Running 10km

I'm still surprised that I managed to finish the 10km category of the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009! And to do it all in just under 1 hr 26 mins is a BIG accomplishment for me! For one who has never had any interest in any form of sports before... and the only thing which resembles exercise was the time when I was staying in my hostel in UM and without any form of transportation to the Faculty of Science, I was forced to walk for around 10 - 15 minutes to attend classes (which after some time, people did say that I lost some weight).

Below is the route map of the race. The category I participated in is pictured in turquoise blue.


Although my position is the 717th, at least I managed to finish the run within the qualifying time, which is 1hr 30mins. In view with how I'm such a sedentary creature, you may be asking (along with quite a number of others), how on Earth did I get myself into joining such an activity? The story began about 10 weeks before the event. ML had asked me whether I'd like to join the KL Marathon with her (this was a few weeks before), but I had procrastinated in making up my mind... then came the deadline for early bird sign-ups... and I made a snap decision to join in the fun! ML entered my registration in the nick of time... in fact, she had a glitch and we thought that I didn't make it for the early bird sign-ups... but we did! and so, we were left with 10 weeks to prepare our bodies for the challenge.

Initially we had worked out a schedule to train once every week. However, eventually we had to do our training on our own as work commitments and weather fluctuations came in the way. So I had to find training buddies, of which most of them were one-time jogging partners. The only loyal jogging partner I had was Zack! He served as my protection and a cute over-enthusiastic four-legged running partner on a leash... The only downside was the fact that Shah Alam was really hazy and Zack got tired out after 2 rounds around the playground.

Surprisingly, mum accompanied me quite a number of times at the ttdi park. Those were good times - when we both had the motivation to go to the park.

Then came the big day. We took the LRT to Masjid Jamek. The whole train was packed with runners, most of them wearing the official marathon singlet. I was one of the very few who wore long sweat pants! (I'm a bit shy of showing my legs... and I don't have any shorts! hehe)

The 10km runners started at 7am. There was a sea of runners and we had to go slowly at first. Later the crowd dispersed as each runner jogged to their own pace. Surprisingly, we managed to jog most of the way - I'd say around 75% of the route. There were a few water and 100 plus stops, but we only stopped for a small paper cup of 100 plus. This wasn't a wise choice, as I felt abit uneasy after drinking it. I think it was due to the carbonation.

In the later leg of the run, ML and I separated (as I was wearing out! hahaha). I must say that my iPod really helped motivate me to push on! Thanks to the Raconteurs, the Darkness and Jamiroquai!!! Kept me in pace.

ML finished way ahead of me (more than 5 mins difference, i think). I was really tired when I saw that I was approaching Dataran Merdeka... that spurred me on to jog the last leg... and as a result, I looked very dorky in the videos that were taken of the runners.

After the race, we followed ML's colleagues to replenish our fat stores - dim sum in Damansara Jaya. Ironic way of ending a day of intense exercise. ML was saying that when body fat is burnt, the first fat store to go is from the breast area; and when she said that, I was thinking "oh no, I can't afford a reduction there! And to think that I'd been diligently eating papayas (ML had told me this before) in the hopes of enhancing a certain anatomy" (hahaha... the real reason was because mom had an obsessive fit of buying papayas)... oh well, it's not like I actually notice any positive or negative development occurring there! haha

A funny thing occurred when we went home and slept off our exhaustion. I woke up with a sore throat, so did ML. I was really worried I'd caught the Influenza A(H1N1), being the paranoid person that I am, since we were in a highly crowded area all morning! Thankfully, it turned out not to be so.