Cross Country Taman Botani 2012

This must be the cheapest race fee that i ever paid for an event, for RM15 you’ll get NO frills race, no goody bag, no useless coupons, just an old school style cotton bib and medal plus certificate once you completed the race.

This was one of the rare event that you could come by in the morning of the race and registered!

That’s right, you could register on the spot – just like Karen did after completing her morning 12km LSD. In addition, she walked away as No. 4 finisher in her age category and RM100 richer.

Although this was a small race but it attracted many known fast runners including; Jasni, Rozmi, Shaharudin, Mark Williams, Jean Pierre, Yuan Yu Fang (National Walker) etc.

For category, A- Men Open, B- Men Jr. Veteran, C- Women Open, runners need to run 8km, while the rest of the category was set at 6km.

I knew from the start of this race that it would be tough and demanding, based on my experience running FTAAA Cross Country last January.

It was the same route, except that this time it started at Lake Garden. I like this setting better as when the runners reached the trails near Tugu Negara, they would be spread all over the route unlike the January’s Cross Country, where runners start from Padang Merbok and jammed the trails at the beginning of the race.

When the gun went off at the start of the race, i knew that this would NOT be one of my better races. I felt hungry when i started running, i guess two slices of Gardenia bread and a cup of hot Milo for breakfast was not enough to fuel my run. Note to myself – need to eat properly before the race, Beef Burger for dinner the night before was not an ideal meal for pre-race.

I had side stiches few hundred meters from the finishing line – first time for everything. I tried to fight it off, it was painful and hinders me from speeding my way to the finishing line.

It was a huge relief once i crossed the finish line with the timing of 60:08, almost got that sub-1 hour, no thanks to the side stiches – drank too much H2O at the water sations.

I was happy to secured that limited medal and completed at position #14, Men Jr. Veteran category. It was supposed to be 8km race, but Garmin showed over-distance race at 10.08km. Overall, it was an enjoyable Sunday morning race.