A milestone (SCKLM)

Today, I participated in the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon (SCKLM) and completed the half marathon. I'm marking this as a milestone in my life because I consider it a personal achievement.
(No photo, didn't bring camera with me to KL)

Pre-event
Back in mid of April, I made an important decision to sign-up for SCKLM alone, being that I cannot find anybody to sign-up together with me. Today, I can say that that decision was a right one to make.

Throughout the course leading to SCKLM, I get to know some great new friends, friends that share the same passion towards running and other outdoor activities. These down-to-earth friends are very generous to share health knowledge as well as running tips with new runner like me.

Event day
This morning, I woke up to a drizzling early morning. The full marathon were to start at 5am, but at that time, it was still raining. Poor full marathon runners, have to start the run in the rain.

The rain added one more concern to my already worried mind. I have been suffering from knee pain again since Wed, apart from that, I worried about the blister hotspot at the arch of my left foot. I have found the way to prevent that blister but that was for a 6km run, who knows if it also works for 21km, right? Then another concern was on the strict timing procedure in SCKLM. My target of this run is to get the finisher medal by completing the race within 3hrs. For the past 3 half marathons that I did with Penang Bridge Marathon, I did not manage to complete it within the time frame but was still able to get a finisher medal due to the organizer not being strict. I wanted that SCKLM finisher medal badly and that gives me some kind of stress. Yea, sometimes I worried too much~

Fortunately, the rain stopped before the half marathon run starts. Good, it removed one of my concern off the mind. 2,800 runners in this category were gun-off at 6.15am sharp. I run at my own comfortable pace, ignoring all those other people who continously over taking me. After this event, now I know that KL's road is hardly flat. Early into the run, we already had to run up this ramp and to my horror, there are still many more ramp and uphill road ahead of me.

I am not familiar to roads in KL, so I actually do not know where I am at some point, I just kept running. It gets harder when I didn't know how far I have done and how far more to go. Asking the volunteers were useless coz they do not know either.

At the first water station (I believe it should be 3km into run), my left leg started to feel uncomfortable. It felt stiff, maybe because of the knee problem. I do some light stretching and it felt better. I try to control my water intake, didn't wana fill up my stomach with too much water. Then it was another 2.5km (according to the runner's guide book) to reach the next water station.

The routine of slowing down to a walk 100m before the water station, take a small sip from the cup, stop for a quick stretching and continue running were repeated a couple of time. I wasn't actually counting, most of the things happen in a blur, I couldn't remember much except the painful steep long road. That ramp that bring us to Jln Duta (I think so but not too sure), the long and slightly uphill Jln Duta, the peaceful road that goes uphill most of the way (somewhere near Lake Garden?), the long stretch also a little uphill in front of Muzium Negara, and many many more overhead bridges and ramps. Painful run...

I talked to myself a lot, trying to do self-motivating. Before the race, I actually received SMSes from friends, wishing me good luck and encouraging me to do my best. Their word of encouragement burn deep into my mind and these words help me to push on and on during the difficult long run. I would tell my self "run your own race and NOT walk your own race". I do not allow myself to walk, "you can run very slowly but NO walking". It may have sound crazy but talking to own self is quite helpful.

At the point where we pass by a Balai Bomba (heading out of the city), I was running side by side with this guy in yellow-pants. We ran together for quite some distance before he slowed down and I never see him again throughout the rest of the run. I find that it is kind of motivating to have someone to run together with, at about the same pace. I didn't manage to glance at his face nor check what number he's wearing other than the striking yellow-pants. Unlike PBM, SCKLM half-maratoners only have the bib number in front but not at the back of runners. Thank you Mr. Yellow-pants, you make my run interesting for awhile there :)

The weather today was really nice for running. With the rain early in the morning, it must have cool down the road, I don't feel the hotness in my shoe soles until quite late into the run.

Towards the end of the race, running downhill, I can see Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad and I was really happy. But as I'm approaching, I found that we had to make another diversion towards Sogo, make a big round before heading to the finishing line. That was totally demotivating. I am already very tired, able to see the finishing line and yet cannot go towards it. That feeling drains away what little energy left in me. I couldn't push on any further, I could feel the cramp about to attack. At the last water station, I gulp down a full cup of water, which I shouldn't because it fill my stomach with too much water and I get abdomen pain after that. I just cannot control, the water tasted so good man! I slowed to a walk after that, I walk and walk until I can see the pintu gerbang of the finishing line. It was then that I started running again. Ignoring the pain at almost every corner of the body, I pushed hard running, until I finally cross the finishing line.

Boy was I hungry! Looking forward to a drink of Milo and maybe some Nestle cereal, just like what we had for Penang Bridge Marathon but what I get was disappointment. The only edible/drinkable brand available were 100plus and Alpine Mineral Water. There were bananas but when I found out where to get those, they were already snapped up. No more bananas left.

Talking about bananas, in the runner's guidebook, we were told that there will be bananas at the 15th km. As I run and run, looking forward to the banana which never comes. Whats more with the confusing distance marker, I didn't know if I already pass 15km already or not.

Post-marathon
In my opinion, I have performed much more better than what I expected of myself. I was running at least 2hrs continuously non-stop, only slowed to a walk at water stations and stop for quick stretch. Though I ran slow but I kept pushing forward one small step at a time. I finished 21km in 2hrs 43mins, which is the unofficial time. The official ones will be out a few days after the marathon. Let's see what is my ranking among 2,800 runners.

LW, I am very proud of you for coming this far. You have achieve a milestone.