My First Fun Run

My first run was called ‘Fun Run’ – which was of course not fun at all, at least not during the course of it. It was the SetiaEco Run organised by Setia Alam. The distance? As it was meant to be ‘fun’ it was only 4.5km. Sounds like a piece of cake? I thought so too, initially. Being a sharing-means-caring person, I managed to persuade or rather ‘coax’ my exercise ‘bestie’ cum neighbour – John and two of my drinking cum karaoke (basically the vices) buddies – Vivian Viv and Cherrie Merry to participate in the run. The run supposed to flag off at 7 a.m. John and I were relying on the lousy GPS on my iPhone to locate the place – Setia Alam, where I had never stepped into prior to 5th June 2010. We reached there about 6.30 a.m. and after losing our directions for another 10 minutes, we finally found the starting point and holy cow, both sides of the road were full with cars and judging at the limited time left before the flag off time and considering the fact that it would not be a good idea to walk a long distance after the run, we were struggling to find an ‘illegal’ spot to park my car. We found it finally and after a tedious maneuvering of the vehicle (actually John did the final swerving and reversing as he was quite pissed with my parking skill), we quickly got down and pinned our bibs (I know, I know, we should have did it earlier) and chucked everything into the trunk. Then we had to wait for Viv and Cherrie Merry to park their car next to ours blah blah blah. We basically did our warming up by running to the starting point and we just made it in time there to hear the flag off horn.

The first 1km was comfortable and John was just about 10 feet ahead of me. Then, the 10 feet distance became 20, and 20 became 30 and soon I lost sight of him (I recognized him via his glaring red shorts). By the time I hit the 3rd km I was gasping for breath and asking myself: why am I doing this? Then I spotted this old uncle who was jogging steadily ahead of me and it immediately stirred the kiasuness (fear of losing) in me. And I hasten to overtake him…then another uncle here and an aunty there. I was physically tired and due to too much smoking, I was short of breath. And as if it was not enough, the rain started to pour. I had no idea how I finally made it to the finish line. I have to admit, the moment you crossed the finish line was simply, sensational! I clocked in 35 minutes for my first 4.5 km run! 5 minutes slower than John but I was just glad I made it. Oh, and apparently I was no.15 in the women’s category. I collected my finishers’ medal and man, it felt so good!

There were some sidelights to my first race – Viv crossed the finish line about 10 or 15 minutes later and declared that her shoe sole came off and she had to walk all the way back. Cherrie Merry clocked in God knows how long later and announced that she felt like puking. The best part was when we walked back to the car, to our dismay and shock, someone smashed Cherrie Merry’s front passenger window and Viv’s newly purchased Coach bag was stolen. Instead of the original plan of feasting on a sumptuous breakfast, we ended up in the police station for 40 minutes – cold, wet, tired, hungry and smelly. The report was finally lodged (no thanks to the inefficiency of Malaysian policemen) and we had a quick breakfast at a Mamak stall behind the police station. Viv and Cherrie Merry went back to the police station to record their statements. Needless to say, Viv and Cherrie vowed that they would never participate in any run whatsoever and they would just stick with boozing and karaokeing. John and I drove back and I just have this to say to John: Your shorts stunk!!