Now that I know that the race director is the same person as Klang, it all becomes clear why the distances for Klang and MPAJ are wrong. You see, Klang was short by about 1km. Therefore, Mr Mohan or whatever his name is has to make MPAJ long by the same amount. This is to give people who got super-PB in Klang an incentive to train harder since they think that they have become very unfit and he can also claim that his race distances are "on average" measured correctly.
Its payback time for runners from Klang who had an extra hour of sleep for the Klang 10k. I got up at 4:45am and picked up pm11 at his house before 5:30am. Why so early? Well our team manager pm1 told us that the race starts at 7am so we wanted to get there early. Well too early in fact because we reached the area just after 6am. We had a lot of trouble finding where to park even though we knew the race started from the padang so we drove round in circles for a while. There was a severe lack of signage compounded by the fact that not many people were there yet. Suggestion for race organisers - put up signposts saying "This way to race start" or "Competitor parking - This way".
Anyway, we eventually parked the car opposite a few kopitiams some way from the padang. It wasn't just pm1 who needed to go to the toilet very often. Pm11 also seemed to suffer from the same pre-race nerves and visited both kopitiams opposite where our car was parked within a few minutes, and he didn't go there for food or drink. After spending lots of time deciding what to wear (yes sometimes I am worse than ladies before a night out) we finally started making our way to the start.
Again we had to use our own sense of direction to find the registration tent. No signs, or at least the signs were not visible because it was still dark. Along the way we ran into many other pm team members who had just arrived and were parking their cars along the side of the road. A few rushed greetings here and there and we continued on our way to the registration (at this point we still thought the start was 7:00am). All we had to do at registration was put the slip into a box for the lucky draw. Nothing more - much better than having to stand in a line to get some half awake official write your name on a sheet of paper.
There was some colourful language when we found out that the start was actually 7:30am. This meant we had quite a long time to warm up (and could have potentially spent 30 more minutes sleeping). The longer the warm up is, the more likely (at least for me) for doubts to creep in. For example, "Oh no, I feel tired even jogging along at this pace. How am I going to be able to go 10km at a much higher speed" etc etc. After changing into my blue racing shoes, there was still time to run around for a bit before the start. Well I would either be all warmed up and ready to run or already tired out from all the pre-race antics.
There was a massive crowd at the start line. People from all categories ranging from A all the way to Z, except there wasn't many people from B (which was a pity). It was a worse squeeze than an LRT leaving KL Sentral at 8:45am. Couldn't imagine running as it was impossible to move. Could just about hear the officials saying something on the super megaphone (super as in super soft, which is what you want from toilet paper and bedsheets but not for megaphones). Ha ha, trying to get us to move backwards. Might be more useful to go behind and tell the runners at the back to start moving first, but hey that is common sense, something that many organisers lack. Anyway after managing to confuse the hell out of certain veteran runners by changing distances they had to start the race in case a riot happened. So the race was started with a bang...
What a spectacular start it was, and I don't mean spectacular in the way one would perhaps describe the Olympics opening ceremony in Athens. Arms and legs all over the place. People jostling for position and pushing (sorry to anyone who I pushed, especially CM). People starting from in front of the actual line. People starting from the other side of the road. People starting from the other side of the road more than 100m after the start. I know the organisers might be trying to imitate the London Marathon with 5 or 6 different starts which eventually merge after several km, but man they have a lot to learn, starting with course measurement. Oh yes, there were some 7km runners mixed in with the main 10km start as well (by mistake, by design or because they were stuck).
Pm14 and I ran together along the long straight road, chatting occasionally. The crowds started thinning out as the people who started too quickly fell by the wayside. After about 1km, the familiar figures of pm1 closely followed by pm3 appeared just ahead of me. Offering words of encouragement, I overtook them one after the other. Coming up to the first left turn at the set of traffic lights (the first of many!), I caught up with pm9 who said that there were far too many people ahead to hope for a top-30 finish. Said goodbye to pm9 and I continued my journey of trying to overtake as many people in front as possible. Up a flyover and down onto the MRR2, caught an Indian runner whom I have run with in Klang, ran with him for a while before making my move. This pattern repeated itself but overtaking opportunities were becoming more difficult to come by as people settled into the normal pace.
Around this point I started feeling sort of the mid-race blues. Been running hard since the start but not near enough to the finish to pick up the pace. Something had to give and that was my pace. A couple of runners passed me during this bad patch. Tried to hang on to them but couldn't. Despite this I still went past several other runners who were probably suffering even more than me. Got on the back of Suleiman (from Guinea, studying at a college in Subang, met him at MMDS3 where he ran in the winning mixed relay team) just before the hill. Tried to get away from him on the hill but he countered. Maintained my pace to the top of the hill but just had to let him go. Some distance after the top of the hill was a left turn near some shops and this thankfully led to a fairly long downhill. This gave me a good view of the people in front of me. Got back to Suleiman as the route flattened off. Ran alongside him for a while (pretending I was running against a Kenyan) and then turned up the pace. This proved to be a decisive move as he did not / could not follow me.
Left again and back on the main road we started on, except it was in the opposite direction. A sense of relief as this meant that we were on the way to the finish. Caught and ran for a while with a runner who asked me where the finish was and how far it was. Told him that it shouldn't be too far away. Wound the pace up a little bit, he was still hanging on. Increased the pace a little bit more. Where was the right turn that would bring us to the finishing straight? Eventually got to the right turn and this was the incentive that I needed to start my finishing kick (well not really a kick like what pm15 can do over the last 400m but more of a sustained increase in pace). Think smoothness, think cadence, relax... Went past several more people in the finishing straight (most of which I think were not in category A), sneaked a quick look behind and someone appeared to be coming up. Up the pace even more in a desperate sprint for the finish. Where exactly is the finish? Was it where the balloons were? Taking no chances, I sprinted right past the balloons and straight down the cones towards the official's table before being told off. My answer to him was that how would I know where the actual finish is if there is no line on the ground and no one standing there to note down times.
Waited for what seemed like ages for the runners ahead to complete their finishing formalities. My turn. Got a slip of paper that said 31. Told them my name and it got noted down. WTF!! 31st place?! *&^&*(%£%^^&. One place away from prize money. Went to get my free bottle of water. Thought of going to collect the medal but the queue was quite long so I headed for the car to get changed first. Went back to the finishing area to collect my medal and look for pm11 so that I could give him the keys to the car for him to get his stuff. There is always the small hope that someone ahead of me would get DQ'ed so I had to wait for the official results. Personally I have not seen anyone in my category take a short cut, though some people have mentioned that it was highly likely. However, two runners were DQ'ed in category C for taking the 7km route.
More controversy! Someone (I shall not mention names) was giving another runner a hard time because the latter registered for several Thai runners, apparently on Friday after the closing date (but was still accepted by the MPAJ). He sort of accused him of not being patriotic in helping "outsiders" come in and win money which should be going to the locals, bringing me into the equation by saying that I lost at least one place because of the Thai runners. My take on this is that as long as someone ran faster than me and did not take a short cut, his place is fully deserved. What do I have to complain about? Arulthevar and Muniady should be even more unhappy as first place went to a Thai runner*. Late entry, well if the organiser accepts it, why not? Personally I would be happier if more organisers allowed entry on the day, perhaps with an added surcharge.
* Note – Arulthevar was unhappy! See this article in the Star. Ridiculous, both the statement from Mr Mohan and what Arulthevar thinks.
This was a pretty featureless and boring route, spiced up by one flyover, one hill and lots of traffic. The latter is not unexpected as the route included many main roads, for example we ran along a stretch of the MRR2 (thankfully far away from the cracked Kepong flyover which someone tells me is missing more than a few steel rebars due to "cost cutting") and also some of the key roads that the local residents use to get to their breakfast on a Sunday morning. I want to run against people, not machines powered by the internal combustion engine spewing out nasty fumes! The route was perhaps designed so that people could take shortcuts as it went through many Tamans with small side roads. Surely there are nicer places in Ampang Jaya to hold races. Furthermore, there was just an official noting down numbers at the far end of the 10km route. Maybe giving out strings or tags would have been more effective. Credit to where it is due, considering how busy the roads were, traffic control was actually fairly reasonable as drivers were prevented from getting too close to runners at the main junctions.
Just like Penchala everything just took so long. Lucky draw, prizes for colouring / drawing competition for kids. Unlike Penchala I didn't win anything in the lucky draw (or at least haven't yet won when I left as it was still going on). Checked the official results when they eventually came out and my 31st place was confirmed. Does it really take that long to sort the results out? Oh well, that's life. Chatted to many people as this was my last race for a while and finally left with pm1, pm21 and my passenger pm11 to go have some nice Ampang yong tau foo before setting off home.
Pm1, Pm10 and Pm16
Pm9 and Pm16
Pm10, Pm3, Pm1, Pm11 and Pm9
Pm3 keeping cool in borrowed Oakleys
Location 3°N 101°E
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