Ipoh International Run 2005

After woke up at 8:15am last Saturday morning, I prepared and packed all my stuff before leaving home at 8:30am. I had my Bah Kut Teh breakfast (again!) with a group runners and some non-runners who are going to Ipoh with me, then leave Klang at around 10:00am. The journey took around two and a half hours to reach Ipoh to meet up with BoonSeng who was already there, alone, from Penang.

Since I've been to Ipoh before, I know a little about the roads in Ipoh. Although I made them went into the wrong way a few times, but still I managed to bring them to the destinations. First place we went was O-town White Coffee shop. I had char kuey teow and smooth white coffee as my lunch. Next destination was Ipoh Parade. The only special thing in Ipoh Parade is that they don't have any McDonald in it. As for dinner, as usual, all the Ipoh visitors would go for the bean sprout chicken rice (nga choi kai). We went to Lou Wong instead of Onn Kei (the second time) without any special reason. Maybe they looks like the more original one. After the meal, we went to a pub for a while before going to take some night scene photo of Ipoh.

The Running Day

In the Sunday morning, I woke up at 5:15am. Did I mentioned that we checked in at a hotel as soon as we reach Ipoh? We stay in Grand View hotel, which is quite comfortable and more importantly affordable. We reached the Dataran Ipoh, in front of the Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh (MBI) building at around 6:45am. I warmed myself up and the flag off was around 7:15am for 10km runners. WeeSeng and BoonSeng went for 21km run.

I found myself running slightly faster in the beginning today. Everything was OK and the route is quite flat (much more better compared to the Pacesetter run). As usual, my mental become weaker and weaker as I run further and further. The main thing I was thinking all the time was "How long more to go?" (Really hope I'd a sport watch to at least help me keep track how long I've been running). Then, I saw "4km". Ahh.. I felt so good at that time. I thought 4km more to go. That really kept me motivated to go on. After a while I saw a counter providing drinking water, then only I realised that I still have a long way to go. I guess the counter is normally placed at the middle of the track.

Took a cup of water then continue running. Suddenly, I felt my knee was aching. Is this normal for runner? Or should I go for treatment? I kept myself concentrating on running and hoped that I can run till the end. Next, I saw another station which provides wet sponge. Though I never like those, but had to spour some water on my face to make myself feel better and motivated to go on.

Finally, I reached the finish line at around 1 hour. I know it's quite a bad record, but this time, I ran the whole route without any stop! As soon as I reached, I looked for some drinks. Spent quite a while for me to find the 100plus counter. Drank 5 cups of it before looking for Milo counter which is always available. But after I saw the queue for Milo, I went back to take a few more cups of 100plus. They didn't provide any food for us. MBI is not a good organiser thought the track is good. The air along the track is quite fresh and not so polluted compared to the runs in Klang Valley.

Before we left Ipoh for Klang we had Dim Sum at Foh San and bought some pomelo. Along the way, we stopped at Kampar to have Min Bao Kai (Curry Chicken Bao). I finally reached home at 9:30pm. Straight to bed after bathing!