June27 - Standard Charted KL Marathon

KL Marathon was a month after Sundown Marathon. After such a painful ITB experience, it was quite scary to get back on the saddle. Plus, I did not quite do any long runs in between. Only 10kms, eg. Setia Alam & MPSJ. Race starts at 5am, so KS & I were up at 2.30am for the usual morning race ritual. Advisable to be at the starting area 1hr before race start. This gives us time for toilet break, warm up, stretching etc.

Full Marathon

We parked at Bukit Aman & made sure no valuables was left in the car. Poong, Paul, Frank, KS & myself headed to the starting area at Dataran Merdeka. The place was lit up with music & exercise routines to hype up the crowd. I wore KS's North Face waist water pouch for emergency case like lack of water (like last year). The pacers were supplied with big colourful balloons with their designated allocated time printed on it.


We did a short run to warm up our muscles then into the lion's den we began. KS went ahead to track the sub4hr pacer while I stuck back with the sub5hr. Having suffer a flu for the past few days, I didn't want to push too hard or else I'll start feeling dizzy. Lian Meng, Kelvin & Kei Ming were carrying the big orange sub5hr balloon.

Pacers

Oh wait, forgot to mentioned. IT RAINED!!! Pretty heavy too. KS was asthetic. Thankfully I was pretty prepared. Vaselined my whole feet & plastic wrapped my mp3.

Water station

Back to the race. About 5km, I saw Meng running towards the bushes. Hey!!! Pacer cannot pee stop!! From Dataran Merdeka, we ran passed the Muzium towards Brickfields. From there, onwards to the Federal Highway. Water station was pretty good with isotonic drinks, water & cold sponges. The heat started to rise along the Sg Besi airport stretch heading to ... god knows where. Seriously, I was pretty lost at some point. I was still pacing along with Kei Ming.

Pavillion, KL

We started gathering more runners. It was quite fun actually. Chit chatting & joking. Good support along Jalan Bukit Bintang with street performers playing drums and Standard Charted cheerleaders as well. Timed 2hrs 15mins at the half way point. I didn't intend to push to made sure I can survive the 2nd half.

After we left KL City Centre, I think we started heading towards Sentul, Cheras then to Jalan Ipoh. That was a godsent coz it connects to Jalan Kuching towards Jalan Duta. This was the most common running route among runners. I still have trouble running uphill, so I walked with big steps to catch up. Familiar route gives a familiar confidence. Just another 3km to go. We ran passed the Bank Negara towards Sogo.


I really wanted to push on the last KM but I didn't wanna kaput on the final metres. Kei Ming was cheered as pacer as we came closer to the finish line. I had a big smile on my face as I crossed the finish line. 4hrs 51mins. I got my sub5hr (compared to last year 5hrs 15mins). I wasn't that tired. Just slightly sore on my knees. I changed my running style, to avoid my left ITB from hurting. I tried running on my forefoot with my <1month as="" br="" from="" had="" iced="" left="" my="" nb905.="" old="" shin="" time="" to="" well.="">

Special thanks Kei Ming for pacing me for a great time. My other friends who stayed back to cheer for my return. Many thanks to all.

Sights of Kuala Lumpur

Queue to Luggage Tent

Finisher Shirt

Full Marathon Medal

You know I love to alter my shirts. So, I was cutting around with the sides of the shirt to make it smaller. Suddenly I realised that I cut off too much :O

Thankfully I had extra cloth lying around to connect the front & back together...phew. Below is the final outcome. Kinda happy with it too.