Energizer Night Run 2011 - 16 Apr'11

This is my 2nd time taking part in the event. Last year I took part in 10km and this year I planned to take part in 21km and plan to do my personal best. This is also my 2nd race after Bareno Run. Before, going to the venue, I was already boosted with energy where, Jia Ming, my HOT toastmaster friend was carpooling with me. Yeah!!!. I reached there around 6.45pm. Upon reaching there, 1st agony started where the parking was RM10. Damn....That's really exorbitant. Then we had to walk another 1km towards starting point. I had to deposit my bag at the baggage counter but the Que was really long and realised that only 2 volunteers were there. What the Heck? It was already time for my run, so I told Jia Ming to deposit the bag and get the tag. I had to go to toilet to reduce my weight. Then moved on to starting line. Race started on time. I just followed the leading pack and good start. Manage to pace few guys. We went out of the track to the estate area where no adequate lights. I had to depend on the runners' lights. There were adequate water stations for every 2.5km and the total distance was 10km before we move into the track. As we moved in, that's where chaos started. We were mixed with 5.5km and 11km. So the track got crowded. I thought the track would be flat but realised that it had some high slopes too. As I wanted to do personal best, I followed Susan, a old white lady but still fit. I followed her for the 1st loop, then she was missing. I manage to catch her during 2nd loop but she was still fit to break away from me at final 2km. As I finish the race, I saw my timing 1.34:38. Wow, that's my personal best. I went back with Jia Ming and had dinner with her at Bangsar. What a romantic finish. But overall it was a damn screwed up race. Why? 1. Inadequate volunteers at baggage collection area. 2. Distribution of headlamps and goodie bag was poor. 3. Inadequate headlamps, goodie bag, and medals (we pay RM50 man) 4. No proper distance marker along the track / running route 5. Only 1 water station in the track. Damn, and it was crowded by 5km and 10km runners 6. Only Gatorade was given after the race. Banana finished. No other refreshments. We had to buy it. 7. Due to insufficient bags, the officials could not control the crowd, and they started throwing the bags towards the runners. 8. Official told me that no medal and only for top5 finishers at the finishing lane. What the F***? Officials are stupid. 9. They gave ribbon, but I don't know for what purpose. 10. Nobody told me how many laps I should run or completed. 11. Marathon runners were not guided properly, so they went on wrong direction. Only good thing I saw was, there were adequate first aid officials everywhere. That's it. I wanted to talk more....But I just want to say that It was a F***ed up race. No more energizer Run. Though I got personnel best but still not satisfied. Next race id of course SCKLM.

Long Run - 10 April

Last weekend I was too stressed and missed the run. Then during the weekdays, I managed to do 10km twice. Thus, I decided to do a 30km on Sunday. As added bonus, it was also Pacesetters Breakfast Run, which means there will be water station and also delicious breakfast. I meet Ronnie and the team at 6.15am and we started the run. As usual, he started to increase the pace as they were going for 20km only. I just wanted to finish off the run and make it below 3hours as the previous one was 3:20. I took additional distance as I turned left and came around IRB. As I reached Hartamas Square, I turned left to do my loops. At every loop, I took the drink at water station. The volunteers were patient to wait for me for 5loops. After 5 loops, I took a 5 minutes break for my power gel and continued with the run. I looked a bit tiring, but I wanted to finish it off. At the stadium, got refreshed and realised that there were few runners ahead of me. I made them as my pacers. Getting through tijani Hill, then Bukit Tunku followed by Bank Negara hill was the real test. Finally reached the final destination and did the timing of 2:58 (includes breaks). However, no breakfast provided. Damn, I wnet with Azali for Nasi Lemak at Bkt Aman car park. Great work. Hope to do another 20km this week before Energizer Run.

India Won the World Cup after 28 years

A magnificent inning from Indian Captain M.S.Dhoni (91 runs off 79 balls) and Gautam Gambhir (97 runs off 122 balls) guided India to glory with the six wickets win over Sri Lanka to became the ICC World Champions after 28 Years. India recaptured the crown which was first lifted by Kapil Dev team 28 years back at Lord’s in 1983 and 28 years later the team achieved the same under the Captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. At one stage it seems everything is lost when chasing the target of 275 for win, India lost their two big wickets with just 31 runs on the board in the 7th over. Virendra Sehwag was first to go without troubling the scorer and then Sachin Tendulkar who looked in good touch during his stay also nicked L.Malinga wide delivery to break the heart of billions of fan across the globe. But two young guns of Indian team, Virat Kohli (35 runs off 49 balls) and Gautam Gambhir steadied the Indian ship which was bobbling at start. Both put on valuable 83 runs for third wicket before Kohli dismissed with the score reading 114/3 in the 22nd over. Indian captain who has struggle for form in last 6 months promoted himself in the batting order and that was yet again a master stroke from Dhoni because he knew Sri Lanka has two off spinner bowling well so instead of sending Yuvraj Singh after Kohli dismissal he arrived at the crease with India still 161 runs behind form the target. He played some remarkable and effortless stroke to keep the required run rate under check and keep the scorecard moving along with Gautam Gambhir. M.S.Dhoni hit 8 fours and two huge sixes during his knock. Both put on 109 runs for the 4th wicket before Gambhir fell three short of well deserve century in the 42nd over with India still needed 52 runs from 52 deliveries. However Yuvraj Singh (21 runs off 24 balls) and Dhoni kept their cool to guide India over the line without any further hiccups. Dhoni hit the winning runs by swatting a huge six over the long-on boundary. Earlier Kumar Sangakkara won the re-toss and elected to bat first. With the help fine century from Mahela Jayawardne (103 runs off 88 balls) and some late Sri Lankan assault they manage to put 274/6 in their 50 overs. Sri Lanka able to take 63 runs in the batting powerplay and that’s made the difference in the score of 250 and 274. Zaheer Khan, who bowled three maidens and gave away just six runs in his first five overs, was plundered for 54 in his last five overs. For India Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh picked up two wickets each, while Harbhajan Singh took one wicket. M.S.Dhoni was declared Player of the Match for his brilliant unbeaten inning of 91 runs from just 79 balls. Yuvraj Singh was declared Player of the Tournament for his all-round effort with bat and ball. He has taken 15 wickets in the tournament and scored 362 runs with an average of 90.50. BCCI also awarded each of the 15 players Rupees 1 Crore and 50 lakhs to each supporting staff and 25 lakhs to each of the Indian selectors. Delhi Cricket Board also announced the award with each of the three players Sehwag, Gambhir and Nehra will get rupees 1 Crore each while M.S.Dhoni will be awarded 2 Crore.