Finale Run of 2010 - It's Crazy but It's Fun

There is of course a streak or two of insanity in every runner. At the very least, this is how most non runners view the runners. Hence, there could be no better run to end the running calendar for year 2010 than the Spritzer-KRI Annual Run - which was to be held at Tanjung Rambutan, a small town in Ipoh where Hospital Bahagia, the oldest psychiatric hospital in Malaysia is located and thus the town is more often than not associated with mentally illness. KRI - Kelab Runners of Ipoh had handpicked the auspicious day of 12th day of the 12th month of the year and the corresponding distance of 12km! Since I have did 10km on the 10th day of the 10th month it would be kind of dramatic (and also corny) to do a 12.12.12! Lastly, 12km would be just a nice distance as a recovery run post the PBIM's half marathon.....so I thought.

Joe and me set off for Ipoh on the 11th - in order to collect the goodies bags and mainly to commence our food marathon in another food heaven-town, Ipoh. First pit stop was Hong Kee Muar Chee - a roadside stall near Jalan Pasir Pinji. The muar chee (glutinous rice cake coated with peanut butter-sugar crumbs) and the peanut butter paste was as good as I remembered it. After the 'appertizer/dessert', we went to collect our bibs and goodies bag near the Ipoh Stadium. Thereafter, Hor Fun at Tianjin Old Town Ipoh and the feast continued. Rose, Nyna, Armin, Nawal and Little Aaraf arrived in the evening and we went straight to have nasi kandar as our last carbo loading session before the run.

The next morning, we set off in two cars - Nawal, Armin and Aaraf in Armin's infamous racing car and Joe, Rose, Nyna and me in the safe car ;p. I googled the place, to wit, Bukit Kinding Resort the night before and we followed the directions religiously. After 40 minutes later, we found ourselves wandering in a quiet village road with no resort to be seen. Finally, we got help from this uncle on a motorbike who agreed to lead us back to the correct destination. We drove in the dark till the break of dawn. By the time we found the resort and parked our car (illegally), the race was about to be flagged off and as we ran towards the starting point we heard they announced "Let's wait a minute for these few runners". There went our warm up. Before we knew it, the whistle was blown and we found ourselves running amidst runners.

Breathtaking view from one of the highest point

The webiste mentioned something about "Scenic Run". Scenic run indeed it was....but after 5 minutes into the run, I began to question myself: "Am I on the right run? This looks like a climb!!!" Yes, it was too late to back off when I saw the hilly slope, more than 45 degrees....on 90% of the entire route. At one point, I could see the whole village at the bottom of my feet. I was panting and 'climbing' basically. Even the route downhill was pretty precarious. It was so hard! And I couldn't believe how slow I was. But then again, the scenery was indeed captivating, the air was fresh and it felt good to be amongst some of the serious runners in the country (I reckon that for one to come all the way in the middle of no where one has to be quite serious and passionate about running). I finished in 1 hour 26 minutes. Aaraf and Armin (who did not run as he needed to babysit Aaraf), Nawal and Joe were already waiting at the finishing line. Moments later, Rose and Nyna made it too in good timing! We camwhored under the scorching hot sun, had our milos and cendol (could not be compared with the Penang's cendol at all) and Nawal got the 14th placing!!

We went back to the hotel, showered, took a nap and checked out. The Armins have already left. Rose, Nyna, Joe and me began another marathon of food feast which flagged off at 2pm and continued until 8 pm. We drove, stopped and ate and drove, stopped and ate and it seemed like a never ending journey back to KL. There were just too many food pit stops along the way - O Cafe, biscuits, salted chicken, rojak, tanjong malim pau and hailam mee. The calories input had way exceeded the calories output.

In a nutshell, it was a fun run - with the fantastic food and fantabulous company.

To sum up 2010 - total clicks in races = 109.5km. Targetting to double that in 2011!!