Sunday : LSD Run around Tasik Shah Alam

This was to be my first LSD run for the KLIM half marathon. The night before I had considered going to Bukit Aman to join the 20 km run with the KL runners. It would have been fun but it would meant I had to wake up at 3.30 am. I settled for the doing the LSD run around Tasik Shah Alam.

I woke up at 6.00 am and had a breakast mix of oatmeal, milo and oatmilk powder. Took a bath and did the essential business. By 6.30 am I started driving but a decided to detour to the Klang stadium car park. Even at the early hours of darkness, there were already about 20 parked cars. In the darkness, I saw shadows running inside the stadium. I saw Ah Keong's car, he must have started early. I could not see any Klang Pacer runners so decided to continue to Shah Alam.

I arrived at the car park at 6.50 am. It was still dark and I drank half a bottle of water and then did some stretching. I started running at 7.00 am at a slow pace passing a few walkers. Some stretches were quite dark and I had to be careful as the ground was uneven at some stretches.

After 15 minutes, I experienced an emergency situation - had to make a stop at the toilet to finish an unfinished bussiness. Groping in dark to remove my shorts and dripping with sweat, I finished the urgent task. Relief at last !.

I ran at a faster pace during the second lap. From just above the tree tops, the sky was vivid with orange and red colours. Sunrise. It was a beautiful sight and I was running well - this was running at it's best.

I kept going around the lake. More people were around but there only a handful of runners. There were two groups of women (mostly malay) practising Qi Gong. They were mostly of mak cik age with body proportions to match their mak cik status.

Near the Library end, I was running beside a Malay guy and started to chat with him. We ran together for another lap. His name was Azwan and he normally ran the smaller loop (6 minutes - 1 km?) normally for 45 minutes. This time he ran with me around the longer loop. He told me this run was a record of sort for him; it was the longest he had ever run ; 1 hour.

For the last 600 m, I ran almost flat out for a quick speed session. All in all a satisfying first LSD run in 2005.
Distance = approximately 12 km, time = 1 hr 15 minutes.

On the way back to home, I stopped at the Klang stadium. I saw about half a dozen Klang Pacer runners resting after their LSD run.

What compells us runners to go through such exertions and effort ? Is it a simply out of habit or obsession? Or is it more than these? That we are most alive when we run. Yeah, that must be it.