My friends and I were on the hunt for pretty medals, and we got excited when we saw the Lunar New Year Run, because the medal was so cute, in celebration of the Chinese year of the monkey!

This was the second run of the year for me, one week after the Dragon Back Run, held on 17 January 2016. Of course, my kiasu nature sprung for the longer distance of 10km.

Yes, this post is more than a year old, and to be honest, there is not much I remember about the run… just the following bits.

The medal and angpow packets

PARKING WAS A NIGHTMARE

Or rather, just getting into the parking lot. The park was not used to handling so many people at one time, and there was a long queue just trying to get into the lot. If I remember correctly, I was in queue for more than 20 minutes. It turned out that the queue was caused by collection of the parking fee upon entry, and even if they weren’t fumbling for change, it still took time for the drivers to hand the fee to the attendants, which caused the hold-up.

The parking lot was actually quite large, but it was very dark at that hour, and of course most drivers (myself included) were trying to get spots as close as possible to the actual venue. The parking attendants did their best, but it was still difficult to navigate in the dark. Many drivers, not being able to find good parking spots, would then have to turn around and join the flow of other cars heading to available spots, causing more backlog.

I had to meet my friend Luan first to take my bib from her as she had helped me collect it. Trying to arrange a meeting point was difficult as there were no clear landmarks in the dark establish. Then I had to go back to the car to put the extra stuff which I didn’t want to carry during the run. We were walking from the car park towards the starting line when the horn sounded for the flag-off. But we weren’t the only late ones; many other runners were also hurrying with us towards the start line. Many of us were held up because of the parking difficulties.

THE RUN

I… err… don’t remember much of the run in the route itself actually, so I probably shouldn’t write anything here that could be inaccurate.

Here are photos to show you what I saw as I ran.

Welcome arch
Passed Skytrex during the run. Would have preferred to go through Skytrex!
Cactus park. Took a photo, just because.
Plenty of distance signage along the way. 1km to go!
A lookout point. Took this photo, also just because.
View of the lake
Green view along the route
Saw this and had to take a photo. Gerai Harga Patut = Stall with the Right Price. Because all other stalls don’t charge right.
Me at the Finish!
Watermelons galore available
Andrew, me, Luan, Zaz and Lara

PHOTO TAKING

I do remember taking a lot of photos though, haha! Especially when we saw the beautiful green view of the paddy fields just beyond the starting line. My friends and I went there for a pretty photo opp.

Taking photos at the paddy field area
Taking a photo at the verandah of one of the show houses
Oops! Caught in the act of trying to take a look at what’s inside the house
More “zen”
Getting into the “zen” mode
Because we are so cute!
More goofing around on the verandah

And… that was the Lunar New Year Run. Thanks to the organisers and marshals for a job well done!