KL Towerthon 2009

This is the first race for 2009, and I was very excited. Although with no good training behind me, I suppose running up the tower will be a good kickstart for my sloppy runs. Needless to say, the first of the year, and the first time running up series of staircases beyond my daily 3-storey office, is daunting.

I drove off like my normal workout days, parked behind The Weld, and warmed up. The heavy carbo-loading last night made me scramble to Shell station, and after a half-hour queue, I was done and light, and running to the site to warm up. That day, a lot of kids from local universities in matching jerseys were warming up. Man, was I jealous of those long, slender legs, those powerful legs.

Met my buddy trainer, which as always used my size and height to spot me in the crowd. He was supposed to run with few mates but people were everywhere. Apparently, many thousands of people want to go up the tower for free… And while warming up, met Cik Mariana in the crowd… a very nice surprise. We went flying foxing etc at Bukit Cerakah last year, and to be honest, very few professionals in our lie of work get out of their way to sweat out these days.

 

I was in the second group to be released, together with IY. At 8.15 a.m., we were off running, and man, running up from the main street to the base was challenging… that little training really shows. As it was very tempting to sprint among the faster runners, I paced steadily as I cannot gauge the intensity required when climbing the steps, so takpa lah… depa nak pegi, depa pi dulu…

I reached the base OK, few early sprinters were already walking… by the time I hit the stairs, these sprinters were already walking. It was hard to keep on running in that traffic. I ran up to T12, and stopped to sip. From then on, I had to stop at all checkpoints : T16, etc etc. Man, that was tough. I tried to double and triple step whenever I can, and do a run-a-flight, and walk-a-flight thing to keep up. Knowing IY was somewhere behind me, I do not want to see him trailing, and catching up on me.

Somewhere, I looked up to see limited views of the stairways. At that point, I was lost to where I was in the elevation, and asked a marshall. He said there are 3 levels to go. Upon that, I sprinted up, double running, just to find that the 3 sets of flights only took me to TH1. But close enough, I went on running.

All of a sudden, I came through a door with so many photographers waiting, etc etc, and stepped on the red mat. That was the easiest end – as compared to 20 mins queue to collect medals and have our numbers tallied. I do not know how was my time yet, but that’s beside the point anyway. Headed down, collected my first shining medal, grabbed some apples, sandwiches etc, and headed home. I have asked my wife to cook something, and for a very long time since, some nasi lemak smells yummy!

Mental notes for next year – just push them away. Slow pace running up to the base is good. Don’t drink too much water, no matter how dehydrated you are (I don’t cope well with bouncing water in my stomach).

Overall, love the run!