Larian 1 Wilayah Persekutuan Menjuarai Transformasi 2011 – 5km

Date: 12 March 2011

Venue: Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Distance: 5km (Garmin: 5.84km)

Timing: 28:20 minutes or 4:52 min/km pace

This must have been one of the smallest events in town – at glance, it looked like there were less than 500 runners with about half of them, school children. They even allowed registration and bib pick up on race day – very rare occurrence in this part of town. Most runners were away in Shah Alam for another event which offered higher prize monies. Oh well, all is well and dandy with me. Then again, I had more or less resigned myself to just finishing the race after spotting Yuan Yufang’s and (Lian) Bee Hoon’s names in the list during bib collection on Friday. No surprises on the route – it was the usual DH (for the 7km-ers) and back portion of Padang Merbuk/government ministries for the rest of us before coming home via Jalan Parlimen.

The gun off was slightly delayed (oh ok, about 15 minutes) because the aerobics instructor got hyped up with the warm up (she was probably the only one since the rest of us just wanted to get the run over and done with before it got warm). Yufang pulled ahead after the first km and I was trailing another girl for the rest of the way until the last km/turning into Jalan Parlimen. She must have slowed down because I definitely did not power up (this is a WIP – I can never manage to find any reserves at the end). The 5km-ers skipped the DH and only had to contend with some rolling hills/upslopes typical of highways and roads – Michael and Kenny’s trainings are paying off! – I was not that “pulverized”!

Result: 2nd placing in the Women’s Veteran (LOL! Just barely managed to sneak into this category! And only because Bee Hoon decided to race in Shah Alam.)

Good:

a) Relatively well managed – perhaps it was due to the small size.

b) Off the main roads except for the stretch on Jalan Parlimen which was closed to traffic in any event (proviso – 2 cars whizz by me but on the hold, the traffic police did a great job at stopping even motorcyclists from encroaching; I know because I saw one of them refusing to let one motorcyclist through). Ok, maybe I should term it as partial road closure since the back portions at Bank Negara through to the Pertanian building were opened. I remembered to thank each one of them I passed – great job guys! I cannot say the same for the event the following day (my rants on this will come soon enough!).

c) El-cheapo registration fee of RM20 and you get a finishers’ medal, a (cotton) race tee, partial to full road closures – no complaints on this end.

d) Water station at mid and end points and a Milo truck at the latter as well (some peeps do consider the Milo truck a “must have”; I am partial).

e) The spirit displayed by wheelchair bound athletes. Plus having Pui San and Alexis (who popped by after their training) to cheer us on at the end point.

Bad:

a) I skipped the mid point water station, so have zero clue if it was stocked with water or 100Plus or both because they only provided the latter at the end point. Big no-no since all I needed was H2O and did not think my stomach would agree with H2O for such a short race. [I would re-fuel with 100Plus or Revive on longer distances mid way but that’s about that.]

b) The draggy “senamrobik” session – it was actually quite entertaining at the beginning but it outstayed its welcome when it ran past the intended race gun off time.