Worst run ever

Last night was supposed to be a great event judging from all the hype and promotions and what not. But it turn out to be the worst event ever. I'm not the only one complaining. Kalau tengok official FB diorang, memang penuh dengan sumpahan la. Haha. Siap ada hater's page lagi ok. But seriously memang teruk tahap dewa ok.

Ok ceritanya begini. Semalam I joined Energizer Night Race. Since I didn't get to collect my race kit earlier, I went to Sepang International Circuit (SIC) to collect it with Eman and his friend; Nik around 3pm. From the car park to the collection counter adalah super jauh ok. Dah la jalan jauh, kena turun for few level, then jalan dalam tunnel, up few level and jalan some more before queuing for like some time. By the time I sampai kat kereta semula dah basah kuyup dengan peluh aje. Balik rumah mandi, tukar baju and gerak ke SIC semula.

Buat race kat SIC. Konon-konon gempak la tu. Memang GEMPAK habis ok. As usual we would car pool ke mana-mana event so this time I naik satu kereta dengan Cik Leen and Ana whilst Eman and Nik naik sekereta dengan Wan Rahim. Half way thru jumpa dengan Rizmi. Taufik pulak terus ke sana lepas balik dari Sarawak. As for Edwin. dia tak dapat join. Busy dengan pilihanraya gitu. Haha....

We reached there around 7pm. Cars started pouring in so sesak teruk jugak la. Tapi akhirnya dapat jugak park dekat celah-celah pokok kelapa sawit. From there ke surau dulu sebab dah hampir nak masuk waktu solat Maghrib. Now, SIC is an international place kan. Attracting peoples from all over the world. Tapi surau dia kalah dunia ketiga ok. Sempit and arah kiblat adalah mengadap pintu masuk and tempat wudhu'. Pelikkan. Kira orang kena lalu-lalang depan orang yang tengah bersolat. Kata negara Islam. Memalukan ok. In fact bukan kat SIC aje lah. Pergi la mana-mana pun. Surau mesti kecik, tersorok, kotor and dekat dengan tandas. But no one seems to care pun to at least buat la satu ketetapan or anything about this. Hey jabatan berkaitan tu please la buat guidelines ke apa ke kan. Kalau bab-bab keselamatan boleh ada ketetapan, then takkan la pasal surau tak boleh kan.

Anyway, lepas solat, Cik Leen, Ana and me kind of lost. We wanted to collect the headlight but we couldn't find any sign-age or anything yang boleh membantu. So we went inside and again kena lalu that tunnel. But as we reached the end, the headlight dah takde. Yang tinggal cuma kotak yang bersepah-sepah. We try to look out for the organizer but to no avail so terus la masuk ke what we call that area eh. Circuit or something. Ala tempat kereta berlumba tu lah. Suasana adalah sangat bising. Mana nak dengar announcement and mana nak dengar music yang full blast. Kalau nak cakap, then music tu kena la slow kan. Entah pape je ok.

Kat tengah circuit tu, in which adalah starting line ada raai orang tengah beratur tapi tak tau which category. Suara announcer sama kuat dengan music so again I kind of lost. Entah macam mana lepas tu boleh perasan yang tu adalah category 11km so Cik Leen and Ana masuk dulu. After diorang dah lepas baru I pulak masuk. I was alone di tengah ribuan orang but I tak kisah dah after all this time berlari sorang-sorang. As long as datang and balik ada kawan I would be just fine.

Then larian pun bermula. I didn't have any headlight so belasah je lah lari dalam gelap. At certain part tu memang la ada lampu tapi at certain part lagi tawakal aje lah. Tumpang la sape-sape yang ada lampu tu. This time I berazam nak lari sampai habis walaupun tak laju. As long as I tak berjalan dah kira ok la tu. Half way thru my left knee dah start sakit. I keep pushing on walaupun dalam hati risau takut nanti makin teruk sakitnya. Selalunya kalau berlari I wouldn't stop for water tapi last night I berlari ke drink station and grab a can of Gatorade. I tak minum tapi pegang and letak the cold can at my face. Tak sia-sia I took the drink sebab that would be the only drink available.

Sampai kat finishing line I was kind of lost. Selalunya dekat finishing line akan ada orang tunggu and by looking at our bip they would know which category we are in and would guide us to the the finishing line. Ni hampeh tak de sorang pun. Suasana pun dah kecoh semacam. I tak tau I ni dah habis ke belum tapi bila dah lepas dari finishing sign-age kat atas tu kira dah habis la kan. So I terus jalan ke depan tapi tak jumpa pintu nak keluar. So kena patah balik ke belakang and cari pintu nak keluar dari circuit tu. I rasa orang ramai yang bersesak-sesak kat finishing line tu pun faced the same dilemma la kot. Tak tau ke mana arah tujuan lepas habis berlari.

Keluar from the circuit I nampak ada long queue. Ni mesti queue untuk goodies bag so I terus join queuing. Punyalah panjang I tak tau la how long it'll finish. Sambil beratur sambil minum the Gatorade. Selalunya kat finishing line ada drink station tapi hampeh tak de. Syukurlah ada Gatorade tu. Chinese guy yang beratur depan I tu siap cakap, "Wah very smart huh for taking that". Ye la kalau I tak amik tadi dah mati kehausan gamaknya. Hahaha.... Anyway, after half an hour of standing in the line, I learnt that for my category, the line is the opposite way. Sabar je lah. So terpaksa la keluar from that line and masuk another long line the other war around. Although I masuk 5.5km aje but altogether I dah berjalan more than 11km kalau nak kira la. Asyik la kena patah balik. Tempat bukan kecik-kecik.

Eman and Nik dah dok melepak kat tepi sebab diorang laju so by the time diorang sampai queue nak amik goodies bag tak panjang. Actually kalau takat free gift I memang tak kuasa nak beratur lama-lama tu tapi certificate and finisher medal ada dalam tu so nak tak nak kena la beratur jugak. After another half an hour of standing with injured knee, I heard macam ada commotion kat depan. Shouting and all. I thought they were cheering those yang baru finished the race. Makin lama makin kuat and makin kerap. Rupa-rupanya ada riot ok. Sampai kena panggil polis la.

So it seems like runners had enough of queuing. Dah la lari jauh, air tak de, kelam-kabut kat race track and now kena beratur pulak berjam-jam. Memang la menimbulkan amarah kan. I can hear the MC shouting and all. Memang tak professional ok. In fact that MC kena kutuk kaw-kaw dalam FB. Dah tau pegang mic lagi nak jerit-jerit and keluarkan statement panas. Volunteer pun entah pape. Ana sempat la dapat goodies bag tu tapi nak tau how they pass it to her? Main campak je ok. And betul-betullanding atas kepala dia. Kurang asam betul. Tu belum yang kena sembur dengan volunteer tu.

During the riot, the organizer tutup shutter and cabut. Takut kena amuk ok. Imagine ada 10 ribu orang yang join the event. Kalau ada half je yang mengamuk pun dah kira horror. Nak selamat better cabut. I heeard the MC keep saying, "Please disperse! Please disperse. We would send the goodies bag via courier to everyone who hasn't got it. Please disperse". Now.... how would they knew who have got and who hasn't? Bukan dia check the name in the system or anything like that. Kalau dah tahap campak atas kepala orang memang tak de maknanya dia nak tag dekat bip tu kan.

I doubt the organizer will send it. But hopefully they will. If not this thing will not end here. Ramai yang mengamuk-ngamuk semalam and I bet they will not just mengamuk aje. Mesti ada action after that. Lagipun they are serious runner, not like me. Eh tapi kalau bukan serious runner pun, after paying that much amount of money mestilah ada hak untuk bersuara kan. Kalau tengok official event website macam gempak aje padahal hampas belaka. Like the drink station. Kata every 3km tapi ni tengok ada satu aje. Imagine those who ran the half and full marathon? Mati kekeringan la diorang.

Medic pun hampas. Macam budak-budak aje yang jaga. I baca dalam FB, ada je orang yang pengsan halfway or kat finishing line tapi medic lambat sampai. Ada 1001 cerita panas lagi lah. Nak tau sila la baca kat FB Energizer Night Race. Memang panas. Bila nak balik, kena lalu tunnel yang bahaya tu so kitorang ikut shortcut yang kena panjat tembok kat grandstand. Luckily by the time kitorang nak panjat dah ada yang tendang pagar so boleh la naik guna tangga. If not satu hal pulak nak kena memanjat. Dah la kaki injured. Dah la kena jalan jauh. By the time sampai kat kereta tu kaki I dah makin sakit and we saw something there.

Patutnya parking free kan. Tetibe ada je mamat si penjaga parking. Diorang kata geng-geng samseng tu so kena la bayar jugak. Padahal parking kat celah pokok kelapa sawit aje pun. Syukurlah kitorang keluar ikut jalan lain so tak kena bayar. If not tak pasal-pasal kena pow RM10. Ramai je yang bayar. Even RELA pun kutip duit jugak. RELA and that samseng kutip duit tu semua kelly. Ada perjanjian la kot kan. Mana la tau. By the time kitorang keluar tu dah start jam. Pastu I nampak yang lari full marathon masih ramai lagi yang tengah berlari. Hebat la diorang. Kalau I dah patah jiwa dah. Hahaha.... Mau tak nya. Dah la penat. Sekali tengok orang semua dah balik. Yang kesiannya diorang tak tau lagi nasib diorang. Dah la tak de air, anti sampai finishing line tak de sape yang tunggu. Organizer semua dah cabut. Ish kesian ok.

Kalau nak cerita detail memang banyak lagi. Tapi you all boleh baca review orang lain jugak pasal the ever here, and here. Semua cerita almost the same. Memang horror ok. Tahun depan memang tak masuk dah la kalau Energizer nak buat apa-apa race lagi. Thank God I preferred Duracell batteries than Energizer. Semua pun nak boikot Energizer. Teruk la sale diorang lepas ni.

Oh ada something funny. Dalam goodies bag ada tampon. Tampon yang diorang bagi. Buat kena gelak aje. Sape la nak pakai tu. Eman nak bagi kat I tapi tak kuasa lah. Sape je yang pakai tampon pun. Bahaya. Boleh kena toxic shock tu. Karut betul. Dah la tak de apa sangat. Kata event besar. Sponsor macam hampas aje.

This whole thing will not hamper my mood of running. Hopefully event lepas ni semuanya ok je lah. Malu jugak kat Eman and Nik sebab first time berjaya pujuk diorang join dah jadi macam ni. Bak kata Eman la, "Apasal la ajak dia join event yang ceplos macam ni". Hahaha....

Now that kaki I sakit how la tomorrow ni. Nak kena pegi PD for a meeting. Hmmmm......