CERITA SAYA,ZAINI...: A HAPPY NEW YEAR DAY AT KLINYR 2018

MY STORY FROM KL INTERNATIONAL NEW YEAR RUN 2018

Returned for the 3rd year and the 2nd consecutive year with my family. Glad for all of us to make it again on the first day of the new year 2018. Arrived at the event with a very good condition after another challenging year 2017.

Good bye 2017 and welcome 2018! There is no better,happier and healthier way to usher the new year morning other than to run happily with the entire family around.

The event has added a new category this year with the HM category.Saw at the social media posts and heard about the troubles during the first day of the RPC but I was lucky enough to have a less than 10 minutes RPC on the following day on 31 December.

A smooth and easy RPC in the morning of 31 December 2017.

Alhamdulillah, the feeling was good since we checked in at the hotel on the new year eve.

After spending some quality time with my wife and kids walking around KL in the evening until the dinner.

Walking around KL with my family on the new year eve.

My main running goal in 2018 is to finish more FM runs and will run much lesser runs with shorter distance especially lower than HM distance. Thought of running a HM for KLINYR this year but thinking about to spend more outing time with my family after the event, 10km should be enough for me to kick off the new year.

With my health and fitness level has been in fairly good condition since Nov-Dec, I was thinking about a stronger finish than last year when I barely made the sub 1 at 59 minutes. Personally I intended to push myself a little bit and wanted to see what will happen next especially with I am now at about 3kg heavier than I was in 1 January 2017.

After we had our dinner just before the Maghrib prayer time, we returned to the hotel and had some rest.

At 6.15 a.m on the new year morning, I walked with my family to Dataran Merdeka. At this time, the whole Jalan TAR from Maju Junction to Dataran Merdeka was already fully closed and we were happily walking in the middle of the road while taking photos freely. By the time we started walking at Jln TAR, we saw runners for HM were running along Jln Sultan Ismail towards Jalan Kuching.

The flag off time was at 7.15 a.m. and 7.30 a.m for 10km and 5km respectively. I knew after the run that the FO for HM at 5.00 a.m. was delayed to about 5.20 a.m. Again, lucky me did not choose a HM.

Below are photos of our walk from the hotel along Jalan TAR to the event venue at Dataran Merdeka.

from the hotel at 6.15 a.m.

Walking through along the fully closed Jalan TAR to Dataran Merdeka

Like last year, me and my eldest son ran 10km and my wife and other kids ran 5km.

Honestly I did not really look at the route because I assumed the 10km route would the same like last 2 years.So, I guessed before the the FO, I know what to expect this time. Arrived at the venue about 6.30 a.m something and runners were seen arriving as well.

For this run, again I decided not to run with my smartphone and kept it at the luggage keeping place provided next to the FO line. Then I led my family to perform simple warm-up workouts before I left them and walked to the FO area.

Then, I was lucky again that the FO for 10km was on time.However, the technical briefing surprised me because I heard the route explained sounded quite different compare to last year to me.Another one, the person who gave the briefing should have been more polite when he talked about the dress code for winners for the prize giving ceremony.

MY RUN

Started quite smooth from the FO line but shocked to see my watch when it showed I was running at 4.36min/km for the first km.I knew I could sustain that because I felt that my heart rate was going up. What I needed to do just to run at pace 5 for a sub 1 timing. I slowed down after that and reduced it to pace 4.58min/km and followed by pace 5 for the following 2km.

In between there was a WS and that made me felt relaxed a little bit.

The route was different this time.No more Jln Bukit Bintang, Jln Tun Razak and Jln Ampang stretches which means no more passing the Petronas Twin Towers compare to the last two years

From the FO, I ran through Jln Raja Laut and made a right turn just after the Pertama Complex to run along Jln TAR.Then made another left turn to Jln Tun Perak and followed by a stretch at Jln Raja Chulan passing the Telekom Museum.Then I ran passed Hotel Istana before turning left again to enter Jln Sultan Ismail.

Between the 4 and 5km at Jln Sultan Ismail, my friend Hussien Mullar passed me and told me that I was doing good.He encouraged me to keep the tempo to the end and slowly I saw him disappeared from my sight after that.

Somehow, the route at that stretch was also a downhill compare to the slight uphill along Jln Raja Chulan before that.

Again, I was surprised to see I ran at 5.38min/km when I reached the 5km mark. That was even faster the previous first 2km.Then I slowed down again along that Jln Sultan Ismail before entering Jln Kuching and ran towards Jln Kinabalu. By that time, I knew that I just need to relax and maintain my run at pace 5 for me to beat my performance last year.

At Jalan Kuching to turn to Jln Tun Perak. Photos by Empty Kotak

Then I turned into Jln Tun Perak once more and then running along Jln Raja Laut before turning at the Pertama Complex again to run along Jln TAR to the finish line.If I am not mistaken, along Jln Sultan Ismail, 10km runners joined by 5km runners to the finish line. At Jln TAR, I did expect the distance would be less than 10km, however when my time at 9km was still below 50 minutes, I was not worry because I was still able to have a better performance than last year.

I ran in much more relaxed during the last 2km when the route started to have more runners especially runners from all categories interfaced and were running together.

At the Jln TAR to the finish line when a young lady runner overtook me

and then out of my sight to the finish line.Photos by Super Sergio

Along Jln TAR at the final stage of the run to the finish line, I came across a few photographers as well busy taking their shots at runners. Surely I hope I will be in some of their shots too. Managed to give a high five and wished one of them a happy new year too and I said thank you to others when I ran passing them.

In less than 200 metres to the finish line. Photos by Fiz Said

Finally, I crossed the finish line again for the new year of 2018. Raising hands into the air while doing that was never lesser exciting than my previous runs. Felt so good to enter the new year of running again.

Flying to the finish line at Dataran Merdeka. Photo by ET Tey

After crossing the finish line

My watch showed I clocked 51 minutes at 9.6km which was good enough for me to be satisfied with my run this time.It has been a long time since my PB of 50 minutes for 10km in September 2016.After that it has been so hard for me to break even the 55 minutes timing.

The official result for me and my son.Both improved from 59 minutes to 51 minutes for me and from 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 4 minutes for Zaim

At least the result has proved to me that my workouts strengthen my lower body muscles especially at knee and hip worked to regain my speed with the increased kg to my weight in 2017.

At least today, I had the PB for this event on the third year since I participated in it. What a run and I could not ask for much better running performance to keep me motivated for the next one, my first year anniversary of FM run at Twincity Marathon on 21 Jan.

AFTER THE FINISH

Then came the another exciting part while waiting for my family members to finish their run.I looked around to find my running friends who have finished and to take photos with them for the album.

Glad to bump to some of them and some they bumped into me.

Felt good to meet some FB and IG friends for the first time as well on the new year day.

Below are some of the photos with them.

With running friends after the run.

Then, I took the opportunity to take my photos at the photo booth while there was still not crowded.

After that I saw my son finished his run and he performed much better than last year too at 1:04.That is pretty impressive time to me because he has not run that often since he continued his study at the matriculation in May last year.

While waiting for my wife and kids to arrive, I took some photos of some runners running to the finish line. In the same time, I spent some time chatting with friends who I bumped into.

Then, upon received a call from my wife that they were closing to the finish line, I get myself ready to snap their photos running towards me to finish their run.

Below are some photos of my wife and kids when they were running to the finish line and I was there ready to snap their final steps to end the run.

My wife and kids running towards the finish line

What a moment when all of us finished our new year run again for the second time. Then we took some more photos together at the finish line area before leaving and walking back to the hotel.

FINAL NOTES

I had another amazing time with my run, family and friends on the first day of 2018. I did not face any problem from the RPC day until I left the venue. The weather was almost perfect and that could also one of the reasons why I ran quite confortably with other runners for this time around.

The traffic control for 10km was superb to me and despite the change of the route, I think it was a nice route although it is not supposed to be under distance for 10km and over distance for about 1km extra for 5km run. There were 3 water stations for 10km with mineral water and isotonic drink provided plus wet sponge also supplied at the last one.

It was also known after that most runners were able to quite fast for the HM category despite the late flag off.

One good thing at FL area was the photo booths were placed far away from the area where runners have to Q after the finish line to collect their medal and having their drinks and snacks provided. This has avoided to make the area after the FL from being too crowded.

Heard about some setbacks and problems about the event from those who ran today from the social media after that but I am choosing to enjoy good things at the event rather than harping on any displeasure or things that were not going my way.

If the organiser repeat the same mistakes this year in the future, more and more runners won't come back. It's for them to lose.

Would I come back next year? Definitely yes unless there is another more interesting running event in KL on the first day of 2019. HM could be the most possibility for to try on the first day of 2019.

Below are some more photos of us after our run at the event venue and during our walk back to the hotel room.