Last weekend I got a last minute offer that I had to say yes to. Earlier in the year I had applied for the KL half marathon only to find out that all the 5000 places had been filled. Drat. I had left enough time to complete enough training as well, so I thought. One week before the actual event the Lawrence Clan thought that it would be a good idea to attend the KL Junior Hash House Run in the jungle, an event that we had been to previously and really quite enjoyed. At that event two significant things happened: I managed to leave my trainers and socks on the door step at home as well as meet a family that had a potential spare ticket for the KL race. The results of those events? I staggered three and a bit kilometers through jungle part in flip-flops, part sliding out of flip-flops and mostly in bare feet. The second result was receiving a text two days before the KL run asking if I wanted a ticket for the half marathon or 10km event? I got the message just after finishing playing football, which I was playing just after my feet had recovered from my bare-footed jungle exploits. I thought short and hard and opted for sensible-ness and said yes to the 10km offer. The race was on Sunday.
Early on Saturday morning I had agreed to accompany Trixie to her own battle with the jungle and elements in the International Schools Cross Country event, under nine girls category (her not me). We rose at 5.00am, scoffed energy giving weetabix and set off for the 0620 departure from school. And big credit to The Girl Lawrence who came 22nd out of field of fifty-ish seven, eight and nine year olds. She did admit afterwards that she would have come a few places higher had she not stopped to help one of her team-mates up who had slipped over in the mud. I was not sure what to be more proud of her effort or her thoughtfulness. Someone else who was very proud was the ice-cream bloke who happened to up at just the right time to sell loads of ice-creams to the the several hundred sweating runners and families.
Back home and back to another early start on Sunday, this time a more leisurely 0530 get- up, breakfast and departure so that I could get an early train in central KL for the 0745 start of the 10km leisure category. There were thousands waiting at the starting line and I felt quite daunted. All I wanted to do was to run the whole thing and not disgrace myself. But the field did warrant closer examination. Most people were wearing the sponsor's free running vest, one that I had decided I did not want to wear as it didn't flatter me, and quite a few people were wearing shorts. However there were an awful lot of people who looked like the only preparation that they had done was have several good meals and then pick up bottles of water. There were two starts (at 0645 and 0715) before my allotted time so I was quite pleased to be setting off, when we did, surprisingly for a Malaysian event, bang on time. The competitors were set off by a red-haired early morning DJ / holiday rep type whose every third encouraging word was "awesome." I was delighted to finally get going.
The first stretch, along Jalan Tunku Abdel Rahman was at walking pace due to the thousands and I was getting a bit jittery wanting to run. However the field had other ideas. It very soon became clear that people were there for a walk around the city centre and free t-shirt rather than any athletic challenge. My challenge soon became not just to run all the way but to test out my in-motion-hip-swerves as I dodged round gossiping strollers. Very soon my cohort had caught up the walkers from earlier races which made the whole thing feel like the self-propelled equivalent of a KL traffic jam. Walkers went in seemingly random directions, with no advanced signaling or indication of changes of pace.
I did complete the event, in one hour and nine minutes, six minutes under my rather generous target, although had I run it in a straight line and had I not stopped briefly to top up the Klang River, I might have knocked a couple of minutes off. Some highs and lows of the event? The four piece band at 6.5km plus the high-fiver at 7 km really helped. The hill from km7 to km 8.5 certainly did not help.
Overall I really did enjoy it and despite finishing dripping wet and very hot I am keen to have another go and maybe even try the longer distance. More training and new trainers are a must though.