Army Half Marathon

On AHM
There is one every year, always featuring as its main attraction a 21-kilometer route in city and thereabouts. I ran the AHM (21k non-competitive) today for this year and also for the year before, even though it wasn't blogged about. They gave out medals straight away, as compared to last year when it was passed down many hands and conveniently disappeared.

I shall give some other comparisons between these 2 runs-
route: is more convoluted
small talk: more frequent
stirring shit across units: likewise
speed: slower
environmental pollution: worse
seeing people I know by accident: 4 (compared to 2 last year)

The formation clinched top place for non-competitive, and the host had heaps of fun doing this-
Host: This year's team champion title goes to... the Сοmmandοs!
Us: Wooooooo!
Host: Lololol this year's champion formation is... the Сοmmandοs!
Us: Wooooooo!
Host: Wow how they just cheer whenever we say that-
Host: When I passed out of BMT 20 years ago I was supposed to go to... the Сοmmandοs!
Us: Wooooooooooo!
Host: When you pass by Changi Village be sure to say hi to... the Сοmmandοs!
Us: Wooooooooooooo!

When that was finished everyone went home boarding the train at City Hall. I strolled in the other direction instead, towards Raffles Place station. The place was lazy, almost deathly quiet at 10am, though sprinkled lightly with slackers and tourists. I saw a raven for the first time, close up, at Cavenagh bridge. It's a beautiful creature, large and black all over, even to its beak, and stirred up thoughts about stuff like death and ruin. It wasn't doing anything much apart from frightening the pedestrians, so I shooed it away.

People are complaining about not being able to feel their own legs. I thank God that I still can; and it still feels the way after Zhongshan kicked it in Friday's sparring session.

On trains and being alone
I got home on trains alone on the preceding Monday, Friday and Sunday. In 1 such case I sought to eject my seat from the crowd of old and no longer familiar acquaintances, when hanging around just becomes deadly uncomfortable. In the second case it was by chance, and nothing was wrong. In the third case I merely wanted to chill, to cool off from human contact, and got to do just that.

Whatever the reason, I have fallen out of favour with the crowd again, whether I knew the people or not. The crowd always looked the other way, and I could never camouflague myself into one of them. Never mind, I can always run. The world is never short of closed shopfronts, temporarily closed roads, unholy hours, quiet suburbs, ghost towns and wilderness. These are places perfect for being alone in; where the heat sizzles off. Damn this, socialising is some tough shite. I've said that from my heart. Whoever still reads my blog, I'm sorry, swallow it.