A Bareno?

What in the world is a Bareno? Is it some obscure Mexican folk dance? Is it the latest new-fangled Japanese toy in the market?

Bareno Kitty?

In reality, it is actually some relatively obscure firm that produces "a wide range of bathroom and kitchen products .... to cater to all your needs in style." (Bareno, 2011)

Like most 21 year old young men my age, I don't know squat about different bathroom and kitchen products. I know how to use them - I've been using them for quite some time now (I think..) but what do I know about brands? And why am I posting about this when there's so much else going on in the world right now?

Somehow, this company knew my achilles heel and decided to organize a multi-distance race in what I suppose must be partially a publicity bid too.

So there we were, 11 UTAR students from Kampar with absolutely no interest in kitchen sinks, braving the traffic and our packed schedules to make it to KL so that we could run the Bareno Run 2011. We had to pay for registration fees, we had to drive all the way, some of us had mid-term papers less than 24 hours before the race, we had to wake up at 4am, we had to run over either 10 or 21km of hilly terrain in a hazy atmosphere and our bodies experienced various degrees of pain, aches, cramps - you name it.

Naturally, we enjoyed it very much. After all, our interest is in running.

One thing that occurred to me is how daunting this run was in many ways. I haven't had the time or determination to train for this event (unlike PBIM). I was dead tired out of all the driving the previous day and only caught 4 hours of sleep, tops. I was sniffing and sneezing both during the night before and the morning of the race itself. The hilly terrain turned this trial into an ordeal, no joke.

But let me tell you something really cool about today's run. I finished it, and as a bonus, I finished it within my somewhat naively set target of getting a sub-2 hour half.

This is in spite of the fact that I've never wanted to give up so badly as I did in this race. Both my mind and body were yelling out for me to stop but I didn't. Not until my body took things into its own hands, though, cramping up and forcing me stop 3 times during the race. Yet I always got up and running again.

This race confirmed to me that there is some voice within me - the voice that is essential to all runners and tells you that you can do it - that you can overcome this.

I don't think I'll see you again, Bareno, but thanks anyway. I feel like I've come away just a little bit stronger.