Lalalaland...: Penang Bridge International Marathon 2009

November 27, 2009

Penang Bridge International Marathon 2009

To tell you the truth, I was so nervous prior to running this marathon. It's only running, why should I feel so you might ask? The reason was that I didn't have proper training I was afraid I might not have the stamina to finish the race. We're talking about 21km run here, not 10km. I only trained at the gym, running for an hour on the treadmill thrice a week. And that was 2 weeks before the marathon. The week after that, the final week before the marathon, I was so busy with work I completely stopped my training.

Took the early morning flight to Penang. It was a very luxurious marathon I must say. hahahah.. Flew with MAS, then stayed at a 4-star hotel. That was the kind of luxury I wanted while holidaying, but then that luxury was for a marathon. Well, I needed the comfort to have a good run, replacing the train that I lacked.

After hotel checked in and resting for while, I continued to do my work. Told you I was so busy I even brought my lappie with me to Penang to finish off whatever necessary.

Currently the most happening mall in Penang

My hotel was only a short walking distance to Queensbay Mall, the starting and finishing line of the race. So I went to the marathon site later in the afternoon to have my championchip scanned to make sure it's working and have a look at the expo.

The timing device for the race, the championchip...

With my sister's friends..

We had to sleep early that night, as the half marathon will start at 3.45am and the reporting time was at 2.45am. I was already curling under the duvet at 8pm, trying hard to go to dreamland as my eyes were still wide awake. But luckily the comfort of the plush bed at Eastin Hotel made the journey less difficult.

Same spot, us at 3am..

Women Open Half Marathon category racers...

It was a very nice marathon indeed. The organizers really did a great job. Water stations were aplenty, 100 Plus station, sponge and banana stations were all very well served. To add the good experience, the cool morning breeze and the spectacular bridge view made the run enjoyable.

I was running steadily up until the 10km mark. Same as my StanChart time, I crossed the 10km mark at around 1h 30 minutes. But running 21km was definitely not an easy task. I started to feel the leg cramps when I was nearing the 15km marking. But thank God it was not that bad. I just slowed down and walked when I felt it coming and started running again when it subsided.

You need physical and mental strength to run a long distance race. I was totally knackered at the last few kms after exiting the bridge. I saw a sign board showing 'Jerejak Jetty 2km' at the Jelutong Expressway. Jerejak Jetty was quite near to the finishing line so that was like my marker. 2km more! Run run run! You've gotta finish this. The remaining run was totally hell, 2kms felt like 10kms. But it's all in your mind. My motivation was I didn't wanna go home empty-handed. Hey I flew all the way from KL with nothing to bring back?

Free downloadable finishing line picture courtesy of Digi.. cool!!!

So that put me back on track to run, proudly crossing the finishing line like a winner.

My result was out of my target time limit. I didn't manage to finish the race in 3 hours as I expected. But lucky enough, it was still within the 3h 30 minutes time limit to qualify me for the finishers' medal.