running alck

This is my 2nd overseas trip and also the last overseas trip for the year 2009. Penang International Bridge Marathon 2009 was held on the 22nd Nov 2009.

I registered for this race as early in May 2009.  The reasons of signing up this race is because Penang Bridge seems new to me thou we have one in Singapore, Sheares Bridge; but this bridge last as long as 13.5km. On top of this, the distance from SIN to PEN was relatively near, hence these factors does not stop me from signing up this race. Accompanied me was one of my sec-sch mate, he decided to take on the fun run 10km to keep himself fit.

So we set off to Penang on 21st Nov 2009, 11:20AM via AirAsia. This is my first time travelling “budget” airline and i feels that it is comfortable but there’s no inflight meals; and i’m alright with it. We reached the Penang International Airport at around 1pm or so. According to PBIM organizer, there’s free shuttle bus to bring us to Queensbay Mall which is the start point as well as the race pack collection venue. It took us around 30mins to reach the Queensbay Mall; due to some heavy traffic.

As soon as we collected our race pack, we went check-in hotel. Finding the hotel was hassle free because it was just 5 mins walk from Queensbay Mall. Eastin Hotel was the official hotel for Penang Bridge International Marathon; they opened just a week and it was fully booked. I was lucky to be one of them whom able to stay there. Previously, i reserved a room at Vistana Hotel and found out that it was relatively far from start point.

Checking-In took a bit longer than usual but my friend and I did not mind but we are very hungry. As soon as the room is made available for us, we threw our bag in the hotel and went to EAT in queensbay mall. So we chosen Nando’s as our lunch; we took lunch at around 3pm which was relatively late. Shopped around and we decided to go for some ice-cream. We ordered banana split; with 3 ice-cream scoops and 6 free toppings. high sugar level.

Nothing special in queensbay mall as most of the shops are much similar in singapore. Thus, we decided to head back to hotel and chill. I take this opportunity to have a short nap of 2hrs. Thereafter, we have our dinner at somewhere near our hotel. We ordered stingray, veggies, egg and suppose to be prawn; but end up they gave us “hum” aka cockles, and rice. We are shocked that this filling dinner only cost RM $19.50. Approx SG$10. it was SO cheap.

After dinner, we head back to the shopping mall and I told my friend that I would like to see the starting point. After some walkings, cant find the start point, hence decided to ask one of the organizer. He showed me and share with me some hints for the race route. After that we head back to hotel to rest.

I managed to catch another hour of nap before going to the race event. I did some stretching in the hotel room and head to the start point at around 1:15AM. A lot of runners were already hanging around there; what surprises me was alot of teenagers slacking there too. you might think they are there for volunteering but they are running instead. I guess the reasons of their early arrival because the Penang Bridge is close from 2AM to 10AM, hence they have no choice but to sleep / hang around till their categories start. I do some warmup run to loosen up my leg muscles.

The race starts 2:30AM sharp. I remembered most of the water point which was given by the guide book and keeping in mind that the first water point was 5km and subsequently 2.5km apart. I found out that the first 5km was relatively long, as my footpod displays 5.6km but that does not affect me much. I skipped the first 2 water point and took a sip at the 10km water point; that was around the bridge area. The upslope of the bridge was relatively gradual but mental comes into play as it’s long and the wind keeps blowing towards you. For full marathoner, we have to run towards the “TOLL” and make a U-turn and run the upslope again. By the time i reach the 2nd part of the bridge, alot of the half marathoner is making their U-turn point too. That’s really give me more motivation to run with them together. Distance marker was a bit disappointing i would say as it was only locate every 5km; which makes runner unable to keep track of their pacing and timing. I finished off the bridge part at a relatively comfortable pace. Reading from the guide book, we still have to run a stretch of route before making another U-turn and back to starting point. Again this time, half marathoners were taking the same route as us but they U-turn earlier; while full marathoner have to run further down the route. That stretch of route towards 35km distance was sort of my “killer” route. It was long, it was boring, and its me myself and i running. someone was behind me but quite a distance while i believed a lot of runners were ahead of me too. Saw some runners already make their U-turn and running towards the finishing point. I reach the 35km mark and powergel was given. Instead of taking theirs, i used mine as mine was expiring soon;  Hopefully the left overs powergel is sufficient for runners behind. The volunteers were kind and they rubbed my calves with ice; (oh ya, i have some pain in my calves ever since after North Face).

After that, i continued to run and aiming towards the U-turn point where the half marathoners made. At one of the water point, I saw a wrong distance marker which stated “30km”; i was wondering ” didn’t i just ran pass the 35km distance marker” ? And again, i didn’t doubt much and while taking a cup of water, i asked one of the volunteers. He told me 2 more km to go. On the way, i met this Malaysian guy and we ran together for some distance. We are glad to hear that and he decided to pick up his pace while i maintained my pace. After a distance, i thought i was close to the finishing point, but i was WRONG. another distance marker appeared which stated “40km”. I was like what the hell? didn’t i was informed that the previous water point i left 2km to finish? As i see my watch, i already know i couldn’t hit sub 4:30; I crossed the finishing line at a timing of 4:38:00 (nett). Relieved after the marathon and i managed to come in within the time limit of 6hrs. Was awarded a plastic bag which consists of our finisher medal, finisher tee, and some medical stuffs. Thou, I was 10secs later than my PB which is done in singapore marathon 2008, but i did not blame myself as the route for PBIM was more challenging than in Singapore; Considering that distance between water points, the terrain of the running route and my injury of my calves.

Overall the orgranization of the race was GOOD but there’s room for improvement i.e. the distance marker, and i feel that the distance of 42.195km was longer. I think they should get some organization to approve on the distance.

But nevertheless, i rank 96 out of 293 in Mens’ Open Competitive and 218/654 in all categories.

After the marathon, head back to hotel and sleep for 2hrs. Checked out of the hotel and went to George Town with my friend for a filling di-sum for breakfast and char kuey teow for lunch….