Recently, the Standard Chartered KL Marathon (SCKLM) held a media appreciation brunch at the Pacific Regency Hotel Suites in KL, to thank the members of the media for their contributions towards making the 10th anniversary event of the SCKLM, held this April, a successful one.

At the same time, the brunch had also been held to award the prizes to the winners of the event’s Team Challenges as well as for the Media Challenge.

There had been three different categories of Team Challenges at SCKLM this year and these were the Corporate Challenge, Ministries Challenge and Universities Challenge.

As the names suggest, the Corporate Challenge provides a competitive and fun platform for organisations to register and compete as a corporate team in the 10km race and raise money for charities, while fostering camaraderie and team spirit at the same time.

The Ministries Challenge is a 10 km race and open to all employees of Malaysia government ministries, departments and agencies.

And the Universities Challenge is a 10 km race and open to all existing students studying at universities and colleges in Malaysia.

On the other hand, the Media Challenge is a friendly competition for members of the media who are participating in the race.

The media can participate in any of the distance categories of SCKLM, that is, the 10km Run, 21.1km Half Marathon or the 42.195km Full Marathon.

The brunch event had began with a short welcome address by the event emcee, after which, there was a quick speech by Rainer Biemans, the Director of Dirigo Events, which organised the SCKLM. He gratefully thanked the teams and members of the media for their support in the 2018 SCKLM and their contributions towards helping to make the event a successful one.

Then after that was the prize giving ceremony.

Each of the winners had received a pair of Brooks shoes and a specially designed medal.

As the awards were being given out, the event emcee had made jokes, for example, about how one of the Brooks shoes (men’s size 11), had been the largest pair of shoes that he had ever seen – before then presenting it to the corresponding winner!

For me, I admit that I didn’t really expect to win anything but to my astonishment, I was the winner of the Full Marathon Women’s Open category for the Media Challenge. 

This was a pleasant surprise and I really regret the fact that I had not been there in person to collect my prize. And I told myself that if I ever won a prize again at the SCKLM media challenge, I would make it a priority to be in KL to pick up my prize, no matter what.

[Video footage courtesy of runwitme. Fast forward to 7:17 for the announcement of my win in the Full Marathon Women’s Open category].

After plenty of photo taking sessions to commemorate the various winners, the media appreciation brunch event had then concluded with the buffet line opening up, and attendees then helping themselves to the food.