Run To Inspire (Nike 10km–The Stroller Edition)

“Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been but also where you're going”

Nike 10km “We Run KL” was our 3rd successful event for Team BoyBobbyRay (BBR).

Running to me is a metaphor for life, took every challenge in my stride and try to rise above it. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you DNF, but it’s okay as long as you coming back stronger.

The harder the challenges, the sweeter the rewards at the finish line.

As in life, you must enjoy running, for me running is not about breaking Pb’s all the time, sometimes you need to slow down and enjoy the route you’re running. There’s no point running fast but ended up getting lost. Ok enough philosophy for today, let talk about Nike “We Run KL 2011”.

We arrived early to park at the Bt. Aman carpark and soon after performed Subuh prayer at Bukit Aman Mosque, met Ziff and Enaikay here.

Made our way towards the starting line, i think it was about 100 meters from the gantry that we decided to parked ourselves amongst the sea of red runners.

At 7:00 am the race started, i ran slowly at the most far right of the road to evade from crashing onto other runners. The kids was an instant hits with the KL runners that day, many cheered for us including the volunteers & traffic police.

After the first water station, the legs was warmed up and i decided to pushed the pace further. Once the stroller was in motion, it was easy and lighter. The expression the other runners face that we overtook was priceless – some were surprised, some smiles, other cheered us and many took our photos.

I could still remembered their surprised remarks – a guy with stroller just overtook me! Good job bro, start em’ young! Some just clapped, speechless to comment! The majority of the runners on that day gave positives feedback, except for one peculiar comment shouted to us “oi child abuse ke?”.

We stopped at every water stations, there’s no hurry – i’m enjoying this run, it’s my quality time with the kids. Although running the 100km Ultra Marathon in Singapore was the highlight of my year; running with my kids, pushing the Stroller, bonding and sharing the running experience together is always my high. Kids will grows up eventually, sometimes too fast without we realising it. But i will always have these memories – our runs together to be cherish in the future.

Met many friends along the route, including the celebrity runner  SarongMan Yimster, Jaja, Izuan and others.

The pace was good, the route so far was mostly flat except for few places, but i was having problem overtaking runners as sometimes they stopped or walked on the right side of the road. Sometimes i need to hit the emergency “leg brakes” in order to avoid these runners. Now, i devise a strategy to quickly overtake them when there a gap between the runners in front.

Arrived at the 3rd water station, it just around Bank Negara, i knew this route by heart as my routine weekend LSD route. I knew right then, that this would be a challenge to maintained a running pace, as i would need to tackle some crazy inclines till the end. That notion soon to be a reality, i was reduced to walking pace there, seems that pushing stroller with two kids (total weight of almost 20kg) took it’s toll.

The runners community is special tribe, they do take care of each other during most run. On this run, the Nike 10km, when i was walking and pushing the stroller, many runners stopped and offered to help me to push the stroller, which i gently declined, thanks peeps for your support, but as in life it’s my own challenge that i need to carried through. 

As we stopped at the final water station, a runner stopped by and took picture with us, Boboy was sporting enough to rise his hand for every photo shoot. Even the volunteer manning the water station took that opportunity to took our picture, might be as some hard proof for story telling with his buddies later.

As we entered back Jalan Parlimen towards the finish line, Rustam the Pacesetter’s President took another photo of us. Other friends came by pat my back as an encouragement, it was none than Hailmi and the Chap Ayam Runners.

We completed our 3rd running adventure with a timing of 1:15 hours. Even after we finished running and collected the cute Nike USB memento, we received many request from total strangers to take photos together, which we gladly welcome. Hopefully our running adventures would inspires other runners out there to run more, if a single parent like me can run with two kids in a stroller completing a 10km run, why not you. So get up from that couch, get healthy and start running your life.

See you later peeps until our next adventure, keep running!