7/29/2019 Rachel Runs... PJ Half Marathon

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Rachel Runs...PJ Half Marathon

Ater this event the organisingteam asked or eedback onFacebook with the caveat that this

event is more o a carnival than a

running event and anyone who

came to run is missing the point.

I thats the case, why not just hosta carnival and leave the running

event to people who know what

is required in organising one o

these. The ollowing is more or less

the eedback I gave.

1. The start line was a bottle neck which is

both dangerous and boring!

2. For the rst ew miles o the race, the

path was so small that it was impossibleto overtake other runners and get up to a

comortable speed.

3. The route was all boring highway

running with nothing to look at and some

sections o it went through unlit tunnels.

Did no one consider this may have been

unsae?

4. There were lots o sections which

doubled back which I nd pretty soul

destroying.

5. At the water stations there were no

drinks poured so you had to stop and

wait or the helpers on the stand to pour

one out.

6. No nishers pack. A t-shirt is nice as

most o us dont get chance to wear the

medals in our day to day lie.

7. Ater the poor hydration management

throughout the race I couldnt wait to

cross the nish line and have a great bigdrink o water rom my nishers pack. But

there was no nishers pack. I had to then

ght my way through crowds and queue

up to get a thimbleul o liquid or my

parched mouth.

8. I didnt see a portapotty on the whole

route unacceptable! Fortunately, I

didnt need to go but running can have

an eect on the digestion sometimes.

I eel sorry or the poor runners who

experienced this at your event.

9. At 5.15am beore the race had even

started, I had to jump over a river o urine

to use the toilets at Kelana Jaya stadium.

10. Great work getting Golden Screen

Cinemas on board as a sponsor and I

would have loved a money o voucher

or some o that tasty popcorn in my

nishers pack! However, as Ive said, there

was no nishers pack and the queue or

the popcorn was ull o non-runners who

were already eating some whilst queuingup or some more.

I ound this event chaotic, maybe even

shambolic, and would be very unlikely to

repeat the experience with all the other

great races available.

What I didnt mention was that this was

my astest hal marathon ater havingkids which was a boost to my running

condence.

Pacesetter Back to Basics

As the title suggests this was a stripped

down, basic 30km run to be used as

training or those competing in the

upcoming Penang Bridge and Singapore

marathons. Im not entered or either

o these but I do like to run a long way

and have been interested in learning thepacesetters route or some time.

They dont come much hillier than

this! We ran over Bukit Tunku, round

Publika mall and past Bank Negara. To

be honest, Im not even sure, but it was

hilly, challenging and low on trafc.

There were plenty o volunteers, no

points where you could have lost your

way and water stations about very 3km.

The start time was a punishing 5.30am

but it was pretty close to my house and

I was able to park easily close to thestart line. 30km seems neither here nor

there, its a stretch urther than a hal

marathon but you are not going beyond

the wall o a ull marathon. There was

no prize money (as i thats ever a actor

or me!) and no pressure and I just really

enjoyed the route, meeting up with a ew

riends and pushing mysel on the hills.

It probably helped that it was a beautiul

morning. The only crushing blow was

that the route was actually two circuits

o the same track! Regular readers will

know this is a pet hate o mine and I eltgutted or about 2 miles until I talked

mysel round to it (at least I knew where

I was going and I might learn the route,

neither was true but this kind o brain

training is an essential part o my game

plan). My timing was a very respectable

3 hrs 5 mins which, over a ull marathon

distance, Id be happy to maintain. At the

end I was cheered over the nish line

by a handul o volunteers, given a cool

T-shirt and medal and then there was

watermelon! Perect! So, it was very lowkey in comparison to the PJ hal but as

we all know, in certain things, size isnt

everything!

Photographs by Eng Tiong

by Rachel Joseph

Rachel Runs