Bakau@Run for Peace 2009

Dear bloggie,

Just woke up from a 4-5 hours hibernation period due to excessive energy usage. Yea, I joined tis year's Run for Peace 2009. It was an up and down experience for me, mostly more the former.

For starters I overslept. The event was suppose to have assembly at 6am!!! I set alarm 5am so I can have time to bath, eat breakfast, sip coffee, do my toilet debt and do some warm up but after waking up from slumberland for a brief 1 minute, I fell right back there >_<. It wasn't till my father woke me up at 5.45am (Lucky I got ask him to wake me up) I was like OMG WTF!? Took a very quick bath and drove like a maniac to Klang Jaya.

When reached there saw alot of people in green shirt still walking about, so I know not yet start. While parking my car, I realized my driver car door can't open... My father was fixing my power window yesterday so somehow must have mess up the door lock. Had to exit through my passenger side door, some people saw me do tis... so not cool. Then while walking to the padang, felt boh song my stomach (Gluttony is bad, regret having nasi lemak during last nite mamak session). After weighting out the risks of running with a stomach that had % chance to go nuclear during the run, the risk was simply too great considering the odds of finding a toilet during the run is very remote. Went to find a toilet in the Soka building, had a very long queue. Lucky managed to diffuse the nuclear bomb in time... Imagine if I went Peter Petrelli in the middle of the run...

Then went to the padang, was crowded with people wearing the fugly green shirt (Official Run TShirt)... From wat they say, around 3-4K+. Went to take my souvenir(a sweat towel) and mark my attendance(chop at hand). Alot of leng lui mui mui chai... Who said Klang no leng lui? Too bad MFR didn't join, else he sure drool till flood one since he into RAWZ meat one. Anyway had a big signboard "Run for peace" for ppl to sign, but I lazy to sign since I not running for peace, I running for the sake of running. Got also a facepaint corner where ppl can get the face paint like monkeys but of course I stay away also.

Then the opening ceremony was officiate by non other than our Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid. Selangor State dude Xazier also present with MPK ah tau(Big Head) and some other bigshots. For a moment I had the funny thought of police barging in with water canons and tear gas declaring tis event as perhimpunan haram... LOL. After opening speech by the Soka president n Khalid, a dude went up stage to lead us all do warm up aerobics. Wah damn song! So gam, was behind a leng lui when warm up. Fuiyoh! See young babe do stretching infront of me really reboot my mind from lala land la.

Then the momemet we all be waiting for, "Peeet!!!". First thing I immediately learn, very hard to run with alot of people blocking ur path walking. Next thing I immediately remember, forgot to start my stop watch to clock my time... Tiu! Start off walking with the rest of the pack, but no signs of open path. So decided to start following some runners that were aggressively cutting through the walking pack. Run non stop till reach 1st water stop. Alot of ppl, I decided to not stop to refill my water tank. Good gamble, after running n cutting for awhile more, outpace the slow walking pack. Had more space to run. Continue my pace, very slow but consistent. Then reach a point saw runner on the opposite side of the road running opposite direction. Wow... Fast! I glance infront, expecting to make a uturn but when reach the roundabout the path leads instead into the housing area... Walan! Really making a BIG UTURN.

Started to feel breath weakening at this point. Huff, Puff, Huff, Puff... But still continue my pace till reach the water station, made a pitstop for water. Once water safely down my throat and the paper cup in the bin, hit the pedal again. Alot of young gung-ho where practically sprinting pass me. Wanted to follow their pace but my "ah pek" (old man) wisdom told me I'm better off running at my own pace. To my ego's satisfaction, I managed to cut some of them back when they habis gas. When I finally was running at the opposite direction of the road after making the BIG UTURN, saw lot of ppl running at where I was probably 20-30+ minutes ago. I made a evil snigger for the nasty suprise that awaits them at the roundabout infront of them...

At tis point my endurance was really nearing it's limit. Almost no gas left but still a long way to go. Then things started to look very odd to me as I started to see alot of people walking with no sweat. I run like f*ck but they walk without sweat also can outpace me!? Almost reaching the big road infront of JJ Bukit Tinggi I broke down. Gas sudah habis, there goes my strategy to run non-stop at a slow but at a consistent pace... Walk to recuperate for awhile (2-3 minutes maybe) then somehow managed to jump start my engine... Broke down another 2 more times, but managed to jump right back after 30-40 secs of walking. I think I was inspired by my competitive nature as when I saw a lot of young punks n mui mui chai cut me, a part of me was screaming "Common, are u goin to let these punks disgrace u like tis meh?" which motivates me to jump right back into joggin mode.

I was slowly walking (Broke down again) when I heard the finish line sound, sound of ppl cheering... I saw the finish line, and hit the pedal again. Crossed the finish line with the "Yea, did it!" sense of accomplishment. Went straight to grab a cup of water. The organizers were handing out freebies like energy drink, fruits, bread and crackers. As I slowly recover at the field, the event announcers were urging the participants to grab their certificate from the counters/booth/watever. I went to claim mine, but a long queue, seem alot of participants surname start with "K" like me. After claiming my certificate, I saw a friend of mine and went to sit at a corner with some of my old dogs from my high school days. As the band was performing on stage, I started my next event on my event list, "Kap Lui". My fren told me the fastest runner today had clock a 20-30 min time. After awhile, my old friends left so I also bla.

Abit dissapointed due to forget to start my stop watch when started running so I dunno did I managed to run under 1 hour or not (I estimated I didn't meet my mark, I ran at probably 6-7 min perkm pace + walk time probably 6 minutes ~= 1 hour+) but overall a good experience despite the hiccup at the start. Hey wat did u expect? After all I was surrounded by young babes that were all wet, steamy & sweaty, mate... Wakakaka... Oh ya, one more thing, hello people? run for peace? Pls la, start with something small and simple first la, like throwing litter into the proper place before world peace la!

Will put in a week rest to recover before resume jogging again. The BHP Orange run dunno can run 10km ar not... Won't have enuff time to train to run the extra 2km with my SG trip inbetween de. Should I skip it? I was actually planning to rest my leg at least 1-2 week for my ankle to recover before I found out bout Orange Run. See how my leg feels first the next 3-4 days then will decide... Till then tis is Bakau signing off this blog entry for "Run of Peace 2009"

PS: Sori, no photo of the event since I no camera and no one bother to take pix of me running since I lone ranger