JIPP TRAVELS

So – my marathon saga this year continued when I joined the Putrajaya Night Marathon last Saturday. A WEEK before, I joined hundreds of runners to take to the streets of DOWNTOWN KL  as they call it to run for PIKOM Charity Run 2011 – a run organized by PIKOM – whatever it is- to raise fund for the National Cancer Society Malaysia.The event had become even more meaningful when less than a week earlier the world lost one of its most precious inhabitants in decades when Steve Jobs succumbed to pancreatic cancer – the same type of cancer that actually killed my father 5 years ago. So, running in the name of charity for the first time, I was expecting the cheapest running shirt that the organizer could provide but heck NO. It was a running shirt with brand and it was actually so comfortable to be in – thanks to the sponsor, whoever it was.My 2 cents to the organizer  – next time if you want an instructor in the warm-up session, please please and please get somebody who is fit and probably younger and most importantly knows what he is doing up there. This gaman over here had made the people dance like a toddler who is dancing to a Beyonce’s Single Ladies video or something – so much so that they began to ignore him entirely after awhile. DUH.If being awarded a medal was already a surprise, I was even more surprised when the medal made its way deservingly into my hands. It was pretty nice, heavy and tasty compact and it wasn’t much different from the ones awarded to me in other runs that I had joined before. With a humble registration fee of only RM30, it made me wonder if there was anything left to go to the charity.Oh well, of course it was only a warm-up of some kind to another run that I took a part in one week later. To tell the truth, I didn’t expect much from the marathon considering it was only its second time of taking place after they had only started it last year.

I had to give the organizer my first thumb-up when they organized a forum right in the heart of KL which gave the attendees the rare opportunity of getting interactive with the experts. Then my double thump-ups went to the free food they provided at the forum. At least I saved a few bucks of my hard-earned money for another day’s dinner. Heh.

Then the run itself was just so WOW. Visiting the administrative capital of Malaysia for the first time since I attended a one-day course there some three years ago, I knew I had underestimated Putrajaya Night Marathon when I couldn’t even find any parking space! Wohoooo.Putrajaya Night Marathon had always been exciting right from the very moment I parked my car illegally on the side of a road and made my way to the starting point 10 minutes before it was due to start.  

One thing about running at night is that, you don’t see any of those panda eyes and sleepy faces that you’d usually see when people are obliged to wake up at four in the morning to join a marathon on a Sunday.It turned out to be a SUPER-smooth marathon. Everything went on quite so well I didn’t have to worry about crossing a road or bumping into somebody’s shoulder because apparently there weren’t much traffic going on in Putrajaya at night and everybody seemed to have enough space of his/her own.

The only problem was probably the heat. Running a marathon early in the morning has the advantage of giving you a cool fresh air so that you’d feel like running on a treadmill in an air-conditioned gym or something. A night marathon on the other hand would make you run when the heat hasn’t settled down yet so you could still feel it clinging around you as you run.

The run took us to some of the most iconic structures in Putrajaya – although I couldn’t really see much of them at night.

Putrajaya Night Marathon gotta be the most entertaining marathon that I’ve ever joined in so far. Every now and then I’d run into a group of people who were there to cheer us on with their chanting, dancing, gongs, gendangs and everything.

There were people dressed in clowns and famous cartoon characters (did I see a spiderman?) and I even remember running past a marching band! Isn’t it cool?? o.O

I was actually half-expecting to see a group of cheerleaders in sexy miniskirts and pony tailed hair but there were none. 🙁

But seriously, there is always something further down the road and the best thing is you don’t know what it is until you see it. There was a sense of curiosity that kept me going and I found it quite so exciting and hilarious.If there was a lesson that I had learned from Putrajaya Night Marathon, it would be to remind myself not to eat spicy food at least on the day of the run. It was so stupid of me for mindlessly throwing quite a considerable amount of cili padi (the one that we eat a lot in Sabah – so burning hawt I tell ya!) right into my stupid mouth 2 HOURS before the run.

The consequence? I hadn’t even made it halfway through the marathon when I began to feel a pain in my stomach – as if a scalpel was cutting away at my intestines or something.

There gotta be better excuses not to run faster but eating chilly a few hours before hitting the line has apparently slowed me down. There was even one time when I was on the verge of vomiting when I tried to force keeping up with my own pace.  But still..

I made it. So, getting a medal upon finishing the run was already expected and it was good to add another medal to my personal collection of medals.

What I didn’t expect was the finisher T-shirt that came with it and hell; it wasn’t like any of those T-shirts that you’d buy on the side of a road in Jalan Chow Kit or something OK? Again – It was a T-shirt with brand! I loike! 😀

SO – Putrajaya Night Marathon has been one of the best marathons that I’ve ever joined so far and the best thing about it was the fact that I didn’t have to worry about doing something that I have a very big problem with – to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to run on a weekend. Next year? A definite YES.