Who would have known that the initiative taken by 4 friends could touch thousands of lives through weekly running sessions on the streets of KL. Here’s how it happened. In 2013, it all began with just an idea to lose weight. It was held only once a week or sometimes once every fortnight. It was as simple, if anyone was free and the decision on whether or not to run that night depended on their schedule.
Today, everything is a whole lot different. When an active lifestyle becomes a huge part of your life, the decision to go out on a date depends on your running schedule! You would still do your trainings till eleven at night despite the fact you’d have to go to work the next day. Why? Because you know this routine somehow turns you to a healthier and better person. To me personally, running gets addictive because you keep on surprising yourself with what you are capable of. Who knew you could survive the hills of Bukit Damansara, the distance of the Hartamas route or even the high speed repeats at MPSJ track. When you know you can conquer one run, you’d wanna come back to make it better because you know it’s all your own doing and no one else.
Running is no joke, it’s a mental game and results do not happen overnight. The best part is, only runners know how it feels, that’s why it’s nice to meet people who can understand. That is the ultimate aim since day one; to create an approachable platform for all levels of runners. So that there’s always someone you can relate to and help you.
How Did Kyserun Krew Do It?
1. Consistency is definitely the key. Looking back to how Kyserun Krew developed from 2013 to 2016, it is safe to say that our sessions are more reliable now as compared to before and reliability should be an important quality in any organization.
We started off as a group of close friends running on weekends. There’s not much work there because everyone knows each other and the group was small, hence things like safety, performance, water stations were never an issue. Same thing goes to consistency of the trainings. There were days when no one showed up for the session because they didn’t feel like running and days when the crowd was so overwhelming that new runners would get left behind. We understood that people reached out to us because they trust us to help them take control of their lives, so we knew we had to make changes.
The committee revamped the whole thing and decided on a new direction. The founders saw potential in Kyserun Krew similar to the crews they knew around the world (Run Dem Crew, Bridge Runners and Run Pack Berlin). We’ve created run packs for different speed groups and introduced the idea of teamwork in long distance running. So everyone who came wouldn’t be intimidated. It’s a race against yourself, not your teammates.
Fast forward to today; we showed that running in a group is for everyone, we never skip a session unless the weather does not permit and we gained so many loyal members that show commitment and progress. I am very proud to say that consistency in training is our strongest quality.
2. It’s about collective contribution. The crew is run by a group of committee. We used to have a captain but we understood that this is not a one man show. So now we have 10 individuals, who came from different backgrounds and each have their own strong suit. Any decision made, needs unanimous agreement taking into account the different aspects’ opinion.
Kyserun Krew is about giving opportunities to be great. We want to let everyone know that getting off the couch or dismissing the snooze button already makes you a winner. It’s about doing new things, on top of making friends with people you never thought of before. The best eye opening lesson I learned is to take a chance on everything I believe in. You meet a lot of different individuals; from the loud and outgoing to the timid ones. Once you take the opportunity to get to know them, you find that they will always have a thing or two to teach regardless of their age. How they develop the spirit of #crewlove is amazing. Where else can you find a group of people that is willing to wake up six in the morning to cheer at a run event wearing tutus and hold up inspirational banners?
