I signed up for Shape Run awhile back because it coincides with the Putrajaya Half Ironman. I wanted to be at Putrajaya to cheer on my friends since I enjoyed being the support crew so much during this year's Langkawi Ironman. Unfortunately, a week before the run, the organizers decided to cancel the Half Ironman due to the risk of the H1N1 virus. Yeah right...
Nevertheless, since I signed up I'm going to run it. I don't want to miss out on the RM300 goodie bag that was promised. A bunch of us from Penang travelled down to KL for this run. Kenneth and Peck Yee travelled with me. Jensen, Yoony and Chi Yuan took the bus. We all departed Penang on Friday afternoon. I took my new baby with me since I had space in the car. I had hopes of riding it with Ribbit on Sunday morning.
Friday was a LONG day for me. Upon arriving in KL, we headed to Ah Jo's (fellow runner from Penang working in KL) where we would crash. We unloaded and then waited for Lynn to come get us to meet Jensen for supper. We met them at SS2's Wong Kok. I had the "Yin Yong" thinking that I would deal fine with the caffeine. I was to be very wrong and had a very hard time getting to bed. I think I finally fell asleep at 2am. I think that I never really rested my brain at all, although my body was tired. I woke up at about 5.20am and toss and turn until my alarm went off at 6.30am. I woke feeling as if I didn't sleep at all. Terrible...
The day started early with breakfast at this lovely little cafe called Little Collins Bakery. I shared the Big Breakfast with Ribbit and then I share the apple crumble, carrot cake, cheese tart with Ribbit, Kenneth and Peck Yee. The bread I had with the breakfast was oregano and it was nice. I really enjoyed the sauteed mushrooms and the sausage even though it looked it was the kind that came frozen in a pack from the freezer section in the grocery store. The carrot cake was to die for but I didn't really enjoy the apple crumble or cheese tart that much. Ribbit, Kenneth and Peck Yee enjoyed the apple crumble more than me.
After that Ribbit and I parted ways with Kenneth and Peck Yee. Ribbit had a physio session at Physiowerkz (http://www.physiowerkz.com/index.htm) in Merchant Square. She is still recovering from her injuries (BOO!). I must say something about Physiowerkz, they are actually a fabulous physio place as compared to the most horrible Damansara Specialist physio which Ribbit initially saw. This place was recommended by my own physio extraordinaire, Anne Poh of Lam Wah Eee hospital. Since patronizing this place, Ribbit has felt a lot better and it seems that her recovery has been making a lot of progress.
After that we drove back to Ribbit's place to meet up with Kenneth and Peck Yee to carpool to lunch. On the way we passed The Bike Boutique and saw Saya unloading something from Shih Ming's car so we stopped by to say hi. We hung around for a bit while Shih Ming got herself fitted for her bike. Then it was back to Ribbit's place to get our friends. From there we headed to Jaya One to meet Ribbit's cousins for lunch at Hanazen. I had the Unagi Bento which had a super huge piece of Unagi which tasted superb. SUPERB. Ribbit ordered the Salmon with the Japanese Yam. The yam was very starchy and the texture was interesting. It tasted alright but the texture didn't agree with me. I did like the grilled squid she ordered A LOT better. All in all a fantastic Japanese restaurant and a very satisfying lunch.
Then it was back to Ah Jo's place where I took a 15-min nap. My head still felt like I was in a daze due to lack of sleep but still I dragged myself to get ready and we were off to Putrajaya at 5.15pm. Due to the brand new speedy highway we were in Putrajaya by 6.00pm. About 2 hours ahead of the run but it was cool. We went around and hung out checking out the booths around. We met up with most of the Penang group and eventually, we would meet up with Michelle, Siok Bee, Shih Ming, Saya, Frank and the rest of the THG group. It was also good to see co-workers like Sweeney and Chin How there. Lots of picture taking and at about 7.00pm I wanted to make a last minute dash to the toilet but then they started to make a call to the runners' pen. So I decided I didn't want to go that badly and hugged Ribbit for some confidence before entering the runner's pen. I felt totally crappy for this. I felt I hadn't trained enough. I felt nervous because I haven't run a 10k race in so long I didn't know what pace to do or how to start off. I was glad for Ribbit's hug. It made me feel better.
They kept me in the runners' pen for AGES! I was surrounded by sweaty men. It was hard to breathe and it was hot. I was monitoring my heart rate and I did worry I might be in trouble as even standing in the pen it was 100 bpm.
When the gun finally went off at 8pm, I ran ahead planning to find my own pace. I saw Jessica fly by and not long after that I saw Saya came by. I decided to try and follow Saya's pace and I took off after her. I managed to keep pace with her for about 3.5km before I felt I couldn't keep up anymore. I think my heartrate was 175bpm at that time. I slowed down and dropped to a hard pace that I could deal with. However, I think the damage was done. I reach the 6km mark averaging a 5:25min/km pace but after that I caught a very, very bad stitch on both sides of my abdomen.
At this point, I see tons of people I know pass me which was frustrating for me, Yee Hua, Wai Mun and Mich Looi. As Mich Looi passed I told her I was suffering. I told her I felt like passing out. She motioned for me to follow her and despite my increasing stitch, I pushed on. However, at one point it got so bad that at one point in the run I had to stop to walk up a slope. The last 3km, Chi Yuan caught up with me and thanks to the walk break, I was able to keep up with him. I managed to hang on and charged to the finish line with a pathetic 1:06:20. As I can in I swam the girl in front of me throw up. It was that bad a run. I felt her pain.
The post-run activities was a lot more enjoyable. Mamak at Putrajaya with the Penang gang and the THG. It bring back memories from my MMU hangout days here.
Things I like about Shape Run:
1. Nice, scenic route. It was really nice to run over all those bridges!
2. Well organized and good enough Goodie Bag (even though I don't think it is worth RM300).
Things I didn't like about Shape Run:
1. People who cut corners in the route. Cutting across instead of going around. You can read Shih Ming's note in Facebook to understand that this is just simply lying to yourself.
2. Night runs are just so hot and unpleasant. It was terrible!
Lesson learnt:
Never try to chase after people, it could be a disaster. Run your own race.
LOTS of pics from the lovely Ribbit. Thanks so much for coming out to take pics of us!
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3 comments:
Wah I didn't realized my hug can be so POW-ER-FOOL..bluek! Anyway well done on your run ( I know you will say it sucks) But I felt its still an achievement!! Oh yah..thanks for keeping this blog alive...AHAHHAHAHA!! *dEVIl*
A night race huh... was there a ban on headphones? It would have been bad if someone shouts "OI LONGKANG!" but the person is listening to Linkin Park on ipod and just ran straight into a drain...
Ribbit, yes, you got those POW-DER-FUL hugs... that's for sure. But thank you very much for the hug. It was very reassuring.
@GTS: There is no such thing as headphone bans in Malaysia! What do you think, that we are so advanced? If you fall into the longkang, you fall into the longkang. Jokes aside, the race was well organized with good traffic control and good signage.
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