Cari Runners Rawang Hill Challenge 2011 – 10km

Date: 19 June 2011

Venue: Rawang, Selangor, Malaysia

Distance: 10km (Garmin: 9.58km)

Chip Timing: None

Garmin Timing: 48:53 minutes or 5:06 min/km (stopped after the finish point)

Result: 3rd placing (Women)

Website: http://carirunners.blogspot.com/2011/04/rawang-hill-challenge-2011.html

Right, they did not term this as a “hill challenge” if there wasn’t any hill or rather hillS to be exact. The hill climb started at km2 but this was not the mother of all hills; that one starts at km3 and continues for 2km. Fooled into thinking this was over…the next one came about at km7-8 since this was an out-and-back course. Since I had not planned on racing, the f*** swears were kept in check.

Since it was a small field (~ 200 runners of which only 30 women), there was little jostling at the start. I even found myself about 2-3 rows back. The game plan was to take it as a Sunday event and go out easy; after all, Sundown and Phuket were just 2 weekends ago. Yuki, Lai and his wife and I lined up and were chatting away and before we knew it, the race had officially started. Stanley was about another row back – he was also not racing it. While it was a small local race, the men’s field was quite competitive and featured faster runners like Jason Wong, Goh Chun Aun etc.

I left Yuki, Lai and Ping Ping after the start and trucked along the back lanes (literally!) of residential houses and shops before hitting the roads leading to the industrial area. Ok, there was a bit of an upslope at km2 which didn’t seem too bad but I didn’t know that this was a precursor to the one that laid ahead at the next km. Stanley overtook me here but I did manage to overtake 2 other men (yup, chicked them out! LOL!). The water station and the turn off (to yet another hill climb) came up shortly. Le sigh. How is that to start the run? It was also here the 1st runner up overtook me – not that it bothered me since I wasn’t racing; the winner had plodded ahead of the field at the start. Trucked along until km5 before the downhill came. Le joy!

Km5-6 were descents before the climb started (all over again!!!) – this was an out-and-back course; so it was back up the same darn hills! Km7 was the checkpoint where they handed us our second ribbon (the first was at the start); butter fingers me dropped mine and lost a few seconds here. Fabio was at the intersection of km8, the TOP of the middle of the intersection and cheered me on. It helped a little but I still needed to dig in to climb the remaining upslope.

After this, it was the home stretch which was basically downhills and flats and a wonderful end to a nice cool Sunday morning.

My hammies were more thrashed than the quads – probably due to racing the descents (all of them in the 4:40-4:50 min/km range). I tried to get an appointment with Margaret later that evening but her diary was filled. Serves me right for leaving things to the last minute. Oh well, there is still next week or Diane in 2 weeks.

Pros:

a) Well-organized event by Cari Runners; I think the team redeemed themselves after the disastrous Couple Run.

b) It was a local race and had that all the homey feel-good-neighbourhood to it. I love such runs – small, localized, entire community coming out to support.

c) Bib pick up on race day. Told ya, it was a small event, easily manageable. In fact, I was probably among the last to register! I did transfer the money to Victor before the closing and did not realize he was missing my registration form – I only managed to do this 4 days before the run! Definitely not encouraged.

d) 2 hydration points with water along the route and 100Plus was served at the finishing. On top of that, the swag (handed out at the finish) included a can of 100Plus.

e) Breakfast of nasi lemak.

f) Pretty cool and cute finisher’s medal.

g) Generous prizes – top ten winners in each category received a trophy and cash. RM400 for 1st placing, RM200 for 2nd placing, RM100 for 3rd placing and RM50 for 4th to 10th placings. It was definitely worth the trip – in terms of organization, scenery (a.k.a. fresh and cleaner air according to Stanley) and prize.

h) Small field.

i) Early start at 7 am and the weather held up fine – cool, low temps and the fresher air (compared to the KL smog).

Cons:

a) No road closure but since the route was in almost sleepy Rawang and winding through the industrial area of Rawang on a weekend, traffic was light. There were marshals and Rela folks manning the intersections.

b) Not much of a swag – finisher’s medal, a can of 100Plus, muscle rub and a few vouchers from the local businesses. Given the low registration fee (RM35) and the tech tee, the content of the swag is understandable. In any event, I hardly use any of the stuff usually included in these bags.

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