Pacesetters GE 20km 2007 - race report

I manage to complete the run and I'm so happy. Thanx to Lawrence and Jasbert for being such great pacers. I was not feeling too good the day before and I woke up at 5.10 am feeling like sh*t. I didn't really felt like running but my mind was set of running the race no matter what. I went to the washroom twice and that made me feel better. I quickly rushed off to Lake Garden to find myself caught in a bad jam coz the 30k runners were getting out of the park and the cars had to wait for ALL of them to leave before going in.

I quickly changed in the car and put on my clothes and running gear. When I parked the car, which was the other end of the park, I only had like 15 mins to warm up and in the rush, I forgot to bodyglide my "sensitive" areas. I only found this out while warming up and it was too late for me to run back to the car or I'll miss the starting gun.

I met Lawrence, Jasbert, Martin (lonerunner) and Jessica at the starting line. The gun went off and we had to squeeze ourselves through the crowd. These "semangat" runners will start off fast and not know what's ahead of them. I guess the Hartamas hills will separate the boys from the men. And as I predicted, as Lawrence, Jasbert and me arrived at the mosque, the crowd has already thinned out. Thank God we did not have the run the govt office hill and that really lessened the burden on the legs.

I kept to a comfortable pace and manage to run the whole of Hartamas route without much stress. I cheered those doing the 30k as they headed to Petronas. Ronnie overtook me before the Mosque and he looked relaxed and managed a smile. My right knee felt sore on the way down the Tani hill and had to stopped twice to rub it a bit. Lawrence and Jasbert was behind me and they manage to catch up with me and we ran the rest of the race till the end. Lawrence surged ahead of me when we arrived at Lake Gardens. He finished strong and I was so glad to cross the finishing line with a time of 2:02.49.

I headed straight for the Powerbar tent and gulped down cup after cup of recovery. I think the guy manning the stall gave me one of the stares coz I was just taking cup after cup. After my 10th cup, I headed to the Milo van and took another drink. I was just too tired to eat and had to 'ta pau' my nasi lemak home. I chilled out with one of my neighborhood running mate who finished the 20k in 1:50 (this guy has not run in almost a month and he can clock such a good time. Natural runner!) After chatting with him, Meng came back and we were surprised he did a sub 3 hours. This guy is really improving but I now have to run my neighborhood alone coz he moved to Damansara Perdana.

Overall, I think this year's race was exceptionally good. The management and coordination was excellent. I guess GE and The Pacesetters can make this race much bigger if they had more media coverage. All I have is praises for the organisers and really appreciate those who helped out at the water stations and traffic. Well done.