The 'Ammah' Curse

The Kinrara Newton race route or better known to the locals as the 'Ammah Hill' route has always had it in for me. Since day one, that route has been my Achilles heel. I've never conquered or even done a semblance of good on that route. Even my latest attempt at yesterday's 30k LSD ended with 'Ammah' getting the better of me.

Picture credit goes to Yim

The first time the wife and me ran that route last year (or was it two years back?) to get a feel for it, just before the Newton 25K race, she totally smoked me and I ended up having to walk back in horrible pain with a major stomach ache for close to 6km looking for a petrol station that was nowhere in sight. Trust me, walking in pain, clenching your butt and trying to hold it all in and not soil your shorts is not a very nice feeling nor experience.

My second attempt was during the race proper. I was running along nicely and then disaster struck in the form of a muscle pull in my thigh. Again I had to hobble in pain for close to 8km to the finish line. Not to be deterred, I signed up again for the race the following year and once again, I completely failed to get the better of it, this time getting hit with an ankle injury halfway through.

I swore I would never attempt the route again. But heck, promises are meant to be broken :D When the GCAM group planned to take on 'Ammah' during the first day of Raya, I happily joined in. After all, I'm in much better condition than I was the last few times I ran the route. All I had to do was just keep a nice easy pace and things would be fine.

I guess 'Ammah' had other plans for me yesterday morning. The weather was lovely for the run which started at 5am and we got off to a nice easy start pace. The legs were fine and warming up nicely. I even managed to keep pace with Jamie and Super Kew without too much problems. I was totally enjoying the run, easy on the flats and harder on the inclines. Even the tiny setback of  the petrol station being closed at our scheduled water stop didn't faze my enthusiasm.

This was it, this was finally the day I showed 'Ammah' who the boss was. Off we headed for the next water stop, a 7-11 just a kilometer away. Just about 50 metres from the 7-11 store, I stub my left toe on god knows what and almost ended up kissing the brick pavement but my spider-man like (hahaha!) agility saved me from disaster. Unfortunately, the force of the hit on my toe was so bad that the toe started swelling up almost instantly.

After a quick drink at the 7-11, we headed off to continue with the run and I was hoping the toe swelling wouldn't be too much of a problem. But no suck luck, a kilometer into the run, the pain was getting uncomfortable and I decided to drop out. Told the guys I was heading back to the car which was a long ways off and slowly but painfully ran/walked all the way back to the meet point but not before having to detour to a nearby (thank god) petrol station to take care of another bad stomach ache attack.

I tell you there and then I swore that I could hear 'Ammah' laughing her head off hysterically for getting the better of me in the end. Though I didn't get the required 30K, I still managed to get a decent 25k in the bag. At least that's some small consolation.

But mark my words 'Ammah', I'll come back again one fine day and this time I'll have the last laugh!