the run - buns, water and contact lenses, i didn't bring any of them down from the bus. Obviously, i was sleepy, (the last sleep i had was the 4-hour sleep on 15/11/08..) thirsty, (blah..) and of course - an urge to pee, XD!

Guess what, there's actually a queue to use the toilet. Queued up with some of my friends, waited and waited.. Till our patience wavered. Tried to find some alternatives, and "ah!" -


Portable toilets!
Our saviour?
Our suffocator, more appriopriate.

*Fast-forward again*

.. Received the certificate given by the voluntary helpers, with Wong beside me. (We finished at the same time). Helped myself to a few cups of 100Plus, a cup of warm coffee, and i felt soo relieved after the long run, except the cramps that i keep getting when i sit down, argh! Damn my low blood pressure XD!

After gathering at Maybank as planned, we went to our next destination by bus - Carrefour (Pn Gwee's suggestion - no one dared to suggest otherwise).

Carrefour - Washed up, changed, and we went to the foodcourt for our lunch! Sad to say that the only few "stalls" that were open were - Hussein Nasi Kandar, McDonalds, Chicken Rice Shop, KFC, and a stall with a guy selling noodles on hotplates.

Considered, considered and considered, finally decided to have a Zinger Burger Combo Set. Costed RM8.60, and it wasnt worth it - points taken off for the preparation time. "Fast food"? A burger takes 15 minutes to be prepared?

"I could get a burger in less than a minute for RM1.90 by the roadside", so says Wong.

The rest of the day continued with us starting our journey home by bus again. Looked around and all i see is dozing passengers - friends that were worn out after the run, till -

"BAM!", came a bang from the bus.

Oh, damn.

***

Minutes later, the bus was stopped on the side of the highway, while the bus driver informed us that one of the tires was punctured. Cool, just our luck.

"Just wait for about an hour, phone your parents to come fetch you if you can't wait."

A few did that, while i was among those who waited in the bus, boredom filling every particle of the air there.

"Uhh, you guys have to walk a distance so that another bus could fetch you."

That came an hour later. So long to our expectations.

So i led the way again with the bus driver's assistant, walking along the highway (One thing that i never hoped to do), climbing up a steep slope, and we got out of the highway into Taman Kempas - a road called "Jalan Kemuning" or something, god knows what. Anyways, its just a straight road from Tai Tong school.

Waited there for like another thirty minutes again, till a blue "Bas Pekerja" came and picked us up. Got back to school soon, and i started my solitary walk from school to my house. Usually i would have phoned for my parents to pick me up, but the Penang Bridge Run sort of changed my perspective about the word "Far".

A fun experience - though the rewards are blisters on my feet;
A fun outing with friends - though they said i looked moody and sad;
A fun day - though with quite many unlucky times, but those unlucky times were fun too.

Farewell then, i'm sooooo worn out now. Needa sleep!

"I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends."
- Walt Whitman