2006 Bidor Half Marathon (Pre-Race)

This is my first race for Bidor and the trip is very well worth the effort despite having to drive more than 650km per trip. Well, I would like to thank Chen too if not for him, this trip would have been a disasterous one where he manage to get me a room at the very last moment.

I made my journey up north on Friday night right after work. Well, my plan was to stay overnight at home and continue the journey to Bidor on the next day. It was already 11am when I reach the town and the first thing that I noticed was the size of it. There is only one main street while the rest of the places were filled with small residential homes and it reminded me of my grandpa’s home. To describe the main street, it is like traveling back to the pre-war period where there had not been many changes to their façade. There were plenty of bicycles moving around and not to mention, motorbikes too and I was careful in navigating around them while looking for the shop Tukang Jahit Mexico to collect my bibs. After a short drive around the town, I manage to locate the shop and had my car parked near it. While exiting from the car, I could not help having the feeling as if I had been transported back to early 50’s due to the surrounding façade of the shops and also the old uncles clad in their singlet and shorts, oh ya they were wearing the old type of slippers as well. I proceed into the shop and the shopkeeper greeted me in a friendly manner while I handed them the reporting cards. The process was quick and I would say, they are more than efficient in handling these things and IMO, events organized by runners are better in terms of logistics. Anyway, after collecting the bibs, I headed towards the hotel and proceed to ‘check-in’. I just paid RM45 to the shopkeeper and he handed me the keys to my room upstairs. While walking up the stairs, I was quite skeptical about the condition of the room and images of stench filled rooms and soiled bedsheets began playing in my mind but upon opening the room door, I was surprised at the cleanliness of it. Bed sheets were clean and there was a small television set in my room as well. It's a bargain that I had got this room. Thanks Chen!

I left my things in the room and proceed to drive to Ipoh to have my lunch cum t-shirt collection. I spent an hour or so in Ipoh driving around and decided to head back when I’ve had enough. While driving back to Bidor, I decided to take the trunk road instead of the highway because I would like to see the country side. It was a pleasant experience and trust me, next time you guys can take a short trip using the trunk road. There is a very ‘kampung’ feeling to the place and not to mention, the road actually passes along limestone hills that Ipoh is famous for. It was a sight to behold and while driving, I could not help but enjoy the beautiful sights surrounding me where there were steep hills along the one side of the road and small farmers tending to their crops on the other side. At the same time, there was light rain going on and overall, it gave the surrounding environment a very ‘cooling’ type of feeling. I was in heaven.


Bidor Main Street during dark

The drive lasted for about 45 mins or so and for the rest of the afternoon, nothing much happened. So I took this opportunity to catch up on reading and also listening to my MP3. It was about 5pm that I decided to take a short drive to survey the route and I only manage to do that on the 1st section of it. Judging from what I see, it came to the conclusion that this race ain’t going to be easy. In the first section alone, there were already major inclines /declines and I could not imagine what is installed for us on the second section of the race. I did not manage to survey the second section as I wasn’t sure how to get there.


Row of shops located on the main street

It was already 6.30pm or so when I felt hungry. So I decided to walk towards the ‘main street’ to look for dinner where it is just a stone throw away. There was slight drizzle going on and while walking, I feel great as there is no pressure or whatsoever existed in this place. Things were generally slow moving here and the people here are very friendly. I was talking to Ai Ling (from Singapore) and apparently, they came here without booking a hotel. They spent many hours walking around the place looking for accommodation and there is one local lady, feeling pitiful for them had actually invited them into her house to stay overnight! This kind of hospitality was totally unheard of in large town. Personally I too had felt the warmth of the locals where after my dinner at one of the restaurant, while walking along the shop rows, one of the lady shop owner actually rushed out and asked me about tomorrow’s race! She was so enthusiastic that she wished me and cheered for me before I left the place! It really felt great as these locals welcome us so much to their town. Wherever I walked, there are people smiling at me and I could not help but to think, these guys are simple people with warm hearts and it is fast disappearing in this realistic world of ours. I wished how things can be reversed to the time when people know each other and cared about each other. In big cities, we don’t even know who our neighbours are. Sigh, how times had changed.


My Dinner

It was already 8pm when I am back in my room while it was raining heavily outside. There’s nothing much to do except to arrange the bibs and have all the collected t-shirts be put into separate bags. Again, I was reading Salazar’s book with my MP3 on and soon, it was fast approaching 11.30pm. I pinned my bibs thinking about tomorrow’s race. How should I run? Even pace? All out from the start? I had received an sms from DK mentioning that the course after 9.5k is hellish with rolling hills all the way. Should I be conservative? I had not run any of these courses with hills for quite sometime and naturally, they (hills) are not my favourite. However, these things will not make me withdraw from having to pia in this course. I had always believed that I had sufficiently train for the 21k and the testament is on my consistent finish in my half marathon races since July. With this believe, I adjourned into the night, not knowing what is about to come tomorrow.