SongkRUN KL 2016

Ok, ok, I just could not resist posting that above picture but it is not mine... the photo should be credited to Songkran2015.com .... but well... that is just the idea of what Songkran is like in our neighbouring country Thailand... I have never yet gotten a chance to participate in Songkran but from what I gather, it is a water festival in Thailand that will take place from the 13 to the 15th of April, to celebrate Thailand’s traditional New Years Eve celebration...

Songkran was originally celebrated by Thai people who will sprinkle water on their family members and elders for good fortune and pay their respects to images of their beloved Buddha. 

However these days, the festival has become a wet and wild 3 days of  splashing locals and visitors who are on the street with buckets of water, water hoses and super soakers, so be ready to get wet if you are in Thailand when its Songkran Festival...

 The SongkRUN Water Run which happened recently however is just bringing the World First Water Fun-Run experience to the casual runners and fun seekers to play with water and music at its heart. It is nothing to do with Thailand's Songkran Festival but rather just kinda inspired by it...

The founders, Andrew and Gary, started the creative water run to combine music party and fitness to offer a brand new experience among the urban and sub-urban casual runners and fun seekers.

Yours truly was there early with my daughter and Misz Ella, one of my good blogger friends... We registered at the media counter and got our kits or tags.... 

SongkRUN tickets were available in 2 types

1. MYR105.00 for the Standard pack which comes with t-shirt, medal, waterproof pouch, and wristband,
2. MYR135.00 for the Shooter pack which comes with an additional water gun with water filler stations along the track and later in the party area.

We were only given the Standard pack....and from there we made our way up hill to where the activities, the stage and fun were....

There were many people there already at 9am and many made a bee line for the photo booth armed with their water guns and gear...and thus there was a queue there... 

Fun Run blogger buddies meet up... it is always a pleasure meeting your friends and people you know during an event and what more during a race and so a group photo is a must...

I did not get a Water Gun, this one belonged to another media friend... Farish, and I borrowed it just for this photo... hehehe

We spotted some men and woman in uniform, with the fire truck and decided to go take a picture with them... I think our firefighters are too low profile and not many people appreciate the, for all they do right.... and they risk their lives countless times to help us when there is a fire, an accident, a catastrophe etc... 

This time however, they were here to have interact and have fun with all the participants of SongkRUN...

Barely into 9 am, the fun began... with participants of the run filling up their water guns at the plastic container area

The two fire trucks (bomba) on site with the firemen all geared up and started to douse a different kind of "heat" and who became the target for waterguns as well as participants tried to take their revenge back...

RD. one of the announcers from Hitz FM Morning Crew was one of those who got drenched first...before they took a group selfie with all the people...and before the warm up began..

One thing I was disappointed about was that they did not have an itinerary given out to us, and so everyone was kind of in the dark, including yours truly...

Spotted in the picture, Misz Ella, my mini me and Fatin, all in the front row gearing up to run....

The crowd was huge.. I think there was about 2500 people there... 

The marshalls on superbikes gearing up to lead the way....

The idea was to have an un-timed, non-competitive run or walk that brings together the casual fitness community with the biggest cross cultural water themed run track. 

The umbrella pathway was one of the prettiest and colourful just a few metres away from the flag off... and it was where the runners began getting drenched as well with the huge truck there...

Ready,......Go.....

The race was held around the vicinity of the Sepang Formula 1 track, not at the track area as most of us thought it to be ...and it was quite a challenging walk up and down the slopes...

There were photo booths, though just very simple ones and when you pass by the 1st KM check point/ water and music zone, everyone got soaked....

My mini me soaked to the bone upon passing the first Water and Music Zone.... However, I guess it was kind of disappointing since there wasn't much to do except get sprayed with water and listen to some music blaring on loudspeakers?!

Just into the 2km zone, we got a welcome relief when we came across the water station and everyone got a bottle of RO water to quench our thirst and rehydrate ourselves...In this humidity and super hot weather we are undergoing because of the El Nino phenomenon, it is so important to rehydrate often....

The 2km water and music zone allowed the Shooters or those with waterguns to refill their 'ammo'...

and with the almost unbearable heat, everyone made sure to try to get themselves wet before continuing...

I was finding it pretty disappointing and dull because all the zones seem to be just getting wet and listening to music blaring on loudspeakers... but I realized I missed out on some activities only when I got back to where we began...but well, they were not pointed out or highlighted.. There were a lack of signages and again, a lack of itinerary, so we could know what was going on... huhuhu 

It was only at the 4km zone where it was a bit more interesting... It was the Icy Experience zone sponsored by Daikin ... everyone who passed by this zone were soaked in icy water..... brrrr.... it was strangely a welcome respite because we were all so hot.. the sun was already at the highest point then, considering it was noon..

Not only were we sprayed by ice water, those who were brave enough could actually take the ice bucket challenge in front of all the other spectators...my daughter was one of those who took the ice bucket challenge...

After all the panting, the aches and pains from having go through the uphill and downhill climb that set my daughter grumbling, since well, I told her to consider the 5 km walk a basic training for our upcoming Korean trip... she insisted we won't be walking up and down a hill there in Korea....we got to the end of the run/walk....

My daughter was all smiles as she brandished her medal... It was a cutesy plastic medal with two little yellow duckies swimming or was it 'drowning' in blue water as my daughter insisted....

The party supposedly continued after the finish line and the Wet-Music Festival kicked into gear. We were starving from all the energy exerted and went to the food trucks to get ourselves some meal....And there were quite a variety there with about ten food trucks offering different type of food....

The slogan was: Run. Play. Get Drenched. Make Friends. Dance.  and I guess we did that.... however, because we were exhausted and I had a bit of muscle sprain, plus the fact we did not know what to expect (with the lack of itinerary again....), we did not stay for what came later on, and decided to head home instead....

All in all, I would say that I had a reasonably good experience... though I think there were some people there who were expecting more activities, and were quite disappointed..but since this was the first run they had, I guess they will make up for whatever is lacking in the future runs....so look out for it if and when it heads your way next.....

 The SongkRUN will soon be heading to Singapore, and Indonesia. As well as Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, UK, US, New Zealand, etc in the following year....

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