I was entering my final phase of training in preparation for next week's Army Half Marathon. I was doing my regular runs along the jogging pavement near the canal over at Jurong West last evening at about 7:42pm.

 
Star: Point where the attack happens

I was running past a lady in her mid 30s walking her Jack Russell in the same direction where I'm heading when it out of no reason jump diagonally across my path and attack at my left shin. Not knowing I was bitten and thought I just suffered a serious bang, I kept on running. Only after about 150meters from the point of attack then I suffered numbness in my left shin which then I walk towards a lamppost and realised I've suffered a fairly deep bite and was bleeding very badly. The swell and bite wound was so bad it's like a volcano erupting.

With my shock state of mind, I did not head back over to confront the dog owner or at least take down her particulars. My mind was only thinking how am I going to get back home with such a huge amount of blood gushing out. As I don't carry a towel during my runs, with my left hand covered with blood trying to keep the blood gushing out of the wound, I limped 3km back home to stop the bleed before heading to a doctor.

At the clinic, the doctor clean up the wound and it was a fairly bad one. One deep puncture right down the musle of my shin and a few other small bite marks and scratches at the side of the deep puncture. I was given a tetanus shot, some pills including painkillers, anti-inflammatory pills,antibiotic and antiseptic cream for the wound. As scarring can't be prevented, I opted not to get the wound stitched since it won't help much except for the wound to close up faster. My shin was bandaged to prevent any excess blood from oozing out due to movement.

I frequently run past owners walking their leashed dogs without being attack. I sincerely hope all dog owners, with dogs that are not well train or bad tempered to have them muzzled or at least leashed them properly to prevent them from sudden attacks on joggers or public using the jogging pavement. Joggers to slow down, walk pass the dog slowly in future even if the dogs are leashed.

I was extremely sad that this deep puncture has blown away my hopes of running next Sunday's Army Half Marathon. All my months of training has gone down the drain. Tears of sadness won't helped with my wound recovering in time for the race next Sunday, I'll just have to look forward to the Singapore Marathon on 3rd December.

Just my luck!