The Yummiest Run of All

Limau Bali Ipoh  Ipoh International Marathon was organized by the Ipoh City Council with co-operation of Perak State Government and Perak Amateur Athlete Association (POAP). The run started and ended at Dataran Ipoh, Greentown, Ipoh. 3 July 2004 7:40am Arrived at Food Court at Petaling Street. Amelia, Boy Wonder & Tan already there gobbling up their breakfast. Didn’t feel like eating breakfast there. Bought a Mexican bun, egg tart and chicken siew-pau for breakfast in the bus. 8:30am Bus Transnational left Puduraya Bus Station. The ride was smooth. Took some pictures of the sleeping beauties but was avenged later. (Insert snoring noises here). 11:30am Arrived in Medan Kidd. Greeted by Tan. He took us to buy some local biscuits at Yee Thye. Amelia did some serious shopping here. Had lunch at Pak Kong Nasi Ayam restaurant. The chicken rice was reasonably good. The rice was fragrant and not too oily. Chicken was tender, soak in dark soy sauce. Our gastronomical marathon began here. Tan drove us around town highlighting various recommended eateries. 1:00pm Checked into Syuen Hotel. Met uncle and auntie at the lobby. My uncle drove all the way from Kuantan. He has signed up for full marathon. 2:40pm My sister picked Wei Yee and I up for shopping. Went to Jusco and some video stores at Ipoh East. Checked out some running apparels in Fila. Didn’t buy anything despite the sale was on. 4:30pm Got backed to Syuen. Join the rest of the gang for shopping at Ipoh Parade which is just a stone throw away from Syuen. Combed the mall and realized that Ipoh Parade is a clone of IOI Mall in Puchong. Had a turkey ham sandwich at a German sounding café, don’t recall the name. Went to XTRA and bought some cereal, a carton of low fat milk, 2 oranges and an apple for breakfast. Very healthy, indeed. 7:40pm Shenny came to pick up for dinner. Was drizzling. Went to a placed call Yeolde English in Greentown that serves western-styled dishes. Ordered a banana smoothie (runners love bananas, don’t we?) and some stuffed crab for myself. KK ordered house-specialty Yeolde chicken – it was dry and nothing special. 10:00pm Went to Y2K bar for some beer with Shenny, Shenny’s sister and KK. Y2K is located in Ipoh East, a stone throw away from Jusco. Second time today to pass by Jusco. We were the only customers there but all the stools and sofas were reserved. Hip and happening place when the night grows older, I think. KK yakked about his trip to Paris and Rome. 11:00pm Drove pass by Lou Wong and spontaneously decided to have supper. This place was touted as the most famous chicken bean sprout noodle in town. This place was packed but we managed to secure a table. Ordered half a chicken, some taugeh and noodles. Chicken was smooth and tender. The noodle was a bit sweet, laden with MSG I supposed. What I loved best was the taugeh – clean, fat and crunchy. What a yummy was to carbo-load! 4 July 2004 12:00am Sweet dream. (Insert snore here) 4:00am Amelia gave a wake up call. It was way too early. Returned to dreamland. 6:00am Woke up. Had a light breakfast. 6:30am Rushed to the Padang for registration. Glad that the starting point was basically at the doorstep of Syuen. There was a minor accident involving 3 cars at the roadside. Couldn’t be bothered as I was a bit late. Registered at the counter and was tied with a plastic cable tie on my right hand. Ate my chocolate Power Gel. Yuck. Tasted like shit. 6:45am Huddled at the starting point. Almost fainted because of the B.O galore. Haven’t these people heard of deodorant or shower? These people make running hazardous to health. The run was set off by some Perak royalty. Didn’t get who was the person with the gun as I was busy fainting. The run was pretty smooth as the road in Ipoh is relatively flat. The sky was pretty with hues of orange and blue as the sun was peeking from the clouds, greeting the runners. The run took me from Dataran Ipoh to Jalan Sultan Abdul Jalil, Persiaran Greenhill, Jalan Sultan Idris Shah, Jalan Gopeng, Jalan Dairy, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Jalan Tasek, Jalan Kg. Simee, Lebuhraya Cecil Raa, Jalan Hospital, Jalan Chin Choon Sam, Jalan Sultan Abdul Jalil, Jalan Dato Ahmad Said to Persiaran Bandaraya and finised at Dataran Ipoh. As usual, I was ready with my camera. Running my own race, slowly and stopping for those Kodak (In my case, it would be Nikon) moments. The weather was perfect. The sun was merciful unlike the scorching sun during the Melaka Historic Run in May. I did my personal best in this run – 2 hours and 29 minutes, one minute below the qualifying time. (Insert applause here). Was given a pink card to collect my medal. I was hugely disappointed when was told that they were out of medals. How could this be? The nerve that they call this an International event! It is not like they knew about the race and the medal allocation the day before the rest. This is totally unacceptable! We were made to queue under the hot sun to write our addresses so that the medal can be mailed to us. I was robbed! Robbed of my joy to receive my hard-earned medal at the end of my run. (Insert a loud wail here). KK, Amelia, Tan and Boy Wonder went for Dim Sum at Foh San. Didn’t join them. Don’t really fancy pork-laden Dim Sum. Instead, I drink some milk and ate an apple. Fell asleep in bed while reading the Sunday paper. What a wonderful Sunday. 12.30pm Checked out from Syuen. KK drove us back. Boy Wonder kept KK awake while driving as Amelia, Tan and I were sleeping at the back. Stopped by Tapah rest area and bought a big bag of jambu air (rose apples). Sweet and juicy. Will I come back to Ipoh Run next year? Yes. Despite the major boo boo on the medal, I enjoyed the trip. Where else can you find a venue with flanked by a major hotel, a shopping mall and food, glorious food? (Insert a burp here). 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