KLIM report

Not a very clear shot of yours truly but much appreciated nonetheless. I was approaching the Westin Hotel when this photo was taken. Photo courtesy of Tey.

Approaching the u-turn at Jalan TAR. Photo courtesy of Rohaizad.

Post run with Kelvin Ng and Draco. Thanks Ronnie


Race- Kuala Lumpur International Marathon
Date- 18 March 2007
Distance- 21k (half-marathon)
Time- Watch 1:47.42, Chip 1:47.53, INCLUDING 2.5 mins spent in the bushes

I was dwelling on whether I should run the 21k. I wasn't in the best of condition to run the distance in a timing which I feel would be at least satisfactory. But after reading the build-up (the past week) in Ron's shoutbox and various runners' blogs, I decided (on Friday evening to be exact) to go ahead and run. No expectations, no friendly competition with my friends, just go out there, soak up the atmosphere, and have some fun.

Friday night I called Ron and asked him if there any bibs available for the 21k, and he answered in the affirmative- pm4 had decided to run the 42k and his 21k bib was available. All that was required was the small matter of contacting and collecting it from pm40 who was residing in Klang. No problemo, I thought. I sms-ed pm4 and made tentative arrangements to collect the bib from him sometime in the afternoon.

Saturday morning I told my wife about collecting the bib from pm40 at Klang and she came up with an idea which I failed to consider- pm20 is probably back in Klang, as is his wont every weekend. Why not ask him to collect on your behalf? I called pm20 and true enough, he was in Klang. He kindly agreed to collect the bib for me. I couldn't answer his call when he called me sometime in the afternoon- I was in my RPM class. When I returned his call, he used the immortal words of the rapper X-zibit in the MTV show "PIMPED", "You've officially been PIMPED- I collected your bib already..." Thanks, Ken. Arranged to meet Ken at 515am.

Race Day
I woke up at 4am, drank a cup of coffee and had 2 slices of toast with liberal usage of honey. Drank a whole litre of water. Changed, and got my stuff ready. Surprisingly, I was quite awake and ready to run.

Met Kenneth at our rendezvous point and we parked our car. He passed me the bib and I pinned it on to my vest, and we walked towards the start/finish line at Dataran Merdeka. We saw Sim who was walking in the same direction. He told us that he was running the 10k. Into the "kandang" and the usual faces- Jamie, Kevin Chow, Adam, Lawrence, Eric, Bose and so forth.

The race started quite on time, with the VIP gunning us off. I was running at a comfortable pace.

Then, came the "urges"- within the 1st kilometer into the race, I felt the urge to pee again (after having relieved myself before the start of the race). More worrying was the stomach cramps I was experiencing. I felt the extreme urge to relieve myself the "other" way. So, to put it bluntly, I needed to pee and shit. Peeing is not a problem- I happily relieved myself as I ran. It was still dark and no-one could see me anyway, so I just let it go. The stomach cramps were more tricky, though- I wanted to hold on to the end of the race before letting go, the stomach cramps attacked me in waves- it seemed to come every few minutes, with each attack getting worse. I had a close call as I passed Kuen Cheng Girls school (on the Federal highway), barely holding on. As I approached the turn-off at Mid Valley, I noticed the Mobil station on the left side of the road, and contemplated using the toilet there. But I thought that it was too far in and I would waste precious time. Within a few seconds, another attack. I had goose bumps on the back of my neck and ears, and was shuffling. I ran another 700 meters before deciding to head into the bushes to do my business.

(Warning- graphic description below, read at your own risk hehehe)
I was trying to untie my shorts and pull it down straightaway, but I realised that I had tied it so tight that un-knotting it would have taken up more precious seconds. Thankfully, I found that if I did it right, I didn't need to pull down my shorts to poop. I half-squatted, pulled my shorts and underwear to the right butt-cheek, and let it rip. Loud and violent squirt! All I can say is, extreme relief! I grabbed some leaves and grass (heck, there wasn't any tissue paper there!) which surprisingly did the job. No unintentional soiling on my legs or anything! Shortly after, I was back on the road. Total time elapsed- approximately 2.5 minutes. Moments later, came the water station and sponge station. I grabbed the sponges and used them to clean by ass and wipe my legs. The next water station, I took a few cups of water to splash 'em all on my shorts and legs.

I felt much better after that!

I was feeling reasonably strong at the Sungai Besi point, and used that opportunity to run slightly harder. I was very comfortable. Up to that point, I didn't see anyone I knew. On to the road towards Dewan Bahasa, Imbi Plaza and the left turn towards Westin Hotel-Starhill-KL Plaza, I chugged along comfortably at a 5:00 per km pace. It was there that I saw Tey, who took the photo that you see above. Then the right turn onto Jalan Sultan Ismail, I saw DK, who urged me to "go go go". By the Shangri-La point, my arches were starting to ache, but I soldiered on as Nezz called out to me and I waved back. Past Sheraton, then onto Jalan TAR, I held on to my pace , made the u-turn and completed the run in 1:47.42, including the 2.5 minutes spent in the bushes relieving myself.

After the race, I walked to the public toilet by the National Mosque and hung around for almost 2 hours after that. Chatted with the gang there before heading home.

Conclusion
Overall, considering my arches, I'm pretty satisfied with my performance. As Jamie had rightly pointed out to me, this was to be an easy run for me anyway. I was able to maintain a 5 mins per km pace, meaning that I didn't lose too much of my aerobic fitness- I have to thank my RPM sessions for that. My arches are still slightly painful but nothing too major. For now, I'll just maintain my aerobic fitness until my arches are fully healed and I'm able to absorb harder training.