Lari-Lari Cari Makan Run

Event: ING KRI Cross Country Run 2006
Venue: Sunway City, Ipoh
Date: 19 November 2006
Distance: 12.1km
Timing: 1hour 13min 15sec
Category position: 23 / 72

Saturday

I had decided to take is easy and enjoy this run after having run at Wangsa Maju the day before. We drove down the day before in Lee's car and were staying in his Niece's house in Ipoh Garden. When we arrived we had to collect the numbers and goodie bags for 15 people!! Thank goodness it didn't take us that long to get this done before going to the place we were to stay in.

I managed to get a one hour nap before we went out for dinner. Drove to Merloon hotel to meet Chong there. He and many other Klava runners were staying there and we needed to pass their bibs to them. They joined us for dinner at the famous Taugeh Chicken shop. We managed to meet Ronnie, Jack, Lai, Rachel, Sim and Ryan there as well.

That night I really ate and ate. I had one bowl of kuey teow, meatballs, chicken and taugeh the first round. The next round we went and had some tau fu fah. It was really amazing how delicious it was considering I am not a fan of this dish. From there we went to another restaurant since Peter had not eaten and arrived late. Here I had another bowl of noodles and a few sticks of the best chinese satay I have ever eaten.. yuuummmyy!!

Next morning

I slept like a baby that night. The bed was exceptionally comfortable and I was really tired having woken up at 4.30am that morning. We woke up at 6am and were out of the house by 6.45. There was plenty of parking by the roadside. Met Choi who was walking by and passed him the sample Saucony jerseys.

The race site was really happening. There were so many different sponsors setting up their booths there. The weather was excellent, very cooling and the sky was beautiful and clear. Most runners were already there and everyone looked very excited. I did some warmups and chit chatted with as many runners as possible. I don't remember if the PMs took a group photo before we started.. hmmmm. But I took a photo with CM, Wendy and Rachel.


CM, DK, Wendy and Rachel

The race

I started somewhere in the middle of the pack. I was initially running with Albert and Choi until we reached the foothill. As we approached the foothill of the 'mountain' we were going to climb everyone was waaahhhiing away! Haha! I was also quite taken aback when I saw how steep it was. Almost everyone was walking up so I just followed suit and enjoyed it quite a bit. You can see the picture below which shows how much fun I had in that climb!



Photo taken by Tey who had gone ahead and waited at the hillside. Picture shows me enjoying myself. Albert is just in front of me also seen smiling. Tey was chiding us for walking!


I think it must have taken me at least 15 minutes to clear the long uphill climb. Just as we thought it was finishing, there lay another long stretch in front of us. Albert was soon left behind and as soon as we cleared the climb I started running and overtaking as many as I could. I could see that most runners were being cautious especially on the downhill stretches, but with my recent trip to Nuang I knew that I would not slip on this terrain so I ran my normal pace.

After clearing the downhill stretch, the final part of the trail was quite flat. This lasted for at least a few kilometers before we exited the trail back onto the road. In a way I was glad to get back onto the road, my legs felt a bit sore actually despite running slow. Must have been that sharp climb earlier and also my race the day before.

Once back on the raod, I was back to my own self running at quite a decent but still considerably easy pace. I even chatted with a few runners and managed to encourge some who were walking to run with me. In the last 2km I must have passed at least 30 runners who were either slowing down or walking. The body was feeling good so I pushed my pace just a little at the final stretch. Tey was there to take my finishing photo! Total time was 1hour 13min 15sec.


You can see how comfortable the race was for me.. hehe! Later I was scolded by Chen for not pushing all out. But I want to enjoy at least some of my runs by just experiencing the event and the people in it. There will always be a time to pia and a time to take it easy!

As you can see in the picture above. Two thumbs up for this event. KRI has said that this will be an annual event and they are moving away from the previous road race they have always organised. I say Yay!! to that! I will be back again next year! Later of course before going back to Klang there was more makan.. makan and makan!