Running with Passion @ The International Ekiden Run 2010

As much as I wanted to knock off early...I only went to bed just before midnite.

The music from my alarm started playing at 4am -.-

I drifted back to sleep...zzzz....in my half awake mind..I was calculating how long more I can afford to stay horizontal in bed..4.15am or even 4.30am should be still ok...(I needed to be in Putrajaya by 6am) as long as I leave the house at quarter past five. 

It was 4.51am (!) by the time I garnered enough waking sense to reach out for the time. LOL.


Left the house about 5.20am together with my father who still diligently go for his newspaper daily delivery rounds only to realise that I forgot the car key and feed the dogs and cat. (Don't ask me why he is still working at this age). 

He had a concern when he found out that I'm planing to go out at such wee hour to run.."Don't entertain when people ask you for directions, they will kidnap you".  hahah...funny but he has a point..though..it has happened before.


Journey only started at 5.30 and I was slightly late of course despite the clear traffic. 

Met my team members at the carpark for the first time. Ya..Ekiden is a team relay fun run and I only met my team members a few hours before flag off.

I've touched on what Ekiden is all about HERE - in case you missed it.

So..it's suppose to be a fun run.  There are five runners in a team.  Each runner runs for 3km before passing over the 'sash' to the next runner. I am in the Mixed Category i.e. at least one participant has to be of opposite gender.  "Running with Passion" that's the tagline for our team.  Gan's gym mate is the 'leader' who put together everything.  I think he put together 4 or 5 teams in total. 

Priority is of course to introduce me to the runner before and after me..so that we can recognise each other at the changing zone.  I'm the second runner, hence the Alphabet B.  First runner before me is a 14 year old gal :)  Third runner after me is also female..about same age or younger than me.

Some official photographer took our group photo, don't think we will be able to get hold of the photo though.

Didn't have chance to mingle long as it was soon time for all second runners to board the buses to the changing zone.

Arrived at changing zone around quarter to eight.  The first runners are to be flagged off once all the third runners are transported to the third changing zone.  The race started slightly later than the originally planned 8am. 

Logistic wise, race officials will call out numbers to inform the arrival of our team mates and we proceed to the designated zone within the red cones to receive the sash.  We mustn't leave the zone before putting on the sash.

The first of the first runners arrived about 5-10 mins after flag off.  He must be sprinting! 

Either the path...for the second runner is a challenging one or it's the weather (it was already very hot and sunny eventhough it was only 8am) , I was panting and seriously out of breath minutes after racing off -.-

Well, the fact that my "best friend" decided to visit two weeks earlier right before race day didn't help too -.-||

Took me about 19 mins to complete the 3km.  Somehow I found it tougher than the previous 10km race.  Very much tougher.  At least two photographers snapped my photo while I was pathetically struggling to finish the race.  Either they were waiting for me to pass out to capture some drama or I looked like a damn good professional runner :D

Conclusion : I'm not looking forward to the coming KL Marathon which is gonna be more than three times the distance under the same weather condition..plus poorer air quality!

Think I'd better stick to cycling and body combating in air conditioned rooms : P