This was my last run in Malaysia for the time being, and so it was fitting that it was in my local area, so to speak!
A lot about the organisation rang alarm bells, and things like the parking situation almost put me off going as I wanted my last run in Malaysia to be a good one. But then I decided to do it, as the race last week had been good and this was just 7km....what could go THAT wrong? After all the race was promising a Sabah experience, so it could not be perfect lol.
We decorated ourselves in the paint Karen bought for me at the expo, and this paint never seemed to dry in the heat! it was fun so we painted our faces and arms. We donned our race tshirt and bracelet of courage, and headed to a friend of Karen's house where we would be parking as they were using the parking area for stalls and a concert.....ummm.....why not use the stadium for it? Luckily we went the long way managing to avoid the mega jump across a sewer that would not have been fun in the dark! Apparently there were shuttle buses and people were encouraged to pay to park at Suria and pay for parking there and pay 15 RM for the shuttle.....for us it would also mean going a long way out of our way to go into town! Parking at Suria on a Saturday night is never an easy task, but add thousands of runners to the mix and chaos is to be expected!
When we got there of course people were parking in the car park and the road was not quite closed yet! But seeing the chaos later meant we were glad we did what we did..............
We wondered around the stalls and managed to somehow find the Fruto stall, and got pineapple, orange and ginger juice to drink. Yummy! We then headed to the start and waited around forever it seemed. Of course the race started late in true Sabah style. The next day we found out it was because the dancers had to walk to the water station. We also found out that we would not be collecting charms along the way as there were too many people, so these would be given at the end. I was a little disappointed as part of the appeal of the race was completing the bracelet as we went along from station to station. It was hard to run at times as people were walking erratically and stopping dead in front of you. We did some weaving at times. We got to a place near the half way point where there were UV lights, but by then all my paint had come off with sweat! Then we saw a massive crowd and discovered the water station was in there....somewhere! It was hard to figure out where it actually was. We got our shot size cup of revive and went on! We then got made to stop and no one knew why - we got given an elastic band and told to keep it.
At times there were wires running across the road, uncovered, that could easily trip people up. So dangerous!
We got back to the finish line without any incident, but then realised no one had mentioned HOW we get the charms! We found a group of people amassed around tables and got more revive then found another group and were asked to hand in the rubber band to get a fingerprint on our t-shirt....um! We were informed that this would allow us to collect the charms. Why not just give in the band, surely that would save time....we eventually found the charms and no one even checked our fingerprint! It was all pretty chaotic! And of course one charm did not fit properly.......enough said!
As we walked back to the car we saw loads of people trying to finish and getting confused. I decided that it had been true Sabah style and that I may have been more disappointed had it been more organised!
A lot about the organisation rang alarm bells, and things like the parking situation almost put me off going as I wanted my last run in Malaysia to be a good one. But then I decided to do it, as the race last week had been good and this was just 7km....what could go THAT wrong? After all the race was promising a Sabah experience, so it could not be perfect lol.
We decorated ourselves in the paint Karen bought for me at the expo, and this paint never seemed to dry in the heat! it was fun so we painted our faces and arms. We donned our race tshirt and bracelet of courage, and headed to a friend of Karen's house where we would be parking as they were using the parking area for stalls and a concert.....ummm.....why not use the stadium for it? Luckily we went the long way managing to avoid the mega jump across a sewer that would not have been fun in the dark! Apparently there were shuttle buses and people were encouraged to pay to park at Suria and pay for parking there and pay 15 RM for the shuttle.....for us it would also mean going a long way out of our way to go into town! Parking at Suria on a Saturday night is never an easy task, but add thousands of runners to the mix and chaos is to be expected!
When we got there of course people were parking in the car park and the road was not quite closed yet! But seeing the chaos later meant we were glad we did what we did..............
We wondered around the stalls and managed to somehow find the Fruto stall, and got pineapple, orange and ginger juice to drink. Yummy! We then headed to the start and waited around forever it seemed. Of course the race started late in true Sabah style. The next day we found out it was because the dancers had to walk to the water station. We also found out that we would not be collecting charms along the way as there were too many people, so these would be given at the end. I was a little disappointed as part of the appeal of the race was completing the bracelet as we went along from station to station. It was hard to run at times as people were walking erratically and stopping dead in front of you. We did some weaving at times. We got to a place near the half way point where there were UV lights, but by then all my paint had come off with sweat! Then we saw a massive crowd and discovered the water station was in there....somewhere! It was hard to figure out where it actually was. We got our shot size cup of revive and went on! We then got made to stop and no one knew why - we got given an elastic band and told to keep it.
At times there were wires running across the road, uncovered, that could easily trip people up. So dangerous!
We got back to the finish line without any incident, but then realised no one had mentioned HOW we get the charms! We found a group of people amassed around tables and got more revive then found another group and were asked to hand in the rubber band to get a fingerprint on our t-shirt....um! We were informed that this would allow us to collect the charms. Why not just give in the band, surely that would save time....we eventually found the charms and no one even checked our fingerprint! It was all pretty chaotic! And of course one charm did not fit properly.......enough said!
As we walked back to the car we saw loads of people trying to finish and getting confused. I decided that it had been true Sabah style and that I may have been more disappointed had it been more organised!
No comments:
Post a Comment