Running In The Shadows Of The Towers

The watch beeped and searched for the sat signals as I soaked in the environs. The crowds had re-emerged after the downpour stopped. I had just 10 minutes ago changed into my running gear at the nearby carpark. The air was cool and there was no sign of the sun. Slowly the sense of familiarity is returning to the ritual – making sure the gear is packed the night before, chilling a bottle of drinks in the office fridge, eating a little more at lunch time, hydrating consistently through out the day, walking past the carpark security towards the green patch in the middle of the KL city.   Everything seemed unexceptional l except that I was actually about to start my run in the shadows of the once-tallest building in the world (4th now, behind the Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101 and the Shanghai World Financial Center).

“4th tallest” may not provide the same boasting rights as being the top of the heap but I’m still in awe of the sheer architectural wonderment as if defying all laws of engineering and physics. The towers punch skywards like twin rocket boosters.

A view that's hard to beat

In terms of size and aesthetics, the adjoining KLCC park is no match for the romanticism of New York’s Central Park or London’s Hyde Park. It could do with more trees and the twin tower area is over developed, ultra expensive condo blocks sprouting up like one a day. On a hot day, spending your time there is perhaps one of the most uncomfortable thing since the area is surrounded by tall buildings which block breeze. Furnace-like.

But what I like most are the park’s proximity to my workplace (it’s literally my backyard!), the forgiving rubberized running tracks and the undulating terrain. At only 1.3K, the climbs are not too long and quite soon you’ll have the respite of the downhill. There are always people and guards at the park, so it’s certainly safer than being out on the busy streets of KL.

Note: The first of two photos above was generated by syncing the Forerunner to the amazing SportTracks software (free, Windows only) and exported to Google Earth. The second image is from my plot in the MapMyRun website.