RUN IN DIVERSITY: LARIAN MESRA RAKYAT DUN CHEMPAKA

Monday, February 9, 2009

LARIAN MESRA RAKYAT DUN CHEMPAKA - Part 1

Organiser : Pejabat Adun Chempaka, Selangor

Date : 8 February 2009

Time : 7.30am

Venue : Dewan Orangramai Pandan Jaya

Distance : 6km

Larian Mesra Rakyat Dun Chempaka was formerly known as Larian Tahun Baru Adun Chempaka scheduled in January 2009. It was then reschedule to 7 February at Dataran MPAJ and subsequently was fixed on 8 February 2009 at a new venue at Dewan Orangramai Pandan Jaya.

What's all these hassle? This must have been the most 'controversial' event for the year till date tho' its only a small run. The police had refused permit for the organiser to hold the event at Dataran MPAJ without any reason. Your guess as good as mine . . ????

Then, the 'big' day arrived. The venue it less than 5 minutes walk from my place. I left home at 6.10am and met by Joyce and Choy Hoong who were already there while a handful of the organising team just finished their morning prayer.

Slowly, runners started walking in to register for the run. The run was delayed to allow more people to participate as some residents in the surrounding walked in to enquire. YB Iskandar Samad Adun for Chempaka and EXCO for Housing and Building Maintenance of Selangor decided to flag off the race instead of just giving away prizes as schedule.

Some of the familiar faces were warming up getting ready. Finally the run was flagged off at 8.30am. The first runner emerged in less than 25 minutes and the run officially completed by 9.45am. Michelle Tan emerged as champion in the Women Open category with a timing of 25min 28sec and Suraya of the Slowmovers came in 3rd in the Women Veteran category clocking at 59 mins. (More results at http://pm1.blogspot.com/)

photos courtesy of the Sanusi family of the Slowmovers (http://smovers.blogspot.com/)

Helping out with the registration