Virgin 21km @ Penang International Bridge Run 2012

 First time collecting my kit from a half marathon counter k?!!

Damn proud lo...

This is my first and maiden half marathon after 2 years of running. I remember that I started running in 2011 and my first 10km run was at the Standard Chartered KL Marathon which I joined due to peer pressure. And just last Sunday, I participated in the half Marathon just to see if I can survive the challenge which my friends posed to me. Actually, all my running "kakis" are all taking the 21km run and thus I signed up for it due to peer pressure again.

"This year, the marathon managed to attract more than 34,500 participants from 67 countries all over the world, and hopes to attract more International participants next year. For the second consecutive year, the APBIM is once again listed as Malaysia’s Largest Bridge Run by the Malaysia Book of Records!" (quoted from the APBIM email I received)

 

All these for only RM22 for 4 of us!

Prior to the run, we made a detour to Ipoh for lunch. The "tai shu geok" (Big Tree Foot @ Pasir Pinji) remains as one of my friend's favourite food outlet in Ipoh due to the freshness of the Yong Tau Fu and also the "super reasonable" pricing of just 60 cents a piece!

Carbo loading is the way to go before a run!

When we arrived at Penang, we checked into Traders Hotel and have a short rest before having our dinner at 6pm. Since the run starts at 3am, I had to catch some sleep by 9pm and thus having dinner early is a good idea. Just a few hundred metre walk away is the New Lane Hawker Stall where the it's a food street filled with mobile hawker stalls that sell Char Koay Teow, Lor Bak, Grilled chicken wings, Rojak, Prawn mee and chee cheong fun. We were having a feast again! However, the food here are just mediocre and what my sis called "tummy fillers". This is not up to my expectations at all. So no point writing about them either. heheh

The Women Open Half Marathon started at 3.15am compared to the Men's at 3am. I was very enthusiastic about the run but equally scared as well due to the distance and the lack of training. The rainy days made me lazy to run. You have no idea how much excuses I gave to myself for not training. When I arrived home from work, "ooh... it looks like it's going to rain" and when I woke up on the weekends, "ooh look, the road is wet after the rain and thus it's slippery" and I went back to bed.

This Nike+ only lasted me for 2 years. Sigh...

So what was going on my mind when I was running that 21km? At first, I remembered one of my colleagues said this "I just can't understand why some people started walking just after 2km, it's just 10% of the route!" and I told myself that I had to continue running even if I'm tired. So I ran and ran for 40 minutes before stopping for some water and walked for some distance. When I reached the midpoint of the bridge, I had a quarter bottle of 100plus and that gave me the edge. Out of a sudden, I felt that burst of energy and continued running until the 9th km where the U-turn is located.

When I see that I am running past some men (who started 15mins earlier), I was so motivated to continue running, knowing that I would be 15mins ahead of them. As I passed the other side of the bridge, I can see that they are still others who are 30 mins behind me and this is a great motivation. One of the unlucky events was when I felt part of my left shoe sole coming off after a few km but I don't bother about it and kept running. Then the right part started falling apart. It did make the running uncomfortable but I wanted to finish it as soon as possible so I kept myself running until the last 4km where I had to walk. I was exhausted but gave myself a target of 10mins per km just to make sure I finish before 3 hours.

And so I did! At the last 500m, I sprinted all the way to the finishing line using the last breath I could take and the last tank of energy I had in my legs.

Not something to shout about but because it's my maiden half marathon, I have the right to brag about it! 2 hours 56 minutes woot!

We had so much fun. With my sister and friends taking pictures with our well-deserved medals.

Met Lee Jian at the event too. Surprised how I could actually meet some friends I haven't seen for ages here!

Before I had this run, I thought this would be my first and last 21km. Looks like I'm not going to retire yet. Nice bib number there! *wink

oooh... and the best adrenaline I got when I was watching the guys Full Marathon start-off, a cute guy actually smiled at me when he ran past. Now I know where the energy came from. heheh...