This year I had been so excited about the month of October. There were supposed to be two major run events – the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon and the BSN Putrajaya Night Marathon! Last year, these two events were held back-to-back (I managed to join SCKLM 2014 at the very last minute), but this year, they were planned for the opposite ends of the month! The dates had been announced as early as January this year. Like me, a lot of runners planned to join both!

Although in October, this was going to be my first night run of the year, as I had not signed up for any other night run until this date.

Unfortunately… the haze came in August, and seemed to set to stay. The haze had caused plenty of run events disruptions, including the infinite postponement of Mizuno Wave Run, postponement of Bukit Cinta Ultra, postponement of HRDF Half Marathon, and the cancellation of Standard Chartered KL Marathon, to name a few. The cancellation of SCKLM 2015 had caused a lot of upset among the runners (at the weather, not at the organiser), and we were hoping against hope that the same fate would not befall BSNPNM.

As early as the first week of October, the organisers of BSNPNM announced at Facebook that they could not make a decision about the event as it was too early, and the weather could turn easily at any moment. They stated that an official decision would be made four days before the event, and until then they would be monitoring the API readings.

Announcement on Facebook about pending decision
Announcement on Facebook about pending decision

The weather continued to wreak havoc on the runners’ emotions, by yo-yoing between improving and degrading within the same day over the next few weeks.

Not exactly four, but three days (which is still ample time) before the event which was scheduled on 24 October, the organisers were forced to come to a decision and made the announcement on their Facebook Page:

A long and detailed announcement to justify their decsion to cancel
A long and detailed announcement to justify their decsion to cancel
Many people begged them to reconsider, but they still stuck to their decision
Many people begged them to reconsider, but they still stuck to their decision

Like SCKLM, they decided against postponing the event because it was too big to make any last minute changes which would affect so many participants. They still did up the venue very nicely, and allowed runners to come over, collect their entitlements and goodie bags, and take lots of photos!

I didn’t go because for one it was too far for me to go just to collect the stuff. So my run buddy Fitri Zaini (a.k.a. Oppy) went with her husband, Zaid Ambak to collect the goodie bags for our team.

The running tee
The running tee
The Start/Finish arch
The Start/Finish arch
The venue was set up for runners to come and run (if they wanted to) and take photos during the entitlement collection
The venue was set up for runners to come and run (if they wanted to) and take photos during the entitlement collection
Oppy's husband Zaid had to be our coolie for the night to carry the bags... hehehehe
Oppy’s husband Zaid had to be our coolie for the night to carry the bags… hehehehe
Oppy and Zaid selfie-ing at the arch
Oppy and Zaid selfie-ing at the arch
The snack packs that came with our goodie bags. We told Oppy that we didn't want them as it would be too late to eat them by the time we got the bags from her. Breakfast is set for Oppy and Zaid for the next few days!
The snack packs that came with our goodie bags. We told Oppy that we didn’t want them as it would be too late to eat them by the time we got the bags from her. Breakfast is set for Oppy and Zaid for the next few days!
The finisher medals for 21km and 10km
The finisher medals for 21km and 10km

Thank you to BSN for planning this event anyway! We would have loved to run if we could. Hope that we will be able to run in your prestigious event next year!