This was a small local race I took part in on Saturday morning. I did not set out with any goals in mind and was going to take it as a training run after having completed the Army Half Marathon 2010 the weekend before and 2 tempo runs during the week. Lo behold, I finished after Bee Hoon in the Women’s Veteran group and earned myself a trophy and some vouchers from Clark Hatch PJ Hilton (Clark Hatch). All in, 6.98km dusted in 36:28 minutes. Not bad, huh?
Good:
(a) Cheap registration fee – RM10! In return, you get a cotton tee (looks like Luann’s girls or the maid will be the recipient), a goodie bag after the race, finishers’ medal and participation certificate (positions 6-20), 100 Plus and Yogood bars.
(b) In the goodie bag was a one week trial pass to Clark Hatch, a bottle of Spritzer mineral water, 2 samples of Ascience shampoo and conditioner, Yogood bar, Roller Coaster snack and a mechanical pencil. It looks like Mandy is in for a treat!
(c) The run actually started on time – 8:15 am; I had misgivings about this going by last year’s KDU Race against Cancer and the recent Muzium Telekom run plus the guest of honour being some deputy minister (no, I could not be bothered to find out who) and was expecting a flag off at 8:45-9 am.
(d) The carnival atmosphere is something we don’t often see – there were stalls selling various food, souvenirs and some dedicated to games. After all, this event was billed as a charity collection drive in conjunction with Stamford College’s 60th anniversary.
(e) Registration was a breeze for me since I mailed my entry form together with a cheque to them though I had to call them earlier in the week to confirm my registration. I picked up my bib and the event tee on Thursday (since it was a public holiday here) – again, a breeze.
(f) I thought about Acid’s brother and the pain he went through in the last few months fighting leukemia and changed my mind about giving up and walking during the struggle up Jalan Gasing. Last Saturday’s run was dedicated to Acid’s brother and now I thought about it, it was so aply named “Running for a Cause”.
Bad:
(a) No road closure and I got yelled at for hogging the road and thus holding up traffic. Nope, I did not take much notice of it – hey, even with a partial road closure, the organizers should have laid out the traffic cones. On the flip side, I must commend the traffic police for stopping traffic at a few intersections so I could run through (I gave the one at the Amcorp Mall intersection a thumbs up).
(b) The route took us through the older section of Petaling Jaya and I can safely conclude that Jalan Gasing is super hilly! I almost gave up and wanted to walk at this stage – when I loaded the Garmin, I found that my timings were slower on km 3-5; heck, I even felt slow then.
(c) Late start of the event meant the sun was shining brightly on us and add to that the hill climbs meant all I could think about was an ice bath.
Photo credits to Tey and Moey.
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