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The FM gold finisher dog tag is damn nice! Next year FM it is! Any takers? =P |
Malaysia Women Marathon was the first run that I registered this year. It's a women only running event with exception if male runners wanted to join they can only joined as pacers for half and full marathon categories. With that said, my first problem was that I did not know any female friends that run half or full marathon distances. Rather than looking for one, I had to persuade runners and non runners alike to run their first HM. Most of my female friend runners were not ready to take on such distance, and for my non female friend runners, they just gave me the Death Stare. I never ask again...
Preparation
Luckily, Rayhan hit me back and was interested to run the HM category and wanted me to become her pacer. Her longest distance that she'd run was 8km but she was up the challenge. Gotta love that kind of spirit! My game plan in order to get her ready for the big day was to get as many mileage as possible from December till March and at the same time instilling proper running techniques during runs. We even put our pacer pacee partnership to the test at a 8km Milo Run held at Padang Merbok back in January.
Race day
The weather for the pass month had been so dry with no rain resulting in peat fires throughout the country. With that said the infamous haze came and suffocated every outdoor lovers. Good news; the day before race day it rained heavily and rarely seen blue sky were visible. Bad news; unfortunately, the morning of race day the situation turned for the worst. I believed that the heavy rain from the day before had brought up all the smoke from peat fires. Although the air pollution index that morning stated that it was below 100 but that burning smell were very strong and can be clearly seen.
As safety of runners are top priority, the organizers decided to changed the event into a non-competitive run where the cash prizes were donated to charities and the sponsorship prizes were converted into lucky draws. They still flagged off runners in their respective categories. Most that were there at the race venue went on and run, there were some who decided to go back to their cars, while others collected their finisher goodies and chilled at the race venue. I followed the latter. Rayhan wasn't into the idea of running in the hazy condition. I tried talking her into running the 10km category. She wasn't down either. Finally, she said yes to the 5km category and I'm back on my feet.
5km category had the most joyful crowd. Everybody was smiling and enjoying each others company. Nobody took the distance seriously neither do I. Before we could reach the half way mark they already told us to cut across the route and turned back as the run has been cancelled. Apparently every categories were cut short. FM to 35km, HM to 18km, 10km to ??, and 5km to 4km (information based on runners I had asked in their respective categories).
Oh yeah, I ran in my mom's jammies or baju kelawar in support of event being a women marathon. Always love when runners are not wearing their usual running clothes and I decided to join in the fun. I got my critics but damn I think I pulled off. Till next time. Keep running =)
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With Rayhan running towards the finishing line =) [photos by Enaikay] |
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No haze can stop us from turning up =) |
