The 10K race

I had the timing planned.

The race starts at 7:00am, and we were asked to be at the race venue by 6:20am.  I would leave around 5:30am, drive to MRT, take the train to reach City Hall in 20-30min.  Walking from City Hall to the race venue takes about 8min; could wait up to 30min to get my bag checked in.  Then a 800m walk to the starting point.  Should be timed just right.

Woke up at 5:15ish, but by 5:30am, not quite ready to leave yet.  Mental note to self: no need to worry, there is no reason for this day not to be perfect, many factors later will compensate any appearance tardiness at the moment.

A smooth drive to the MRT station as planned.  Got there 5:55am.  But the doors were closed.  I assumed the train runs 24hrs, guess I was wrong.  Looked at the time table: the first train on Sunday starts at 6:15am and won't reach the station till 6:37am, so can't wait here for the train.  Mental note to self: how interesting, let's what the Universe has planned for me ;-)

Got back into the car, decide to drive to as close to the race venue as possible, then walk over.  Not sure how to get there, since I haven't planned on driving at all.  Just put in GPS a location I thought was close and drove.  GPS took me through the winding streets in the city.  Finally the destination seemed to be in sight: I could see the Big Wheel.  Then a road closure (due to the race) forced me to take an exit that lead me to the speed way heading out of the city.  [mental note to self: an opportunity for worries and doubts -- let's not to use it ;-]  After looping around 1/2 the city, I was back on the same road I was on.  This time I decided to put the casino that's nearby the race venue as the destination -- I bet they won't close any road to the casino ;).  Half following the GPS, half my intuition, I ended up right next to the race venue.

Taking a turn instead of following the GPS to the casino, and hoping there is a parking place nearby, I found the parking garage right next to the race.  Well, it's so close there is no need to store the baggage, just left it in the car.

Saw a fellow runner walking out of the garage: "Are we late?" "No." she said.  Took the 800m walk to the starting point, still had about 10min before the race actually started.  Perfect! :-)

I think it's right before the race was about to start, I realized that in the hurry to get to the starting point, I probably forgot to lock the car.  Then I thought: an unlocked car does not automatically imply it will be robbed.  Is there any reason for some type of catalytic event to happen via the opportunity of an unlocked car?  I don't see any, so there is no need to worry -- if I indeed left it unlocked, nothing would come out of it.

Steady pace throughout the race, uneventful.  At 2km, I checked my watch.  I was running at 1km/7min pace.  If I can keep it up, I'd finish around 1:10, better than my last race time (and the personal best) of 1:16.  I wanted a better finish, and I saw no reason I shouldn't.  I decided not to check my watch again.

The alarm on my watch went off.  I knew it's set for 8:00am, which meant that I've been running for close to an hour, and that the finish must be close. :)  Shortly afterwards I saw the 8km mark.  When I saw the finish line (arch) -- there's about 50m left -- I broke out in a sprint.  Clicked my watch as I past the finish line.  The time?  1:11:01

The perfect finish to an perfect race -- why should I have expected anything different?

When I got back to the car, it was indeed unlocked -- and nothing happened because of it just as I expected.  :-)