FTAAA KL City Day Run 2010 – And I Ran, So Far Away

21st Feb 2010 update

I drove 130 km in 1 hr 30 mins to run 7 km in 44:34. More on this soon……..

25 April 2010

Sorry it wasn’t soon enough, but blogging was on the backburner for a while as we had quite a lot on our plate with work, family and also non-internet related social activities.

Anyway, I still can remember the FTAAA KL City Day Run like it was yesterday. It was in mid-Feb and The Baby was less than a month old so I had to make a daytrip out of it. Woke up early in the morning around 0500, had a cup of coffee and drove off to KL from Melaka. I got there around 0700, registered and did a bit of a warmup before guntime at 0730.

FTAAA races are the no-frills version race with no race vest, no goodies bags and limited medals given out. That what makes it so coveted to actually get a FTAAA race medal, you have to work for it. Turns out luck was on my side that morning as there were only 400+ runners in Cat A and medals were given out to the first 300. I set myself with steely determination to capture my first FTAAA race medal.

As its a no frills race, the route is usually the same, from Dataran Merdeka through to Bank Negara then Bukit Tunku, cut by Mahameru then back on Jalan Parlimen. I must have ran this route at least 6 times but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. KL is beautiful early in the morning, the brisk breeze blowing through the Bukit Tunku trees, the sun peeking out from  its rise and your finish line looming closer. They did cut the distance to 7 km in which I gave my all at the last bit.

At the last stretch from Jalan Parlimen, with Gimme Shelter blasting, I sped to the finishing line and clocked a 44 min for the run, positioned at 265 and finally gotten my FTAAA medal that has hitherto eluded me. The euphoric feeling made the drive from Melaka all worth it.

After that, I did the Energizer Night Race for a less convincing  half marathon filled with cramps and pain due to the lack of training beforehand. Nevertheless, I do plan to make up for it with the Pacesetters 15k and Std Chart Marathon coming up next.

Oh, and The Baby celebrates his 3 months with us today.