For the past two years I’ve been running in the Men’s Health Night Run and I always thought it to be an easy race, just show up for the run at Putrajaya, go easy on the relatively flat route, and then collect the awesome goodie bag at the end. This year however, the organizers for Men’s Health Night Run 2012 pulled a surprise and I think it would be a good one for the event moving forward.

The surprise was (well to me at least) the race course wasn’t the same as last year’s. If I remember correctly, last year’s course was pretty boring, but this time around, the organizers took part of the full marathon route for last year’s Putrajaya Night Marathon, and made it into a hilly 11.8 KM run. There were about 4 inclines and my approach (after getting over the shock) was to attack them head on since they were not spaced close together. The third uphill climb was pretty killer, and the last one near the finish was mind-numbing.

I had my brother running the race with me and I can tell you it’s awesome to have a partner where you can push each other to go up the crazy incline, speed through the downhills or just let it rip on the final stretch. We managed to sustain a 5 minute 45 second pace per kilometer and this was way different from my previous Men’s Health Night Runs which were considered to be sedentary affairs.

We crossed the finish line at the 1 hour 10 minutes mark with me just being a runner or two ahead of my brother. There were plenty of things to see and do at the finish line carnival and after collecting the goodie bag we actually sampled a number of drinks, including one horrible tasting amino drink from GNC. After that it was a KFC dinner (we bought before coming to the race) right next to the stage….another runner ask us where to get FREE KFC. LOL. I got a free iPad cover from the Sketchers booth.

Overall, it was an awesome race and if the organizers were to maintain the route (perhaps extend it a little longer, or introduce longer events), I would no longer view it as walk in the park, and would highly recommend the event to anyone. Just one small niggle that seem to have been brought forward from last year’s race…the water stations are just too slow and under-prepared. For a race with a competitive category, this shouldn’t be the case.

I’ve got a walkathon in the morning…probably I should be icing my feet.