PRE-RACE MORNING
I woke up at 5.00 am the next morning. To make sure I will wake up on time, I set three alarms; wristwatch, mobile phone and hotel wake-up call. This is kind of unusual for me , usually I use two alarm devices but this time I had to deliver the race materials to the Klang Pacer runners at 6.00 am. At 5.45 am, I left the hotel. Siow called me up to tell where he was waiting. Over very bad connection, we were shouting to each other. I finally managed to figure out he was waiting at "ZC" store near the starting line. Traffic was a bit heavy, I was going to be delayed and became a bit anxious.
When I my car reached near the started line, I saw Siow. I signalled to him to follow me as it was only 30 minutes before the race start. We quickly removed the race materials and in the haste, I almost forgot to carry my own race reporting card. I quickly made my way to to tents to report. Several familiar faces were there as well. I also bumped in to Kong who was running the 11 km race. It was only 6.30 am but he arrived early. To my suprise, he told me he had woken up late, drove to Seremban by mistake and still managed to reach the starting at 6.30 am. He must have driven like a mad man.
At the reporting tents, a tall guy came up and said "Are you Rohaizad?" Uhh yes. Where have I met this guy before ? Turns out I have not but he does visit Ronnie's website and mine. Did not get his name.
While waiting for the start, a small crowd had gathered near the start banner. I did some stretching at the shop houses . There were 2 Thai runners there as well doing their stretching. This race worried me a bit because of the hilly route. My injured right knee had not fully recovered and I did not set target time. I expected a tough course which required running at a right pace and plenty of determination. Finishing within 2 and 0.5 hrs would be good enough for me.
RACE
I joined Jamie, Ajeep , Ryan Teoh, Jason and Haris as we waited for the start gun to fire. The race started on at 6.50 am and we ambled off at a slow pace. We turned right and encountered a steep downhill slope 500 m long. I had planned to walk down to minimise chance of injury but was feeling OK, so ran down with rest. A noisy bunch of Pace Setter runners were behind us entertaining us with jokes.
FIRST 10 km
The initial route was a right turn up a gradual inclining road. I ran with Jamie and I guess he was pacing carefully as well due to the hilly course. Another female runner was running along side us. Jamie introduce her as Jessica and she planned to pace with Jamie. Onwards we ran past the ugly looking factories. Curious factory employees came out to look at us runners. They did not cheer us but stood strangey silent, chatting among themselves, perhaps looking at us with pity. Why on earth would anyone run 21 km on a Sunday morning?
There were a few more incline sections and I had to be careful to avoid the pot holes. We ran past the Sumikei factory,made a U turn, runing back to the opposite road for another round of punishment. After some time running mostly uphill, we went pass the Nilai Whole sale intersection. The three of us climbed upwards towards the Arab Malaysia Park. I stopped at water station (6.5 km) for a drink. Jamie took a cup of water and used a "Drink and Run" technique. He shouted the same technique to Jessica. She did the same following wise words from the Pacer's.
I came across Sim who was walking. He must have become injured. Near the traffic light a orange colour school bus with "Sweeper Bus" passed by. I noticed there were three people on board.
After taking a drink, I ran slightly faster to catch up with them.
UGLY PARK SECTION
The next area was a loop around the AM Industrial Park. It was a pretty ugly area to run with numerous vacant factory buildings. Not a good area to run. In this section,I fell slightly behind Jamie and Jessica.
BIG HILL
After the industrial area, the route came to a more pleasant residential area. I caught up with Jamie and Jessica and felt quite comfortable. There were still small hills to conquer but they did not pose too much trouble until the BIGGIE came up. Just before a drink station, I saw a steep road. It got me scared and for a moment, I thought I saw runners taking a turn to the left before the hill base. As I reached the water station, it became clearer. Did the organisers expect us to go up this hill? I asked the lady manning the water station " "Betul ke kena naik atas bukit ni?" . She nodded affirming the route we had to follow -I had to really run uphill on this BIG hill.
Jamie remarked it was like the Sri Hartamas route. Well I've run there only once. Maybe I should walk up ? In the end I resolved to run slowly up while I saw Jamie and Jessica further up. I guess this hill did not trouble the Sri Hartamas route veterans.
After reaching the top, I was pretty much pooped. My breathing was a bit ragged but fortunately I could coast a long down downhill road to recover.
HELP FROM HEAVEN
The long downhill run helped me to recover and I eventually met up with Jamie and Jessica. We ran past two roundabouts which had tiled sections. I hated to run over these sections as they might aggravate my injury which was still OK to this point.
I came to another section around a hill with lots of trees and I struggled to keep on running. I slowed down and paced with another guy (blue vest) who was also struggling. We complained to each other about the hily route.
To distract myself, I took a look around and then to the skies. For a while, I ran with my head up, eyes toward the heavens, arms hung loosely by the sides. Have I gone nuts or what ? But help came from the heavens, I was inspired and regained my form/energy. I managed to increase my pace to a manic level and could even see Jamie some 400 m in front.
LAST 15 km - PAYBACK
At the 15 km mark, green coloured ribbons were handed out to the runners. The route double back to the Nilai Wholesale market. Sadly it was payback time for me after pushing the pace too hard before, I had to slow down and eventually had to walk for about 3 minutes.
I could see the Whole Centre on the hill , it was so near............ I started to run again.
I tried to continue running up the last 500 m slope was breathing hard. My mouth was open for additional air intake and flying insects started to fly in. I spat some out - huh? Where did they come from ?
When I reached the top, there was an official standing about 100 m from the finishing line. He was urging everyone to sprint to the finish and that was what I did.
I finished in a time of 1 hr 53 min 52 seconds , position no. 106 in Men's Senior Category.
POST RACE
Met up with the rest of the runners. Everyone had run very well , most going under 1 hr 50 minutes. The results are available at Ronnie's website.
Later we had breakfast together at Nilai town.
I had serious doubt about a bunch of "pasar" (market) people being able to organise a half marathon event. But they did a job job. Plus points:
- Nice looking medal - better than KLIM 2005.
- Enough water stations and sponges.
- Made an effort to organise the whole thing professionally.
- Good traffic control.
- Post race shows but I didn't see much
- Good lucky draw prizes but I didn't "win" any prizes.
- Race distance was short of a half marathon, possibly 19 km.
- No isotonic drinks at the water stations.
- Not enough rubbish bins.
- No distance markers.
- Difficult to find organisers office.
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