Bridge Run 2009
Event date: Nov 22, 2009
It's another year of the Penang Bridge International Marathon. This Marathon event will always be close to my heart as it marks my very first loooong distance running. I have been doing it ever since I started working in Penang. This year is my fourth time running on the bridge in a half marathon category. 21km sounds and feels really long then, almost impossible to complete on foot. How things has changed in 3 and a half years...
Women half marathon starts at the ungodly hour of 3.45am. The earliest category, full marathon starts at 2.30am. It's more like a midnight run than a morning run.
I couldn't sleep the night before the run. Took dinner at 4.30pm and I tried to take a short nap around 7pm. When my phone rings at 8.30, I feel like I have not slept at all. It was my mum calling, I need to fetch her at the bus station. Mum is here for PBIM 10km Fun Run. Continue to sleep after that, but end up tosing and turning on the bed until 11. I think I did catch some sleep after that, but it sure feels like I din sleep at all.
Walked down to the starting line in front of QBM. It is so convenient that I can just walk there, don't have to worry about road closure and parking. Full marathon runners were already flagged off. Waited around for half marathon to start. The emcee lady irritates me. The way she talk was so monotone and boring. The Digi guy talks 10x much better than she did. Can't wait to be flagged off and get away from her voice...must be the lack of sleep that caused all the pekchek-ness
Started the run real slow, my watch shows 6:40 to 6:50mins/km pace. I have had some experience with starting too fast and end up exhausted half way into the run. I wanted to prevent recurrence of such bad experience, so I just ran as relax as I can at my own slow pace.
There were plenty of water this time around. Water were served in 500ml bottles. Too much water wastage...along the way, I must have thrown at least 4 bottles with more than half bottle of water left in it.
I ran and I ran, still at the slow pace...I refuse to push harder fearing I may puncture too early. Up the midspan of the bridge, down the slope, make a U-turn at km2.8 on the bridge, up the midspan and down again. This is when I decided I want to run a little bit harder.
Saw Peng Chee around this time and I call out to him. It's an enjoyable moment to see some familiar faces, though his face doesn't seem enjoyable at all. He told me he was in pain, I forgot where. "It's all in the head, Peng Chee. You've completed more than half way now, you can do it!" Say goodbye and I took off...
Around this time, I get a slight stomach ache. The pain subsided after awhile so I continue run. Get off the bridge heading towards E-Gate, looking out for the turning point back to QBM. Ran past the 2 runner statue beside the Jelutong Expressway. At this point, I was 5km away from finishing line. Stomach ache was on and off but manageable.
Stomach ache got really unbearable as I reached Villa Emas. It was the last km. Damn that stomach ache, so many people overtook me in this last km.
Finished 21km in 2:21, 22mins improvement compared to SCKLM 5months back. Ranked 53 out of 768 participants in my category.
People I met:
Peng Chee-during the run and at the finishing line
KCLeong-at the finishing line
Hong Yann-500m to the finishing line, I was walking back home at that time
A big congrats to sis for completing her maiden half marathon with an injured leg, and still manage to finish within the cutoff time. Well done!
It's another year of the Penang Bridge International Marathon. This Marathon event will always be close to my heart as it marks my very first loooong distance running. I have been doing it ever since I started working in Penang. This year is my fourth time running on the bridge in a half marathon category. 21km sounds and feels really long then, almost impossible to complete on foot. How things has changed in 3 and a half years...
Women half marathon starts at the ungodly hour of 3.45am. The earliest category, full marathon starts at 2.30am. It's more like a midnight run than a morning run.
I couldn't sleep the night before the run. Took dinner at 4.30pm and I tried to take a short nap around 7pm. When my phone rings at 8.30, I feel like I have not slept at all. It was my mum calling, I need to fetch her at the bus station. Mum is here for PBIM 10km Fun Run. Continue to sleep after that, but end up tosing and turning on the bed until 11. I think I did catch some sleep after that, but it sure feels like I din sleep at all.
Walked down to the starting line in front of QBM. It is so convenient that I can just walk there, don't have to worry about road closure and parking. Full marathon runners were already flagged off. Waited around for half marathon to start. The emcee lady irritates me. The way she talk was so monotone and boring. The Digi guy talks 10x much better than she did. Can't wait to be flagged off and get away from her voice...must be the lack of sleep that caused all the pekchek-ness
Started the run real slow, my watch shows 6:40 to 6:50mins/km pace. I have had some experience with starting too fast and end up exhausted half way into the run. I wanted to prevent recurrence of such bad experience, so I just ran as relax as I can at my own slow pace.
There were plenty of water this time around. Water were served in 500ml bottles. Too much water wastage...along the way, I must have thrown at least 4 bottles with more than half bottle of water left in it.
I ran and I ran, still at the slow pace...I refuse to push harder fearing I may puncture too early. Up the midspan of the bridge, down the slope, make a U-turn at km2.8 on the bridge, up the midspan and down again. This is when I decided I want to run a little bit harder.
Saw Peng Chee around this time and I call out to him. It's an enjoyable moment to see some familiar faces, though his face doesn't seem enjoyable at all. He told me he was in pain, I forgot where. "It's all in the head, Peng Chee. You've completed more than half way now, you can do it!" Say goodbye and I took off...
Around this time, I get a slight stomach ache. The pain subsided after awhile so I continue run. Get off the bridge heading towards E-Gate, looking out for the turning point back to QBM. Ran past the 2 runner statue beside the Jelutong Expressway. At this point, I was 5km away from finishing line. Stomach ache was on and off but manageable.
Stomach ache got really unbearable as I reached Villa Emas. It was the last km. Damn that stomach ache, so many people overtook me in this last km.
Finished 21km in 2:21, 22mins improvement compared to SCKLM 5months back. Ranked 53 out of 768 participants in my category.
People I met:
Peng Chee-during the run and at the finishing line
KCLeong-at the finishing line
Hong Yann-500m to the finishing line, I was walking back home at that time
A photo with part of the WWW, this photo was taken after I went home for shower and went back to the event ground
A big congrats to sis for completing her maiden half marathon with an injured leg, and still manage to finish within the cutoff time. Well done!
Cheers to many more long runs to come :)
Labels: All about ME, Healthy living
posted by LieWei at 9:02 PM
1 Comments:
Hi, there is a sure work formula to sleep at the time that you want... at least it works for me...:) For instance, if you want to sleep at 9pm on Saturday night, you should get as little sleep as possible on Friday night. So, on Friday night, you can watch TV until 4am (that's 4am Saturday morning), but make sure that you wake up the same usual time on Saturday morning, say 7am. After that, 'tahan' until Saturday night... do NOT take any afternoon nap in the day. So, when Saturday night finally comes, gaurantee you can fall into sleep like pig... simple right? hehe... :) :) This formula never failed me...:)
By
YS, at Dec 2, 2009, 1:27:00 PM
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