BSN Night Run 2013: Dark, Wet, Hungry

Coming October, BSN Night Run was my third last run for 2013. For this run, I was a bit conflicted whether to enter this run or the Adidas King of the Road (KOTR) since both organized in the same month. As a matter of fact, while the BSN Night Run will be on the 19th, KOTR will on the next morning on the 20th. Between the two of them, I would preferred KOTR, but I ended up choosing the BSN Night Run due to two factors. One - Since I had ran the KOTR last year, I thought that I want to experience other runs this year. Two - the announcement of the KOTR was too late & too near to the actual date. So in the end, Iqbal & myself ended by signing up for the BSN Night Run.

The BSN Night Run is  an annual run that comprises of a marathon, a half marathon, a 10km run & a 5km event. The run had been conducted for several years now started from 2010. While most of the runs that I had joined started early in the morning (the earliest was one at dawn at 4.00am), this is my first night run. And I had a lot of unexpected experience coming up during the run. 

The run will only started at 8.45pm. Because of that I had taken the bus from JB in the afternoon & arrived in KL at 7.00pm. When Iqbal arrived at the bus station, we quickly had our prayers & bought some breads as some snack before the run.

When we arrived at the starting line, the marathon & half marathon runner already took off. Since the event is being held in Putrajaya, the organizer have a lot of space to use. So they went all out. The whole area had been packed with tents & a stage. The music blared all out. It was like a festival of sort. The atmosphere was great.

Putrajaya by default is the most planned city in Malaysia so it was not surprising that the location picked for the run was perfectly beautiful. Which was a shame because since it was at night, unless I have a decent camera I can't even get a good photo. And I only have my cellphone with me. Ha Ha. Good luck getting any decent shot with that.

My main concern before running is about the meal. Usually when I'm running in the morning, I don't have to bother to take any meal. So when I'm running, it was a comfortable run because my tummy is empty. It was different with the night run. So I'm quite conflicted whether to run with empty stomach or with meal. Either way I'm screwed anyway. I ended up eating the piece of bread as a snack. Which I found later didn't helped during the run.

At the start of the race, Iqbal declared something that he rarely does. That he actually will run seriously for the next run that we will run together - the Penang Bridge Run. That was weird given that he actually ran faster than I am. For me, this run will be the acid test whether I could beat him in the Penang Bridge Run.

After the starting horn at the Perbadanan Putrajaya , it seems that Iqbal was serious enough because he was quite in front of me even from the start.

For the first 2km, my legs feels great. Even though Iqbal had been in the front from the starting line, I knew that he will slow down later in the run. I'm not wrong with my prediction because I did passed him in the later stage of the run, but what I didn't expected was that my condition was worse than him - which I found out later on.

At 3km I noticed something that I didn't experienced before when running early in the morning. Even though it actually drizzling in the beginning of the run, I felt the back of my shirt was already drenched with sweat that the shirt literally stick to my body. This usually happens to me only when I reached 8km in the race. The difference between running in the morning & evening is that in the evening the air is drier. Plus in the morning our body usually will be fresher compared to late in the evening.

I'm quite surprise that my condition started deteriorate at 4km in the race when I reached the Putrajaya Convention Center. It was not much of my stomach issue, but my left knee. Suddenly I didn't feel comfortable with it. There was small pain that I can't actually brushed off.

At 6km, it was my stomach that start giving me a problem. Remember the bread that I had eaten at the start of the race? Bad idea! It seems my body didn't think running with some food in the tummy will be a great idea. I start having some stomach cramp.

Spirit can come in a lot of form & during this run in came in the form of tagline. As my knee becoming worse & my stomach aches, I just running with my spirit alone. The tagline for this race - 'Quit at Never' really helps. At the back of every runner's shirt was this tagline. So every time I actually want to quit I saw the tagline. It even becoming a mantra to me throughout the run.

Best tagline ever

Another thing that kept me fascinated along the route is the energy from the volunteers. They are the most energetic volunteers that I had ever seen. With the distance among themselves was not too far, the energy was felt along the roads. Some of them wore superheroes costumes - Captain America & Spiderman but all of them shout encouragingly to the runners.

At last my knee went for bust & I knew if I still continue the condition will be worse in the future. I still have 2 more runs in November & I do intend to keep my knee longer.

So at 9km I quit & walk slowly to the finish line.



At the end of the run I clocked 1 hour & 28 minutes. Considering that Iqbal was 12 minutes in front of me really puts thing into perspective. I really need to work my ass off for the Penang Bridge Run.

The man in the right is not happy

Note: The next day after the run, I immediately bought a Ebene knee guard. I hope I could smile like Datuk Jalaludin Hassan when using the knee guard while running.

RUN RATINGS - BSN NIGHT RUN 2013
Organizer - 4/5
One of the best run organizer that I had encountered, especially the volunteers. 
Kit & Goodies - 3/5
The shirt was OK, but why the medal have an open loop? A lot of runners had their medal dropped off after the race.
Route - 5/5
The route was one of the best, with flat roads all around. We can even have some scenery along the road of the beautiful Putrajaya buildings. Too bad this is a night run.
Overall Experience - 3/5

The issue with this race is that it is a night race which I don't planned well enough. At the end of the race I felt wet & hungry in the night.