(report by pm19)
Ronnie and I agreed to meet at the Bukit Aman car park before our scheduled 15km training run of 6.30am. This was my 1st ever run on the route and I was looking forward to it. I was there by 6.15am and so was Ronnie. There was already quite a large group of Pacesetters there, warming up and doing their stretches. Chen then arrived looking like he just got out of bed, but after Ronnie told him to hurry up, he got changed in a flash, and was ready to go. Chen told us that he went to bed at 2.00am! After some stretching (and a quick pangsai from Ronnie!), off we went.
Me, Ronnie, Adam, Khoo, Pua and Chen ran together. We passed Padang Merbok, the school and the road into Bank Negara and by then Chen started falling back (probably due to the effects of sleeping at 2.00am). Pua in the meantime was starting to pull away from the rest of us. The next half an hour or so, me, Ronnie, Khoo and Adam were more or less bunched together and we chatted a little bit. Khoo and Ronnie then started increasing their pace while I stayed back chatting with Adam. At one point Pua was about 300 metres ahead! Khoo and Ronnie were about 150 metres ahead. Our run took us past the roads of the Bukit Tunku area, and in there came the first hill. I was still feeling pretty fresh, so although the hill looked beastly, it wasn’t that bad. By then I made it a point to try and catch up with Ronnie and Khoo because I didn’t want to be completely out of reach. As we negotiated the hills I closed the gap, and by the end of the Bukit Tunku route we were running together again. We also saw Jamie running the opposite side!
We were together more or less from then on, with Khoo making the occasional surges. When we approached the Sultan’s palace I was beginning to feel the effects of our pace and by the Tugu Negara I mustered enough strength to ask Ronnie and Khoo who were just ahead of me- how much further we had left. They told me another 5-6 kms and inside I groaned. Tey was in that vicinity, snapping photos of us running. Past the outside of the Lake Gardens and into the windy roads leading to Carcosa, I tried to hang on for as long as I could and I was surprised to have managed that. We did a mini cross country because we had to climb into the Lake Gardens again through the muddy terrain (the usual exit/entrance was blocked due to works), past the lake, and onto the second dreaded hill. As we were approaching the hill Adam was there waiting for us. He had stopped earlier to get some water (apparently the water fountains were not working) and he joined us again from then on. Up the hill I could see the light at the end of the tunnel although Khoo was way ahead of me and Ronnie. As Khoo surged ahead, Ronnie shouted out to Khoo and motioned him to turn back and take yet another hill. By then I was swearing “%$%&&!!! I thought we were already on that last hill!!!” I asked Ronnie, between my gasps for breath, when were we finishing. I was really dying by then. He told me it was soon! Khoo, Ronnie and Adam were ahead of me. Past that hill we were back on the main road, and where we passed the Bird Park. I was about 70 meters behind them but I then got a second wind and started surging because I realized that we were very close to the Bukit Aman car park. I caught up with them by then and we arrived at the car park at a time of 1 hr 13 mins 07 seconds.
By my calculations, the time would roughly translate to a 4:52 per km pace or about 7:50 per mile pace.
After the run Jamie was and there and all of us chatted for a bit and took some photos. Later it was breakfast time at the nearby stall- nasi lemak and teh tariks all round. After that I had to leave for my second breakfast with my folks, but not before another photo session with the breakfast group.
All in all it was a very satisfying run. The route was undulating. Running with friends definitely helps you run faster and better. I was pretty tired towards the end of the route but with pm1's encouragement I managed to complete it.
One thing though: where is the Goodie Bag comprising PowerGel Tongkat Ali Power Root (Triple Caffeine) by Chen???
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