Last year, a good buddy dragged me by the horns to start me on running my 1st 5km run. He was faced with wild protests and wails of negativity but he persisted. Only good friends will and to this I am thankful because today, I have changed my lifestyle. I am not a hot, slim babe yet of course (and in any case, being healthy and fit is the end goal not looking yummy!), but rest be assured that will eventuate even if 10 years from now. Muahahaha…..

Last year, this same friend also made me sign up for the Stanchart Marathon but due to whatever reason (I assure you it must have been a very good one!), I kind of flipped out and because of that, promised myself that all other activities were not standing in the way of the 2012 KL Marathon organised by StanChart.

This year, I signed up early to ensure I got my spot and soon after I signed up, I started getting the race emails every now and then. When race day approached, my faithful buddy offered to go pick my race kit (or whatever you want to call it, OK???) up for me. He came over to my place, got me to sign a release form instructing them to release it to him with a photocopy of my ID etc.

Now the drama begins.

PART 1

I got a call from him at some point whilst I was busy at work stating that StanChart (or rather, the organisers of the StanChart Race) COULD NOT FIND MY NAME.

Was I really registered?

Yes.

Did I have the right date of birth?

Yes.

Was my name spelt correctly?

Yes.

Was my ID number correct?

You have the frigging copy of it, don’t you?

THEY COULD NOT FIND MY NAME.

My buddy said they tried several combinations of spellings to my name, how difficult can it be? I only have ONE NAME but they still couldn’t find it. Meanwhile, despite rushing some stuff out for work, I had to enter my gmail to check for my StanChart race details and all the emails they had sent me etc because if I hadn’t registered then why would they be sending me all the emails, right?

WTF.

My buddy finally gave up and left as THEY COULD NOT FIND ME REGISTERED ON THE RACE.

*fuming*

I tried entering the KL Marathon website to enquire but obviously loads of people were also on it thus I couldn’t even get into it. I tried calling them from a phone number I got but nobody ever picked the phone up. Finally, buddy suggested to email them via Facebook as they seemed to respond quicker via Facebook and lo and behold, I actually got a reply.

I explained that despite registering, the organisers could not find my name and thus I could not collect my race kit. This was like 2-3 days before the race. They asked me for a receipt. WTF.

I had registered months ago being one of the early birds and now I had to go hunt for a receipt, the reciept. No receipt, no race. I am a very busy woman. The receipt hunt was something I’d just have to do when I had the time. If I didn’t find it in time, tough.

However on that very same day that I received the email from the organisers, a German sounding gentleman called me introducing himself as asking me what my problem was. I explained exactly what happened and he said he couldn’t understand what had happened as the moment he keyed in my data on first attempt, my name had showed up.

*big sigh* I blame it on technology……..or the people who are not in sync with it.

Anyway, Mr German asked if I could pick the race kit up on Saturday and I told him I really couldn’t as I was packed busy. If I couldn’t get it on race day, then I probably won’t run, half wishing that it would be fated that I could miss my run. Heh.

Unfortunately, he said he would make me ONLY ONE exception and only for me to collect my race kit on Race Day. I asked him for details and he explained where I would get it from. I even asked him what time I could collect it and he said any time after 3am. I thanked him.

End of Story.

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PART 2

Race Day Drama:

You know how it is on Race Day…….because I hadn’t received my race kit, I didn’t get the booklet with instructions on where to park and where to go etc but I tried to find out as much information as possible online. At 645am on Race Day, my gang dropped me off somewhere near Masjid Jamek as all other roads were closed to traffic and I walked from there to Dataran Merdeka and hunted down the KL Marathon organisers stall who told me they did not have my race kit and nobody was allowed to collect race kits on race day.

I felt trouble already.

I explained to them that the foreign chap told me that I was the ONLY EXCEPTION to collect my race kit on race day and they kept saying sorry, no, and continued their business.

I explained that firstly, it was not MY fault that I didn’t get to collect my race kit as when my buddy went to collect it last week, they couldn’t find my name!

The woman at the counter really didn’t want to entertain me and said, sorry, race kits had only begun being distributed 3 days ago, not last week.

OK, whatever!!! 3 days ago then!!!

Sorry, nobody is allowed to collect race kits on race day. We were given no instructions.

I said, call your boss. Call that German guy! Who is he? Is he the boss? Call him to ask him!

They just kept shaking their heads.

I said, “Come ON!!! The least you could do is call him to find out the truth! He is the one who told me I could collect my race kit on race day!!!”

“What is his name?”

By then fury had gotten over me and I’d forgotten the chappy’s name. I told them I couldn’t remember his name, I think it sounded something like Rainer or Raimy or Rain something???

They shook their heads.

I walked off.

I was SO ANGRY and FRUSTRATED. It was 73am and I still had to walk to Jalan Parlimen from Dataran Merdeka to start the race. At that point, I was about to call my gang to come pick me up and call it a day but before that, I called my buddy to apologise and say, look, I tried really hard this year to run the KL Marathon, but it isn’t meant to be. I explained the fiasco with the organisers a second ago and buddy said, Rainer! His name is Rainer!

So I ran back to the booth to shout his name out – RAINER! CALL RAINER!! HE IS THE GUY WHO TOLD ME TO COLLECT MY RACE KIT TODAY!!!

They shook their heads.

To say I was infuriated was an understatement. I asked the girl for her name to which she refused. I asked a few times and they all ignored me. I asked another girl for THAT girl’s name and she too was too afraid to give it out, looked at THAT girl questioningly before THAT girl finally gave me her first name. I asked for her surname and AGAIN, she refused to comply. Can you believe the gall???

After asking a few times, “I would like a surname, a full name.”, she finally said, “Don’t worry, there is only one Dxxx here in this company.”

I walked off and wished her the same one day.

I quickly walked to Jalan Parlimen to join the excited crowd for the 5km and made it just in time for the Deputy Prime Minister’s shaking hands with the participants – how fascinating! Not.

See the group running towards the photo? Those were the early birds who started the 10km much earlier. I was part of the crowd walking UP (away from photo) Jalan Parlimen to get to the Starting Line………Heh.

I ran my 5km without a StanChart blue singlet, nor a number despite being registered and paying for it. It was a relatively OK distance as my fitness levels are getting better these days so maybe it’s not a dream that one day I’d run my first 10km!

Watch this space. Give me 2 years. HAHA.

After the race, I was exhausted of course and searched quickly for the 5km run booth where they give out the water and certs etc. Then I suddenly realised, I didn’t have any evidence that I was a participant so how could I get a free drink of water? I went up to the table and was met with stares. Nobody offered me any water as I wasn’t in gear and had no number. Rather than have another fight what more I was REALLY needing some water, I decided to quickly hunt for another place where I could actually buy some water. The last thing I wanted was another round of BUT I REALLY AM A FRIGGING PARTICIPANT AND AM ENTITLED TO SOME WATER!!!

I walked a further 2 km before I went home that day. All in all, I’d travelled 8km and had a shit morning for what was supposed to be a great morning.

End of Story.

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PART 3

After arriving home, I had a shower and napped for perhaps 3 hours. Later, I switched the computer on and went directly to the KL Marathon Facebook site and wrote in one sentence how disappointed I was and for them to please contact me. After a few days, I got a response asking what had happened. I wrote a long email explaining the sequence of events of the day and the gentleman apologised profusely over what had happened and offered me some retribution. I told him, I’m not interested in his apology but rather the apology from the girl who was so rude on race day and spoilt my entire race. He defended her saying he was quite surprised by her behaviour because she is normally very customer oriented. Hmm….what is it that bosses don’t see about employees being nice to certain people and not others? Or behaviour that goes in their presence? Would you be rude and arse-y to someone if your boss was standing right behind you? Honestly now…..

The next day, I received an apology email from that rude girl. I accepted her apology graciously and asked for her to send my race kit over to my address. I had to ask. I wasn’t offered.

Waited a week and finally received something from them and it wasn’t my race kit. It was someone else’s medal and some freebies.

*BIG SIGH*

This is Malaysia, I remind myself.

I emailed the girl again to inform her that I would really like to get what I had paid for and she went to check what went wrong. She then emailed me to say that the Post Man, Mr POS MALAYSIA, had given the wrong parcel to the wrong person. As far as I’m concerned, Mr Pos Malaysia does whatever he is told to do. The address written on the parcel I’d received WAS my address. It was only the contents which didn’t belong to me for I did not run the 10km and it belonged to a 10km runner!

More apologies ensued and she said she’d get me my race pack delivered again. It finally came and I was happy.

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PART 4

Do you think I’d be inspired to run again next year with StanChart?

What if I had been one of those hard core competitive runners from Africa and flew here just to win the cash prize for the race and this had happened?

I understand that it isn’t easy organising such a large event and to be fair, they have done a great job. It really could have been even better. Sometimes being outstanding is refrained due to budget constraints but what happened to me was totally unnecessary and unacceptable. It all boiled down to one girl’s hard willed attitude of non-serving and just being difficult (despite how busy she was) that I have a bitter taste. It is because she didn’t care. Would it have been different had it been someone else? I hope she has learnt her lesson. If I wanted to be petty, I could bring this up further, to the UMNO disciplinary committee even! LOL!

I have forgiven but I will not forget.

 

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Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin is a former Design Architect turned Multi-Million Dollar Digital Entrepreneur. She sets out to prove to all that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.

Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past and doubled her salary 5 times over 5 organisations but has grown THREE BUSINESSES to 7 FIGURES within an 8 year period. She now shows others EXACTLY HOW after retiring her own husband from employment. He is now the official dog walker, family driver, chef and THE BEST FATHER to their two girls and THE BEST HUSBAND to the woman who CHOSE HIM!

Mamapumpkin is the girl who has nothing but fights for everything including YOU. She is idealistic in her desire to put unbelievable amounts of money and extrardinary happiness into the lives of good people so we can change the world together believing in happiness for ALL. She strives to impact lives authentically wanting to reduce poverty cycles and enable quality education for all and always supports the voiceless. She believes we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.

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If you wish to learn how to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave to take action. Mamapumpkin's purpose is to build people. Her gift is to help them UNCOVER their HIDDEN GIFTS. She operates fairly and always leaves an impression. You either love her or not and she is alright either way.

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