KUALA LUMPUR – More than 500 people painted the city red yesterday as they raced through the streets in the inaugural New Straits Times Streets Race.

Donning red T-shirts, the 125 teams of four, went through numerous challenges at 13 checkpoints in the adventure race-cum-treasure hunt which took them from Balai Berita in Bangsar to among others, Bangsar Village, KLCC, Bukit Bintang, Padang Merbok and Brickfields.

Racing on foot and taking the light rail transit (LRT) and monorail, the race kicked off at 7.45am with participants having to solve five riddles at the starting point in order to get their next clue.

Putting their thinking caps on and after several attempts, most teams managed to solve the riddles and were excited to race off to the next checkpoint.

Among them was 25-year old Hanisah Hashim from TT Kuda Banzai team, who was raring to go with her teammates.

“I am excited about the race but at the same time, I am also wondering what the challenges would be.

“It does not matter whether we win, the most important thing is we have fun while joining in the race,” she said.

Among the challenges participants faced included throwing a rubber ball into a cup, searching for paper clips in a sandbag, naming the LRT stations, solving a sudoku puzzle, carrying a sandbag and completing a mini military obstacle course. Most participants had turned up as early as 6.30am at Balai Berita and while some had come prepared with their own breakfast, others were happy to find hot coffee, courtesy of Starbucks Coffee Company, served to perk them up.

The race, which offered prize money totalling RM33,000 and lucky draw prizes, is organised by the NST in collaboration with Original Bootcamp.

8TV and FlyFm are the official television and radio partners while Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana) sponsored the MyRapid card pass for all participants.

The first team to complete all the challenges and crossed the finish line at Balai Berita was R.A.F.L. who arrived at 11.30am.

Showing true team spirit, the group, comprising soldiers Muhammad Leslie Jirin, 30; Mohd Azril Ishak, 26; Mohammad Fariszul Syauqie Ismail, 27; and Anthony Abong, 34, won RM10,000.

“It all started when our superior, Col Fadzil Tajudin asked us to join the race and he even paid for the entry fee of RM100 per team,” said Leslie.

He admits that although they were soldiers, they still found the going tough including the mini obstacle course which many would have thought would be a breeze for them.

“Two of us had cramps in the legs during the final challenge which was the obstacle course and it would have been such a shame if we did not manage to complete it,” said Leslie, grinning from ear to ear.

The team plans to give Col Fadzil and their colleagues a treat with the prize money.

Second place was won by Awesome & Her Jantans comprising Hashida Lee, 36; Sunil Bangah, 36; Eugene Tham, 35; and Dzul Aminuddin, 41. They won RM8,000.

“Solving the sudoku puzzle, carrying the sandbag and the mini military obstacle are the hardest challenge but we managed to do it as a team,” said Hashida, a mother of three.

The team Geng Kaki Lari comprising Mohamad Azarul Azuan Omar, 24; Mohd Noor Izman Jaliun, 28; Mohd Faiz Kamaruzzaman, 28; and Sahaidi Abd Raof, 33, won the third place and bagged RM5,000

Ten consolation prizes of RM1,000 were also given out.

Other sponsors for the race include Kosmopolito Hotels International, Holiday Villa Hotels and Resorts, Sunway Putra Hotel KL, Sunway Pyramid, The Gardens Hotel & Residences, Red Army Watches, Resorts World Genting, Avon Cosmetics (M) Sdn Bhd, Mid Valley City, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Tune Money, Banana Boat skin care, Nature Valley and Heinz products.