Monday, August 16, 2004

MPAJ Run race report - Sunday, 15/08/04

Ahh, another race done! I think people (like some of my musician friends) think I'm a little nuts, running for 10km and all that. But when I see and know ppl who finish half and full marathons, 10km like chicken feed, man. But anyway, to the MPAJ race:

6:15am: Reached Pandan Indah, but take another 15 minutes to find the actual venue... must be the lack of sleep from my gig the night before. I only had about 2 - 3 hours of sleep, man! But then the place also a bit bengong wan, I think. Found the place, but my bladder was aching like mad... drank a lot of water in the morning to keep hydrated. Rendevoused with my running buddies, Jeya, Kantha, and Devin, and we reported in. I was feeling slightly sore from a slightly over-done training run two days before, bad mistake, should've taken it easy before the race. But not that bad la...

Then, wanted to take a piss before warming up, but then, there were only TWO pairs of porta-johns, one for da gals and one for the boys. Problem was, only ONE of the boys' john worked (celaka!), so I did the next best thing, I went to one of them concrete half-crescent full-bodied benches that was slightly above waist height, and then let my body waste fertilise the ground.

7:15am: Warmed up a bit, stretched, chit chat with me buddies, still waiting for one more friend Pek Fui, who's late from over-sleeping, all while dissing the organisers' effort to get ppl to "bersenam" with them (among ourselves!). About 10 minutes, we were called to go to the main road where the flag-off was to take place. When the 4 of us (Pek Fui showed up about that time, lucky for her, if not we all would've left without her), we were so confused which direction that the flag-off was supposed to happen. If we were in the front pack, sure die wan, man.. cos have to run real fast at the start, if not, we'll be trampled! Doesn't help that the "P.A system" was the size of a basketball.. bodoh cheapskate MPAJ fellas, cannot even hear anything. When we got our bearings, we made haste and went into the pack at the back, with the B (women's open), C (Vet men's), D (vet women)categories. Flagged off approximately 7:40am. Off we went.. wooo hoooo...!!

Jeya and Kantha was like running past me for a couple of hundred metres, and then walked, until I caught up with them. They run/walked quite a bit, and I thought "wah liao.. these fellas can beat me.. not bad". But I was disappointed (and maybe a little glad) that halfway thru, I think they pancit.. kekekee.. I'm bad la.

Jeya and Kantha panting... pancit?

Around 8am: I reached the first (AND ONLY.. bloody organisers) water stop! But they only served 100Plus, which is okay (I prefer Gatorade or 100plus Power, cos no gas), but I needed more water than anything. Biasa la.. take sweet stuff, you'll sure get a little thirsty after that. Note to myself: Bring some cash to buy bottled water at petrol stations. Caught up with Pek Fui ran with her a bit, then she picked up her pace while I maintained mine. Then ran with a older guy who's not really a runner, but took part in the race for fun. Chat with him a bit, and we encouraged each other on, until I ran ahead.

30 minutes later: Something wrong lah... It's past one hour, but nowhere near the damn finish line. I have a feeling that it was more than 10km...

39 minutes later: Near the finish line, I sprinted my last final minute to the line. Recorded my time as 1:24:06. The cutoff time was 1hr 20min.. bugger. Never mind.. just have to train some more. But I still felt that it was more than 10km. My 10km training took about nearly that amount of time, and that also I was running slighly below 10km race pace. Regained my breath for a couple of minutes, with Pek Fui finishing about less than a minute behind me. We both went to the 100plus booth and grabbed many, many cups (cannot remember how much).

Ahh.. another race done.

Jeya and Kantha finally appeared about... 5 - 7 minutes later, walking. And I couldn't help but cheered them some more.

Oh, and I managed to meet up with some Pacesetters friends like Azwar, and Terence (or Penguin-6), Ronnie, and Li-Hung. Cool bunch of fellas.. and bloody fast runners, man! Towards the last 5 minutes to the end, I saw Ronnie running with his wife, I thought to myself, "Why is he still running?". Later on, I found out, he went back to look for his wife! *wah liao*. After meeting them, I found out that the actual running distance was about 10.8 - 10.95km!!! Celaka... bloody MPAJ fellas. If plus minus a hundred metres or two, never mind la. But that is too much man. I thought my running time gone down, cos my PJ Half Marathon 10km record was 1:23:26. But if like that, that means my 10km time became better la... woohoooo... must train some more.

l-r: Me, Azwar, Ronnie, and Terence (eh, penguin-6, where your hand showing ah? lol)
Epilogue: Me and my running buddies Devin, Jeya, Kantha, and Pek Fui, went for a nice Indian breakfast at Steven's Corner 24 hours.

Next up: Hoobastank concert!

1 comment:

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