Running with Nomi...

Joy here...if you read Nomi's post below, you'll get a clear sense for just how hard it can sometimes be to balance all the things in life there are to balance.  And I agree with Nomi:  sometimes when you're busier you actually end up getting more things done, even though that seems to be counter-intuitive.

For me, I seem always to feel like I'm fighting against the weight of inertia, always planning to get much more done than I actually do.

However, today was a bit of a triumph.  It's a public holiday here in Malaysia, so Nomi didn't know if she'd be able to run or not, or if she'd have kids to care for (her own and two of her nieces).  But it turned out that I got a call from her just before 7am, and she was game for a run.  So I laced up my shoes, and out the door we went!

There's this area not too far away from where Nomi & I are located where there's a loop that's around 3kms.  It's pretty safe and pretty tropical.  It's one of my favourite spots in the city, because it's really quite beautiful.

So I slathered on the sun screen and the bug repellant, and headed out with Nomi to run loops around this area.

Part way through the 3km loop there's a bit of an incline, which is super fun to run down, but not super fun to run up.  However, since the 1/2 marathon in Singapore (which is - gasp! - only 11 days away) is pretty flat, we figured that working in a few hills wouldn't kill us.

And...guess what?

They didn't!

However, if the hills didn't kill us, there was a good chance that some of the monkeys out there just might.  You see, in Canada people are used to raccoons, skunks, and squirrels everywhere, but in Malaysia there's a good chance that the critter who is going to dig in your garbage is a cheeky garbage monkey!  And let me tell you, they were out in force this morning.

It was like running the gauntlet to avoid these little suckers, because you just never know what might set one off and inspire it to bite you.  And, well, I've seen the movie Outbreak; I know what kind of trouble a monkey bite can cause.  I have a healthy dose of fear!

But heat, hills, and monkeys aside, we successfully ran our three loops, huffing and puffing along the way, and I can now say that I think I'm over my jet lag, and I might even be getting acclimatized.  Heck...I might even survive this upcoming 1/2 marathon afterall!

Here are our run stats for today:

Ran for a total of 59:29:01 for a distance of 9.7kms with an average pace of 6:02min/km.

Over and out,

Joy