Tiger Year Wishes Came Early!

I'm pretty sure most of you know that I won the RM8,888 worth of dreams from the Tiger Run just last Saturday. Of course, most of you thought that I won RM8,888 worth of cash, right? Well it's not. But hey, it's similiar, just that I don't get to touch it!

Tiger Run - What is it? And how the hell did I get into this run?

As a matter of fact, I'd only got to know about the run just a few days before the event. I wasn't sure what was it anyway. Besides, I had signed up for Putrajaya Night Run which was held on the same evening. However, the half marathon only starts at 8.30pm. However, I wasn't feeling too well on the eve of the race day, so decided I might try out the Tiger Run, but wasn't sure whether I will get an entry/invite to the run. No harm trying, I submitted my blog entry - "My Dream in the Year of the Tiger" hence, what you see in my last post.

Some of the prizes given out for this run:

Grand Prize

RM8,888 worth of dreams + RM1,888 cash prize

1st Runner Up (Male)

RM8,888 worth of dreams

1st Runner Up (Female)

RM8,888 worth of dreams

Consolation Prizes :

RM88 + 6 Packs of Tiger Beers 

Anyway, I can count my lucky stars in winning this and of course there were "curses" too of not getting the top prize.

Lucky Star No.1 - Kelvin was the one who informed me about the run just 2 days before event. Without him telling me about it, I won't have known about it.

Lucky Star No. 2 - Nuffnang  & Tiger Beer accepted my entry.

Lucky Star No. 3 (but not so lucky in getting sick!) - I was still feeling unwell on the morning of the event day, so I decided not to take the risk of running the Putrajaya Night Run. But I was still ok for a short run. So, Tiger Run it is.

I knew we had to do some tasks in our run, and looking at the map of the Jaya One running perimeter, event should over quite fast if it was a run only event, but unfortunately that's not the case. (Maybe we can label this as Curse No. 1)

The route taken by runners

Well, I already sold off my bib for Putrajaya Night Half Marathon category to one Japanese guy. I asked Kelvin to help me pass it to him. Julie and Pueh Tian were the familiar faces from running scene at the Tiger Run. PT as always, will have his camera ready to shoot! Julie as her happy self is all raring to go.

 

The Race & Tasks involved?

There were 5 participating outlets where tasks will be performed. Cafe and Bars involved were, Bar Madrid, Frontera, Heaquatrs (HQ), Chulo, Frontera and Royal Oak. Each runner is required to run 2 laps of Jaya One, starting from HQ. After 2 laps, runner will go in HQ to perform the first task.

The race started in a fast and furious fashion. 2 or 3 runners, sped up at top speed. One of them was the eventual winner, Eugene. I just followed them behind as I knew they would not last with that kind of pace. Well, so much of following the lead, we went off course! Lucky for us, the people who overtook us were not quick runners, and eventually before the end of the 1st lap I was able to catch the lead guy. From there onwards, I was running practically alone. (Lucky Star No. 4 - Lucky I had a competitive running background).

Task No. 1

Curse No. 2 (Mother of all curse) - You are to tweet about your Tiger Run. I do not have a Tweeter account and I had to sit there for maybe 5-6 mins just signing up for an account. The guys who came after me, just tweet and went off like a rocket. From that point, I thought I'd lost it already. But I just went on with it, smiling each time I see Pueh Tian trying to take photos or to the passer-by encouraging us or the marshalls.

Task No. 2

After the 1st task, we just need to run half of Jaya One cutting through the shops to reach out next station. Royal Oak was next in the list. The marshalling girl asked me to put my hand in the ice box and grab a bottle of Tiger Beer. And I thought I was going to have to drink it. Luckily, that is all we had to do, just grabbing it out from the ice box. So off I went to do another "half lap". Oh, in each lap, we need to collect certain tokens as our checkpoints proof. If any of these items are missing from the bag, we will be disqualified. (Oh, I didnt mentioned that we need to carry a Tiger paper bag along).

Task No. 3

Next pit stop, Frontera Cafe. When I got into the cafe, I saw baskets of chicken wings and I thought, damm, you are not serious that each of us will need to finish up one basket (You know, those tiny baskets you usually get in cafes when you order fries). Well the marshall did say, "Pls take one". But I checked with him again to confirmed it. He meant, just take one pc only. Whew! So for me, I thought, "Piece of cake lah". I was wrong. The chicken was covered with chilli, I think it was Tabasco. And my lip/mouth was still burning after the run. Yeah it was that hot! On with my next lap.

Task No. 4

I ran into Cafe Chulo and found laptops awaiting. I was hoping something easy this time. Luckily, I had a facebook account and we just need to accept Tiger Beer as a fan in our page. That was easy. So onto my final lap. I ran as fast as I could on the final lap and just hope for the best, as I do not know exactly what was my position. There were many runners that I overtook but the slow runners are also taking the same route. Therefore, I could not tell who were in front of me, but I did see the guy who won it finishing when I was just starting my final lap. Well, I crossed the finish line, feeling a little cursed that I didn't have tweeter account and even informed a few of my friends thru sms that I didnt win as I failed on my first task, which costs me placing. 

However, it was quite an entertaining run and I really had fun meeting new people. We had complimentary drinks and dinner from the organiser at Bar Madrid. Free flow of Tiger Beer too! Too bad I was sick, so I didn't drink, only plain water!

There were lion dance peformance during the dinner too.

While eating, one of the committee member, came into the bar and was asking for me. So I went out with him and he informed me that I am the 1st runner-up! I was shocked and happy at the same time! I can't believe that I'm getting my dream all paid for (ok, only RM8,888 worth but it's still worth a lot).

After the dinner, it was the prize presentation and hearing them calling me out my name, unbelievable. More so, because of the events that have happened till I made it to the starting line of this event.

Wow...Europe or US are the places I like to visit one day and run, but the price of air ticket and ground arrangement have always been the major deterrant for me to travel there. And now it's going to be made possible with this prize! So big thanks to Nuffnang and Tiger Beer for this!

More photos at : Shaolin Tiger Flickr or Shaolin Tiger

(Shaolin Tiger, hope you don't mind if I used a few of your photos here. Thanks)