When I signed up for BSN Putrajaya Night Marathon back in May, I had no idea that it was one of those big events. I just signed up so that I have a goal in my running training and because it was nearby to my home and also coz it was at night. With two little boys in tow, I could not go for early morning events since we do not have family here to help us out.
So as it turned out, this major event was my first event, and being always a little on the cautious side, I decided to only try for 5km Fun Run, as long as there was a medal involved.
My 5km category run would only start at 9pm, and I got there around nearly 8pm. Lots and lots of people were already there, some doing warm ups, some sitting around, some doing wefies, some lining up for the toilet, overall, everyone doing their own thing in a very festive carnival like environment, loud music blasting, and even fireworks in the sky whenever there was a flag off. As soon as I got there, I was already asked to take pics for a big group of people. I was supposed to join with a friend but my friend got really sick so I had to be alone for this one. Didn’t meet anyone I knew there, but surprisingly time flew by as I visited the booths and chatted with strangers amidst lining up for the toilets.
I’d say if you are newbie like me and going to a run event alone, no worries, there is just too much to do to get bored. Lots of free drinks and food even before the race, like I drank Nuun electrolyte which I didn’t realise was already in Malaysia selling in GNC now, I usually buy from iherb.
Before I knew it, it was time to get to the starting line, or cage if you’d call it that. The cage doors opened and we all just walked in, I tried to squeeze my way politely to get more to the front. Imagine being the last person lining up in more than 1000 people, it won’t be easy to even run later. It was ten minutes waiting in the cage, and people were taking pics away, I noticed some girls taking wefie with a full size iPad…hhm. Not heavy? Then the countdown began and boom, off we go, fireworks blast right in front of us, quite a view to behold, but actually all were a little distracting to me. I guess I got too used to doing my runs quietly all by myself in my quiet no music no nothing neighbourhood.
The truth was, I was a little more tired than I care to admit. It was night time, near my bed time, and I was down with flu and had also spent the whole day chasing after two active boys. It was cold and wet but thankfully the rain had stopped. So I ran, 1km into it, I already had tummy cramps. I think I ran too fast immediately, I was used to running or well, jogging really slowly by myself, but with so many people running together, somehow, we just followed their pace. I stopped, run, walked a lot more than I wanted or planned to. But somehow, my overall personal record for 5k was still the fastest, I finished a little over my planned timing of 40 min, so ended up at 44 min. At the final 1km, I thought I’d just sprint to the end, but well, did not happen. I walked and ran and walked and ran, I think lots of people did the same. It was just a fun run after all, but I saw a lot of more serious runners in this category than I expected. Lots of little kids, and one of them fell in the beginning, poor thing. There were some dads pushing their baby in strollers too. In the 5km category, there is only one water station, half way after the U-Turn at Putrajaya Convention Centre, but I just gave it a skip as I thought that my tummy cramp was due to drinking too much prior to the run, I didn’t usually drink much in my trainings and only hydrate right after since it was only 5km bah. While running, there were also lots of cheerleaders, and even a brass band, and people blowing vuvuzelas. Truthfully, I appreciated them, but thought it was way too loud for my ears. It didn’t really help in pushing me to run more…people were even asked to take instagram selfies with them halfway running.
I think the event was really well organised and the giving out of cert and goodie bag was well planned. We reached the finishing line and was immediately ushered into the correct category line, took our generic cert, and lined up for the goodie bag. It was fast and easy. The medal was just in the bag, had to take it out to wear it ourselves la. In the goodie bag was water, bread, banana and a couple of kueh too.
Right after the line was a Brooks Photobooth. I wanted to line up for it, but well, the line was way too long. So I went back the GNC and took a couple of Nuun Drinks and head to Milo to get some nice cold sweet refreshing..Milo what else. The line was not too bad that time, when I wanted to go back again, it was getting like LONG. Saw some guys refilling the Milo into their bottles instead, how smart. Well, since I had two little boys waiting, I had to rush back. No waiting around to see what happens next. I got to the car, and heard that Jordan cried all the way from Putrajaya back to Kajang when John dropped me off just now. That’s the life of a mother eh.
So there it is, my first ever run and first ever medal after more than 10 years quitting competitive sports. I have another event coming right up in 3 weeks, so no slacking around this time, I really have to train again so I won’t feel so unfit like this time.
Congrats on your run! 🙂