New Year’s Day and Kelab Darul Ehsan were the day and venue for the inaugural Pacemaker Annual Dinner 2011 (PAD 2011). Surprising, huh? Especially since the group had been in existence since 2004 (yeah, something I found out during the quiz portion of PAD 2011).

Julie and KK were the organizers and emcees for the night and did a wonderful job putting together the event on a 2-week notice. There was the usual “makan” and quiz cum games but the highlight of the night was the awards presentation. The group was kept small for manageability and inclusiveness just so everyone would have a chance to connect/talk with each other. Apart from the Pacemakers, the rest of us were “friends” of the Pacemakers aka regulars from the adiNation Training Run programme (KLCC, LG, Taman Permaisuri) and the usual suspects from the KL races. I met quite a few new faces and reconnected with more.

“Makan” was buffet style at the Duyong Restaurant and included items like:

• Bread rolls and cream of mushroom

• A few types of salads ranging from potatoes, tomatoes and plain veg to tuna and squid with choice of dressing of French, Italian and Thousand Island

• BBQ and grilled ribs, sausages,seafood

• Carbs in the form of fried rice, spaghetti carbonara, baked potatoes

• Buttered vegetables – broccoli, cauliflower

• Selection of cakes for dessert – the group even managed to snag an entire plate of a sponge cake (Tiramisu or cheesecake?) as a form of a birthday cake for the January babies (Ahmad Lamchanak, Jessa, Yung Hui and Pui San)

• Cut fruits

• Ice kacang

Julie was a gem and had arranged for Choi and me to order from the ala carte menu since we are both vegans. Unfortunately, the restaurant screwed up. B.I.G. time. T.W.I.C.E. on my order: first on spaghetti bolognaise when I ordered a fettuccine aglio olio and when the spaghetti aglio olio (yes, not fettuccine but at this stage, I was too tired to point out) arrived, it was littered with prawns. When Dannie (who was being helpful) pointed this out to the manager, I was chided because they had already changed the meal twice. Golly! The menu made no mention of prawns and aglio olio to my knowledge is plain pasta with EVO and sprinkling of garlic, parsley and chili flakes. My meal for the night – vegetarian mee mamak which was basically a half baked attempt by the kitchen in putting together fried noodles with 3 measly cubed bean curd/tofu and a few kale leaves, lettuce and ten crinkly cut carrot chips. Choi’s order of vegetarian fried rice was fried rice alright…with an accompanying fried chicken wing! Our conclusion you ask? The chef’s concept of vegan meals = 90:10 proportion of vegetarian to meat/seafood. Oh well, at least I kept my expectations low and was there for the party rather than the food. I did try the one truly vegan salad and the ice kacang – both unmemorable to say the least.

Moving onto better things and highlights for the evening: quiz and awards! The fastest person to finish two sticks of pretzel was won by Bryan (from our table. Yeah!). This was followed by a trivia of Pacemaker and marathon/running quizzes – all prizes donated by adidas Malaysia (represented by our guest of honour – Krishnan), KK, Julie etc. Apart from the camaderie and surprise answers (to me at least!), winners get to choose the prizes (until it runs out). I opted for the football jerseys on both occasions; they are in “XXL” and “XL” sizes (yeah, Krishnan probably gave out the remaining stock) but they should be good for HTN and maybe KC or Unc Peter. Bryan and Carrie also decided on the jerseys whereas Pui San and Alexis settled for the calendar planner, wrist sweat bands, pencils etc. Our table won the most prizes until a point when Kelvin started prodding and cajoling the Tasik Permaisuri table to put up a fight…but hey we still out-answered them!

Oh right…the highlight of the night…3 awards were handed out and I thought it was so apt that these individuals were chosen:

Pacemaker of the Year (male): Kei Ming

Hey this guy was racing almost every weekend and on some with back-to-back races. He was also traversing the country and Haadyai for these runs. More gushiness…he led the LG adiNation Training Run and helps update the blog

Pacemaker of the Year (female): Carrie

Another regular destination marathoner with her other half, Dannie.

Best Dressed Pacemaker: KK

Enough said. KK also won the surprise award from adidas Malaysia for this category.

PAD 2011 was a blast and we are looking forward to next year’s edition!