Running on Empty - Thursday the 7th of July, 2011

After my awesome run on Tuesday, I was pretty fired up to get back out on the trails. Unfortunately, my legs were still a bit fried (running in the heat really takes an extra toll), but I decided to run anyway, along my other post-work trail/road route.


I was a little late leaving work, so the sun was quite low in the sky even as I headed out along the roads towards the trail.


I spotted some caterpillars munching away on a shrub, so jumped a fence to take some snaps of them, only to find that my camera's battery gave out after only a few shots.

And that was it!

When I started the run, the battery showed yellow (1 of 3 bars remaining) and in the past, this has been more than enough to get me through a run. I was pretty disappointed not only by how quickly it dropped to red, and then to shutdown, but that there was no battery "bounce back". In the past, even with a depleted battery, I've been able to wait a while (say, an hour) and I'd have just enough charge for a couple more shots.

I was counting on it, in fact! After the battery died initally, before I even reached the trails, I thought that I'd just forego any photos till I was up high on the trail, and then at least be able to snap a couple of sunset photos... but no dice! The battery was well and truely dead.

As for myself, by the time I got down to Tiu Keng Leng, I was starting to feel pretty drained as well. As I approached Hang Hau, I was a little skeptical of my ability to maintain any decent speed even along the flats, until I reached the final hills, where I was sure I'd have to walk. Well... things there faired far better than with my camera, and two runners turned onto the bike trail I was following ahead of me. Nothing like just being able to ride someone's coat-tails to maintain speed (of course, when he realised that some big Western dude had been following him for a little while, he sped up, but that wasn't a problem, I'm a pretty expert coat-tail rider!).

At Hang Hau village I turned off towards the hills, starting the grind up the first hill I was pleasantly surprised how was my legs were taking it, and I continued up first hill, then the second one... Bounce back! Awesome! Being able to fully run the final two hills was an unexpected bonus. Perhaps my endurance is a little better than first appearances, but it sure was hard work!

Work hard in the heat, so you can work harder in the cold!
~ Joe