2012 Botanical Garden X-Country

Its 0645hrs on a Sunday morning at the Botanical Gardens, Taman Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur, and the weather is cool and breezy, perfect for snoozing off and curling up at home under the warmth of a cosy blanket.


My first ever Cross Country distance running since school days. A mixture of road and terrain circuit covering a total distance of 8-kilometres (as stated in the registration form).


Registrations were still open till about 0750hrs on raceday, and people were flocking to register to the event. As a result, the initial start at 0730hrs was delayed by another 30-minutes. My running buddy arrived with his wife and kid. They were a great team.

All the participants were very excited and anxious at the starting line. Most of the runners were well ready mentally and physically. But somehow or rather, they were shocked when the organiser announced that the circuit is quite slippery and to be extra careful when running the trail course.


Most of the runners were with proper running shoes. As for me, I was really contemplating whether or not to consider wearing my usual running shoes, or to opt for my x-trail running shoes by Solomon.


It is a cross country, so, I should consider running with a pair of shoes that can suit both conditions; road and terrain.

The initial trail started just after I had clocked 2-kilometres on the GPS by Nike+, running uphill towards the National Planetarium. The challenge uphill was pure energy and strength. Not much of balance required, but minimal grip was definitely required as the hill was steep and quite slippery.


It shows that the right pair of shoes is an important role. Runners with not so proper shoes were struggling to endure the course. Slippery and sometimes losing their balance uphill and mostly downhill.


The real challenge throughout the course was the trail between the 6th kilometre mark till about the 8th kilometre. It started just off Persiaran Salahuddin into the jungle and hilly area running uphill and downhill towards the National Monument and ASEAN Sculpture Garden.


This is where runners were put to the test. The trail was definitely slippery and the downhill was really steep. It was really a great choice to put on those X-Trail Solomon Running shoes. This was the part where my pace was pretty fast, even faster than my road running.


I was confident running in the trail without worrying slipping due to lack of grip. The shoes was a right fit for the circuit. Although, it would have been better if I were on running shoes when on road surface.


My body was still aching from the sporting event the previous day, but the determination to push further brought me to the finishing line. I never thought that I could have endured it. Mental fitness played a role definitely! A total distance of 10.67 kilometres as clocked by my wonderful running companion Nike+ GPS on iOS with a total time of 1 hour 31 minutes and 31 seconds at an average pace of 8 minutes 34 seconds per kilometre. And it was my personal best 10-kilometre with a time of 1 hour 15 minutes and 52 seconds.


Route info, check it out at Nike+.