expiration date 

so, the day that aina has been waiting for, Cold Storage Kids Run 2012, has finally arrived… and it didn’t come easy.

she’s been wanting to go for a run-race type of thing since i finished my SCMS 10k race last december. since then, i’ve been keeping my eyes out for a kids run. and two months ago, aina got what she wanted. her Sportball class at school invited everyone to participate at Cold Storage Kids Run this year. of course we joined. and we’re doing it together, where aina and i both run for 800m on a non-competitive fun-run.

aina was very excited. she comes to run with me “to practice” once in a while. she learns how to stretch. and super duper happy to see her racepack. she was so excited because she can finally “run marathon for kids, like binggi”, she said.

well, i haven’t run a marathon yet, but whatever.

but then, two days before the D-day, aina fell sick. she got pretty bad stomach ache along with very high fever (around 39.5°C). she was devastated that her chances of going for a run got slimmer when i told her that if her fever doesn’t come down the day before the race, she probably won’t be able to go on the Kids Run.

she asked, “does Cold Storage Kids Run only happen in one day? is there another one the next day or the day after?”

i said it was only for 1 day… and she started to cry.

after that, she did everything to get healthy. she slept when i told her to. she ate as much as she could. food, fruits, milk… she spent most of her time in bed, even though i knew she was bored to death. and she prayed hard, wishing she’d be healthy on Sunday.

thank god the wish came true… she had no fever on the day of the race. i was heartbroken to see her trying so hard for this run.

so, it explains why she was all so smily on the day of the race.

she was very giddy at home that she kept repeating herself, over and over again, “Kids Run is today… hee hee. Kids Run is today, hee hee.” weird kid.

we got there a little late due to the MRT problem (that happens a lot lately, huh?). and the Padang was packed with kids and their proud parents. it was after 9am, so the sun was already out and it was HOT. aina had started drinking her water during the time we were in the holding pen.

and then, we’re finally on the starting line…

since she hadn’t entirely recovered from her illness, the run was a bit hard on her. she had to stop 5 times because her stomach started to hurt. i kept asking her if she wanted to walk to the finish line and told her that it’s okay to quit the run if it’s too painful for her. but she wanted to keep running. not sure if it was a side-stitch or the real thing, but the pain disappeared after we ran about 600m.

so, the last stretch of 200-300m, she finally could run continuously and smiled at the same time.

she was sooo happy and thirsty once she crossed the finish line, she just kept drinking even when the staff gave her the finisher medal…

we then met up with Aidan, who finished his run earlier today (1.6km race!), while waiting for Naia, another friend of aina’s, who was finishing her run after aina’s group.

then, the three of them got together, discussed their running experiences, compared medals, and then starting to run around again.

for more pictures of the run, check out the Kids Run 2012 photo album at Flickr.