Larian 1Malaysia Padang Rengas - Sebagai Penonton

Saya tak pernah jadi penonton.
Serius.
Rasanya tak pernah la. Tapi nanti kena tengok balik past entries to make sure.

Usually if there's a race and there's nobody available to take care of the kids, he would always volunteer to take the back seat.
I pretend to ask if it's okay once or twice and then I'd be off running.

Kesian dia.

So I decided ( or I guess it was decided by fate) to just be a penonton for this race.
And see how it feels like to be on the other side.

I actually signed up for this race despite me saying Taiping International Marathon's 10K was the last for this season.
Talk about being fickle minded.
But blame it on the pakcik yang jaga the race registration.
" Sayang oo kalau tak masuk, dik. Orang pompuan tak ramai lagi yang sign up"
Saje je pakcik ni kan.

Registration pun murah. Aku pun bayar je la. Niat kalau tak lari aku sedekahkan je la.

Pastu bila seminggu pegi kursus, mula la contemplate nak lari ke dak.
Even though it was advertised as only an 8K race, I hardly ever done more than a 5K distance ever since I hit the 2nd trimester.
Pastu nama pun race, for sure I'd overexert myself even though niat pasang taknak buat sedemikian.
I don't trust myself to behave.

Tambah race would start at 8 am. Dianjurkan parti politik.
CONFIRM start lebih lewat.
Overheating will become an issue.

Kejap-kejap aku tepon WW. Nak race ke? Tak nak race ke?
Dia pun dah mula malas layan.
But like I said, fate decided for me.
After I got back from my kursus, I asked mom whether she was free to take care of the kids.
" Boleh, tapi....mak dah miss kelas agama 2 kali dah minggu ni"
Tu dia, punya subtle rejection.

So it was decided. Penonton je la.

Berapa banyak punya mukadimah da

Cantik kan? Bukit apentah.

So 7:30 am sampai kat Sekolah Tun Perak untuk Larian 1 Malaysia kat Padang Rengas..
Aku tengok muka-muka biasa geng-geng Taiping Road Runners buat warm up.
Lepas WW salam-salam sape-sape yang patut, dia pun buat warm up jugak.

warm up melawan arus

Dalam pukul 8.00 am, MC suruh pelari berkumpul kat court tennis.
Ramai jugak la for a race not widely advertised.
And then sessi MC buang masa membebel sebab kononnya organizers masih lagi recce route race untuk clearkan route.
Adeke?
Bebel pokpek bebel pokpek, matahari pun dah naik. Terik.
Aku ngan anak-anak dah mula lapar tapi sebab takut termiss the start of the race, kami tahan jugak.

Tunggu
Tunggu
Tunggu

Ramai runners keluar  'kandang tahanan' by this time sebab:
1. Dah panas
2. Nak warm up balik
3. Nak pi jamban.

Tup-tup pukul 8.55 am baru nak start.
Masa tu matahari naik betul la.
Aku nervous jugak, kot-kot la organizers nak bagi politician berucap sebelum start.
Depa ni bukan boleh. Suka benor dengar diri sendiri bercakap.
Sep baik takde.

So they were let off. And we cheered and cheered. We watched them until they were nowhere in sight.

Silly camera phone can never snap on time. Argh

And then my children looked up to me.
Now what?

Now we wait.

So kami pi kantin dan makan.
Talk about killing two birds.

Ikut resam nasi lemak kantin.

Sedap dan murah. 

goreng pon sodap 

After 26 minutes, we heard the MC announcing the arrival of the first placing runner.
Aik? Lajunya.
Kalut-kalut rush balik kat race site.

Aku tengok sorang-sorang cross the finishing line
1,2,3,4,5..(alamak, podium nak habis)
6,7,8,9...
Just as I was about to look elsewhere, Chiam spotted his old man.
We were cheering, and jumping and clapping. All three of us. Aku nampak paling buruk kot.
And trying to take pictures at the same time.
Which of course came out crappy.

Camera phone aku ada reputation taknak snap at the right timing.

( yang depan tu category budak sekolah 3K) 

Tengok tu! Dia snap tinggal bayang je. 

Harun hashim sungguh. 

But he did it.
No 10. in 32 minutes.
We were pumped.
The kids were really happy ( mostly sebab papa bagged a prize)
"30 hengget je?" kata Chiam.
Jadi la tu. Janji pulang modal.

 Yay!

Ate, takdele besinye koman benor yeop.

The prize giving went smoothly. We didn't have to wait long. The prize money was given promptly and only first 3 finishers had to wait for the prize giving ceremony ( which I heard was held late).
Not bad for a small race. Good quality medal and despite all the lateness, it went smoothly afterwards.

And finally I've officially became a penonton!
I've embraced the other side!
Which is not so bad provided there's nasi lemak.
But then again, nothing can go wrong when there's nasi lemak.