A Day of Intense Focusing

Special announcement: Sonny Ng, one of the Organizing Committee members for the forthcoming Great Eastern-Pacesetters 30km Run, informed me that that they have sufficient number of volunteers already. Earlier, I published one posting requesting for volunteers to assist in this event. Thank you for your enthusiasm and kindness in assisting to stage this event.

See you this Sunday morning, 22 January, at the Great Eastern-Pacesetters 30km run at Tapak A of Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur.


“I love it when the plan was well executed” this was the signature phrase proudly proclaimed by the Team Leader of a famous TV series “The A-Team” at the end of the show. I was having the same satisfaction on Sunday morning, 15 January, when the Siemens Charity Run was ended.

On that morning, I was able to do a much needed 20km training run with Weng starting from Bukit Aman car park at 5am. When return at 7.10am, Weng was able to continue with his participation in the Siemens Charity Run while I was in time to take photos at The Run.

With the precision timing, I even have sufficient time to take a bath at the Public Toilet of Bukit Aman car park and later changed into a cameraman outfit. Much like the Chinese comedy movie about an ancient scholar acted by Stephen Chow telling his friends that he had taken bath expecting for the next important event.

I realized that taking photos for the Siemens Charity run with the SLR camera was even more stressful than running 20km starting at 5am. By the time I went home at 11am (ran 2 hours; stood 4 hours taking photos), I could feel the tiredness in my legs. I even had a slight headache after repeatedly peeping through the camera viewfinder with only one eye.

It was challenging and quite a complicating process taking action shots as swiftness and quick reflexes were necessary. It was also partly dependant on the responsiveness of the camera. Another delicate situation was changing lens to suit the moment. Overall, the result was fairly satisfactory as the photos turned out clearer this time after I have corrected my previous mistake when taking photos.

At the beginning, I was quite nervous not sure whether I have missed out changing any settings. Imagine shooting a famous runner went past only to realize later that the wrong setting was chosen resulted in less than perfect shots.

Running and taking runners in actions are totally different. In running, we are very focus and we look straight. When photographing runners in action, I have to scan the runners that were approaching, do quick assessment of the situation and decide whom I should photograph as there were many runners.

There were friends whom I missed but there were many who put up their best smiling faces knowing that I took their photos. I was actually standing at the white line (in the middle of the road) taking photos. Luckily no runners knocked me accidentally.

Strategic Location

The crossroads turning into Lake Garden along Jalan Parliament was a strategic location for the Pacesetters runners. After their Sunday morning training runs, it was an excellence idea to set up an impromptu cheering team to cheer for other runners passing by. And that was a perfect backdrop for me when taking photos.

Top runners were really different from the ordinary runners. Before I could even get ready with the camera, the first few top runners, who were all Indian, already went past me. Running with slim bodies, it was amazing that that their strides were wide apart in order to have an edge over another competitor.

Fancy Dress

Kelvin Chow, a Pacesetter running friend, told me that I must take those photos of runners in fancy dress category as I know one of the runners. The first fancy dress contestant that I saw was a small boy in army suit holding a machine gun. Later, I saw a few other lady contestants. The three child contestants were very cute as two dressed in the olden days Chinese Feudal System.

One of the little girls in green thought that I was a reporter and asked me which newspaper she could view her photos. I gave her a slip containing my website address instead.

The cute little girls were seen accompanied by their mothers and maids bearing the bib numbers. I believe the Philippino maids could be the first time taking part in a run in Kuala Lumpur.

We had fun time with Madam Butterfly. When taking photos, she would spread her wings. It was when Kelvin told me that she was actually Amelia.

The fancy dress category really spiced up the occasion though only a segment of the runners have the opportunity to see them running the 2km course. For other runners, they may not be aware that there was the fancy dress category. Bravo to all the fancy dress contestants as they really put in a lot of effort to dress to the occasion.

At Dataran Merdeka

Walking slowly and finally arriving at Dataran Merdeka, I was surprised to see that the area was neatly lined with beautiful flowers in full blossom. The City Hall must have taken a lot of effort to decorate the place with these flowers.

While I was busy taking photos at those colourful flowers, I heard someone was saying: “Take only flowers shots?” I was most glad to see May Ching, who was holding the completion certificate, talking to me. She was very understanding to remind me to take a photo of myself. Looking at the camera counter, I realized that I have taken almost 300 shots of photos for other runners.

Setting up base stations at Dataran Merdaka was a better location to stage the event as the area was spacious and tastefully decorated with plants and flowers. As usual, the runners were treated with the much needed refreshments of Milo and other drinks. There was lots of fanfare with loud music and hype of a typical organized athletic event.

Miss Farah, the Malaysian Idol, was requested onstage to give a performance. It was most delighted to see a fancy dress contestant, Miss Hawaii, to perform a dance accompanied by a Malay senior runner bearing a bib number D50 (similar model number as my Nikon d-SLR). Obviously, the reporters and I were busy taking photos.

The much awaited moments were the announcement of top runners in their respective categories with the prize giving ceremony, and the announcement of winners for the fancy dress category. The champion went to the little girl in green dress. The event ended with lucky draws. Each number has to be redrawn as most of the runners had left the scene earlier.

Judging from the number of runners that ran past me, I think this charity race attracted quite a good turnout and was really successful in meeting the objective. Yes, do our part for charity and enjoy the sporting fun.

By KC

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