Secretly deep inside my heart i hope to do below 5hours (sub 5 is my target for any marathon before stanchart sg 2010, 4hrs30mins is my target for stanchart singapore 2010) for Kl marathon but i didn't have the confidence as i heard the route was more challenging, it was filled with many gradual and steep slopes (a more interesting 1 compared to Sg's sundown route, 2010 sundown route was the worst, monotonous and dark)
Check out the slopes
Passed by many historical places. YEA thumbs up!!
This running event was rushed as we drove to KL on a saturday morning, reached kl at around 3pm, collected race kit, had dinner and went back hotel to rest for the morning race
This was my dinner, black hokkien mee. Lots of pork lard in it, yummy and fattening!
Race time was 0500, i slept at 2100
I had trouble sleeping that night, woke up a total of about 4times. Had a couple of nightmares too, the most impacting nightmare was that we overslept and missed the marathon. Was that a good or bad sign? hahaha.
so 0300 we woke up, i had breakfast and tried to empty my tank but nothing came out, CRAP?
Dad and friends 42km runners
Walked to the starting point and saw many people doing their warmup already, i spotted a few familiar faces that i seen in Singapore marathons before too, a village of Kenya people.
0455, 5minutes before it starts, something else start first. Heavy rain, very very heavy. Just when we hear the gun sound, i was already drenched from head to toe, my glasses was already besieged with rain droplets, the only thing that i could see was the bokeh of streetlamps.
5minutes into the race, i saw a few things that made my mind went haywire for a little while. 1st i saw a car passing by with the car plate WTF _ _ _ _, was it trying to imply wtf are we doing, running in the heavy rain? I then saw a street sign, with the word laluan inside. The dirty and vulgar mind of mine started to arrange the alphabets and Laulan formed inside my head, LOL.
By then the weather was already very cold, 20+ degrees, didn't feel like Kl/Singapore. I enjoyed the 1st half of the run (21km) particularly, i get to see petronas tower enshrouded in mist against a clear sky, too bad i didn't have a camera on me. Another reason why i enjoyed the 1st half was because thats when i was most energetic, the fatigue hits me only after the 1st half.
The shoe tongue kept sliding down, thus causing abrasion on the top of my feet, i didn't realise the cause of the problem until i looked down, i stopped immediately to remedy this problem but to no avail, everytime when i look down, the shoe tongue will still slide back into the shoe (after the run, i found out from my dad and friends that i can just remedy this by tying my shoelaces through the shoetongue or tying the shoelaces in another method which prevents the shoetongue from sliding down, hooray!)
Fast forwarding to 40km, i finally saw my dad and i decided to be a unfillial son and tries to beat him. I don't know, maybe it was just the men's pride and ego that strips away all fillial piety thats left on me, so i increased speed.
Things weren't looking so good, my dad was a good 50m ahead of me and its was a downslope, i overtook him at about 40.8km i think and he was shocked!!!!!!! At about 300m from the finishing line, we saw a Msian friend of us and took our photos
See how close my dad is to me.
Then that msian friend shouted something like 'your dad behind you!'
once hearing that, i decided to sprint the last 300m and my dad sprinted to try and catch up. I won my dad by a few seconds. According to the official chip time, i was 14seconds infront of my dad, but my dad strongly disagree, he says he was just a few metres behind me when i cross the finishing line.
YEA!
Double YEA!
Look at the medal, its so nicely engraved compared to sundown 2010 medal.
I have no grudge against the sundown 2010 organisers but i feel that they're kiamsiap, trying to cut cost on all possible avenues. Transportation, support and prize money (sckl 1st prize 17.5k USD, sundown 2010 1st prize 500SGD)
Thumbs up to Kl marathon for its efficient traffic control (at least from what i see, the route takes us through many road and main junctions, i didn't have to stop once because the police officers always stop oncoming vehicles)
Thumbs up for St John members for handing out free heat ointment every few stops
Thumbs up for free cold sponge at every station (Singapore should do that, how much does sponge and ice cost anyway?) Cold sponge is very helpful especially in tropical climate like Kl and Singapore
Thumbs up for the nice route, nice scenary
Thumbs up for having enough S size finisher tee
The only few gripe i have is the ugly bag that they give and the lack of supporters
Previous marathon record
sundown 2008 42km: 07:28:29.66
sundown 2009 42km: 05:29:01
sundown 2010 84km: (5:58:40 42km timing, gave up at 65km)
sundown 2009 42km: 05:29:01
sundown 2010 84km: (5:58:40 42km timing, gave up at 65km)
Yesterday
Stanchart kl 2010 42km: 04:48:30 (Broke my personal record!)
Stanchart kl 2010 42km: 04:48:30 (Broke my personal record!)
My 1st time taking part in oversea marathon
My 1st time running Stanchart marathon
My 1st time breaking 5hours
HOORAY!
