Penang Run 2014- Nibong Tebal

Penang Run 2014/2015 consists of three series but I only registered for two series that is Nibong Tebal and Bandar Perda because another serie crashed with my Sundown Marathon in  Singapore. As the medals for the three series consists of three components which can join up to form a cube, I will have to contend with an uncompleted cube of medals later. This is my second time running in Nibong Tebal after the half marathon across three states in 2011. Nibong Tebal is very near to my hometown, Kuala Kurau, where I put up a night for the race. It is a just 20 minutes' drive in the early hour of the morning between the two towns. 

Half marathon runners gathered at the starting venue 

Relax run through Oil Palm estate 

The route for the half marathon is almost flat except one not so steep flyover. As it is a Penang Run we only run in the country roads and some housing estates in Nibong Tebal. I still find a run through three states consisting of Nibong Tebal-Penang, Parit Buntar-Perak and Bandar Baharu-Kedah more interesting. The route in this Penang run is quite boring as it is mostly running on narrow country roads with Oil Palm estates by its sides. As the race started at 5.30 am we have to run through certain parts of the route in total darkness which may be quite risky if there is speeding vehicles. Luckily there is almost no traffic in such early hour. There are not many participants and hardly any foreigners. The run is not very demanding and I could finish the 21 km in roughly 2 hours 35 minutes. I realized that I was quite strong and overtook many runners who seemed struggling to the finishing line in last two km of the race. I should give credit to the energy gel and the cup of 100 plus I consumed at the final 4 km point. I consumed two energy gels for this race with the first gel consumed at the 6 km point. I still felt weak in the middle stretch of the race and I think If I were to consume another energy gel at the 12 km point, I may be strong throughout the race. 

Running towards Nibong Tebal town centre for the last 2km of the race

KL standard Chartered Marathon 2014

This is my second year running half marathon in Standard Chartered International Marathon Kuala Lumpur. Last year four of us in the family took part in the marathon but this year only Seok Wan and I are taking part. Xin Yi had registered to run in her debut half marathon but could not run due to her MICPA focus class which falls on the same day as the race. But her registration was not wasted because her colleague took up the challenge to run on her behalf. As last year I booked a family room at Areena Star hotel which is only 0.7 km from Merdeka Square, the starting venue. Even though the hotel has limited parking lots but I was lucky to have one outside the hotel within the surveillance of the security guard. I booked a three-bed room anticipating three occupants but only two of us were staying wasting one sleeping berth.
We really had a good night sleep before we woke up to prepare for the race. I woke up at 3.40 am so that I could have my breakfast at least two hours before the race. I consumed one and half packet of 3 in 1 oats and regretted because I was feeling a bit bloated.  My half marathon started at 6.00am but we only left our hotel around 5.20 am. It is only a 5 minutes walk to the starting venue and I could see streams of participants moving towards Merdeka Square perhaps just coming out from the LRT station. So we really did not worry about any security threat walking in the city streets in the wee hour of the morning. 

This is the first time I saw volunteers providing muscle relief spray to participants before the start of the race. I accepted the offer as I usually have muscle cramp problem. We were flagged off at 6.00 am sharp and there were 8000 runners in my category. I took almost 4 minutes to cross the starting line as I could hardly run in the beginning. I ran with slow pace but I was feeling more tired this time compared with SP half marathon because the air quality was very poor due to the haze. But the worst part of the race is the elevated highways especially the Dato Keramat Highway. I did not listen to motivation music while running but I have my method of motivating myself to keep running. I keep reminding myself that I am a full marathon runner and I shall never give up. So I kept running even though I am feeling fatigue. It is really a pleasure  I had the opportunity to run through a highway toll without paying any toll. The only scenery in the race is the city view with its sky-scrapers like KL tower and twin towers. I like the Jalan Ampang and Dato Keramat route because it made me reminisced of my university life at UTM near Dato Keramat. It is just like running through memory lane especially the row of foreign embassies along Jalan Ampang where I used to pass by while going to Bukit Bintang for movie or window shopping.

She ranked 21st in the 10km,  50-59 category.

 

Running on Dato Keramat Highway with the city centre in view 

The event was very well organised with plenty of hydration points and muscle relieve stations. Perhaps there should be bun station or banana station too for half marathon runner. There are drummers and live bands along the route to cheer up the runners but there should be more of such spots. This is the first time I walked while nearing the finishing line. I only started to run towards the finishing line when I heard someone yelling us to run. Even though facing with a difficult track and poor air quality but I still finished the 21 km in my usual time of 2 hours 46 minutes. I was strong at the beginning of the race but became weak and slow after 15 km because 400 plus participants passed me as shown by the timing chip. Perhaps it is time I improve my performance towards last 6 km of my half  marathon.