DER PACEMAKER #53

When I reached home from the Relay for Life KL 2008, was surprised to receive an email from Pm1. It was in fact an invitation to join the Pacemakers family. It was indeed an honor & a privilege to be invited into der pacemakers family.

Now where should I begin? Ok, here goes. I was never into running during my high school although I did some time trial for 100m. I think my personal best was 17 sec but I guessed was not good enough to represent my blue team. I was also in the reserve team for 800m. Don’t really know why ya I was not in the first team. Like most youngsters, running/playing/fooling around was the name of the game in those days. There wasn’t any objective/purpose. Basically, as long as I was able to maintain a general good health & sweat will do.

College time came & went away & what do you know, getting a bit lumpy here & there due to lack of exercise & too much sugar. Pressured by exams & more exams, one starts to wonder whether this was the right course. Anyway, no knowledge of nearest park in my house plus no transport to LG or elsewhere, I had to resort to something already. Started running casually in the mornings before anyone wakes up in the weekdays before classes & in the weekends. I called this the ‘Great Wall of China miniature’ route (GWCM). I think C3 should know this route. Basically there are just 2 long roads, kinda like a running track whereby you run in circles. No hills at all. The feeling was ecstatic, it was great, the air was cool, some days there was a bit of mist, fog, no fumes from vehicles. The only irritating part was those talkative aunties & uncles.

Even when I started working & owned a car, I have never really ventured into any parks to run. I feel I am doing just great in my GWCM route. Who would want to forgo such a great route. Imagine you are the only soul running there early in the morning, the feeling was great. Up until I guessed when I started participating in road races. Mind you, I was not actively going for road races, only the famous ones such as KLIM or PJ Half Marathons. Now, thanks to der pacemakers, I have all the info on road races at my finger tips.

How the story of der pacemakers come to my attention was like this. When I started running in PJ Half Marathons, by now, I could recognize few familiar faces already notably Kelvin Ng. The rest had not come into my picture yet. I have always noticed the red vest they wore & on their backs it is stated der pacemakers. Who are these guys? I thought there was only one running club in Malaysia which is pacesetters & who is this photographer that goes around snapping them while they ran. Of course now I know that is pm22.

Intensive research was carried out on the internet searching for this der pacemakers group & I finally found out who they really are. Of course, being Malaysian always shy shy/not dare to approach them/paiseh type, I know who they are now & their captain, pm1. I think I reached a point whereby I said to myself I could do so much alone, why not join others to keep the fire of running burning in me. I was getting tired already running alone in the GWCM route. This was my worst fear, not motivated to run anymore. I need something fresh, new environment to run & I picked up the guts to chat with der pacemakers group in the cbox & what do you know. They are great in welcoming me in their running circles. Not at all snobbish even though I would say they are the most elite runners in Malaysia.

Stanley Cheong @ Pm53
eyuenteck@yahoo.co.uk