Mizuno Wave

I had a fun weekend, different from the norm.

Started off going into KL on Saturday, to meet up with Cikgu Joshua at the low budget hotel Swiss Hotel. Although when I walked in, my first thought was, "Dodgy!", its location is very strategic, only 10mins walk from Masjid Jamek LRT station, the room is basic and clean, and the toilets are newly renovated. Anyone with claustrophobia will suffer in the lift though, with its neon 'MAX 5 people!' handwritten sign.

First thing was Joshua wanted to buy a camera, so we walked to Berjaya Times Square (navigating with our mental compass, which eventually failed us and we hopped on a bus) where there was a big photography expo going on, and met up with crazy camera enthusiasts:














It was fun meeting these people in a non-'PKA' setting.

I've never seen so many big, black camera's all in one location before. Some were REALLY huge, so scary. Like this one:




















Silently the guys were all thinking, "My camera's bigger than your camera..."

This dude is a dude I've seen around a few times, but never met. Once I met him, I discovered that he was the one that took the pictures I used in my previous post about Crazy Little Thing Called Love. What a coincidence! And then he "tsk tsk'ed" me for using the pictures without permission. =p

Anyway, the purpose for going to KL was for the Mizuno 10km run. Gah! Last run I joined was over 2years ago!

Joshua the ex-Powerbar spokesman convinced me to buy a Powerbar thats RM7 (!!!), because supposedly you eat it 45mins before an event and it gives you energy that lasts for 2hours. I honestly didn't feel any difference. I told him, to his horror, that usually for breakfast before a run I'd eat a 50cent Roti and thats it.

Something I found really cool was we were all given a chip to wear on our shoe that will detect when you pass the starting line and finishing line, so your actual time is recorded.




















It didn't quite work out so well for the men because at the finishing line they all had to line up to get a card thing which slowed them down. Very unfair since they actually could've reached the finishing line much earlier. Bad on the organizers part.

Josh managed to get some other nutty people to sign up, and here's us an hour before the race:















Fast forward to the actual run - we were too busy chit chatting till out of the blue "Bennnng!" the siren went off and it began. I was so unprepared, but I only realized HOW unprepared about 15mins into the race.

In my ignorance, I thought that we'd be running around the streets of KL, flat streets. However, turns out that 90% of the route was HILLY. It was all around Bukit Tungku, the hill behind the National Monument. Really tough. Since I had no clue what the route was like, around each bend when you think it's going downhill, it goes up again!

I remember running and thinking, now I know why its called Mizuno Wave- with all the runners in their light blue vests, going up and down hill in a continuous stream, the top view would probably look like a wave.

I was physically not prepared - the training I did was all on flat terrain.
I was mentally not strong - I gave up at several points where I shouldn't have.

Cutting a long run story short, I finally saw the 2km To Go sign. Joshua (who had finished much earlier) was waiting near the final bend and he was a good sport encouraging me by running along beside me, pushing me to push myself. Thanks for that Cikgu!

I crossed the finish line, since I wasn't wearing a watch, could be anywhere from 1hour 20mins - 1hour 30mins from the time I started. I'll have to wait 2months till my cert comes, then I'll know for sure.

I enjoyed myself, and the weekend was a BLAST, but it wasn't a very 'satisfying' run.

I have to be more prepared for the next one.

Yes! I will try again!