Be A Part Of History At Malaysia Women Marathon

 Sunday.

7th April 2013.

i-City Shah Alam.

Nestle Fitnesse Malaysia Women Marathon 2013. Not only the First Women Marathon in Malaysia but also the first Women Marathon in South East Asia.

Mark the date. ^^

The hubby, son and I went to i-City on Friday, braving the early evening traffic for the Race Entry Pack Collection (REPC) and got to see the press conference in full swing.

Selangor Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Dato' Abdul Khalid Ibrahim was there and seen here fielding questions from reporters after the press conference.

YB Puan Nurul Izzah Anwar, who is Lembah Pantai MP (she's my MP!) was there too. She is such a lovely, gracious, sweet and warm lady. Very down-to-earth.

Politicians aside, we got to meet quite a few very respected runners there and I simply couldn't resist introducing myself (while squealing in delight) and taking photos with them. Fangirl much? hehehe

With the lady who made it all happen for runners in Malaysia, Karen Loh. 

During the press conference, she announced that there will be 1,800 runners in the inaugural Malaysia Women Marathon (MWM) with only two months of registration period. MWM 2014 registration will start early, in October so runners can be more prepred. She also mentioned about bringing in Japanese and Taiwanese runners to MWM 2014. I agree with her. I know Japanese runners are fanatics... and awesome!

The famous sarongman himself, Yim. He runs fast. And plenty of times, he runs fast while clad in a sarong. There were times when he used to run in full Baju Melayu ensemble. Respect.

Actually, it was Yim and Karen who made me think that it'll be fun running in some kind of costume. I saw them first at 2011 Putrajaya Night Marathon (PNM). That day, they did 2 marathons in one day! One marathon in the morning and then the PNM at night, and it was for a good cause. For Orang Asli cause. 

There was an Orang Asli craft stall at the REPC and I bought a few items there. Some lucky people may get lucky getting them soon! ^^

With Maggie who is a women champion in plenty of runs, and who made it possible for me to meet with Kathrine Switzer on Wednesday at the airport.

The awesome, awesome Tey was there too. If you run, you should make a point to know Tey. He's the photographer you want your photos taken by. I went up to him, squealed that I'm his fan and ask to take photos with him! *jump hyperactively* LOL

All three "sifus" imparted some advice and shared tips for me to do my first full marathon this Sunday. THANK YOU!

The icing on the cake was meeting three more special people:

Raimie being introduced to Kathrine Switzer, the Marathon Woman. She asked Raimie whether he's proud of his mom and of course the boy nodded.

Remember this homework of his, which he wrote about his Mom's hobby and was corrected by his teacher? 

He wrote : My mother loves to run.

The teacher corrected it to : My mother loves jogging. 

Yeah, Mom goes out jogging for 20km most Sundays. Hihihi
And then, there's his BM essay where he wrote "My mother is special beause she runs 21km". Well, soon he can say his mom is special because she runs marathon. ^^

A family shot with the legend. 

Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to officially enter and run the famous (and extremely hard to get into) Boston Marathon in 1967. Jock Semple, the race director of Boston Marathon was "enraged" that a woman was running his race and tried to forcibly remove her from the race. It made nationwide news and Kathrine Switzer became passionate in campaigning for sports equality for women.

Because of her, we women are able to experience the joy of running. Long distance. 

We were also able to meet with Couple-On-The-Run; Andrew and Sue O'Brien. I've followed a couple of their webinar's sessions for the MWM so I was stoked to finally meet them. 

Here's me, with a few fellow lady runners listening avidly to Sue O'Brien. 

Oh yeah, I was supposed to collect my race kit for Sunday and not only meet famous people. OK... now scoot over to race kit collection counter. 

Easy and straightforward process. I didn't bring my race confirmation slip but no problem. Just show IC will do. 

Saw a planking challenge going on. I bet Anay's Letchumi can win this challenge lah if she's there! One lady did it for 6 minutes earlier. Anyone know what's the record now?

I was more interested in taking more photos. Of ME!

 We made history!

Let's all take photo together and pretend we're at the finish line, shall we? ^^

Got somehow interested in looking at a cow's butt too. A lighted butt, if I may add. LOL

We were there for more than 4 hours! Absolutely awesome and happening race expo. The first big expo I ever experience. Usually the races here would just make do with a few of the sponsor's booth and nothing else.

MWM has talks, workshops, dialouge with Couple-on-the-run, food demo, meet-the-fan session with Kathrine Switzer and even a carbo loading session later this evening, sponsored by Ben's I believe. How cool is that?

It's a good thing I decided to go on Friday instead of Saturday because 4 hours of walking around sure is not what I want to do a day before the marathon! But, can you blame anyone? The REPC is simply super fun!

Now, I'll cross my fingers (and toes) for a somewhat fun 42km run on Sunday! :)