adiNation Breakfast Run 2011 – 2 hour Challenge

Venue: Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Distance: 5 laps * 3.3km = 16.5km (Garmin: 16.60km)

Timing: 1:37:24 hours or 5:52 min/km pace (Garmin: 16.60 km)

This was the inaugural “family get-together” in the form a run followed by breakfast of Adidas’s adiNation Training Groups around Klang Valley. Most of us took this as a fun run cum chit chat session, except for the few that went all out to garner the 3 podium finishes (there were some prizes put up for those that completes the most number of laps in 2 hours).

I started with KK Yum for about a km before tagging onto Sylvia for the rest of the lap. Then I paced off Suresh and his gang for the next three laps (I think). That gave me a bit more of a push since those guys are naturally faster, not that I was racing this event. There were two killer slopes to conquer – at the beginning at Carcosa (we started at the children’s playground) and at km 3 heading onto Deer Park (thank goodness, they omitted this but it was still a pretty steep upslope). Surprisingly the foot held up (I stubbed my little toe and sprained it the prior day when I landed awkwardly on it during yoga); the KSO is still “biting” me and it was blister galore at the arches – that is about that on injuries (if any).

I had planned to run the minimum three laps or maybe do an extra – which I did! After slugging a cup of 100Plus after three laps. At this point, I felt strong and the pace was under 6 min/km (where I wanted it to be) – 5:47 min/km. I had mentally switched off after the fourth lap and in fact stopped the Garmin and started walking down to cool off when I heard Suresh boomed at me from behind. Wokie…another lap? Sure, if it was a cool down lap and it was – this lap probably took twice as long. And it does not help to spur you on when everyone was kind of hanging around the start/finish area and you had to do the same darn lap again for the fifth time! Well, it just does not do for me…I know it works for most people e.g. Ronnie etc.

Hey, there were some good bits that came up from the run – it sort of made up for my weekend LSD and I snagged a mi coach which I am passing it one to SW.

All in, a great start to Sunday.

Good:

a) Well organized event. Hey, this is what you get when it is organized by runners – on time start (and finish!), plentiful of water and isotonic drinks at well spaced out hydration stations (2 – one at mid way and another at the lap start/finish), manned junctions with marshals etc.

b) Small race atmosphere/goodwill (about 200 runners) with everyone knowing each other ala “Cheers” bar.

c) Mini expo with some displays of the upcoming King of the Road vest and Adidas shoes with a foot analysis set up as well.

d) FOC! And here’s the swag. I gathered there was an Adidas voucher included but I never found mine.

e) Minimal chances of being a road kill since we were running inside the park.

f) Post race grub (although I did not partake in them; I never do anyway; ok, maybe some bean curd during the Pacesetters’ events) – bananas, watermelons etc.

g) Great job by the marshals and volunteers. Special shout out goes to Uncle Sonny who was manning the junction near the toilets – he was super encouraging every time I ran past and commenting on my VFF (oopss…sorry Krishnan…I just can’t run in regular shoes anymore!). Also mentions to Ruhjan and another marshal at the U-turn at Deer Park who were handing out Adidas flags and since I knew him, he gave me a bit of a cheer.

Bad:

a) Slight chaos at the end – I guess a better loudspeaker and emcee control would have helped. It felt a bit disorganized when everyone was talking and hardly paying attention to Jue and Krishnan. Ok, this falls on the runners rather than organizers although the emcees could have done a better job at crowd control.

b) Laps – this was the worst for me and I had mentally switched off going into the fifth lap. Heck, I even considered walking it. I guess it does make sense for the lapping since not everyone can run a 20km route and the event was to cater to runners with different abilities. This probably explains the post race aches and soreness from repetitive use of the same muscles (unlike when we do the DH or Bukit Aman-Hartamas route).

c) Er the banner read “5 March 2011” – not sure if anyone noticed this.

d) I thought it would have been nice if Adidas handed out run vests to everyone but I am mindful of the cost of such exercise. It would have been a remarkable sight to have a single colour floating or dotting the park yesterday instead of the tiny bib identifying runners for the run. Ahhh…a missed promotional opportunity.

e) I thought the hydration/water stations could have been better marked - perhaps one table each for 100Plus and water.