Penang International Marathon 2012 Afterthoughts

The big stage

Sometime around June, one of my friend suggested that I joined the marathon together since it was the last time the race will be held on the Penang bridge before it is moved to the new bridge in 2013. After some consideration I said yes and paid the registration fees. Fast forward to the week before the race, I only just started to practice running a bit, since I had my finals prior to the race and didn't really train much. Heck I didn't even have a proper running shoe and my last race was 7.2km during the Monash run. So yeah, I had zero experience in marathon running and was extremely lacking in fitness and practice.

The crowd and people collecting race kits

Since the race was at 3am, I left to Penang from KL on the morning of 17th November. After arriving at Queensbay mall I then proceeded to collect my running kit and bib number and checked in my accommodation with my friends. The place I stayed was at Georgetown and about 15 minutes drive away. We tried to book somewhere near but all the hotels/hostels are fully booked :/

For RM180 per night for the whole unit the price is actually very very cheap! But having said that, the sound proofing of the unit was really poor and all sorts of sounds could be heard while I was trying to get some sleep prior to the race.

At about 6pm we decided to head out for dinner at Super Tanker, just in case the roads leading to the race area started to get jammed up. This was the first time I've been to this food court and I must say most of the food that I tried here were very nice. If only food courts in Selangor were of this standard.

Banana + chocolate +egg

By the time we got back to Queensbay Mall it was only about 8pm. There's still so much time to burn. We parked at a parking lot nearby the mall which was right next to the starting point. We even had time to watch the Arsenal - Tottenham match at a nearby mamak (which was ultimately won by Arsenal 5-2). As the minutes passed by we were wondering why there was so much space at the parking lot, has the rate of participation dropped this year? We were surprised when they announced that this year had the most participants and even broke the Malaysia Book of Records during the opening of the full 42KM marathon race. Time passed slowly and its finally 2am and everybody started to do their respective warm ups prior to the race.

At around 2.40am everybody started to gather at the starting line and at 3am sharp the gun that signals the the start of the race went off and everybody sprinted off in excitement. Wearing the unsuitable shoes proved to be costly as both my soles immediately felt a tight strain when I just started to run. D: The good thing about running with friends is that I am more motivated to continue running and not stop. For the first 6-7km of the race I was just running right behind my friend as not to fall too far behind.

The sight of of the Penang bridge at night was indeed beautiful, even more so when you can take the whole scenery in slowly at your own pace. Many people purposely brought their phones and cameras to pose with the bridge while I continued jogging (didn't bring my phone/camera along). It seems like many people just joined this race for fun and have a good time enjoying the atmosphere and strolling around. As I passed the 15km mark which is when you pass by half of the Penang bridge to make a U-turn back to the island, I really started to regret and thought why I even joined this race in the first place. The pain in both my legs were starting to hurt a lot and blisters can be felt on most of my toes, thanks to my shoes =_=. It was so pain that I could not continuously jog anymore without stopping to rest for awhile. Every step was a torture as both of my legs were hurting from the soles to the calves and hamstring. I now fully understood why there were stations offering ice cubes and paracetamol spray for pain relief. For non-serious half marathon runners like me, I can conclude that you don't even need good stamina to complete the race if you are not well trained as your pace will soon drop so low that your heart and lungs doesn't even feel stressed. The most important thing is your muscle endurance and your mental strength to complete the race under 3.5 hours.

The sign boards at the final parts of the race were rather frustrating as they showed one sign every 0.5KM. At that moment of time you could really feel how damn long one kilometre really is. Thanks to some of the female runners I was quite motivated not to stop for my final 2KM and sprinted all the way to the finish line. It was really such a huge relief, rather than excitement, that I finally concluded this horrid journey, as I made my way to collect my finisher medal.

Achievement unlocked

The medal was made up of a lot of pewter as it was really really solid. This was my first sports medal in my entire life ever since I got a bronze medal for high jump back in my Form 4 days. Nevertheless, the consequences of the race hit me immediately as soon as I sat down to rest. The soles of my feet were hurt so badly that every step I took gave great pain. I was literally limping for the next few days including my trip to Sungai Petani, Penang, Macau, Zhu Hai and Hong Kong and I truly understood how the old and impaired people felt when they had to take their every step ever so slowly and carefully. The consolation here was that I didn't require a walking stick to support me.

My time. Live tracking is so cool! Unexpectedly managed to finish under 3 hours :D

And when we finished the race it struck us why the car park was so empty as the roads leading out from our area was blocked. We had to wait there and do nothing for 3 hours until 9.30a.m before the roads were opened and we could finally drag our exhausted bodies back to our accommodation, and only had 2 hours to rest before we had to check out. This was my first time that I really did not sleep for more than 24 hours continuously. Everybody was smart enough to park further away or simply booked a hotel right next to the mall.

From darkness to twilight to sunrise. 

All in all, this half marathon was really an enlightening and humbling experience which I would truly cherish for many years to come. Will I rejoin another marathon? Never again, if I am not prepared. Till then, I bid all my readers a very happy 2013 and a big thank you for your support.