Corpse or Cops Run?

This month we had few hilarious running races happening in Klang Valley - the Goat Run, the Cops Run and even the Corpse Run!

Yesterday, Wai Mun and I took part in the Corpse Run or officially known as Jogathon Warisan 2005. The starting and finishing was at the famous Thean Hou Temple - the place where we did our marriage registration. That explained why we chose to run in the race instead of the more-glamorous Larian Mesra (Cops Run) which was also held on the same morning.

My initial target was to be among the Top 20 runners and qualify for a trophy. However, after seeing so many good runners, including the ever-fast Indians, I knew it would be much tougher than the original plan!

Therefore, I started faster-than-normal upon flag-off. It was then followed by a steep downslope, a right turn and a Double Hill-like incline. At this point, I was still pacing with the Indian girl who won the Women Category. Upon entering the grave yard area, the pace took its toll on me and I have to slow down a little. I managed to catch a glimpse on Chen, one of the Pacemakers, some 30 metres in front of me. Thereafter, he could no longer be seen. The Indian girl also left me.

There were so many ups and downs, left turns and right turns! As it was only a poorly-maintained single-lane tarmac road, occasionally we have to slow down to avoid the on-coming cars and road-side praying ceremonies! In one part of the race, we were required to do a cross country, off road run by zig-zagging around the graves! Poor "people"!

Another unique part of the race was we were needed to collect 5 different-colour of rubber bands at five check points. As we know, runners will usually grab and go. No time wasted. How would the organiser expect us to grab a tiny rubber bend at a split second! Personally, I almost missed taking one.

Back to the race. With almost two kilometres to go, I finally found my rhythm. What a slow starter I was! I increased my pace at a downhill and caught up with an Indian guy in my category. I just aimed at him as it was not a good time to overtake him on a very very steep slope, kind of running at the hockey stadium slope.

After the slope, I ran my heart out and overtook the Indian guy to the finishing. I was ranked 17th and my time was 39'31.92" for the 9km course. Average speed was 4'24" per km. Wai Mun came back with a 5th position with a time of 45'19.68".

However, my day was ruined when the official result came out. Apparently there were four participants who were faster but did not collect all the 5 rubber bends. They were re-instated from the earlier DQ after their complaints. So, officially I was ranked 21st, just one rank below the Top 20 and I have to go home empty-handed!

Disappointed but life goes on!