Lari Keputeraan Sultan Azlan Shah 2011

Small town race events, don't you just love them? What I love most about them is the simplicity at stake and the slow motion pace of the town that's almost stands still for you to appreciate. After all, getting stuck in the big cities for umpteenth years makes you less appreciative of what such beautiful towns has to offer. If I were you, I'd list this down on your to-do list for next year. Bring the whole family along too cause there's just plenty to offer in Kuala Kamgsar. Not to mention ... the food of course lol.

This 14km run event (and 7km event also available) was in conjunction with the King's Birthday celebration. Nice. And when it's organized by the Pacesetters Athletic Club, you can doubly sure it's baked to near perfection.

Here are the good stuffs about the organization of this event:

1. It has 3 water stations for the 14km route. More than sufficient. And it has yummy Gatorade! 2 of the stations even had bananas too. Good stuff. Although having said that, I'd wish they pour the Gatorade onto cups instead of handing out the whole can which is such a waste since people like me, would take a couple of gulps and then just discard the rest off.

2. And when it's organized by Pacesetters, rest assured there'd be plenty of hills for you to tackle. No, seriously there were rolling hills, many. I was told the route this year was different from last year. Last year's route were rather flattish to tackle. This year, trust Pacesetters to find routes that has plenty of rolling hills. But it is indeed a good workout no doubt.

3. And of course the whole KL runners came down to support. It was just like any other run event in KL. All those familiar faces seen here, invading the little small town of Kuala Kangsar. And even most of the accommodation here were full to the brim! Good for catch ups once again and the odd gossips no doubt lol. Even those residing from the north came full force for this event.

4. I'd say the route management and control were A class. The police and RELA personnel were out on duty helping us man the junctions for traffic. Then again, this is a small little town where vehicles weren't that many on that sleepy Sunday morning. There were even volunteers on mountain bikes doing the escorts. Nice touch indeed instead of us having to suck in the motorbike's fumes. Hey, I was even escorted for the last km or so lol. They'd prolly think I would suddenly slip and fall tripping on my sarong :)

5. Plenty of water/gatorade after the run and even had light snacks of noddles and kuih muihs (local cakes). Best part is you don't have to jostle with million others just to get a gulp of drink after the race. No event t-shirt but you get a lovely dri fit finisher tee! And coupled with a unique finisher medal in the shape of a 'labu sayong' - the traditional vessel to store water here in Perak which makes the water stored cool at all times.

The route where we ran our butts out for 14km in total. Beginning from Sek Men Clifford into Taman Mawar,  into Taman Melor and then crossing the lovely and scenic Kuala Kangsar bridge which by the way was rather misty that morning. Then we made a u-turn further up and back to the bridge again and then into the istana area. This was where the hilly part was. Conquer that and back to town again to the finishing line. I'll give it A+ for the rah rah aka support part where there was 3 ethnic groups performing on kompangs (Malay), drums (Chinese) and then more drums (Indian) which I thought was a lovely touch which helped to sync the rhythmic beats to your running cadence and pump it up faster!

You wouldn't catch me running in anything else but my Vibrams and sarong :). Thanks Leon You for the fab pic.

I got paced somewhere halfway by Rahimi (thanks to FB you eventually find out who that someone was lol). I tried shaking him off but no dice. He stuck to me like glue from thereon all the way, side by side to the finishing line. Was also escorted by the volunteer on the mountain bike to the left. Grand! Felt like a king lol. Thanks to Chuah Sakura for this pic. And Rahimi was in the Men's Open category. That's giving him a run for his money hahaha.

Love this picture the most, and very meaningful. Thanks Sean Wong. Rahimi and I heading to the glorious finishing line after a fast paced 14km. I think most about everyone there was dumb struck seeing me running with the sarong :)

The unique finisher medal that's symbolic of Perak. I finished with a position of 26 which I am happy with. My GPS showed a total of 14.61km with a finishing time of 1hr 14min 02sec.

The Brooks finisher Tee!

That's what I called a fun filled weekend in the sleepy hollow Kuala Kangsar. God willing, I shall be back next year to enjoy the abundant of asam laksa and chendol :)