expiration date 

ever since i saw photos of Yustin and Gamma running trail in and around Jakarta and Bandung, i’ve been thinking of trying trail running too. but i didn’t get a chance to do it… until today.

i joined three guys — Adi, Phin Phin and Andre — to do an 11km loop on Macritchie Reservoir. it was my first time visiting the Macritchie Nature Trail. and poor boys, they had to wait for my slow-ass self in every intersection to make sure i didn’t get lost. thank you guys!

i wasn’t feeling well today (i’ve been having a runny nose, sore throat, and slight fever lately), but i didn’t want to miss the chance of trying the first trail run. at the beginning, i thought i should just do 5km run. not knowing the path, i figured, when i get tired, i just turn around and walk back to the starting point. well… it didn’t work that way.

at the beginning, everything was fine. we took the clockwise route of 11km. the view was pretty, the legs still move okay… we passed interesting trails, some were slippery and narrow, some were wide and dry. all were fun.

but then, i started to get dizzy and felt super exhausted around 4.5km. then i decided that i wanted to go back on the 5km mark. this means, we were right on the half-way point of the trail… and it was located at the far end of the lake. there was no way to turn back…

honestly, at that point, i felt stupid for following the guys. i thought, i shouldn’t have tried a new type of run when i’m not feeling fit. i felt like i was being a burden to those guys, because they had to wait for me, who’s being super slow and walked a lot.

after getting a drink at the Ranger Station, which marked the half-way point, Adi told me that from now on, the path would be wide and going downhill. i felt better and was quite encouraged. and it was true. from then on, the path was quite easy. the hills wasn’t so bad and most of them were downhill. i was (almost) able to run all the way. slow… but quite steady.

it took me almost 2 hours to do the loop. and by this time, i felt better… the headache was gone, no more dizziness, and my runny nose was gone. so, even though i went reaaaaly slow, the run actually made me feel better at the end.

and what did aina and ari do while waiting for me to finish my loop? they flew a kite!

it was fun, until aina fell down and scraped her elbow and knee during one of her runs… oops.