Its like: should I go? Dont know anyone there? What will I wear? Who will I bump into? I should have shaved? Come ON MAN! Its a freaking Run.
The BHP Orange Run is my third run within a month. I am hooked to this sport.
Everybody should take up running. If your thinking about running injuries...well, think about stroke and heart attack from lack of exercising, over eating and over drinking. Get my point!
Anyway, 6.15 am, Sunday, 25th July 2010, I put on my Zigtech shoes and pinned my number bib B2266 on to my orange running vest go into my car and I was at the Curve carpark by 6.40am.
Parking was ample and easy. Cool!
Just as I walked onto The Curve walkway, there was already alot of excited people warming up and chatting.
I could sense this was going to be more of a fun run than a serious prize money type that Twenty First Century Sports organizes.
I actually like that it was free to enter the race. You dont get that anymore. I like the number bib quality and the information that you need to fill up at the back.
Thank God, my friend picked up my number bib from BHP's HQ in Damansara Mutiara. If it wasnt for him , I would not have taken part in the run since I would not have gone to pick up my number. By the way, anyone who registered and picked up the numner bib but did not turned up for the race, you have denied someone else an opportunity to have a great Sunday morning.
I also felt that quality was not a consideration when this Run was conceptualised. There was no proper start sign banner. The one that they had was SAD!
No barricades, no proper marshalling. Again the start of the race was not where the start/finish banner was. I saw that in the Energizer Night Race too. The start banner and the start area was about easy 400 meters away. Why?
Back to The Orange Run. I like its simplicity. Only 2 starts. One for women (all categories) at 7.15am and Men at 7.25am. There was no countdown. Just a air horn.
Most of the runners were in good spirits even though there no pomp n ceremony.
It is just an understanding that since it free, if there isnt any quality about the run, it is OK.
Everyone did 11KM. I like that too. It is easy. Just one route.
The route design was good. It had flat and also hills. Its good to challenge the runners that way.
The distance markers were sparse. I think I saw one at 2 km. And the next one at 9 km. They were so small I couldnt see them well. One was nailed to the tree.
BHP, you are an oil company. You are not in the environmentally friendly list, on top of that you nail trees. Hmmmm......in the name of cost saving?
I thought the traffic police did a reasonable job in managing the traffic in favour of the runners.
Wow! there some very rude motorists. They were like confronting the police.
I am not sure which way to go on this one. I feel sorry for the motorists because they are stuck in a jam of all days on a Sunday in front of their own residential area. Then there is also the safety aspects of the runners. I also feel sorry for the cops.
I actually saw one lady pointing her finger and telling a cop off. I was thinking, one slap by the cop and she will collapse. Not that it happenned, my mind just wondered.
I feel that organizers should inform the guards at the residential guard houses of the run and the traffic disruption.
A notice board should be put up early so that the residents are informed of it. I am sure once the residents are aware of the traffic disruption, they will be more understanding and plan their Sunday better.
The roads were not closed by the way. The route marshalls did well to manage the traffic too.
I saw some runners infront of me, running into the second lane without even considering whether there is traffic behind you.
Here, I encourage fellow runners not to take the road for granted. Please keep within the single lane. We must take responsibilty for our safety too. We cant put everything on the organizers. We need to play ball so that sponsors and organizers can have more confidence to organize more run for us.
For a 11km run, there were only 2 drink stations. One at 3km (I think) and one at around 8km (not sure).
Not enough lah! Look around and you will see that most of the runners are not highly active runners. They are more social runners. We need water, man!
One more drink station would have been great.
Having said all that, I enjoyed the route. It was mostly scenic. I managed to complete the whole run without stopping. I just kept running with 50 meters dash at the finish.
And thats where it felt flat. There was no timer, for me to check my finishing time. So I had to roughly calculate using my handphone watch. I started at 7.25 am (air horn time) and the clock on my handphone showed 8.43am at the finish. Calculate, calculate... ah (see bleow, ITS WRITTEN IN BIG CAPS TO EXPRESS MY EXCITEMENT!)
I DID IT! I DID THE 11KM IN 1 HOUR 18 MINS IN THE ORANGE RUN. I QUIETLY REJOICED WITHIN ME AND LOOKED FOR WATER. GOT MYSELF COUPLE OF REVIVE AND HEADED TOWARDS THE GOODIE BAG QUEUE. THATS WHERE I BUMPED INTO FREDA OF BFM. HAD A QUICK CHAT ABOUT NEXT WEEK'S SHAPE & MEN'S HEALTH NIGHT RUN 2010.
AND THEN, MY DREADED PET HATE... QUEUE JUMPING HAPPENED.
THERE WAS THIS GUY AND HIS WIFE JUST JUMPED THE QUEUE IN FRONT OF ME. I STOPPED MY CONVERSATION WITH FREDA AND ASKED THE UNCLE "DONT QUEUE JUMP LAH, EVERYONE ALSO TIRED"
HIS EXCUSE WAS THAT HE IS VETERAN. (MATE, YOU DONT LOOK LIKE ANYTHING PAST 60 AND YOU JUST RAN 11KM. SO SAVE IT FOR ANOTHER DAY!)
I WAS ALSO THINKING THAT MORE THE REASON FOR YOU NOT TO QUEUE JUMP, TO SET A GOOD EXAMPLE TO YOUNG MALAYSIANS. HE WENT ON JUSTIFYING HIS ACTION, I JUST TURNED MY HEAD AWAY AND IGNORED HIM.
HE WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE, THERE WAS A FEW OF THEM. I DONT KNOW WHY, BUT MY EYES SEEM TO ZOOM INTO THESE SITUATIONS LIKE A SHARP SHOOTER. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT THE YOUNGER GENERATION WAS ACTUALLY QUEUEING UP PROPERLY. GOOD ON YOU!
WE MAY HAVE 4 SETS OF TWIN TOWERS, LONGEST BRIGDE ETC ETC, BUT WE WILL NOT BE A DEVELOPED NATION WHEN OUR MENTALITY IS STILL LINGERING AROUND THE 3 RD CLASS LEVEL. NO WONDER OUR SINGAPOREAN NEIGHBOURS LOOK DOWN AT US SOMETIMES. CAN WE BLAME THEM?
Lets move on, I collected my goodie bag, headed towards the breakfast and drink area. Crowd management was s_ _h. But then agian it was actually a small area for 3000 runners to congragate for receiving free breakfast and drinks.
It was excellent to have cereal breakfast by nestle. A cocoa drink by Poweroot, (MILO watch out), free nasi lemak and hot cup of tea by Lipton. THANK YOU so much.
Just a note, I saw a lady (she had a organizer tag on and she is not from BHP) taking so many nasi lemak packets and putting it into her goodie bag. This lady just denied some others their breakfast. Shame on You! Why so greedy? Big family to feed is it?
Then, I bumped into more friends and one of them is a regular price winner. He was complaning about the prize money not being enough etc. I just told him to wake up and smell the roses. This is not a run targeting at people like you. It is for people like me to come and have FUN, be Healthy and to be with Friends and Family. You should not have come.
The sponsor spends so much effort in making it possible for thousands of Malaysians to have a great Sunday morning and for free and all you do is to b_ t_h about the money.
No worries. All in all, I had a great time. I am sure most of the runners did too.
THANK YOU BHP FOR MAKING IT HAPPEN!
THANK YOU BHP FOR MAKING IT HAPPEN!
HOOHA!
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