KL International Marathon - Mar-5-2006

This is my 3rd Attempt since 2004

Mar-4 (Pre Marathon Day)
9:30am departed from Kai Wa’s house all the way to KL Mandarin Oriental Hotel. This is a true Door-to-Door Non-stop Delivery Service from SIN-KUL which I think even the professional company such as SIA, DHL and Konsortium can’t compete with. The Journey was good as even the Malaysia Government sent out their “official” to welcome us along the way at the 150km and 225km mark. So we have to do something in return for their kind gesture.

2:00pm Carbo-Loading Session #1 – KLCC Food Court
Menu: Pasta-Carbonara, MacDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese w Flies and 7-Up, Soya Bean Drink, A&W Root Beer Float.

7:30pm Carbo-Loading Session #2 – KLCC Food Court … again
Menu: Japanese Rice w Miso Soup, meatball x 4, 300ml of 100Plus.

9:00pm Went for shopping. Spotted a Nike Running Tight.. Decided to buy it and use it for the marathon (Break the rule of Never Try Any New Thing for a race!)

10:00pm Pass my Banana to Inda (that was an excuse as I could ask him to get it from me)….. OK lah, my real intention was to watch 4 Video Clips of Extreme Sport at Inda’s room. Sorry I can’t say more about the Video I watch.
11:00pm Watch Arsenal beat Fulham to their 4-0 victory on ESPN until dozing off.

Mar-5 (Marathon Day)

3:30am Wake up (with approx 3 hours of sleep)
3:45am Breakfast (Raisin Bum x 2, 300ml of 100Plus, Banana x 1)
4:00am Take Taxi with Kai Wa, Jennifery, Inda & JP to Starting Point. Met Edkor and his Super Dad (74 years old but could finish a marathon in Sub5). Met a few sgrunners there (DreamRunner, DO, Brokie, AstroGirl, Run3… and many more)
4:30am wanted to go into the Assembly area but stop by Indabiggin. Some more can “suan” me that I am Hyper Active!!!
4:45am Finally got into the assembly area. My Polar S625X decided not to provide me with my heart rate infor.
5:00am Race started. Cross the start line at about 45 seconds later. Everything seems to be fine.

My Race Timing at each logical interval is as follow:

10KM 1:01
20KM 2:09
Half 2:16
30KM 3:18
40KM 4:30
Full 4:45

The Most demoralising Moment (at 30km mark):
Shortly after the 30Km mark, when 2 men were clapping hand to cheer me on.
After passing them, one man said to another “You see... FAT people can’t run properly”. Their conversation somehow affected me for the next 2 minutes, as I was weird mood “thinking is my running posture really that bad???? And it set me in a doubtful mood that I almost wanted to start walking. Nevertheless, I decided to switch my thought to something else and push on with my running.

Breaking my personal records:
Running a marathon non-stop (without walking)
Broken my own PB which I set during my first marathon in 1992 (4:58)

Many Many Thanx to so Many Many people:
I thanx all Trifamers & Sgrunners who were there either as supporter or participants.
Kai Wa, who drove us both way SIN-KUL. The drive back to SIN was fast (Max speed 200KPH)
Mag who multitask by provide morale support to me and at the same time do her part in contribute to the KL economy.
Jennifery for keeping pace with me for the 1st 21Km.
Inda who for the past few weeks keep using reversed psychology that I did not “Cheong”.
Edkor for his encouragement words and morale support.
The people cheering me near/at the finishing point. Esp. Inda, CW, Bleu, Munn, LittleFoot, Kelly (the Photograher), Brokie and Cokiee who pace me for the last 200m Dash…and many more that I can’t recall now. (so sorry if I have missed out your name)

Overall the rating for the event is 4.5 out of 5.
The Good.
Good water point (most of the time have plain water and 100Plus)
Although not applicable for me.. But I have to say they have a good system that you can even sign up on the spot or changing participant on the spot.


The Bad.
Insufficient Road Marker. Fortunately I have my Polar Foot Pod and I had some rough idea of the run route based on last 2 years experiences.
Didn’t have the per Km marker (for the last 10km) as promised. Only started from 38km on.
Event T-Shirt not so nice looking lah.