Hometown Glory.

Masa mula aku dapat  tau ada orang nak organize Marathon kat Taiping ni, aku antara yang skeptical
Aku pikir, sapelah manusia yang sanggup jadik lab rat untu marathon yang bukan dianjurkan oleh runnning club mahupun runners dengan cut-off time yang ntah pape.

Pastukan, pada suatu  hari sewaktu bersiar-siar di shopping mall, I saw a registration booth and I thought, what the heck.
So we registered for the half.

Manala nak tau the same weekend would be very busy for us.  A month after registering, we found out that there would be a gotong-royong kenduri kawin next door on the Saturday of race weekend. Pastu, somebody at the office came up with the idea of having the department's family day on the same Saturday.

Wah, sangat kelam kelibut.

Saturday, pre-prace day, kalut-kalut bangkit pagi to go the family day. As I was in the committee, I had to be there early to make sure nothing was in shambles. The golf club where we held the event suddenly decided to put us in the back seat just because some royalty from Perlis decided to have some function on the same day. As a result, the food arrived 1 hour late and the drinks weren't replenished smoothly as promised.
I was practically on my heels the whole day with my baju kurung drenched with sweat trying to make sure things won't fall apart..
Then at noon bila balik, takkan masuk  buat donno je kan? Kena la tolong jiran tetangga jadik bentara kat kenduri. Angkat pinggan, basuh pinggan, kemas meja, sengih-sengih. Pukul 4.30, baru bleh rehat n kami terus zonked out sampai 2 jam ..ahah. Malam tu pulak pegi open house. Hamik kau.
So due to this, and the fact that we would be running in an event organized by inexperienced people, we braced for the worst.

But the worst never came.
Sure, ada a few glitches here and there tapi overall it wasn't too bad.
Aku bagi point form la

The Good:

1. Small town race, small crowd, no fuss, no lines.
2. The route was nice. 3 uphills but mostly flat. Weather was good although it got a bit hot later.
3. Pakcik dan abang polis traffic yang baik lagi penyayang.
4. Good flow in goodie bag collection, no hassle for race kit pick up. It was so easy getting your race kit, Ian. Contoh my conversation ngan budak jaga race kit,   

                  " Kawan akak tak sempat balik amik bib dia, boleh akak tolong ambikkkan?"
                   " Boleh, akak tolong bagi no I/C dia"
                  " Alamak, tepon akak yang simpan no I/C dia dah kaput. Akak ingat no 74 je"
                   " Takpela, cari je nama dia pastu kami bagi bib"

        Puh, tak payah bagi a copy of I/C bagai.
     5.Enough water stations. They even had energy drinks macam tin power root tu and bananas.
     6. Supportive aids at the water stations - they serve you water and they cheer you on.
     7. Oleh sebab small crowd la, I managed to get podium. Dengan timing yang tak seberapa. Hantam sajala
     8. They gave me 4 different medals. One participant medal, one finisher's medal, one qualifying medal ( I  have no idea what I qualify for) and one 8th placing medal. And a trophy! Makcik kayo! ( kayo medal jo la, duit tak dapat pun)
     9. Plenty of Milo and post run food. Goodie bag ada banyak harta karun : 1 isotonic drink, 1 energy
         drink, 1 balm ( macam tiger  balm thingy), salonpas ( wajib ada) 1 mineral water, instant white coffee
         powder dan 1 lolipop berbentuk tapak kaki ( so appropriate!).
    10. Cheap! Registration for half marathon is only RM30.

The Unexpected (Saya ikut cakap sifu saya)


1. We were mostly running on our own. Traffic was manned only at main junctions. Yang lain pandai-pandai
     korang le. Rasa cam LSD pun ada. Nasib baikla most Taiping motorist adelah bersopan santun, kalau tak ramai jadik roadkill.
2.Insufficient route markers. At times we had to rely on the police and water station aides for directions. Route marker untuk kenduri kawin serius lagi banyak dari route marker race ni. Distance markers pun yelek.
Mostly we had to depend on runners in front of us to see where the route was going.
Tapi according to full marathoners, they were well taken care off. I guess officials tumpukan their whole attention on full marathoners kot. Nama pun Taiping International Marathon.
3. A few race officials acting more like pakcik keypoh rather than being proper professional race officials. Puh geram sungguh. Pagi-pagi lagi, spoke to me like I'm in standard one.

"Eh nombor awak tu selit la belakang tudung, haa baru nampak" ( padehal aku memang tengah buat pun)

   " Ni apa ni bib pon senget. Tadak orang tolong ke , girl?" (Takpela uncle, lain kali saya bawak protractor untuk ukur)

    " Girl, you boleh ke lari ni?" ( takdela, saya nak lompat bintang)

 Yang paling best, just as I was crossing the finishing line,
 " Girl,ada lagi ka orang belakang you?" 
 Ayuhai uncle, betapa hinanya daku dimatamu.

4. The race officials claimed that the cut off time was 5 hours and a half for full marathon but nobody was there at the finishing line when Ian crossed it at 4:40. Kesian gila. Nasib baik he such a nice guy.
5. Tak nampak pun medical aid mana-mana along the route. Agaknya kalau kau pengsan tengah jalan, teruskanlah pengsan sampai the next runner finds you.

Ok, kali ni ada gambar. Wanwon at last ingat untuk bawak balik kamera.

           Timing 2:14 je. Like I said, race kecik dapat la.

Budak nombo A020 tu senyum jo walau  apopun torjadi. 

Sapentah pakcik sebelah tu aku pun tak perasan.

And yup, you saw it right. The grey pants are definitely back.