Monday, March 31, 2008

Better than Expected

Last week's panic attack about the KLIM half proved unfounded. Surprisingly, I didn't suffer as much as I thought I would.

I'm also quite pleased with my time. Although I missed my initial target of 2h10m, I managed to meet and exceed my revised target of please-let-me-just-finish-within-cutoff by quite a margin.

Some notable observations:
- Senn ran with angel wings on her back. She was playing guardian angel to Mac and Jo.
- Some dude showed up in a Spiderman suit, complete with mask! Dude must have been hot as hell!
- Another dude ran in tight-fitting jeans and Doc Marts.
- The 5km mark wasn't really 5km. It didn't take into account the extra 2km loop we had to do at the beginning.
- Ditto the 7.5km and the 10km mark.
- The East-West link highway after Menara Seputih is uphill. Always felt flat in a car.
- The Sungei Besi airport runway is damn long! We were running alongside it and it just seemed to go on forever.
- Running near a cemetery during Qing Ming is not a good idea. The traffic was so bad that we had to run between cars sometimes.
- Overtaking Stephanie Chok at Jalan Imbi was a highlight. Though it must be said, she was probably taking it easy and I was going flat out!
- The adidas climacool shower on Sultan Ismail was a welcome treat.
- There was a traffic jam of runners from Jalan Imbi onwards where the half route merged with the 10kand the 7k route.
- The guy at the last water station said "last 3km" but it was actually a lot less than that. It was more like 1km to go.
- The 10k runners' finish was an anti-climax. Instead of powering through the line, arms raised, they had to line-up to cross the line.
- The organisers really discriminate the 10k, 7k runners from the half and full marathon runners. I sat down to dip my feet in the post-race recovery area but they wouldn't even let Senn (who ran the 10k) into the area.

So, I've survived the KLIM half. What's next?

6 comments:

Adrian said...

i saw the tight jeans and doc martens guy last year! agree with u re: flat roads becoming hilly when you run them! wow - you overtook steph chok!

SaifulAzri said...

next race, klang NB half marathon, jom masuk!!

Ali said...

that man who dressed like a rockstar has been running since 1982. He said those boots are ok for running since he is used to it. it was nice to see you. good job on your run. oh and his name is rahim. hehe.

tryathlete said...

adrian: yeah, i did but it has to be said, she was taking it easy chit-chatting while i was going flat out

saiful: klang half clash dgn jasmine and elmar punye triathlon workshop so takleh join.

ali: i guess if he's been running in them for more than 20 years, he should be used to it. It was very noisy though. and good job on your run as well!

Anonymous said...

hi, i came from stupe's blog! i saw Senn at the beginning of the race, only i thought she was a fun runner who'd wandered in to the wrong pen and decided to stay :P sorry!

Ishsal said...

nice going dude! see you at afamosa then.