I did it!!
And I’m so shiok by the fact that I did it that I’m gona say it again…
I did it!! 
I ran 10km in 1 hour 29 mins for the KL Marathon 2009!
That is a major performance for someone who used to pancit after only 2km of jogging at 6km/hr, complete with dizziness, breathlessness, and occasional spewing of foam from side of the mouth.
Yes, that’s me lor. I used to HATE running. So purpose-less.
But ever since I started running for a cause, the running experience changed for me. I joined the Terry Fox Run twice when I learnt that it was part of the fund-raising efforts for cancer research.
And this time, Standard Chartered has chosen the following charity programmes to fund!
Now that’s running for a purpose!
You know la. How philanthropic I am. 
Psychkin and I started our day at the ungodly hour of 5am. While the body muscles were still reeling from paintball yesterday, I constantly asked ‘What am I doing to myself?’ @.@
As we reached Dataran Merdeka at 6.30, it was quite obvious that parking was gonna be a stupid affair. The main turn-offs to Dataran were all closed, and the nearest carparks were already full of cars that came at 4-5am. Crazy Kiasu people! Crazy people who joined 42km marathon who came early and occupy all the parking! Grrr.
So, after parking about 1 million km away, we got ourselves (last-minute) registered….then…Flag Off!!
I’m gonna first apologize about the pics you’ll see from this point. They suck terribly. I have no idea why PDA-phones can’t have better cameras than this. Oh well, better than carrying a big-ass camera all the way. Hehe.
Just before we entered the sea of people, I heard a familiar voice ‘EVO EVO EVO!!’
It’s Smashpop! And lots of hantu around him LOLs.
I can quite honestly say that in all my years living here, this is the first time I’m literally setting foot on Jln Dato Maharajalela.
Good thing that it was on the highway…no slopes, only occasional incline! My knees were so happy xD
Psychkin also camho-ed with many Hantus around her.
The 10km run is basically for those who find 5km bearable, and would like to try push it a little further. My personal experience during training says that I can go about 4 km at 9km/hr without stopping. I have never tried going a full 10km.
I decided that I wanted to found out if I could tahan 10km on the day itself haha. Shiok sendiri leh.
To bring things up to scale, there are the following choices runners can make : Full Marathon (42km), Half (21km), 10km (it’s not called Quarter Marathon cos it sounds puny), 5km Fun Run, Kids Dash (3km and 0.95 km).
So 10km is indicated as the light blue trail . Not bad eh. Not too long, not too short, but long enough to make my heart work overtime.
Toilet break!
As with all runs, you’ll see a crazy mess of used cups and sponges on the ground (which thankfully will be cleared by Alam Flora after the event). Sometimes I wonder if the wastage is worth it.
Again I apologize for the hantu right smack in the middle, who seems to be giving her butt a good time lol.
At the 6km mark, I started feeling slight pain in the ball of both my feet. That wasn’t good news. I was happy that I had no stitches so far, but feet pain? Too early wei! Good thing after 5-10 mins of slowing down, the pain wore off.
I felt that thankful for my shoes, which could have been the cause of relief. And suddenly I saw an Uncle running barefoot.
Wah. Isn’t doing this bad for his joints? Some more so old ady wor -__-
One of the wonderful things about joining a marathon is discovering much of the surroundings in KL. I took 2-3 minutes to look up in the sky while running, and realized that so much are missed when one drives across the same stretch in 10 seconds. On your feet, you would absorb the fresh sights, singing birds and fresh air i.e. the green part of KL.
I know it’s hard to think of all this while your legs are burning, but try Lah. Good for your mental health.
At 8km, I started to fall back. Psychkin had already gained some km’s ahead of me, and fatigue was kicking in already. Hey, my max was 7.5km during Terry Fox ok. This was unknown territory man.
Worse is when you’re faced with a U-Turn (after point 39), when you can actually see the other side that’s close to the finish line, except that there’s another 1+ km more to run. I was so tempted to turn into Jalan Semarang instead of going down to Jalan Sultan Ismail lol.
The presence of some hot female supporters was good in giving that much-needed extra boost.
There was less than 10 minutes left…Psychkin just reached the finish line. And my pants were falling down already.
Just when it seemed like I would miss the qualifying time,I came to the last bend before the finish line. The last 500 meters. The last 5 minutes. I ran as fast as my short legs would take me…Pants fall down also never mind.
And I made it past the finish line at 1:29:20. 40 seconds to spare haha….!! And I still had no stitches. I impressed myself.
(This was after I pulled up my falling pants)
As I took a breather while lying on the ground, that was when disaster struck. I was nailed by 4 guys who initially seemed to be walking innocently down the field.
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I was completely taken by surprise. How could anyone attack a defenseless guy lying down and enjoying his moment of relaxation?
Point to note : Psychkin is really fast with a camera when it comes to shots that look very…wrong. Like the one above. >.<
Btw, why must clowns always be guys? I would have loved the idea of being nailed by 4 female clowns….oh well. Maybe next time I’ll get lucky. As for now I’ll have to be satisfied with the Gay Clown Scandal.
After that point of climax, we met up with Zahim & Smashpop. Photos thanks to Niki Cheong @ BangsarBoy!
We also caught up with the Siao Gang aka Adrian, Eunice, Jen. (Junn, Hikaru are off-cam)
And of cos I went and cari my uni gang also. Me, Patrick Toon, Wei Luen. 3 Macho engineers from Monash.
Wei Luen apparently prefers to leave the safety pins stuck on his shirt, without fastening it. Nipple piercing, anyone?
The Real Monash Material.
I never had this much fun in any run before. With the right company, all things always seem awesome 
This was before we went to Lot 10 to shower and our 10km celebration : Saisaki Jap Buffet ^o^ I think I had 1 too many oysters. The one that Psychkin stuffed down my throat I ate really gave me the lausai last night.
I’m really looking forward to the next marathon, my next goal! All I have to do is be more careful of clowns that appear randomly. Hehe.
Cheers!
-EVo-
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