Dawn shed light upon the dew-laden flora of MacRitchie Resevoir as Don arrived minutes before seven. Already there were plenty of Andersonians roaming the area, with alot of them in the nearby washrooms. Were they perking themselves up with a face-wash, or were they dolling up for the run?

Either way, they're going to sweat.

Don turned around as he heard a familiar voice, "Hey, did you see anyone else? Don't tell me 4/1 all late!"

"Don't worry la, Mei Gui. Why you so early? Am I the second?"

"Noo... I think I saw Arthur. He's on duty, ma."

"Orhh..." Don trailed off as he checked his watch again. Quarter past seven.

"Ehh, they're quite late le leh... Wonder where they are?" Don asked before he spotted Chun Ying and the rest.

"Lai le, la."

* * * * *

After a series of stretches and long speeches from our 'guest-of-honour', Mrs Koh Fui Chen, standard by standard trudged to the starting point of their 4.8km run. It was not until the rays of the morning sun hit their faces did the Secondary 4s start to actually warm up for the would-be run.

The girls would have to tackle a 3.6km run, taking a detour while the boys run further into the man-made 'forest' surrounding the resevoir before meeting up with the girls.

A burst of sound emaniated from the horn, sending a student hoarde into the forest.

Like town invasion, sia.

"Chiong arh!" Don heard Cheng yell.

And so, everyone 'chiong-ed'.

A splendid sight, spoilt with a certain young Don trailing behind all of them with a brisk walk.

He'll overtake them later.

* * * * *

The run proceeded as followed- Everyone who could run was running. The fastest had probably finished the race before Don even reached the midpoint.

After around forty-five minutes and dozens of people later, Don finally walked past the finishing line and straight to First Aid tent with the intention of nursing nature's gift to him- a laceration from a thorned plant.

The following conversation was the gist of it:-

"How did you end up with this?"

"Beats me. I was just running... and something just grabbed me."

* * * * *

Alas, all pain from these minor wounds subsided as Don got the opportunity to take pictures with a third of the pink lady trio of the day- Miss Heng.

(Coincidence has it that Mdm Heah, Miss Heng and Mrs Koh all wore pink- what should one call it...sweatshirts (?) on that fine day. The reason why, we dare not ask.)

A last picture with Miss Thoo struck off the last item on the to-do list of Cross Country 2006.

Thoughts of a well-deserved bath were quickly brought at bay by a single thought:-

4/1 still rocks 5/1 anyday.

Woot.