Obtained the entry from from Ashari, another Kidurong running kaki who asked me to join in the event. I asked him the distance and he said only 5.6km. A later found out that was the Junior Veteran category while I will be running in the Mens Open (11km).
I have already planned to be in Kuching with my family during this period and I have also registered my uncle Hamdan to join in the Senior Veteran category (4.3km).
I collected my bib on 25 Dec 08, managed to do two 5km runs a few days before the race. Our category was flagged of at at 7:30am from Baitul Makmur. I followed the middle pack and was slowly falling behind. I reached the 3km mark at 17:15, that was when I realised that I started too fast. After collecting the first ribbon at Bulatan Stadium I tried maintaining the pace as we join the other categories into heading towards Jalan Pustaka.
At the 4km mark I was breathing heavily and started to walk with the rest. From this point onwards I would alternately walk and run. The route became congested at Jalan Samariang after collecting my 2nd ribbon. There was hardly room to run with the heavy vehicle traffic coming out from Santubong. I had to run on the grass to avoid the traffic. A group of young runners about 200m in front of me were also adopting walk/run. At the DBKU junction (8.5km) the medic van asked if I was OK to which I gave thumbs up. At 10km just outside Masjid Jamek I could see a few runners about 500m trailing behind me and the group in front of me were already out from reach. I walked a couple more metres before taking a stride to the finish with 1:19:10 (34th placing)
It was nice to join this run and meet fellow runners like Khoo Yit Kiat and crazytomatoman who were 4th and 7th respectively. It turned out to be a lucky day for my uncle Hamdan, winning a table fan in the lucky draw.
With Uncle Hamdan & Ashari
My faithful supporters
