2XU Compression Run - race report

I really like the 2xu race vest because it's in black(predominantly)! Rarely will you see running organizer donning the color black as their race vest. Last time was last year's Nike Run, and the design was ugly and the material was horrible. I like the 2xu vest so much that I wore it straight away after collecting it and put my Man Utd jersey away. Went about my day and had a quick workout session at Taman Tasik Shah Alam donning the new vest with pride. 

The run was held at Padang Merbok, and the flag off for the 15km category was at 6 a.m. It's been raining every evening since the monsoon season arrived. We were welcomed with more rain in the morning of the run. There was a slight delay on the flag off. At first, I thought the starting line was going to be along Jalan Parlimen where most 10k runs that I had joined always held at. However, for this run it was held behind Padang Merbok along a much narrowed Jalan Berjasa. 

THE CHALLENGE

One thing I know from running 10k runs that starts from Padang Merbok that there is going to be a lot of hills. There were two notable hills that stand out and makes you want to stop and walk. I would totally do exactly that if its a really long run to conserve energy, but given that this is a 15k short run, so I took up the challenge. I just slowly paced myself up those hills. Well most would struggled on the ascends, I on the other hand, struggled on the descends. Those steep downhills can really put your calf to work. As my footwear of choice for this run was Vibram FiveFingers, I could not descend as fast as I wanted to.

THE IDIOTS

As bad as the hills and the weather were, what ticked me off the most was irresponsible runners throwing cups and energy gels into the greens. Why the hell did you do that!! Bad enough that we are littering at every water stations(at least volunteers going to pick those empty cups up), and now you have to throw yours at the forest. Who's going to pick your shit up?? The monkeys!?!? STUPID!!! 

THE VIEW

With every climb, we were rewarded with awesome views of the KL skyline especially at the top of Bukit Tunku. Found out later that this hill is HAUNTED!!! This was where runners had to make a U-turn and run down the same road they ran up. I like the scene where descending runners gave words of encouragement and high fives to runners ascending. This was where I saw most of my friends.

Petronas Twin Towers on the horizon

The view of KL skyline from the top of Bukit Tunku 

Crossed the finish line at 1:36'43". I was surprised that it was a small scale event given that the brand sponsor was big. There were no other sponsors, so the likes of milo and other additional refreshments were not provided. Thus, leaving me to make an early exit as I was starting to get hungry.