Labour Day Week Running Activities

Monday was a public holiday for Malaysia due to Labour Day (May 1). Power to the worker ! I supposed I had to say that but over the years , I have pretty much ignored the labour day celebration or its significance in Malaysia.

As usual, Cuepacs, the public sector union made the usual noises about more renumeration for the goverment employees. This time they are asking for 13 months wage in a year. Their rationale? 52 weeks in a year divided by 4 weeks in a month makes 13 months. Did I miss something here? That is the stupidest thing I've heard from Cuepacs.

As for running, it was a low key week.

Friday
On Friday, I ran at KLCC with Newton for 9.1 km. Azwar was also there and I had a chance to chat with him.

Saturday
Saturday saw me at the National Registration Dept to apply for MyKad. MyKad is an smart card to replace the national identification card (IC). It's supposed to be smart card but from its limited functionality as an IC, driving license and cash card it didn't seem to be too smart. It took 2 hrs wait to finally finish the application process.

On Saturday evening when I was at Klang stadium, I found out there was a breakfast run organised by the Klang Pacer club on Sunday. I was planning to run 20 km at Bukit Aman so I may give the breakfast run a miss. Saturday was rest day but I felt the urge to do some track run. Did 400 m x 4 to loosen up.

Sunday
I decided not to run 20 km and instead went to Klang stadium. As I was walking inside the stadium, I saw Kong and Balan outside the stadium. I joined them for a run around the housing estates. We started off at a torrid pace, 5 km per min. , way too fast for a pre-breakfast run. After 7 km, I was quite tired and had to slow down. I joined Jimmy, Phang and another Klang pacer to run a a much slower pace back to Klang stadium. When we reached the stadium, I checked my watch, 58 min. for about 10 km. After the run, I had breakfast with the rest of the Klang pacer runners.

On Sunday evening, I met Ajeep riding on his new bicycle.

Monday
I was supposed to run 20 km but I woke up late.

After breakfast I headed out to Putrajaya. My main aim was to visit Alamanda, the new shopping centre. During the Nilai run, I had to cancel my trip to Alamanda because of a bad traffic jam near the entrance. The usual shops were there and nothing special. The food court with about 20 shops was quite good.

After leaving Alamanda, I spent sometime driving around Putrajaya. I decided to return to Klang via Banting. But I got lost somewhere near Banting and ended up driving on small roads along villages and palm oil estates. Nevetheless it was quite interesting to observe the activities around the villages and estates.

Eventually I found the main road back to Banting and then back to Klang.

It rained heavily at 3.30 pm. I had to wait until the rain stopped before I could go to Shah Alam. Did a 8 km run around the lake. Some parts of the jogging track were covered with earth and became slippery. After running in such a humid condition, I was drenched in sweat. I only finished running at 7.10 pm and by this time ,almost everyone had left the park.