Sue's Ramblings: Larian Bersama Warga Emas 2012

Date: 14 October 2012

Venue: Tasik Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Distance: 6km (Garmin: 5.92km)

Timing: 30:04 (Gun); 30:08 (Garmin)

Pace: 5:05 min/km (Garmin)

Result: 2nd (Women Open) (results here)

Website: Info from Julie’s blog here

A “light” weekend in terms of the number of races in town: the much-hyped-about-and-difficult-to-register Nike run, PIC and TNF Sg. This is a small local capped race given the resources available to the local council and to keep things organized. Despite this, a lot of local “elite” runners turned up and it was especially competitive for the men. As this event was in celebration of Senior Citizens, there were quite a number of events featuring and catering to this group e.g. presentation of the Senior Citizen Personality award, health checks booths and performances by the senior citizens from various resident associations in PJ.

Second year in the running and the course is an out-and-back from Tasik Taman Jaya. The course took us through the PJ new town and Jalan Gasing (major artery in this part of town).

Gorgeous lake side

Km1

I was well positioned, in fact, too well positioned from my usual! 7-8 rows back but hey, that’s ok. Right turn at the traffic lights at the Amcorp Mall junction heading towards the Taman Jaya LRT station wounding through to the government buildings. Passed Sharon on the climb to the LRT station.

At the start and definitely, 100%, need to work on getting rid of those layers of fat! (credits to Leong Kwan Weng)

Km2-3

Bumped into Teck Hooi just after that and spotted the next landmark PJ police station. First hydration station around km2.5. Both these sections had some rollers.

Km4

The uber fabulous climb at Jalan Gasing. Joke of the day

Marshal at the junction to one of the guys who was walking: Bro, this is just the starting of the climb and you’re already walking?!?!?!

This portion was also the most traffic heavy especially with Jalan Gasing being one of the main roads in PJ and the church, shops on the same road.

Km5-Finish

Running against traffic at the back roads – this was ok since there were just 1 or maybe 2 vehicles and then it was a downhill finish to the lake side. My prob? The numbness on the right foot set in, so the pace dropped.................................................DRAMATICALLY.

Pros:

a) Well put together event. Kudos to Julie. There’s always an edge for events put up by runners.

b) Post run management where you run through and collect your finisher’s medal and handed a swag with breakfast (bun, apple and chocolate drink). There was also a Milo truck nearby.

c) Carnival with health checks, senamrobik and performances by some of the PJ resident associations although this would in turn come to haunt me later on!

d) Low registration fees. Oh c’mon, where do you find registration fees of RM15 these days? In return, a cotton tee (not event specific and probably leftovers from another event; just the MPPJ logo upfront), swag and a finisher’s medal?

e) Fresh take on the route – it’s was something different from the humdrum and it was a lovely route notwithstanding the busy Jalan Gasing.

f) Well manned intersections by the volunteers and MPPJ personnel and with it being a Sunday, traffic was light.

Cons:

a) My major gripe and this would probably only be confined to a few was the super duper draggy wait for the prize presentation. The original scheduled start of 9am only started at 11am and I missed my training with Michael. Ordinarily this wouldn’t have faze me but as Michael was leaving town this week, I was hoping to cram in a session on Sunday. Plus this is like the first Sunday in weeks since we were able to align our calendars. What held up the schedule? Let’s see, there were like practically a sing-along and dance-along (er, “Bird Dance”, anyone?), tai-chi etc put up by practically every single major senior citizen resident group in PJ, choir by the Armed Forces retiree group, senamrobik, performance by a guest artiste (am guessing he’s famous but I’ve zero clue who he is) etc. I counted no less than 7-8 performances before giving up. Then there was the long-winded acceptance speech which went OTT by the recipient of the Senior Citizen award and the over-enthusiastic guest artiste who probably threw in 1-2 “bonus” track. Yeah all in, the group who arrived the earliest (runners) were the most agitated. Look, I’m not against, looking down or belittling the effort of everyone but 1-2 performances would have been sufficient; it got too draggy after the first 30min.

b) Course map should have been posted or included in the registration form vs having Julie describing it prior to the start. First, it was a bit inaudible to those at the back; second, it delayed the start (not much but a lot of peeps were eager to start before the sun came up); third, there might have been some who would like to drive the course before the run (irrational, I know, especially since this is a short run and small event, maybe the newbies, just to have a feel of the course/elevations).

c) There was a mess-up with the hydration at the end; apparently all the water bottles were transported to the hydration station on the route and hence zero water (or very little bottles) at the finishing point.

d) Another low point was the prank or mischievous/roughish/malicious/immaturity behavior of {perhaps a staff of A&W?} an individual(s) who let out the air from the car tyres of runners who had parked in the A&W compound. Now really, wouldn’t a clamp+fine or a stern warning do? This action merely casts a bad light on outlet and the management who maybe tacitly(?) approve of such childish and outlandish conduct. Read about Julie’s take here.

Photo log (credits to Leong Kwan Weng):

Swag, Finisher’s Medal, Winner's Medal, Prize hamper, Event tee