Adidas King of the Road

A fabulous trip this weekend to Malaysia, thanks to BoSe and his excellent group of friends in Klang, Selangor who were very hospitable and great company :)

Day 1. On Friday afternoon, I met up with BoSe at Novena Square where we then caught a FirstCoach ride to Kuala Lumpur. Along the 6-hour journey, I was mildly traumatised by a sneezing passenger who was seated across the aisle from us. With the sunlight streaming in through the windows, I could clearly see the particles emanate from his mouth and nostrils and expand into a evil cloud which drifted towards BoSe and me. And when the cloud reached us, I was assaulted by the smell of his stale breath, and it was disgusting. But the rest of the journey was uneventful, and BoSe and I arrived at Bangsar, then took the LRT to Taman Jaya, where we were picked up by BoSe's childhood buddy Lok Bin and driven to supper. We had char kuay teow and some rojak by the roadside. Later on, Lok Bin drove us to BoSe's house in the Yong An (永安) district --besides the Berkely (摆家利) district -- in Klang, where we deposited our bags and then headed out 20 feet to Guardian to buy antiseptic cream and bandage for my festering ezcematic wound on my right foot, and then drove out for more supper. This time, we went to eat tang-yuan and muah-chi. That's where BoSe's other childhood friends William and Yumei spotted us and made arrangements to meet us for breakfast the following morning. Then we headed back to the house, washed up, read some X-Men comics and then went to bed.

Day 2. Woke up at 8.30 am, to find out that BoSe had survived a night of my snoring. :) We headed out for a really expensive dimsum breakfast with Lok Bin, Yumei and William at Restoran Rahsna. Then we drove over to Centro for New Zealand ice-cream (I didn't eat any, but the rest did), and then went up to YogaFitness where Lok Bin and Yumei were scheduled to attend their Pilates lesson. Interestingly enough, as we were walking along the corridor towards the gym, this ang-moh guy came up from behind me, grabbed me by the shoulders, laterally displaced me to the right, and then overtook me, as if I was an inanimate object blocking his path. Ha! :) Anyway, William, BoSe and I watched Lok Bin and Yumei do all sorts of contortions for about 30 mins, and then BoSe and I went to get our hair cut. And again, interestingly enough, I was asked -- of all the possible questions -- by the hairstylist when I last dated and whether I was confused. Lol :)

Then BoSe, Lok Bin and I went over to meet Pacemakers founder Ronnie at a place where really good cuffy puffs were served :) When Ronnie passed BoSe his running package, we saw, for the first time, how small the S-sized running vest really was! (Later on, when I tried mine on, I had difficulty breathing in it! Lol...) After that, we met up with Yumei, William, Hui-Ching, Sue-Anne and Pei Yi at One Utama for a glorious shopping galore. :) Our dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant was on BoSe, since he was the self-proclaimed "centre of attraction" in Klang. :D

Day 3. Woke up with surprisingly little difficulty at 5.20 am, washed up, had breakfast and tried to quieten the butterflies in my stomach. It was my first competitive race since my injury in January 2007, and my first 21-km race at that! And only the top 300 runners would get a medal! Gosh! Would I manage to get one? Thankfully, BoSe was a great encourager, so he managed to calm me down.

The Race. The Adidas King of the Road race started outside Sunway Pyramid where the Sphinx cast its eternal gaze. We started the race just a couple of minutes late of the scheduled 7.30 am, so that was okay. But the first few kilometres were very terrible for me. I was breathless, my legs were heavy, and I even felt like vomitting at times. But I told myself - enjoy the race, don't worry about the medal. And so, with each gruelling step, I managed to plod my way along the highway to the 10.5 km turning point with a timing of about 57 min. The scenary wasn't great, and by then, the sun was already out so the heat was beginning to mount. Somehow, though, I seemed to get my second wind after the U-turn, and my run from the 10.5 km to 15 km mark was exceptionally smooth and easy. Then, I punctured, and the remaining quarter of the race was extremely laborious. I had to intersperse my slow jogging with walking. :( Even when the finishing line came into view about 400 metres away, I could not muster the strength nor the resolve to pick up my pace and run to the end. I figured that there were probably no medals left for me. But to my pleasant surprise, there was one for me! Hooray! :) I had also met a number of familiar faces during the run: SgRunner's Ronnie, Shutehelup, Yee Hua, DiverRunner and a number of Mt Faber Safra runners. I also dropped my Oakleys onto the road, and one of the lens fell out and I couldn't put it back in again :(

Distance: 19.6 km (apparently not as long as the 21-km as stated)
Timing: 2:00:35
BIB: A2004

Brunch was settled over Klang's famous herbal bak-kut-teh and hot Chinese tea. :D Many thanks to BoSe's friends for the treat :) Many of them may come over for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon at the end of the year, and perhaps then, if I am still around in Singapore, I can return the hospitality. :)

Went back to BoSe's house after that, showered, caught a nap, and then Lok Bin came over to drive BoSe and me directly to Bangsar (thanks, Lok Bin!) where we caught the 3.30 pm FirstCoach coach-ride back to Singapore.

The whole experience has been fascinating. I had learnt some Hokkien, got to know more about the town of Klang and the great people within, had a few interesting encounters, and also ran an enjoyable and fruitful race :) Overall, simply excellent :)