4 Hours Around Putrajaya, On Foot

I needed to do a long run. I wanted to run for four hours and had thought of doing it around my apartment but lucky me, hubby wanted to do some walking too so on Sunday, both of us went to Putrajaya.

It's been a loooong time since I last trained in Putrajaya.  Truth be told, I kinda miss running there by myself too. Yeah, for me, Putrajaya is one of those places where female runners can actually run alone without too much fear about safety. There are routes along housing area and parks where we can run without much worry. Well, at least for me lah.

Hubby and I didn't run together. I needed to do a final long run before my marathon which will be held on Nov 30th. Hubby on the other hand, has no races until next year. So, we decided to split up.

8.40am start time on a sunny Sunday. Normal. ^^

I started my run from Taman Seri Empangan at Presint 5 in Putrajaya, at the foot of the hill of where PICC is located. From here I ran along the lakeside towards Pullman Hotel and the Maritime Centre in Putrajaya.

Plenty of families having picnic or just having fun outdoors here. Plenty of cyclists along the lakeside route too.

After running 2km, did a pit stop at the toilet/changing room nearby the Maritime Centre. This gotta be the nicest public toilet in whole of Putrajaya!

The ones at Taman Seri Empangan is the complete opposite of this!

From Pullman I turned back and go up the hill towards PICC.

Saw a number of cars parked along the road here, with their car boots filled with flower bouquets for sale.

Graduation/convocation season, I suppose. ;-)

From PICC, I turned right at the junction and ran downhill and straight towards the road leading to Taman Cabaran and Presint 20 and enter Taman Selatan.

What to see in Taman Selatan?

Cemeteries. Hahaha 

A very green and tranquil place, I might add. When I passed this area, only a family was seen at the cemetery and no new burials. Just a few hundred metres past the cemetery area, at the open green field, there were groups of model aircraft hobbyist or something flying their planes and the noise the aircrafts broke the quietness of the area.

Up an incline and ready to exit Presint 20 to return to Presint 5.

An ERL just passed as I was running/walking/huffing up the incline. Pity. Would've been nice if I got a photo of an ERL zooming past but I wasn't keen on waiting for another one to come by.

Did another toilet pit stop at Taman Seri Empangan toilet to cool-off and pour water on my head before making my way up the Jambatan Seri Gemilang and run on the core island of Putrajaya next.

By this time, I had done 9km.

Stopped by Dataran Gemilang to snap photos of families enjoying wet fun at the pool there. It's free access for all. ^^

Then, I just ran in a straight route towards Palace of Justice.

The road toward the Palace of Justice, from the Jambatan Seri Gemilang all the way to Ministry of Finance building was busy with cars. There's this Mega Auto Show Carnival and largest car club and gathering. Busy busy road and noisy noisy road today. 

There was a hive of activity and construction work seen too. I suppose this is for the 2014 FIA Formula E Putrajaya ePrix?

It's next week, folks!

13km in the pocket, I later headed towards Putrajaya Holding and ran past another public kiddie pool. This one is located just beside the Putrajaya Holdings and nearby the Jambatan Seri Wawasan.

I continued on, and had this view later. This, a few hundred metres away from the pool. I intentionally chose this route as I wanted to run along the Sisiran Putrajaya which is a lakeside pavement on Core Island of Putrajaya. Sisiran Putrajaya covers Presint 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 13. Lovely lakeview, I might add.

Then it's time to do some hill training, after huffing up to PICC earlier.

Halfway up the hill at Taman Wawasan. From the foot of the hill, I could run all the way to Wisma Putra. One access road to the top of the hill is now closed off. 

After 2km done around Taman Wawasan, I continued on running alongside the lake area and arrived to Presint 18. 

Lovely, lovely house here. 

A little bit further down and I saw this skyline.

This mean I'm nearing my "finish" line and was running back towards Taman Seri Empangan.

And back to Jambatan Seri Gemilang.

Stairs? Yes.

The stairs on the opposite side of the lake will be the one where I, along with other runners participating in Watergate 16-hour will go up and down those stairs for dunno how many times while we do our 5K loops in 16 hours! Wahahaha...

Almost finish already. Up this bridge and then down...

And saw Hubby waiting patiently for me at Taman Seri Empangan.

I did this very very slowly so didn't manage to cover more areas. Anyways, I also stuck to a more familiar and what I deem safe route this time.

Maybe if I have more time or when I am much fitter, I can meander to Presint 11 or 8 or run towards Alamanda (did that before, by the way).

While I did this solo run, a number of friends are in Penang and ran in the Penang Bridge International Marathon.

Congrats to all of you!