Be A Runner, Be A Giver Charity Run 2012

I know it's only a 6.4k charity race but I have so much time on my hands at the moment that I thought I'd do a short review on the event :D

I signed up for this race quite a few months back and didn't realize it was this weekend until the wife reminded me. Being an Arsenal fan, I simply had to sign up for this event and besides it was for charity anyway.

My well deserved 'finisher' medal ...

Got to the race site bright and early. Since I was still 'too young' for the veteran category, I was signed up for the open category and the moment I got there and saw all those super fast looking young runners, the first thing I said to the wife was,

'Oh man, I'm doomed. I'm going to be eating their dust all the way to the finish!'

The front runners were so fast they were literally flying!

All thoughts of getting my hands on that very limited range of medals looked like a tough prospect. But not to be dissuaded, I joined up with  them at the holding area and did a couple of loops of warming up to get the legs and muscles loosened up.

Before race start ...

Before I go any further let me say the entire event was pretty well organized except for one part which wasn't the fault of the organizers. The race started off an entire half an hour late simply because the guest of honour, that Mukhriz Mahathir fellow and his entourage turned up late to flag off the event. I'm sure he had a PA to remind him way in advance that flag off is at 7.30am and not 8.00am. Punctuality means a lot to me.

The finish area ...

Everyone had to wait at the start line for them to arrive which I thought was unacceptable. Even though it's a charity event and they had an agenda of their own to look good but in the end it's all about the runners. They woke up bright and early and reached the race location way before flag off and having to wait for these certain politicians for half an hour really pissed me off! I was totally cooled down by the time the race was flagged off.

The finish line just in sight ...

Ok, now that I got that off my chest, the rest of the race was pretty well organized or at least it looked that way to me. I decided from the start that it would be a pedal to the metal kinda race for me. Kept to a steady average 5 minute pace the entire length of the race without any difficulties. The lungs were able to keep pace with the legs. I guess all that tempo and intervals I've been slogging away during the weekdays do come in handy.

We spotted our dog's vet running, didn't know she was a runner even ... 

This being a race in KL, traffic was the usual chaotic stuff with drivers doing their impatient 'honk at a runner in anger' routine. I decided to just wave at all these impatient honkers with a huge smile on my face ... LOL! There were two water stations, skipped the first and took a swig at the second one.

Nothing really exceptional happened during the race and I crossed the finish line in a time of 32 minutes. Collected my medal and goodie bag which consisted of a bun, a 5-1 coffee mix and fried rice seasoning, really not the best of goodie bags but I wasn't there for that anyway.

The' goodies' ...

A big thank you goes out to the wife, a devout Manchester United fan for turning up at an Arsenal supported event to cheer me on and take pictures of the race :D Thanks babe! Now to prep for the PJ Half next Sunday.

With Jason after the run ...