ADIDAS KING OF THE ROAD- THE PAUPER ORGANISER

It was at 1226am when I realized that it was way past my bedtime to be ready for tomorrow’s King of the road race in Shah Alam. I should have at least 8 hours of sleep on the eve of any race to be able to run smoothly. I bought an external 320gb hard drive earlier today and was glued clearing out files to increase the performance of my notebook and time just flew.

I had not packed or prepare my race kit and attire for tomorrow but looking at the time, I left my notebook to bed. I slept the moment my head touches the pillow and cursed at the sudden ringing noise just a moment after falling asleep... It was my alarm!!! Its already 430am. It felt only a few minutes that I got into bed and it was already 430am.

Short of freaking out, I jumped out of bed when I remembered I had not search and prepare everything from my running vest, short, ipod, race number, shoe, my polar watch, water bottle belt to the water bottle. I overheard Nita calling my name from outside. Both Abu and Nita had arrived. They will go with us to the race venue since my sense of direction sucks.

After a good bowel relieved, we headed to Shah Alam. Me, nawal, Emi, Abu and Nita are all excited to run especially since this is the first race that Nita is participating and Emi, my sister’s longest distance run. Dato Fadhil and Datin Azura had already left.

We reached Shah alam at 615am. The race will start at 645am. I pre-selected my choice of song mixture on my ipod and switched on my polar distance tracker that was fix on my shoe. We were fascinated with the title ADIDAS KING OF THE ROAD RACE and had high expectation. The total turn up is more than 8,000 runners.

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, the Chief Minister of Selangor pointed the old revolver up and pose for the camera… typical politician. I hit my ipod and my polar the soonest Tan Sri blew the gun signalling the start of the race. Everybody were pushing sprinting even at the start of the race.

My ipod played the Bollywood song that I took from nawal’s bollywood dance class and went slow at start to warm myself up ignoring the Kenyan, Indian and the professional athlete whom were sprinting like a horse. My body felt heavy and my heart rate was beating fast. I had 4 power gels and my water bottle to feed energy throughout the race.

I paced myself slow at the speed of 7.2 (thank you polar) but my heart rate was 156. I wanted to go faster but decided to pace myself at 156 heart beat per minute.

I ran enjoying the shah alam 'greens' and the Bollywood music. An hour later, Nana ran with me for a short moment. We chatted while running until I met Nawal. Nawal was down with bad stitches and could not run. I was feeling good and felt that my body was all warmed up for a speedier run. I increased my pace to the speed of 8.5, my heart beat was 162.

There were a lot of hills and I loved it. I love the run up hill but slowed my paced down-hill. I learn from my previous mistake. Running down hill will injure the knee. I was in great thirst and was delighted to see the next water station. I had been running for 1 hour and 30mins. I ration the water in my race bottle to last me for 15 km and will always re-fill the water on the 15th km @ the water station. That has always been my training routine.

I was flabbergasted to find there were no glass at the water station and there were only one big bottle of 100 plus that is half full. I deliberated if I wanted to drink from the bottle. Thinking that the bottle had been shared with other people and the thought of hepatitis, herpes and other diseases that could be passed from a shared bottle, I took a rain check and ran without any water. Be patient, there will be other water station ahead, I whispered to myself.

Short of screaming, I was furious to discover the next water station was already closed without any water or any marshals. It was less than 2 hours, 1 hour 56mins to be exact since the race started and there were no water at all for 2 water stations already. This is really FXXX. Adidas is an internationally recognise brand and I expect nothing less from an Adidas sponsored event!

I continue running and was cursing the organiser all the way. I was fortunate to have my water race bottle along. The water slowly depleted as I sip slowly to last me the whole event. I can only imagine how other runners are suffering without water.

Nana ran past me at the last km just before the roundabout. I gave chased and was behind her. This was Nana's longest distance run too. She is Emi's friend. We gave a high-5 and sprinted across the finishing line together. I completed the race in 2 hours 49minutes. This was the worse organised event. Runners could die or fainted from dehydration. I have not been to a such poorly organised event. The marshals too, that was not well briefed & trained, were impatiently waiting for the whole event to finished. There were no sporting spirits at all.

Beside the FXXX organisers, the weather was excellent. There were no sun when I completed the race and burnt a good 2620 calories (thank you again to polar watch). For RM25 registration fee and without any water, and poorly coordinated marshals, this will be my last ADIDAS RUN. There is no pride running the KING OF THE ROAD when the organisers behave like a PAUPER being stingy even with water!!!!!! Thumbs down to SHAH ALAM COUNCIL, ADIDAS and the organising team!!!!