Photos & Video: KL Tower International Forest Towerthon Challenge 2010

What? KL Tower International Forest Towerthon Challenge 2010

Where? KL Tower

When? 21 March 2010

Why? In conjunction with the National level celebration of the World's Forest Day,

How many steps up? 2058

How tall is the tower? 421 meters

My favourite Towerthon is back! I enjoyed the climbe very much even though it was "torturous". Heheh!

Like the year before, I took my time to run up the hill leading to the entrance of the tower. I do not want my breakfast to end up ON the staircase! LOL!

This year, about 3,000 participants took part in the ninth edition of the KL Tower International Forest Towerthon Challenge.

Even though in its 9th year, I was quite surprised when there were still some "avoidable" problems occuring during race kit collection.

On the first day of race kit collection, the t-shirt ran out of size (left XXL) in the morning and the totally depleted at lunch hour! How did that happen? The incident left a lot of frustrated participants even before the race day!

There were also some error in the letter sent out to the participant. EVERYONE was running in the MEN OPEN catergory causing some major confusions! :P

I hope the organiser will improve next year. Well, it IS an INTERNATIONAL event. The execution of the race should not be any less than that! Agree?

KL Tower has been generous in providing free snacks and breakfast, before AND after the race. It's a Malaysian hospitality thingy. :) Eat! Eat! Eat! Heheh! Love it!

But I was careful not to eat too much before the race. :)

We were "greeted" by local and international celebrities with their famous quotes on the way up! But notice the year, they were last year's posters. :)

But I think our Angkasawan has blatantly ripped off a quote from the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. Malaysia BOLEH??

Maria oh Maria!

Now the whole world know what was on Tiger's mind! Bad, bad Tiger! LOL!

Nicole David, my favourite local sport star!

Water is adequate. Mineral water was provided to participants.

Instead of drinking, some participants were seen "bathing" in the water provided, causing the floor to be slippery. It was a hot hot climb!

Suggest the organiser to get some mops ready before any accident happen.

Resting.....

Resting......

Go......

At the top! All the finisher get a yellow coupon to be exchanged with a goodies bag with medal! I was told those who DNF, get a green coupon for just goodies bag, no medal. Sob! Sob!

The goodie bag!

The gorgeous finisher medal! I loikey!

According to BERNAMA, Kenya's Philip Kipkemei Ronoh won the Men's Open category of the 2010 KL Tower International Forest Challenge for the second consecutive time here on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Ronoh, who started to take part in long distance running events in his country, six years ago, endured the one kilometre run and 2,058 stairs-climb in 13 minutes 21 seconds to emerge champion.

Meanwhile, in the Women's Open category, Natyana Rakkhaphan of Thailand emerged champion after clocking 17:39s, ahead of Malaysia's Noor Amelia Musa who came in with a time of 18:13s.

Here's a video I took at the finish. I guess she was the unlucky one. I was recording and suddenly she....

Note: Video clip is blurred intentionally to protect the identity of the participant.

Actually, there were many more who coated their breakfast on the floor while on their ways up the stairs! :P

Find out what are the causes of exercise induced vomit HERE.

Please click the link below for the full KL Towerthon 2010 video. http://runwitme.blogspot.com/2010/03/video-kl-tower-international-forest.html

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: I would like to thank KL TOWER for the race, especially En Suhaili. Mr. Khoo Chong Beng for showing me what timing chip is all about.