Oh my! I need to gather energy, willpower and courage to write this one.
So many things to tell, so much drama. A friendly reminder to my readers,
please bear with the long write up or just skip to photo only hihi. Ok let’s
start the journey.
Category analysis and teammates selection
It was all started in August last year. I really wanted to participate in
any team race. However, a good and dedicated teammate is so hard to come by.
Some already got their well-established team, some are just looking for fun and
some are just not cut out. There are so many team effort based races and I was
so keen to participate. I found the
Shape Night Run 2015 ad from Facebook. It’s not a surprise that they are no longer
with Men’s Health due to corporate takeover. I went through the details and
very well enticed with their new category, TEAM Category 4 in a group (2 Men 2
Women). The team with the fastest accumulated time will be the winner. Interesting!
Meaning that we don’t need to run in a group and finish together. We just need
to push ourselves to oblivion PB and our total time will be ranked. This category was
limited to 50 teams only. However, the prize was for top 3 teams only. So hard
to secure one. The odds was obviously not in my favour. Ah well, let’s get rich
and die trying eh (50 Cents). My shot was better with team category as I believe I won’t stand a chance with open category. Super competitive and top runners sure
fast.
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| The poster! |
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| The category and prize |
The major problem was looking for teammates. I started with my [Putrajaya
Night Marathon (HM) B2B SCKLM (10k)] accomplice/frenemy, Ariff. He was my
worthy opponent and a tough one. Both of us screwed up big time for PNM and
SCKLM B2B, sigh. Surprisingly he agreed. Yatta! Now need to look for women
runners. I knew a handful of (slightly) fast women runners. Fast women runners?
You crazy, even my current speed can’t match theirs hahaha. I wasn’t worthy to
be their teammates. I contacted Mariah and Ryna. We used to train together
occasionally. Plus their record and pace fall into slight to medium fast
category for women. Both of them agreed. My dream team was now complete. Assembling
this team was easier than I predicted. Menangis kegembiraan, dalam hati huhu. I
created whatsapp group and we had a lengthy discussion on many topics. One of
it was team name. The spirit was high. After some heated debate, google-ing
activities, asking around, we finally agreed with Saisoku. It was Ariff idea by
the way. Saisoku means fast in Japanese and we want to run fast and be a winner for this
run, hoyeah. Now it’s time to register the run with newly formed Saisoku team.
A promising team or at least we thought so.
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| Registration steps |
Registration for Team category was different unlike other categories.
There was no column in Hooha for team category. We have to email the organizer
1st stating our interest. Walawei. As the team leader, I emailed them but no
reply even after a few days. I called them and they said they are well aware
with my email and will reply soon. They did reply to my email (thanks God!)
stating that I have to bank in fees for whole team and need to show them proof
of payment. Only after that they will give registration code. I banked in,
emailed to them, they replied with registration code and we registered
ourselves. Fuhhh our registration complete finally. Long process. Saisoku will
compete for the 1
st time! Time to train! I took the liberty to
collage our photos with team name and Shape Night Run poster and posted it to
FB. Macam gila publisiti plak haha. Excited actually ;)
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| Saisoku! |
Training and drama in between
Ariff offered to train all of us especially the bodyweight workout. He
was the personal trainer once. Gathering all of us wasn’t easy as all of us
busy with commitments. We did meet one or two times. Jadilah. Other than this
meeting, we still train individually. We also met at races.
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| Saisoku minus one POJ training! The reward was Baskin Robbins 31% discount LOL |
It was a long
period between registration and the race itself, from September 2014 to April
2015. Many notable moments happened. I had a bad shin splint in March and took
few weeks rest. My teammates worried but I assured them I’ll get better before
Shape Night Run 2015 (before Men’s Health and Women’s Health Nigh Run in
March). Luckily I did huhu. That’s not the only problem we were facing. Mariah
wanted to quit from this group. She was having some personal matters. Oh dear.
We need all of us or else we’ll be disqualified. We convinced her to stay as we
still got time to train. She agreed to stay. Crisis averted. It was not long
before she wanted to quit once again. Her problems got the best of her. We have
no option but to agree. No point forcing someone who wasn’t ready. She suggested
Scha as her replacement and Scha already agreed beforehand. Mariah emailed
organizer about the replacement and luckily they accept. She felt bad for
quitting but that’s the wise decision she made for the team. We felt sad for losing
her but life must goes on. Scha was a strong woman runner too. Bukan
calang-calang orang. We must win this run! Or at least get a great placing. Ariff
collected the race kit for all of us and surprisingly our bib numbers was in
order of 1 to 4. Saisoku was team numero uno! We were the first team to
register for this category hahahaha. No wonder the late reply from organizer and so
many instructions for registration LOL.
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| The Route |
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Saisoku race kit. Numero uno team!
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Race Day
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| Calm before the storm, pic taken in the morning |
I came early to the venue. It was raining cats and dogs in the evening. Thunders
were apparent and scary. I parked at open space behind Palace of Justice and
having difficulty heading to the flag off area. I took out umbrella and walk as
fast as possible under the heavy rain to the nearest tent beside POJ. All of my
teammates were in Auditorium Cempaka Sari already. I was waiting the rain to subside but
to no avail. After 15min, I decided to go to the Auditorium Cempaka Sari. Many runners
were sheltering inside the Dewan Melati and became restless. There was
possibility of this run getting cancelled. Met friends and many familiar faces. The moment
I met my teammates was priceless. Reunion. Somehow we just found out the prize
was way different from the original from their FB. It was no longer top3 but
top10 instead. Woohoo more chances for us. Top10 mission then!
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| Bergabung meletop ah! |
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| Generous top 10 prize! |
The Shape Night
Run organizer posted to their official FB/IG about the fate of this run. They
were waiting for the rain to subside and will cancel it if the situation not
getting any better. Luckily, the heavy rain turned into drizzle after 30min. We
went to the starting line as fast as possible because we want to standby at the
very front of the line. I didn’t have enough time to warm up. The organizer
decided to proceed the race but those who didn’t want to race can collect their
medal and goodies at designated place and time later.
Flag off was done at 830pm and I ran with 4-4:30min/km pace. My strategy
plan was to complete this race with average pace of 4:30min/km or lower. Ariff
was slightly in front of me and I made sure he didn’t disappear from my sight. The
road was slightly wet. Running on the wet road caused a not so efficient run. All
went well but all hell broke loose at 7
th km after the u-turn. Side
stitches suddenly came and I couldn’t ran any faster. I maintained my pace and
tried whatever steps possible to eliminate that stitches. All not working. Side
stitches most probably happened because I didn’t warm up at all. Even after 2km
the pain was still there. I managed to catch up with Ariff at 10km and he was
having the same side stitches problem. We paced each other. Running side by
side has positive impact on us. Even though we suffered from side stitches,
running together has lifted our spirit and we could push ourselves a little
bit. It became a sprint race for two of us for the last 200m. Ariff and I sped
off and we were determined to outrun each other. Clash of the titans. All out
all might. The winner for this race was meeeee!!!!!!! Yeay I won this short
self-proclaimed race by few seconds hahaha. It was 7s actually. Moral winning. I gave Ariff a
#brohug, both of us did well despite the side stitches problem. I did 11.31km in 52:25min with average pace of 4:38min/km. Hmmm bolehlah.
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| My race result |
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| Cute? Obviously not hahhaa |
We took goodies and lepak with
friends while waiting for other teammates. I went to the finishing line again
to give my moral support to Ryna and Scha. Ryna did well with 59:17 min. When Scha
nearing finishing line, I ran beside her while encouraging her to finish asap. Scha
did 1:07:56 hour. It was too early to predict our result but it’s not going to be easy.
Few elites were spotted in the same category with us. We did our best and
hopefully it’ll get translated into a great placing.
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| Y so serious? Peace y'all! |
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| Y so serious? Let's peace berjemaah! |
W
hile waiting for the
result, we met friends and hung out. Many didn’t realize about this team
category. Well they didn’t read the info thoroughly. Lucky for us then hihi. I
went to the official tent, want to ask about the result. Saw other team was
looking at the result sheet and they were arguing with the officials as their
team result was not in the top10 list. I took a peek and I saw our team was in
number 8 spot! Yatta, hoyeah, woohoo! Top10 at last! Menangis kegembiraan huhu.
Syukur. Mission accomplished. However, after talking to the team, most probably
our team placing will be pushed to no 9. Didn’t matter as it was still in top10
position huhu. Need to wait a little longer for verification. I went back to my
team and delivering this good news. All were delighted and excited. We went to
the tent altogether and found out we were in number 9 spot. Final official
result. Top10, yeay!
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| No 9, top 10 at last! Yeay! |
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| Result page 2 |
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| We made it! Menangis kegembiraan T_T |
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| We did it! Saisoku top 10! |
Our joy was a little short-lived when the official said
the prize was not ready yet and they will deliver it to us soon. Oh okay. They
will deliver the prize to the team representative and I volunteered myself. We
took snapshots in front of the prize claim tent. A little bit off because we
didn’t receive any tag, any paper or any memento as a winning proof. It was
more like we won something but went home empty handed and without proof. All
self-proclaimed. Ah well the most important thing was winning. We took
snapshots a lil more, goofing around. Not every day you have chance like this.
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| Pose 1st |
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| Pose 2nd |
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| Pose 3rd |
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| Selfie |
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| Serious vs not so serious ;) |
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| Gorgeous ladies |
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| With Pacemamam Om nom nom |
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| Selfie lagi |
Fast forward to few weeks later,
their representative contacted me and came to my office. She came with Kelisa
and I could saw her Kelisa was chock full with stuffs. We went through the
prize checklist together and I unloaded the items afterwards. It was a lot!
Literally a lot! It was RM10k worth goodies after all. RM2500 each. Took a
selfie/wefie with her and I put all goodies onto a trolley. Izwan spotted me
and I asked him to take photo of me with trolley. I went to my room, unloaded
them all and susun accordingly. Took photos and updated it to my whatsapp
group. All excited but shocked with that volume of goodies. They will pick the
stuffs on a later date. I uploaded to Facebook and it’s not a surprise when
friends shocked upon seeing the picture. I gave away few stuffs to my family
and friends. They supported me and helped in many ways and it was the right
time to return the favour.
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| Our prizes! Banyaknya! |
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| Women prize |
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| Men prize |
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| Our prizes! Right for men and left for women |
Okay, let’s not jump to conclusion haha. Such a long post. This
was my 1st mixed team and also 1st time won this big.
Really grateful. Without the support and cooperation with other teammates, this
feat was totally impossible. We won’t stop and we'll become the unstoppable. Thanks
for reading ;)
Related links
Result – Team Category
Shape Night Run details
