Due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, all parkruns in Singapore had been cancelled for the past few weeks; so a couple of weeks ago, some of my friends and I made last-minute plans to head to across the causeway to Kuala Lumpur (KL) in Malaysia to do one of the parkruns there. 

That quick trip had taken place last weekend.

Taman Pudu Ulu is near the KL city centre

There are two different parkruns in KL and the Taman Pudu Ulu was chosen because this one is much nearer to the KL city centre.

That day, we booked our air tickets via AirAsia and hotel accommodation and we were set to go, one week later. The hotel that we had chosen was near a train station and within walking distance to the parkrun.

Going into KL

Friday 28 February soon arrived, to fly to KL for Saturday’s parkrun.

We flew into KL on Friday afternoon, touching down in KL on Friday evening. 

After making our way to our hotel and dropping off our luggage, we had a yummy dinner comprising of some of KL’s delicious street foods, before heading back to our hotel to rest for the night.

It’s parkrun morning

It was quite hard to drag myself out of bed the following morning, but I managed, and after my usual pre-run ritual, I got together with my friends at the hotel lobby at about 7am, which would provide more than enough time to walk down to the parkrun.

We reached the Taman Pudu Ulu park in good time, and hung around while waiting for the mandatory run briefing to begin at 7:30am.

There was also a separate briefing for first-timers to parkrun as well as those who were unfamiliar with the running route.

That’s when I found out that because there had been an event going on in the park that week, the running route during our visit would be four smaller laps of the park.

Usually it comprises of three larger loops of the park. Well, even though I am not a huge fan of running multiple loops, I guess that more loops meant greater chances to have a nice photo of me taken.

The parkrun starts

Soon enough, the run briefing took place and the parkrun started.

Unlike the pancake route of the East Coast Park parkrun in Singapore, the Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun is not completely flat.

This is because throughout the run, there had been some gradual rolling hills, which provided a bit of resistance, but nothing challenging. In fact, it had reminded me of the slightly undulating terrain at Singapore’s West Coast Park parkrun.

In terms of the scenery, the Taman Pudu Ulu park may be small, but also a beautiful place, and I was quite surprised too, by the number of events taking place at the park, as well as how many people had been out and about early on a Saturday morning, not only runners, but also early risers taking part in other activities like t’ai c’hi and brisk walking.

Most importantly, I also made sure that I posed for photos when I saw the cameras ahead. After all, if my face wasn’t captured on camera, did I really go there?

I had been able to maintain a good pace throughout the 5km of running with slight negative splits, finishing the 5km run in an official time of 27 minutes 49 seconds, which is my fastest time this year. 

I admit that I had been a bit surprised with the pace myself too and I was stoked.

Cooling down and grabbing a coffee

To cool down, I then loitered around the finish area and watched a few of the other runners come in as well as their facial expressions as they crossed the line. It was quite interesting.

Afterwards, my friends and I headed for a post-run drink and getting some food together with the other park runners at Restoran Havva about 400 metres away. I ordered a roti canai and iced milo. The food was delicious and a great way to recharge after a good run.

Later, I also found out that the Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun had attracted a course record of 164 park runners on the day that we had turned up. It was a solid attendance, and no wonder it had seemed crowded at the beginning when we’d first arrived.

I will be back

It was a great morning out. And I will definitely be back at the Taman Pudu Ulu parkrun in June, when I am in KL for the (half) marathon.

Photos: Taman pudu ulu parkrun