Kingston Fun Walk

Written by GL

This morning's Fun Walk organized by Kingston Technology was quite warmly received by about 450 participants - going by the cheque of RM9,000 to the National Cancer Society - with Kingston donating RM20 for each participant who completed the walk. It was indeed very generous of Kingston to provide free registration, a goodie bag with a neat black T-shirt, Pen, Hand Towel and a squeeze-ball. Many lucky draw prizes after the run too.

My friend and I were at the foothill of Kiara at about 7.30am. Walking up, there were more people wearing bib numbers and my friend was rather relieved that she could register on the spot. The event was to start at 8am and a crowd was milling around and waiting with bated breath. I was rather excited as this is my first walking race. I wondered how'd I'd last in these treacherous hills.
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There were a number of familiar faces, faces of runners. That's fine. Runners can walk and Walkers can run. We participate in two distinctly different events with different gait of movement.

Unceremoniously, the airhorn sounded. Some aunties were urging "lari" at the beginning. That was quite hilarious in such a situation. These folks would not last the distance of 5.5km. I could see the leading male walker up the hill as he was in the bright KOTR vest like a beacon. Suresh too was doing very well. He told me that he was actually in 3rd position (he was relegated to 6th position due to walk-run strategy by some).
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I was already starting up quite well and I could see the first woman. Young boys were seen running the moment we turned off the hills. Within 1km, two women caught up. This is where fun starts. I was following the 3rd woman with 50m to spare. Along the way, I sped up and at some point, tailgated her. She was cautious of me. When I caught up with her, she had the audacity to say, "I saw you running". Geez, I had no intention to cheat (but really, walking so fast is almost like ....) and she was the so-called 'hare' for me to catch up. I did not know this lady had 'hindsight' (pun intended).

Next to come was more upsetting. She physically blocked my way whilst still walking. If I walk a little faster, she'd come round and blocked my way again. Oh come on, woman! I told her straight-in-the-face "Don't worry, you go ahead and win. I do not know how to walk!" She did not have to be so uncouth. That is really unsportsman-like. You may think I am really moronic to give up RM500 without a fight. YES, I just did that! Ask me why? My so-called maiden fun walk is dampened. Yes, money is important but I'd rather give to someone who so desperately needs to win and belittle my walking skills just because she said she "is a walker and knows how to walk!"

I know this long grey-haired lady works at FTAAA or at least has some association with them. I do not wish to make enemies out of running/walking races. The running community is not huge. The contention of being disqualified is not from an individual or a professional walker, it is from the organizer.

To sum it all, there were quite many faces of disappointment that the organizer did not have 'eyes' along the way to rein in the 'air walkers'. One checkpoint determines the position. The leading male walker whom I mentioned earlier did not make it even to the Top 20. It was terribly incredible. I do feel sorry for him. I am sure there was no lack of complaints to the organizer who had to engage his quickest gear to defend their actions.

One cardinal rule to future charity walk organizers is that you do need more officers or marshals along the route. There are accusations of people who are 'walking' incompatibly with the standard walking rules. It may be worthwhile to organize a Jogathon as one cannot be faulted for walking during a run. Do it well, you'd be remembered well, Do it badly, you'd be remembered well too but for the wrong reason.

Written by GL

File photos from Malay Mail Big Walk 2007

Note by KC: Hi GL, I empathize with you on this unusual happening. I did have one funny experience a few years ago participating in the Malay Mail Big Walk. While I thought that I was walking fast, one FTAAA official (inspecting the participants by moving around on his motorcycle) cautioned me that I was “floating” (lifting two legs above the ground).

I then realized that most runners would have this problem when participating in big walk or walkathon. When we run, both the legs are above the ground; we are not used to the walking requirement. Since then, I would never want to participate in any of the walking event.

This is my reasoning: when we can run free, why must a runner be restricted by the stiff posture in big walk or walkathon?

Run free, as free as the wind blows …