Run baby run! My second run.
People wearing white t-shirts with the word “Maybank” adorning the fronts were ubiquitous at Masjid Jamek LRT Station. They were all heading to Dataran Merdeka. Then I realized that Merdeka Square was actually nearer to Masjid Jamek than Pasar Seni LRT! My earlier post about the run was a bit misleading.Realizing my misjudgment, I quickly phoned my friend Thaya to tell him to stop at Masjid Jamek instead of Pasar Seni. Lucky thing he was still in the LRT.
We arrived at the venue before 7:30 am, and since we didn’t register, we didn’t have the shirts, or the running numbers. So we made our way to the registration booth.
Good news! We had free t-shirts, and we didn’t have to pay any registration fee. Who says the early bird gets the worm? I think those early birds paid RM 10 to join the run.
Indeed, the name of the run is befitting. Everyone turned up with different shades and colors.
Whoah! Just look at the number of people eagerly waiting for the run to start. I wager there were a few thousand citizens who turned up at Dataran Merdeka that day.
The weather was nice, not too hot and not too cold. Perfect for a run. However, we had to wait for the VIPs to arrive before we could start the race.
Tick tock tick tock. The wait was long. The clock tower shows 7:45 am. The long hand of the clock had to turn more than 180 degrees before the run was off.
Incidentally, that auspicious day was also the birthday of Datin Rosmah. The organizers surprised her with a cake. The surprise was quite funny as the crowd was initially quite puzzled too. It went like this:
MC: “Sekarang dipersilakan Datin Rosmah untuk upacara memotong kek.”The crowd just went blank and some even laughed, including myself, for we wondered what a cake got to do with a run. At least it got everybody in stitches, which is a good thing. Nowadays, as can be read in the papers, people appreciate comedy better.
Next thing I knew, the run had started. Honestly speaking, it wasn’t an easy run. We ran (perhaps jogged would be the right term to use here) on roads that were specifically closed for us, most of which I couldn’t even recognize. So much for being an Ampang boy. There were some roads that were uphill, though they weren’t that steep. Still they tested my limits.
During the run, I saw a small kid wearing a jersey with the words “30 km run” on his back. The boy should be in primary school, judging by his physique and stature. How amazing. This young chap can actually run that far? How on earth do people run 30km or more for that matter. I just can’t imagine myself doing it, yet.
At the end, we did manage to finish the run. Time elapsed? 38 minutes, as recorded by Thaya. That’s actually not bad at all, considering that we did nothing to prepare for the run. So it’s a just achievement!
I even calculated our average speed.Yeah, I’m missing Physics already. It turned out to be like 2 meters per second, which is somewhat like 2 steps in one second. Hmm, now that sounds like a snail’s pace.
This was unexpected. A certificate of participation. But there’s no name on it. Anyone up for extra certificate? (especially for those who are certificate crazy and have a mountainous collection of them)
The picturesque view of Dataran Merdeka. This was taken after the run, while cooling off.
As the prize-giving ceremony was going on, I heard that the secondary school category was won by a Johanian (St. John student), who was an Indian. The second place went to an Indian from the same school too. The third went to an Indian also, but he was from Semenyih. This made me think that young Indians are impressive runners.
As my friend and I were chilling and sun-bathing by the stairs, eating “bihun goreng”, we suddenly noticed facing our back was a library. So off we went to venture into the Kuala Lumpur Library, an unheard and uncharted territory.
This is the interior of the library. For you information, this picture was taken just before I saw the “no camera allowed” sign. Overall the library was not bad. We even saw some students doing some research there. I would say it’s quite conducive, but nothing can be compared to INTEC’s library. Wahahaha. It’s super conducive that some students sleep.
We chanced upon this chance to flip through some books about running. From a marathon book, I learned that runners should take walking breaks during a run to reduce suffering of their muscles. So this explains why we did so badly – we ran continuously, non-stop. Hopefully this knowledge would come to good use the next time around.
So what’s next? There’s actually another run next Sunday, 19th of the twelfth month, 7:30 am, at Padang Merbok. It’s called “Larian Koperasi 1 Malaysia”. How come everything has to have “1 Malaysia”? Maybe it’s getting a little overused. Don’t you think so?
Anyway, this will be a 7 km run. That’s 2 more kilos than the 1 Malaysia Run. Hopefully I would be alright. However, this run has a price to be paid, RM 20. So I guess most participants would be serious runners. I don’t feel like paying that much to enter the run. Maybe my friend and I should employ the same tactic again.
I wonder whether the late bird can still get the worm for this upcoming run.
