PAAA Annual Round the House Relay.. A race that I have never heard of until now. Kinda funny as this race is rich with tradition and it seems to have been in existence for 15 years or more.. That’s how I got to know it when lining up for my turn and chatting with a runner in the 50s from Penang Forward Club.. he told me he has been running this events for 10+ years.. Gosh !! So how I ended up with this is kind accidental. I was itching for races and then I saw this relay race. Since it has an age group of Open and Junior Veteran (35-44 years old), it will be difficult for me to get a group of Junior Veterans to run ! When I was chatting with Asrul via FB, I realize that he and his friend (which I later knew to be Ramlan) is forming a team t run and they are looking for runners.. My immediate response was, WHY NOT ! and that’s how I ended up with the team. The race is a team of 8 runners (with 10 registered, hence 2 as reserves), running the same route around Padang Polo --> Penang Sports Club --> Turn into Moral Uplifting Society --> turn right upon Chi-Tze HQ --> Nurse Quarters and GH and ended up the home stretch into Sepoy Lines with a total of 2.4km, which later was measured to be ~2.55km. Running a 10km or more is an endurance and it allows you to catch some breath when racing but not this relay. It’s akin to a sprint and I am never that good on it. All my races, I race against myself and my own timing. But this is a real competition and in a team. To make matters worse, speedwork is my weakest link in my training. To prepare for the race, I only did a few speedwork but never really did a 2.4km sprint run and my pacing was 4:40 at best. I guess I had to do a 4:20 to make a respectable debut as I didn’t want to disappoint my teammates. Well, I only knew Asrul and Ramlan and the rest are aliens to me.. LOL ! No targets set, I just want to run my own race and pace but I can’t help feeling the pressure too. Our Junior Veteran has 5 groups participating and ours is named BRC – Best Runner’s Club. I was given the number 6 our of 8 legs (our’s is team #10, hence 10-6). The line-up : BS Ng (10-1), Onn (10-2), Guan (10-3), Roadi (10-4), Aznan (10-5), me (10-6), Rahim (10-7) and Ramlan the anchor leg (10-8) .. All I knew then was Onn is a superb runner who did 1:17 at the Malakoff 17km !! So is Ramlan, our captain. The race started at 7.30am, and it has been drizzling since 6am+. Good thing the drizzle came to a near halt when the race was underway and the sky cleared up after that. There were many groups which participated in the relay, Open 19 teams, Junior veteran 5, Junior 9 and excluding a few more teams for the women and girls. So you can imagine the huge crowd there. The atmosphere was very carnival like.. and we spent time doing the warm-up and giving each other encouragement. This is a new-found camaraderie and fellowship that one can’t get from normal races as we normally race against ourselves. As the race got underway, one will be amazed by the energy that flowed through (of course the friendly rivalry between i-Run and Forward Club makes it a contest) and awed by the many elite runners we have in Penang. When it was my turn to pick up the baton from Aznan, I went off fast, just too fast and by the time I hit the ~1km, I was all exhausted. However, the team-spirits carried me all the way to the finishing line and handed over to Rahim.. I did not bother to wear my GPS watch as I did not want to put myself under pressure.. LOL.. At the end, our BRC team finished 4th out of 5 team, missing out the ‘podium’ finish of 3rd by 3mins.. Whatever the result, it was a great race, superb team-work and very well-organized. I love to be back given the opportunity in future. Meantime, I am nursing my sore hips as I wrote this blog.. Haha.. Ahh.. My time was OK, 10:48 which translates to 4:30 pace for 2.4km, and 4:14 for 2.55km.. whichever was the actual distance.. I am forever grateful to Raman/Asrul for the opportunity to participate in the relay.. Up next Sunday is the D’nonce Hiking Challenge (next Sunday) !!
The medal
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