Thursday, January 19, 2006

Evening Jog Turned Fatal

I was deeply shocked and profoundly grieved to read that a lady executive, Choo Gaik Yap, was raped and killed while jogging at around 6pm in Sungai Petani as reported in the Star newspaper on 16 January 2006. She was believed to have been tailed by her assailant, kidnapped, raped and killed before her body was dumped near the housing estate. How could people commit this inhuman act?

I hope the murderer will be brought to justice swiftly and severely punished. Let us join in expressing our deepest sympathy and condolences to the members of her family on their sad loss.

One day earlier on Sunday 15 January (the day for Siemens Charity Run), I arrived at the Bukit Aman car park at 4.45am for a 20km training run with Weng. At 5am, I saw two lady runners alighted from their new Honda City. I approached them and initiated the conversation.

I asked them whether they were doing 20km run. The two ladies, Wendy and her sister, said they were running only 10km by taking the Double-hill route. I told them it was unusual to run 10km starting at 5am. However, they said they were busy on Sunday morning and need to complete their runs early.

Weng and I accompanied them until the Selangor Property area, 5km marker. We then went straight to Sri Hartamas while they turned left into the Double-hill area. I actually feared for their safety seeing them turning into the secluded Double-hill area at dawn. I hope that nothing would have happened to them.

Run in Group

Arising from the tragedy, it reminded us again that it is always safer for lady runner to run with a running friend, preferably in group and with the presence of guy runners, all the better! The presence of guy runners would be a deterrent to the bad guys before bad intention would be crystallized.

For lady runners who would like to run on Sunday morning, the starting time of Pacesetters runners for 20km training run is usually 6am; 6.30am for 10km run.

What if a new lady runner wants to run from Bukit Aman car park but could not identify any running friend? In this case, pre-arrangement and confirmation are vital. The new lady runner must confirm at least a running friend (can be lady too) even before set foot at Bukit Aman car park.

Alternatively, identify a guy runner who is committed to accompany her to ensure her safety. So, for the guy runners, other than sweating it out during training runs, we have extra social responsibility to perform. The challenges would be how to overcome the differences in running speed for the entire course. Looks like we need to learn some kung fu skills amidst training for runs.

To identify the Pacesetters runners, a new runner could sign on to the Pacesetters Club online website and contact those names whose email addresses or contact numbers are published as an attempt for initial contact. Alternatively, send an email to the macho Penguin Runners or Yours Truly (aka Penguin-1). The email address is located at the left sidebar of this weblog. Currently, Tony (aka Penguin-3) is accompanying a few lady runners either doing the 20km or 10km training runs.

How to locate Pacesetters Club website with ease: In the GOOGLE or MSN (Microsoft) Internet search engine, type “Pacesetters” as search key. Similarly, you can access “KC and the Sunshine Runners” website by typing “Sunshine Runners” as search key.

By KC
x

1 comment:

May Ching said...

Yeah, this is quite a sad story, it is even worse that these are usually senseless murders. Did not run/jog anymore alone on the road and will reconsider this for the infite future after I read this.

It was bright daylight, and she was jogging with her sister, and just jogged a little faster. It is extremely tragic.

Not shy to be a gym runner...