Prelude to Pacesetters 30 km

The weekend had been splendid. Met up with Stazla at Tanjong Pagar MRT station at 2115 hrs on Friday after dinner, and then together, we headed to the railway station where we met up with the other SgRunners who were going by the 2215 hrs sleeper train to Kuala Lumpur - Babumouse, Ronnie, Freddy, Alvo, Meteor, SassyRunner, cfred, Andy, Cokiee, Brokie, Run3, Shutehelup, Daisiki, Bee, Cheow, Violet and Ripley. We were also farewelled at the station by a few other dear friends such as Sotong and SV.

During our ride on the train, we went exploring and even made our way through a number of other cabins before we reached the train cafeteria, where Andy bought a packet of mee goreng. But nothing could beat Run3's surprise birthday celebration at 0000 hrs on Saturday morning as the highlight of the ride :) I slept quite well for the rest of the 11-hour journey.

We arrived at the Central train station, ate some Dunkin' Donuts, and then took the transit to Bt Bintang. Our hotel - Coronade Hotel - was located just beside Lot 10. After depositing our bags, we trooped over to the food court (next to Hot Mama Restaurant) at Sungei Wang for brunch. Excellent, tasty MSG-laden food at good prices :)



After brunch, we walked over to Times Square, where we split up into three groups - the first group watching the movie "Blood Diamond" at 1200 hrs; the second group watching the movie "The Pathfinder" at 1230 hrs; and the third group deciding to roam the shopping mall on their own. I elected to join the second group.

"The Pathfinder" was not a good film in my opinion. In essence, it was a story centred on a shipwrecked Viking boy who was brought up by a tribe of peacefully-dwelling native American Indians. 15 years later, when the boy had grown into a towering block of muscle and somewhat assimilated into the local community under his new name "Ghost", a batch of blood-thirsty Vikings landed on the North American coast and began to massacre the American Indians, one village at a time. In return, Ghost plotted and executed his revenge against the Vikings, contributing to the already overflowing bloodbath. I would rate the film 2/5.

We gathered back at the hotel at 1500 hrs to do our room check-ins and at 1600 hrs, Yee Hua kindly brought our race packs to us at the hotel. Bose joined us at the hotel soon after. Being a resident in the Malaysian capital, Bose proved to be an invaluable guide and resource person over the next couple of days :) Thanks buddy!

For dinner, we had originally planned to venture from our hotel to Petaling Street, but our plans were dashed by torrents of heavy rain which left us stranded conveniently along a row of shophouses, including an Indian eatery. And so, we ate there.

After dinner, we hopped into 3 cabs and returned to Sungei Wang where we purchased some groceries for the next morning. Then we relaxed over coffee, hot chocolate and dessert at Dome @ Lot 10.

Before bedtime, Ripley came over to Shut's and my room to watch a soccer match on ESPN (or whatever we could make out on the telly screen, as the rain had interfered with reception of the Astro satellite dish). 2-0. Victory to Liverpool.