Ipoh International Run 21km...

This run marked my fifth half marathon for this year...

There were 7 of us that went for this run: The 21km-ers were: Rose, Nyna, Kak Nawal and Abe Yaz and the 10 km-ers were: Baba and Su...

We took off from KL quite late on Saturday afternoon as Nyna was working... So I had to drive my hot rod like a Ferrari... We left KL at about 3pm and reached Ipoh by 410pm... (Praying hard that I won't get speeding tickets after this! :P)

We collected our race bibs at Stadium Indera Mulia... For an international run, it was so 'funny' to see that there was only one lane for online registration and 7 or 8 lanes for manual registrations...

With our cool brown-and-eco-friendly-paper goodie bags...
Pic credits to Nyna

We stayed at this hotel called Ritz Garden... not Ritz Carlton... Hehe... The room was not bad, good enough for a one night stay... The 'cupboard' in the room was special because:

It was an opened one :P

For our carbo-loading session that night, we ate at this restaurant called Nasi Lemak Ayam Kampung..

This restaurant was also famous for these:

Belut aka Mr Eel... You can fry it or make it into a soup! 

*Geli*

Our friend Afnan, who's currently residing in Sg Siput, joined us for our early dinner...

With his Eel soup... :S

We had the nasi lemak instead.. Nothing to shout about the meal though...

Since it was still early, we decided to play gin rummy at the hotel's coffee house...

By the end of the session, I won by having the lowest points:

Followed by these 4 l-o-s-e-rs :P:

The biggest LOSER :P 

Decided to call it a night since we had to wake up by 5am to get ready... Spooky enough, when we (Baba and I were roomies again!) switched off the lights and the TV, all of these 'noises' came into play... And God knows how scared I was at that time, hoping that I wouldn't see and 'feel' anything... So didn't really have a good rest prior to the race... :S

We left the hotel at 6am to the stadium...When we got there, there was an ongoing announcement saying that you've to be in a certain area to collect the wristband (which looks like those band that the guards will use at supermarkets) to start the race...

Funny enough, the marshalls didn't allow us to go to the starting after we've collected the wristband...So, all of us went there and waited like prisoners... And camwhored while waiting but of course...

Selly came from Singapore to join for the race!

The happening group :P

The blue team!

Outfit for the day: Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 Jersey, Response 'Drei Streifen' Baggy Short by adidas, Elite Structure Quarter Running Socks by Nike and Gel Nimbus-11 shoes by Asics 

Around 650am, we were allowed to walk/jog to the starting point.. Freaking VIP must be late... We met a couple of runners from dailymile:

With Shanaz, Rose, Kak Nawal, Nyna, Pui San and Selly

The gun went off at 7am (late!)... So, off we went!!!

I was running with Kak Nawal at the first 5-6km route.... She left me because I wanted to take my own time and enjoy the perfect weather that morning...

Actually, scrap that... I was actually struggling at my first 10km route, as usual... :P And I didn't carry my wireless walkman this time around... So, I pretty much had to entertain myself while running...

Bumped into this lovely couple from previous races before and was pacing with them 'til the 10km mark...

Blurry pic of the couple...

Managed to find this couple on Facebook... Yay!!!

Reached the 10km mark at 1 hour and 2 mins (my PB for 10km....Woohooo!!!)...

Yayyyyyy!!! :D

Decided to increase my pace after that...

I was so happy when I saw the 19km marker and that I've only been running for 2 hours!!! Decided to give my all at the last 1km of the run and was so ecstatic to see the time on my watch that I was jumping like a crazy girl upon reaching the finish line...

I completed my 5th half marathon for the year with yet another PB of 2 hours and 19 mins... 11 mins earlier than my previous record :D :D :D

With my 5th half marathon finisher medal for the year and another PB recorded 

:D :D :D

Pretty finisher medal added to my collection! :)

Pic credits to Rosey

Happy pictures after the race:

Big group photo with other runners that wanted to join our 'happening' group photo session ;)

The jump-jump pose

Pic credits to Rosey

With Rosey, Selly and Nyna...

The three of them completed the run together at 2 hours and 26 mins... PB for each of them!!!

Congrats to my girls!!!

Stretching around...

Abe Yaz and Kak Nawal

Abe Yaz completed his 21km in 2 hours and 38 mins...

Kak Nawal completed her 21km in 2 hours and 15 mins...

Nyna and her beau, Faizal who ran illegally just to support his girl...

(OK girls... 1,2,3.. Awwwwwwwww :P)

He even got a nasty blister after that... Ouch!!!

Decided to reward ourselves with these yummy food before leaving Ipoh:

Yummy nasi briyani @ Restaurant M Salim...

Overall, I had a great time at this race... The weather throughout the run was superb... Windy and chilly... And the 21km route was pretty much a flat one... Though they could've improved on the water stations with supplying 100plus instead of just ice-cold water...

Nevertheless, this is definitely one of the BEST runs that I've done this year... And it's probably because I had such fun people to run with...

I am so blessed to have these people around me :)

Oh, and I wanna thank all of the runners that I've met during my run for motivating me... And to the lovely couple Dannie and Carrie, hope to meet you guys again :)

Will definitely come back and run at this event again next year! :)

Next: Newton 12km Challenge Kuala Lumpur in September (no running for me in August!)...