My 1st ever overseas event. Has been eagerly waiting for it to arrive n it finallyy did! Reached KL on Fri n did some shopping at China Town area n eating; durains of course! Next day took a train to KLCC; nice building n feels good to see it up close. Did some more shopping n lots of walking. Rested early to prepare for the main event.
28th June 3am, woke up, took banana n hot milo b4 joining Jimmy at lobby. Short walk to the start point at Dataran Merdeka, which looks very much like our Pandang. "High tide" half hr b4 start, went looking for toilet but need to pay n didnt carry $! Thanks to the concealment of darkness n plants at a small nursery, managed to off-load some unwated hot-tea : ) Think the plants won't mind, next yr must take a look n see how well it grows! While forming up at start pt, the sky opened up and was very cooling n remian so throughout, perfect for running.
5am, off we went, reminding myself to wtach out for pot holes, vehicles, hills n body posture. I was so engrossed in all these that I hardly notice the surrounding scenery. 1st drink stop they already giving 100Plus n sponge, very impressed. At 15k they started giving bananas, surely there must be some mix-up! There wasn't as many pot holes as expected n the traffic was fine with me; the policemen were so runner orientated that they would stop all traffic even when there was only 2 of us crossing the junction, much to the ire of the drivers.
There were lots of slopes, lost count of it. Especially taxing was the one at 33k mark leading into the highway. Committed a big mistake here; while trying to stretch muscles, I pulled my R- calf muscle. No choice but to take more walking breaks. Then at 37k, the drinks stn ran out of water! Poor runners were literally scanvenging for water among the empty bottles, helpers were trying to collect whatever droplets of water they could. This was the final straw that kills off all hope of a sub 5 finish :( Finally reliefed to arrived at end pt in 5:10. Pleased with the time considering the tough course.
Nice to share this experience with our fellow Punggol runners n get to know each other better; Perry, he should write a column on FOOD APPRECIATION! n Jimmy is like a Rhino; coming fresh fr SD Ultra n Puket Mararthon then finished KL below 5hrs! He don't know the word 'pain', dont know the word 'give up', dont' know the word 'breathless' ....so i decided to buy him a dictionary! LOL...Respect him for his can-do spirit considering all his injuries n pain. Met some runners from Alor Star at bus depot who called themselves "Ironmen". Hope to see them in our SCM.
Lessons learned:
1) Good to hv strategy for every race
2) Don't be over conservative at early stage
3) Walk breaks n strectches are good but be careful in pulling sore muscles
