2011 KL Marathon

We have not been writing for quite a while now. July has been a real busy month for us. Everyone is busy with their own stuff! Abah moved to a new job within SD on the 1st day of july. Ibu on the other hand, was busy with the Bank's events starting with the 2011 KL Marathon towards end June then the Liverpool 2011 Asia Tour from 14th to 16th July 2011 and in between spent the time in London with Kakak. Right after we returned from London, we went straight to That Little Gerai for its opening ceremony and thereafter busy with the activities linger around TLG. Then the arrival of the holy month, Ramadhan and things begin to settle down. So, first thing first, will start writing on all these stories which thusfar remain untold.

The 2011 KL Marathon normally held around Abah's birthday. This year it was held one day before on 26 June 2011. This time, Ibu has been tasked to look after the VIPs at the VIP tent. Unlike the previous two years where Ibu arrived at the scene around 7am via Putra LRT, this year because of the task given, Abah has to sent Ibu and her two colleagues to Dataran Merdeka at 3am. VIPs were expected to arrive around 4.30am. Just imagine, having to wake up at 2.30am and was there at 3am! We spent the first hour or so at the staff tent trying to stay awake. This year, the staff tent was handled by Ibu's best buddy and it was so beautifully decorated with green and blue theme.

After the briefing and very early breakfast, we started our duties at the designated areas. By then, Dataran Merdeka started to fill up with runners for the full and half marathon which start at 5am and 6am respectively. This year the number of runners increased by about 20% to 22,000 with close to 70 nationalities participated in the marathon. Men outnumbered women by almost 2:1 ratio. There were approximately 2,500 staff runners and 450 staff volunteered to help the Bank which include distributing the race packs, manning the staff tent, water station and sponge station.

It was a great experience to see thousands of runner at the starting point to start their respective categories especially the 10km run where 10,000 runners took part and it took quite some time for all the runners to be able to start running. The whole event went on smoothly and we just did not realise how fast time flies and by the time it was over, we started feeling sleepy and exhausted. Abah came to fetch us around 11am.