Report: Advanced Learning Centre Journey of Life Charity Run

By Aiman Cheah Tiong Chap

Venue: Football Field, Taman Klang Jaya
Date: 29 November 2009
Distance: 7km

This is a new place for me. Luckily I could find the place rather easily. I reached the venue at 6.50a.m after went astray for about 2km. By the time I found a place to park my van, the warming up session had ended.

The ladies were flagged off first. I started from the middle of the men's group. An indicator for my fitness. I was ill prepared for the race. I swam on Monday. Walked 4.2km on Tuesday and fell sick on Wednesday. Rested on the next two days. On Saturday, I thought of running 6.3km but was unlucky because it rained.

As usual the front row runners would 'sprint' away to leave a comfortable gap for them to be unchallenged. I started slowly as I did not have proper warming up. After about 1km, I started to go a little faster. The pace was reasonable as I managed to keep overtaking other runners - ladies.

May be it is a good idea to flag off the ladies first. It was as if I was so fast. I lost my rhythm when we had to make a u-turn back to the finishing line. My watch showed 22mins when I first stopped and walked. That was the disaster because I allowed 2 runners to overtake me.

In the beginning, I overtook them again - twice before I gave up and ran at a slower pace. About 1km from the finishing line I went a little faster and closing the gap. The second runner was always within sight and alas I was left biting the dust. The man was about 20m away from me.


The other who was lining up was holding the no 20th finisher's disc. Oh my god! It was so near yet so far. So, the Genting Trailblazer effect was already out of my system after 29 days!

I clocked 33mins 05sec to be placed 22nd. Not too bad actually. Hope to bounce back in the coming events.

If it had not rained, the participants could enjoy themselves better with the 'cultural' performances such as Chinese Yoyo.