Wish upon a star *: PG Malakoff 26km 2011

The first weekend of cheng beng. A lot of rain. And a lot of traffic jam leading from cemetery stretching to almost the whole Penang.

This is the 2nd time I attempted the Penang Malakoff Odd 26km race. Don't really like this race since I first know about it because it is expensive (RM55 for non-pacesetter member) and the fact that it is 26km. 5km more than the usual half marathon distance. Do you know that 5km is A LOT after you have run 21km continuously?

Runners being runners, I just cannot let go of a race so near to home ground. So I signed up in the end.

When I wake up at race day at 4am in the morning, the rain was pouring outside. "Do I really have to do this under the rain? Brrrr...so cold". But I still get up and get ready for the 5.30am run, hoping that the rain will stop by then.

Wish come true. Rain stopped. I started with a conservative pace of 6:30 to 6:40mins/km pace. The start of the route was of multiple hills, first hill up Mount Erskine, 2nd hill up Vale of Tempe, 3rd one is towards the end of Jalan Lembah Permai and the last one up the Tanjung Bungah slope. That was more than 10km of rolling up and down. The rest of the route is mostly flat until the Youth Park part, which is the ending.

Initially, my plan was to take it slow and easy at the first part and then perhaps push harder when I get to the flat if I still feel ok. But that day, I wasn't feeling good even before reaching Gurney roundabout. Feels a blister coming on the right big toe and my left calf is tightening up. The thoughts about last years' terrible cramp keep lingers in my mind. "Let me finish this with no cramp, pls". I keep telling myself don't cramp don't cramp, I don't dare to run any faster than I was already doing. Better be slower than to cramp half way and have to walk.

20km mark, I was running slower already.I can't get myself to run any faster than 7mins/km pace. But I keep on running...a lot of self talking and self motivating at this point onwards. Around here, a Malay dude over take me and complimented my shoes. "Nice shoes", he said. Haha, yea, something that cheers me up when I was feeling so tired.

After I passed Padang Polo, the road leads to merge into Jalan Utama. There was a traffic police there stopping the traffic for runners to cross the road. It was quite a major road. I was running in this pack of 3-4 runners and I was the last in the pack. The traffic police shouted at me to run faster, think because he's kind of stress stopping all the cars kua. This is at km24+/-. If I have leftover energy that time, I would have shouted back at him. "Lu ingat wa tak mau cepat kah?!! I mau PB punya tau" (PB = Personal Best, referring to finishing time)

So far in all my road races experience, I always seen helpful traffic police and RELA members that direct traffic. This is the first time I encounter bad behaviour from traffic police. One bad out of many good ones, I think that is quite acceptable :)

Finished 26km run in 2:53:53. Not the best of time and not as good as what I've hope to achieve but nevertheless, it is my personal best time and I completed it cramp-free and injury-free.