We found ourselves in Kuala Lumpur on a weekend so Harold did a google search and came up with the Malaysia China Friendship Run on Sunday morning. There was a 7K, a 5K and a 3K. The start was in a park only 2 km from our hotel. The race was untimed but you got a medal and a shirt all for the low price of $17 Canadian each.
Race kit pick-up was at a Decathlon store in a big mall, KL Sentral. It looked like registration had closed the day we found the race but we decided to go and see if we could sign up at pick-up. We took the monorail to the mall which was easy.
It took us much longer to find Decathlon inside the multi-story 300 store mall. When we got there we could not find any race kits but there were some women sitting at a table which looked hopeful. Eventually a couple walked into the store wearing the race shirts. Harold asked them (almost everyone here speaks some English) and they told him they got the shirts at pick up yesterday and we were in the right place. Pick-up did not open until 11:00 am. At 11:00 we asked and we were able to register.
The race started at 7:00 am and the hotel was less than 2 km from the start so we walked there. At races here most people run in the race shirt. The more serious runners don’t. Usually we don’t either but it was only 5k and I was not going to walk around Kuala Lumpur in a singlet. We headed in what we thought was the correct direction and we eventually started to see other people in race shirts heading in the same direction. Always a good sign. We were a little concerned because they all had different race shirts than ours. They were purple and we were yellow.
We continued on to the start where we saw a few more yellow shirts, but we were definitely outnumbered by the purple people. We asked a fellow yellow runner. He explained that Kuala Lumpur has a car free route on Sunday mornings from 7:00-9:00 am. Many groups take advantage of this to have races so it is quite normal to have two or three races going on at the same time. We think the purple people were running to celebrate the opening of a new movie.
We headed to the start where it was quite clear that the yellow people got to start at the front. We also had pacers but there was no time indicated so I am not sure what they were pacing!
At 7:00 am we were all lined up but rather than starting the run we were entertained by two separate dance troupes.
The running part started at about 7:15. There were other people just out for a run and we had no idea which way the course went. We saw a sign that said 3K right and 5K left so we went left. We did a loop and ended up back at the same sign. They told us to go left again but we were at 4K already. I said we already went left and they said ok go right to the finish. It did end up being about 5k but we could have gone in all day!
We crossed the line got our medals a bun and some monster noodles and still made it back to the hotel for breakfast.
If you are ever in Kuala Lumpur on a Sunday morning odds are you can find a race. They all start at city hall. If not rent a bike and go for a ride.
Run K2J 