Pride comes before a fall - and after it too.

I caught the first bus from our house to MacRitchie. Bus 165 pulled up at exactly 06:11 just like the schedule said it would. It was cold inside the bus especially being in running shorts and a sleeveless shirt. The windows were fogged up from the air condensing on the outside of the frigid windows.

I stepped off of the bus at MacRitchie, topped up my water bottle, hit the play button so I could hear Dave Matthews live playing in my head and hit the start button on my Garmin at 06:33. It is still dark at six-thirty in the morning. As I passed the trailhead the lights from the park at MacRitchie disappeared. I could still make out the trail but there was no definition to it. I had to run by feel being careful not to twist my ankle … again.

I was moving along well and at about a mile and a half in I saw a light ahead. Four locals were walking pretty fast uphill on the trail. I hit pause on the ipod and said “mornin” as Texas as I could make it sound. I got four very Singaporean sounding “morning”s in return. One guy said “well done” as I passed them on the hill. I said “thank you” and to be honest I felt kind of full of myself. “I am running well” I thought.

Then right as I topped the crest of the hill, still in sight of the four walkers, my foot caught a root and I went down hard. My knee and elbow were in pain as I found myself on my back staring at the trees and the stars beyond them. I didn’t give a rip if I was hurt or not. There was no way I was going to accept sympathy from the guy who told me I was running well. So I popped up and continued running as if nothing happened.

I told Andrea this story and she said “Pride comes before a fall huh?” I said “Yeah and apparently after one too.”

As I ran on I could feel more liquid on my elbow than the sweat I was producing and figured it was bleeding. As the sun came up I could see the blood and it was not too bad. When I got to the ranger station I washed the mud off of my hands but left the rest of the mud and blood there because it looked cool.

It started to rain as I continued on towards Rifle Range Road so it mostly washed off anyway. The rest of the run was uneventful as I finished down the Malaysian Railroad. I really like this run as it is mostly on trails.

Sunday morning’s run marked a turning point in my recent running. Running has been good but I have felt the effects of the Texas Marathon in one way or another since New Year’s Day. But on this run I started feeling strong again. Not fast but stronger than I have lately. The feeling of strength has continued into this week. Maybe it was the compliment.

As a side note - Jakeb and I are thinking about running the SBS Marathon in New Zealand again. We will be there for vacation anyway. They might cancel it due to the damage cause by the earthquake. An assessment will be made sometime in the future but knowing what little I know about Kiwis I think they will find a way to run it.