Great Eastern Pacesetters 30km 2007

Date: 21 Jan 07
Venue: Tasik Perdana (Lake Gardens), Kuala Lumpur
Time: 6am
Distance: 30km
Terrain: sloppy

I read with interested on Pacesetters 25km 2006. When 30km come along, i didn't have much thought and proceed to sign up. 30km event is malayisa version of progressive run to built up for KL marathon in March 07.

The post makan event, plus with accompany of a large group of running kaki, plus in KL make this event difficult for me to ignore. Thanks to Heeshen, he managed to register for myself, Francis and Ahbay. A pity the 2 didn't make it. Nevertheless the show will have to goes on.

Friday, I am suppose to meet sweetheart latest by 7pm at Jurong East MRT and travel down N-S highway to KL. Intention is to meet up with Gentle at Sg Besi toll exit at 10:30pm. Alas due to some unforeseen circumstance sweetheart was delayed until 7:45pm. I quickly sms gentle to informed about the delayed, fortunately he reply back that he will proceed to move ahead with his GPS in his car as directory to the hotel.

The travel to KL was littered with rains throughout the ride. It was like every 30mins ride with the blessed with rain on the journey. I have to slow down on a few occasions due to the weather. Nevertheless it was a good ride. I have a pit stop at Keroh Ayer R&R to top up before proceed to KL.

It was a straight forward drive to the hotel, reach hotel carpark at 10:25pm. It took me 3:40hr.

Check in and cross over to Chinatown for black hokkien mee. All(if not all) of the shops have closed. Fortunately the store that sell the hokkien mee is still in business. Though we managed to take black hokkien mee, but the quality isn't what we expected. After makan went back to hotel to rest for the night.

I woke up with an aching neck! My neck just dont like the those soft pillow after getting use to the contour pillow at home....:( We have breakfast at the hotel. It was disappointing to say the least. The quality have dropped a lot since the last trip.

Around 10:30am, we drove to Lake Garden to pick up the goodie bag. Though we make a few twist and wrong turns, we did finally to find our way to the destination. It is a hugh garden, very nice. Saw familiar faces like Tey and KC was at the booth. Pay the $ and collect the bib stuffs. Left the place around 11:00am and head towards KLCC.

Another twist and wrong turns again, but we did manage to find our way to KLCC. We walk and shop around. I didn't have any particular thing in mind to buy, so just window shopping around. For some reason, i feel sleepy there and hope i can find a bed! Alas, must be zombie walking around the place. It was raining cat and dog outside! We decided to drive back to hotel for a rest as both of us are tired.

Another twist and wrong turns and about 30mins later, we ended up in Midvalley. Don't ask me how we reach there, i don't do. I have drove to Midvalley on a few occasions before and i guess fate lead us back to there, might as well go in. The traffic going into Midvalley is horrible. Carpark is so pack with so many cars! It took us at least 20 mins to get a carpark lot!

The crowd is packed especially at the level of the cinema area. It is good to be back after 2 years? I think so ba. We have dinner at one of the restaurant. The food wasn't great, but the price is pretty good though.

We left Midvalley and didnt have much detours before we reach hotel after 7pm+ It was a jam packed road again. The rain really make commuting very challenging. We drop our stuff at the hotel and proceed to walk petaling street. Yesterday evening we came late so not much to see at Petaling, today we did manage to catch the crowd. We have another makan session at KFC to try out their new food.

We headed back to hotel for a well deserved rest. It was tiring mentally with the driving around.

Woke up at 4:20am, neck still hurts! Do my normal pre-race routine. Left the hotel at 4:56am to meet up the rest of the too-family at their hotel(tang dyansty) at 5am which is about 100 meters away.

We left at 5:15am and walk towards Lake Garden. It is a long walk about 25mins to the start point. It was still dark, when we reach the start point. Went to the loo, send in the baggage and have to search for the organiser to pass them the reporting card to get the purple ribbon. Just managed to do all these within 10mins and was just 2 mins shy before the start of the run! It was closed, not comfortable at all!

The race started and as usual the mass run forward. I just do it at my leisure pace as i know more slopes are anticipated in front. I was prepared for the hills, my training should be able to carry me through. Somehow when i reach the first water point about 33 mins later, i wish it would rain heavy in the morning and i just nua in the hotel! I don't feel comfortable in the run. I don't know why! maybe i ran too fast? Cannot be!

I was running by myself up and down the slope. Heeshen was infront about 50-100meters. Slowly i run along, knowing that it is just a matter of time when all this will come to an end.

I guess about 13km, when a group of 3 african runners make the return trip on the other side. They are very fast. As i move along, i saw more familiar faces on the other side of the return leg. It was good to see so many familiar faces, it seems like racing in Singapore!

As the run progress, i feel stronger mentally as i feel i should be able to run non-stop up the slope and down again, minus the water point. My hamstring are getting tighter, but i am still able to move along slowly but steadily. Alot of folks have start to walk. Some are asking around am i there? A sign of tiredness.

I do not know how many water points i have came across, but when i feel i have ran 25km, i start to put in more effort to push on over the last 5km. I finished the run feeling good, didnt really put in the maximum effort as i am more or less treating this as a training run or rather milestone for the coming HK marathon.

I complete the run in 3:04hr.

Quite a small crowd. I mean normally there are a few thousands runners and everyone are so dispersed that this is different. Everyone is very closed together. I go around having recovery drinks, ice milo, cheng teng, tao hue, ice-cream...haha....what kind of post run makan is this??? Uniquely Malaysia i guess. Haha....

Glad that it provide opportunity to catch up with each other from Sgrunners and too-family.

I left Lake Garden slightly after 10am with some toos to the hotel. It was a long walk back. I reach hotel around 10:35am. Bath and relax abit before leaving hotel at 12 noon.

We go merry go round again in the car before we hit Sg Besi toll at 12:45pm! It was an typical drive back, with similar conditions as coming over to KL, except for the different lighting conditions.

We reach JB at 4pm. Go across to Holiday plaza for some food before proceed for a massage. The 2 hrs there was much painful compare to the 3hr workout this morning!

After massage we proceed to come back to Singapore. The causeway was jammed for more than 1 hr in JB before i go across. Less than 10mins we are free to roam in Singapore!

Not a good trip i would say. Food wasn't great. Shopping isn't fun. Keep making wrong turns in the car. Weather was horrible. Something is not right.

Pictures here.