boon's log 2607.01: The Penang Bridge Marathon

What we've been training for, for the past 2 months, has finally come to past - The Penang bridge Marathon 2007. The night before the run, I had to admit, I was worried and anxious about whether I can really do this. Turned in early on Saturday - 10-ish, and woke up at the unearthly hour of 2AM - which by the way, there were so many people complaining about the run being so darn early in the morning; where it used to be 5-ish in previous years. But I guess they were trying to fit in 11 categories!!! Anyway, got myself ready and headed down to the registration area - by walking through the university. THAT in itself was sufficient warm-up for me. The walk from home to the registration area took like 0.5hrs of walk - by the time I was there, I had already worked out quite some sweat.

Well, I'm glad to announce that I did finish the run(!!!). The run was okay at first, but my first short-stop was slightly after the mid-span, where the second refreshment/sponging station was, which was about 5km. It took me almost 1hr30mins to reach the other end of the bridge, before U-turning back towards the island. At that moment, I thought, there goes the 3-hour goal of reaching the finishing line. According to the rule-book, only those finishing within 3hrs will receive a certificate and a medal. When I heading back, my leg muscles began to ache - many more stops followed with brisk walking. The journey back was tough. By the time I returned to the midspan, I began to feel a slight back-ache, clocking in at about 2'15:00s - less than an hour to finish the race. And with all the senior-runners passing me, left and right, were not really helping (!!!).

The last quarter part of the race was the killer. And then I saw that "1km to go" mark and that kinda rejuvenated everything and the endorphins started pumping. Oh yeah! There is no pain! Plus there's the ego factor - of course you don't want to just waltz through the finish line, right? You wanna be seen running across the Finish Line! So there we go, the final kilometer saw me sprinting. And the finishing time? 3'07:56s - just 7 minutes more, it was better than I thought it would be. AND they even issued me a certificate and a medal! I guess they just made additional ones and decided not to let them go to waste. It was a wonderful feeling - finishing the race and not falling far off the 3hr mark. So I may be back again next year... just to make sure that I finish within the 3hr-mark.


Evidence of the historical moment...

Met quite a couple of people during the race. PJ and Laurence before the starting of the race, VH at the third sponging / refreshment station on the mainland, TY at the 4th quarter of the race and Mithz at the finishing line.

IL did the Fun Run together with her rellies and she finished the 10km in under 2hrs. I tried to catch up with them on the way back, but my legs were against the idea(!).

It was interesting to see that there were also folks that were running WITHOUT shoes! Some were even running with sandals. I had my faithful spidey-coloured cross-trainers...


The pair that brought me through...

Read in the papers today that Kenny Sia was at the run as well, but I did not see him...

And also in the papers today - the record breaking Full Marathon Winner, from (where else but) Kenya, Mr. Sammy Kiprop Kiptoo, who finished the 42.195km race in 2’26:00s. Dude! Dude...! Divide that by 2... that's like 1'13:00s if he were to run the Half Marathon! And you wanna know how he did it? Check out the following newspaper clipping...


It can only be a Kenyan...

The dude runs 53kms DAILY between 5AM to 10AM! IL was joking that they'd probably trained by letting a leopard loose to chase after them ;) Goodness... That makes one feel so unprepared for the race. But I'm glad he won... he deserves it... 53kms/day. That's like running from Penang to Bukit Merah! EVERYDAY! *blink**blink*

....

Well, IL decided to celebrate a little for finishing the race in once piece and neither of us having the need to come back in a stretcher (especially for me) by making ourselves a nice, lovely English breakfast - of English Scones (with Devonshire cream) and English Tea. Ahh.... ;)


IL's award, for a job well done

She made so much of 'em that we brought some back to the in-laws to share.


Scones-to-go

Tiring (and aching, afterwards) weekend. But fulfilling one. Will I do it again? 80% "Yes", because I still want to complete it within 3hrs. 20% "No" because of the "aches and ouches" after the run... It also depends on whether the running-hype will continue until the next Marathon... Oh by the way, a little word about the logistics and organization of this years' run - one word: CRAPPY. From getting the registration number (they gave a "Junior Quarter Marathon Category Number" to someone who registered for "Senior Half Marathon") to getting the T-Shirt (I signed up for "XL", but they gave me an "M") to the beginning of the race, where there were no proper instructions where to go or what to do, and runners were made to stand at the Starting line for more than 15 minutes before starting the race (a few even passed-out before the race, due to lack of air with no Red Cross standing by). I am sure many things could have been done better if there were more proper planning. Hopefully, there'll be some sort of feedback to the organizing committee and things can be improved in the up coming events...

Ok, signing off, gotta work tomorrow.

boon out...