I felt compelled to write another piece about the Energizer Night Race 2011, which has instigated an unprecedented infamy against the organizer of a race event. Starting out with the zealous aspiration and ambition to be crowned as one of the biggest and most successful running event in Malaysia, the ENR has ironically earned the reputation as being the farce of running events. The post ENR pandemonium culminated in the forming of two facebook pages/groups known as Boycott Energizer Night Race and Energizer Night Race KL 2011: We Want Justice, which have attracted thousands of supporters within one day after the event. Two days after the event, the event organizing company, Expose Media Sdn Bhd issued a public apology to all and soon ensued by another official apology from Energizer with promises to refund all registration fees in addition to the promises of giving out of finishers' medals and all other goodies.
So, what went wrong? I seriously have no idea what are the real issues behind the whole fiasco - bad management by event company? Or lack of communications? Misjudgments? Be it as it may, as far as my personal experience is concerned, the event went wrong the moment we swerved our cars into Sepang.
First of all, a queue of vehicles was forming even before we entered the car park. To our astonishment, we were literally 'extorted' RM10 per vehicle as parking fee. It was this collection of parking fee which caused the congestion. I would think that RM10 is way too exorbitant and the organizer should at least have the courtesy and decency to inform the runners, no?
Secondly, there were insufficient signboards to guide the runners to the starting point. We were awestruck when we saw that all runners were supposed to enter the stadium (I assumed it is called so) through one door (3 feet in width). Imagine thousands and thousands of runners squeezing into the door. We then have to pass through a long passage way with little ventilation (if at all). Could you imagine swarming through the crowds amidst body odour, sweaty armpits, and possibly some toxic gas which might be released by some very flatulent runners? Gosh, our lungs were partially suffocated with such intoxicating air and not to mention about the possible outburst by claustrophobic runners? Okay, maybe I am exaggerating, but my friend, Jo did fall down in the narrow passage way. Perhaps she fell because she was tiptoeing in her Newton shoes or perhaps she was not watching her steps. But my point is, poor coordination and management of crowd flow give rise to high likelihood of accidents.
Thirdly, there were no clear signs of where to go such as Baggage Area, toilets, starting line etc. We were like headless chicken running around and asking everyone around....in the getting-darker evening mist. It's like a maze. We have to queue for almost everything and we spent most time in looking for directions on where to head to and queuing up for the toilets.
Fourthly, we were already treated like a bunch of beggars before we were close to the starting line. After the long passage way and some up and down staircase, we finally reached a dark room (yes, literally dark) and tiny and we were told that this was where we were suppsoed to collect our head lamps. Seriously, until now I am unable to comprehend the logic to collect the headlamps on the race day itself instead of simultaneously with our collection of race kits. Apparently it was stated that the runners for 5km and 11km were not entitled to head lamps but at the end of the day what happened was boxes of headlamps were thrown out and left on the floors for runners to grab. It's a free for all chaos!
Coming to the fifth point, we finally made it to the starting line and just in time to hear the 42km gun fired off. The starting line was ridiculously confined to half of the line and as I mentioned poor coordination leads to accidents. A runner fell down and was stumped by other runners.
Oh, I forgot to mention about the brilliant idea of running in the dark in a black running vest. Whoever designed the vest - what a smart ass (pun and sarcasm intended).
Geez, I lost count on the points...the seventh? There were two water stations in the outer loop (of 10km) and one water station in the inner loop, which means on average we got to hydrate ourselves every 5-5.5km. The best part was, at the water station for the inner loop, there were only 2 persons standing that to distribute the isotonic drinks/H2O and canned isotonic drinks and 1.5 litre mineral water bottles were stored in a big box for the runners to grab. I don't remember a running event being a buffet. And are you kidding me? Canned drinks? Have you considered the disposal of the same? It was disastrous, the track was like a mine field and I finally stepped on one and sprained my already strained ankle. 1.5 litres water bottle? What are we going to do with the 1 litre water even if we could gulp down 500 ml? Carried it around when we run as if we were not exhausted enough? Smart ass, very very smart ass (or asses).
The 8th - there were lack of marshals giving out rubber bands to mark the number of inner loops one has completed. In fact, I have to stop and queue up and insist on my bands. Did I mention that the rubber bands are black too? Well, Black in a night race is really the new Black in town. There was also lack of marshals to tell runners where to go. Well, 'lacking' is an understatement. The truth is, as a far as I am concerned, there was no one I could ask for directions. I just have to run and follow other runners. The best part was, there was no one at the finish line to utter a sincere 'well done' or at least tell me where to go so I could collect my medal and finisher T. Oh ya, I nearly forgotten to mention about the 'cheaters'. There were just so much to rant on. You see, as there were lack of/no marshal/indifferent marshals hence many, if not most, runners cut through the lawns instead of doing the full inner loop. I don't even know who to blame more - the dishonorable runners or the ‘couldn’t care less’ marshals? If you participate in a run, get through it! Honour and pride are much more important than the timing.
The worse part had yet to unveil - *thadammmmm* there was NO medal. Apparently, instead of giving out the finishers' medals at the finish line, which is usually the norm, they chose to distribute it in some chambers and the signs indicating the categories of runners were in...err....A4 size? Kindly permit me to mention that there are 10,000 participants for the race, families, friends and supporters excluded. Hence, would you really be surprised when it all culminated into an uproar? Come on, tired runners, long queue, late night, rude personnel - seriously the runners are runners, not saints. The best part was - a voice (not a very polite female voice) came through the loudspeakers and implying that we were bandits "because you all are so noisy we have no choice but to....blah blah blah". Simply uplifting, wasn't it? I was not really there when the climax of the commotion took place but later on I watched a video captured by another runner depicting how the personnel threw out the goodies bag for the runners to grab. Did they think they are some hot shot celebrities throwing out their sweaty towels for the fans to grab? I loved this. I effing ran 21km (or so I believed) and there was no medal and no water station and nothing, absolutely nothing awaits me save for my dearest friends.
Look, I am already exhausted up to this point. The worst climax of the night- we went back to our respective vehicles and James’ car was broken into and Yam’s bag as well as Derek’s camera were stolen. When we left, there were still runners out there completing their full marathons and imagine what would they felt when they returned to a quiet and empty finish line.
Of course, the big surprise came 3 days later – the timing recorded by the timing chips all gone haywire and everyone seemed to have their PBs due to the malfunction of ‘humans’?
In a nutshell, ENR 2011 was a disastrous joke. The song ‘I started a joke…which started the whole world crying…” suddenly played in my mind. Whoever that caused this blunder, must be a Bee Gees fan….
*A postscript: Anyway, I am contented that Energizer had finally stepped out and apologised and is doing ( I presume) what they could to pacify the dissatisfaction. I sincerely hope that all future running event organisers would pay heeds to the human errors which occured at ENR 2011 and ensure that such blunders would not recur again. The best you could learn from history is - Experience.
Energizer Night Race 2011 to be held on 16.4.2011 would be my first night race and my first half marathon in year 2011. The participation in ENR was overwhelming. Almost everyone that I know who is into running (or not) signed up for ENR. It was also going to be John Chuah, John Ong, Jo, Liza, Noor, James’ virgin 21km run. On top of that, it was also Shearling and PooiChing’s first official run. As for the few of us who just came back from 2XU Compression Run a week ago we were still riding on the high of the run and couldn’t wait to rock the tracks at Sepang F1 Tracks!!! Yes, we were going to run on the Formula One Sepang Tracks, which were freshly rolled on and roared by the GrandPix racers exactly a week ago.
A day before the ENR, a pandemic fear and pre-run anxiety pervaded the runners’ circle. A glance through the Facebook newsfeeds revealed that every one was having butterflies in the stomach, in a more or less degree. The anxiety heightened when it started to pour like cats and dogs on the faithful Saturday morning and continued for another 5 hours or so. The weather looked gloomy but the rain had sort of cooled the temperature down hence we were looking at a bright chance of running in breezy weather instead of the hot and humid night air as feared by most runners.
I went for French class in the morning and couldn’t concentrate in the class at all. Suddenly, I failed to understand French despite 5 semesters of learning. My mind was wandered far away and I was very worried about my ankle and knee. I haven’t fully recovered from my ankle sprain (and straining it here and there through running and bootcamping didn’t help at all) and I suffered a new knee injury after Wednesday’s bootcamp session. My left knee was swollen and I was limping since Wednesday. I endured two painful sessions with Daniel, my Maiki masseuse (who is also a martial art instructor) attempting to ease the damage. After two hours of French, I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to ask for leave to retire earlier. I tried to sleep but of no avail as my heart was beating fast.
At 5.15 p.m, we set off from my house with Jo, Noor, John (bestie) and Elliot in my car. We then met up with Yam, James, Derek and Shearling at the bootcamp field. To our surprise, Unlce John Chuah was there too. If I recalled correctly, he said he won’t be bothered to depart early and would only leave around 6 p.m. I guessed his kiasuness got the better of him and he probably had conducted a risk analysis and decided that better be early than sorry.
Hence, a convoy of three cars sped along the highway heading to Sepang. The journey was long and seemed never ending. The talk in the car relating to the run didn’t help to ease anyone’s anxiety. Worried looks were imprinted on everyone’s face. When we reached Sepang, a jam was already building up and to our dismay, we were asked to pay RM10.00 as parking fee. There was queue at the toilets and more queue to get into F1 tracks. The collection for the headlamps was not really a collection at all but more of a ‘heist’ by the eager runners. A box was dropped on the floor and everyone just pushed and squeezed in to grab the headlamps and it was lucky that no stampede occurred. More queue at the baggage deposit area and it seemed that we spent an hour or so on queuing itself and there was not enough time to do warm up at all. The only light moment came when Jo fell in the passage leading to the stadium. It was kind of hilarious and it lightened up everyone’s mood.
Before we knew it, and before we even had the time to camwhore, we were asked to gather at the starting line. Then, there were some cheerleaders' dance and stunt which, if truth be told, did not bemuse any of the runners as everyone was too eager to run. When the run was flagged off, Liza, James, Armin, Joe were sprinting and speeding away and ahead of me like a whiz of smoke. A guy fell down due to the pushing from the runners behind and I felt so sorry for him but I couldn’t stop to cross over and help him as the runners behind me were pushing me ahead.
I was running with good pace for the first 5km. The roads were so dark I was carefully paying heeds to watch out for pebble stones to avoid another episode of ankle sprain. When I finished the Outer Loop (running on the highways outside F1 tracks), I thought it should be at least 10km but when I looked at the teeny weeny white cardboard it was written 8.5km. Then we turned into the stadium itself. Approximately when I reached 14km, I began to feel excruciating pain on my left ankle. At one point, it was so painful that I had cold sweat and I was at the verge of crying and giving up. I just want to pick up my mobile phone and called for help and gave up. But then, pride and honour got the better of me and I began a ‘table talk’ with my feet. I was having a negotiation with my feet that I promised them ample rest after ENR in exchange for the tenacity to last through ENR in one piece. It was really tough running on a painful ankle. My pace slowed down and I had to stop for about 7-8 times to stretch my ankle. On top of this, the organization and the handling of the whole event was very bad. First, there was no visible distance marker except the 8.5km. We were supposed to do two inner loops on the race tracks itself but there were no marshal to guide us and tell us where to go. There was only one water station in the stadium which means one water station for every 5.5km. There were so many runners who cut across the lawn as a matter of short cuts and there was no one to stop them. I mean, seriously, running, just like any other sports, is an honourable affair. You could limp, walk, or even crawl back to the finish line and all other runners would still cheer for you and feel proud of you but if you dishonour the race by taking short cuts and therefore shorten the distance it is an utmost disgrace. You brought the running affair into disrepute, seriously. I mean, I was in pain and I was running with a sprained ankle and I was at the verge of breaking down but I would never, ever allow myself or lower myself to such low so as to do the short cuts. Sportsmanship, honour and pride are more important aspects in a run than the timing itself.
The Birthday Boy and the Belated Birthday Gal
I did my last inner loop in a turtle-slow pace but I continued running. I didn’t have any physical strength left at that moment and it was more of a mind over matter affair. I even shut my eyes and ran. I also had a thug of war imaginary conversations with myself – “No, it’s not pain, it’s just discomfort”, “Okay, fine, it’s pain, but just bear with it for a little more”, “It’s going to be fine, it will be fine by tomorrow”, “Just go, few more kilometers away, you can rest after that” and so on. But I must say, despite all exhaustion, frustration at the lack of (or absence of) distance marker and the perturbing and throbbing pain, I felt happy. I felt happy that I was running and I was going to finish it. At 2km before the finish line (the only marker which spelled ‘2km away’), I gulped down mouthful of water to quench my thirst and I poured the remaining on my head to cool myself down. I then decided I was ready to sprint the last 2km. Just when I was making a mental note “Fuck it, now, Lils, run run run!” to myself and lifted my feet for a sprinting pose, I stepped on an empty Mountain Dew can and sprained my ankle AGAIN! Yes, I couldn’t help but shrieked “Fuck”. I decided to do a limp sprinting anyway. At this point, I heard someone calling my name. I turned around and saw Nana (who just did a full marathon at Paris a week ago) and YKK (birthday boy who dressed in a striking yellow outfit complete with a lion king wig). They were so relaxed and happy and shouting words of encouragement. Thanks to their uplifting spirit and encouraging words, I managed to sprint to the finish line and all four of us – YKK, Nana, Lilly and me crossed the finish line together – HOLDING HANDS! I was so touched. Nana and YKK were fast runners and I am sure they slowed their pace to encourage Lilly. These are commendable gestures! This is what we called sportsmanship! You may be a fast runner, but it is not the speed that made you a great runner, it’s one’s own caliber, charisma and characters that made one a great runner!
When I arrived at the finish line I realized that there was a chaotic tumult close to a physical brawl going on at the medals collection counters. It seemed that the handing out of finishers tee and medals were distastefully handled and the organizer had shut down the place and stopped all giving out of medals. Announcement was made that medals and goodies bags would be mailed out to participants instead. This was seriously a joke. I have never been in a run/race (unless it has been made clear earlier that there is no finishers’ medals) whereby medals were withheld! Come on, I ran a freaking 21km in pain and I couldn’t at least have a piece of cold metal hanging around my neck as comfort? You must be kidding me!! Ridiculously it was true. The supervision of the whole run was so badly managed that I didn’t feel the excitement when crossing the finish line and everyone was busy booing and not even a single personnel awaited me at the finish line to utter at least a decent ‘Well done’. If it was not the runners’ bond, the runners would have come back to the finish line to nothingness, as one of the runner put it on TRAFFFF. It is indeed a shame, ENR has all factors in favour of them - perfect weather, perfect tracks and perfect participants turn up and they still managed to screw it all up and put an abrupt and anti-climax full stop to an otherwise memorable and outstanding running event of the year. It provoked an instant and universal anti-ENR sentiment around the virtual world and too many nasty things have been said that I personally do not think ENR would ever stand up from this shameful pit anytime soon. To me, I would put it simply as this: ENR: My first and my last!
Of course, all is not lost when you have the strong bondage amongst runners. It felt good to be congratulated and surrounded by fellow runners. Jun King, my downline who participated in the 11KM run witnessed the tumult when it happened and just when the organizer announced that they were going to shut down the place he managed to grab some finishers’ medals for us (knowing how meaningful it would be for us). Again, I was so touched with his thoughtfulness. Of course it was not right to grab the medals just like that but given the havoc and the confusion, he did what he thought was right at that time with our interests' in mind. At the end of the day, all the finishers' medals which he grabbed were distributed to runners for the 21km category who finished the run in good time within the qualifying 3 hours.
To sum it up, notwithstanding the miserable backdrop and doleful ending to the whole event, we had an enjoyable run. It was a memorable run, and I would always remember ENR in the forms of great friendship and great bonding. The rest, is history.
p/s: there are some post ENR sidelights but that would be for another day in another write-up.
The Very Gaya looking TRAFFFFians at 2XU Compression Run 2011
After more than 3 months hiatus from running competitions (the last was 12km on 12.12.10) and a brief hiatus (3 weeks) from running due to ankle injuries caused by pure clumsiness and stubbornness, my first run for year 2011 was the 2XU Compression Run in Singapore held on 10th April 2011. The chronicle would not be complete without giving credits to Noor, who discovered about the run in the process of his virtual quest for international running competitions via the web utilizing the device none other than google search engine. Noor's magnanimity in sharing the information on TRAFFFF group has created a ripple effect immediately amongst the kiasu TRAFFFFians and almost immediately within a few hours, many have signed up for the run and we even have 'almost' continuing bib numbers starting with my number - 6665. Everyone was so excited about the "international" run and travelling arrangements were made respectively.
The first batch of runners - Hot Ass Yam (virgin runner) and Super Delta James (virgin international runner) arrived in Singapore as early as the midnight of 8th April 2011. The kiasu couple - Noor and Jo as well as myself arrived via the first flight of Firefly at around 9.10 a.m at Singapore ensued by Joe Liew who took a flight an hour later than ours. Sarge Dann and Ody decided to drive down (for the purposes of loots loading I supposed). The fiesta begun immediately with a shopping spree at Velocity at Nowena Square. When we arrived at the Newton Shop, the shop assistant (who we later found out that his name is Nus) was still sweeping the floor when we stormed into the shop with irrepressible excitement. I went with a mission and vision to own a pair of Newton shoes as I have previously did thorough research and concluded that I must have a pair of Newton. Noor and Jo started with a nonchalant attitude by browsing the racks. Nus asked me to do a mock run to ascertain which pair of shoes that were suitable for me. After running around the mall (yes, it's a shopping mall and yes, bystanders were staring at me in awe and bewilderment) for a while, Nus concluded that I am a forefoot-mid-foot runner and I was prescribed with the shocking pink Newton Performance Racer Distantia shoes.
I felt so comfortable and light running and sprinting (around the mall) in the pink shoes and it took me about 30 seconds to decide to swipe my card in exchange for the pink Cinderella shoes. Seeing me flushing red with excitement, Jo decided to give it a sprint try and another 2 minutes later, another card was voluntarily surrendered to Nus. Needless to say, after witnessing the barter trade between me, Jo and Nus, Noor could not suppress his desire anymore and before we knew it he was trying on at least 5 pairs of shoes at the same time. By the time Yam and James found us in the shop, Nus had happily concluded 3 sales thanks to the 3 stooges from Kuala Lumpur. Soon after, James, Joe Liew, Yam and Lizza followed suit and bought a pair of Newton shoes each. We were happy with our new shoes and Nus was contented with his sales quota. I must say, it's a fair trade which made everyone happy for the day.
The Newtonised TRAFFFFians continued with the shopping spree. More HALO caps, power gels, SPI belts, running jerseys, shorts, compression attire were purchased at the expense and courtesy of the credit line graciously provided by a a few Malaysian financial institutions. By the time we all retired at the hotel/respective accommodations, I supposed sufficient legs warm up exercise has been achieved through walking in the malls.
The next morning, we arrived at the Singapore Flyer near Marina Promenade as early as 6 in the morning. Everyone was stylishly clad in some form of compression attire. We looked as if we were models for some poster or something. Camwhoring started at 6 a.m and continued intermittently through some warm up exercises led by Sarge Dann (our bootcamp instructor). The Singapore Flyer with its lights on looked magnificent in the dawn. We were more mentally prepared than we physically were.
As usual, my bladder required dual visitations to the public washrooms and by the time I came out from the toilet, sucked my energy gel and walked towards the starting line, everyone seemed to have started running. Oops, the run was flagged off when I was still in dream mood. I clumsily turned on my Runkeeper timer and iPod and started running. Before I could even react to utter some good luck gibberish to Jo and Lizza they had sped away.
As advised by Rose, I started slow and I truly enjoyed the scenic sceneries along the promenade looking at the Marina Channel. Oh, I also spotted few homeless under the bridge and by the public toilets. It felt so good to be in a run again. The sky was drizzling but it didn't really matter as I was enjoying my run tremendously. We ran back to the Singapore Flyer to turn to the Esplanade, Fullerton, Marina Bay Sands and back to the Singapore Flyer.
Somehow, I didn't feel the desire to be kiasu at all. I saw many elderly passed me by and I was amazingly not having any issues with it. Perhaps I was fully aware of my injuries and perhaps I was even more aware that my physical strength would not enable me to catch up with them anyway. Without the pressure to compete with others and with myself, I immersed myself with the pure pleasure of running, feeling my heartbeat, my short of breaths and the rhythm of my footsteps. I felt alive. I felt happy. I felt joy. Simple joy from simplicity of life. I thought about Haruki Murakami. He wrote in his book "Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest." That was exactly how I felt when I run.
I saw the 9km distance marker and not long after that, I saw the Singapore Flyer ahead and the Finish Line was waving at me from afar. Powered with the confidence in my Newton shoes and initiated by the last minute splurge I decided to increase my speed. Pumping my heart near the edge of having a possible heart attack, I was taken aback when I saw that the Finish Line Banner was at the opposite side of the route and we were supposed to run towards the Promenade again before turning back towards the Finish Line. At that point in time, my energy fuel was running low and I was besieged by immense exhaustion. I even found the music blasting away at my ears annoying and snapped it off. The run was no longer fun and joyous anymore. My ankle hurt tremendously and I was feeling light-headed. When I was about 100 metres away from the finish line, I mustered all my remaining strength and sprinted. You have no idea how relieved and happy I felt when I passed through that line.
I realized another reason why I love running so much. Running is akin to living your life. It's a solo pursuit. Sure enough you would have your running comrades at certain juncture of the journey, which keep you company and motivated. But then again, at the end of the day, it is you who determine when and how you make it to the finish line. The route may be scenic at times, or hilly, or downhill or with stumbling blocks, but you don't stalled, you never quit and you continued running because you know once you crossed the line, all these would became history and unforgettable and beautiful memories which etched in a corner of your mind. And the best part is, those who loved you always wait for you at the finish line, to share the moment with you, and that is what matters most in life, isn't it? Yes, as my friend always remind me, it's not so much about the timing, it's more about the journey, the great friends and the fantastic memories!
Lastly, may I present you with the finishers' medals - Voila!
