SC KL Marathon

Place : Dataran Merdeka
Date : 28 June 2009
Time : Before the cock crows 4.58am
Terrain : Easy if you're running 21k, not so for 42k.
Weather : Raining at the start, then cloudy all the way.
Traffic : Heavy, should have contra flow lah. Not well planned.
Times :

10km - 0:59:40
15km - 1:30:46
20km - 2:01:10
25km - 2:31:15
30km - 3:01:40
35km - 3:33:44 (Slowing Down!)
40km - 4:11:04 (Slower still)
42.78km - 4:29:21 (Final dash, if you can call it that)

My slowest 1km split was 8:21 at KM38.

The BIG day has finally arrived.

I hardly got any sleep although I was lying in bed at 9.30pm. I think I only slept at 1.00am.

Before you know it, the alarm went off at 3am. 2 hours better than nothing kua...

Manage to stuff 2 cups of water, a cupful of oats + milo + soya milk, with a cup of 3 in 1 nescafe. Didn't manage to unload all "unnecessary weight", hence was worried of offloading half way into the race.

We were out by 3.45am and at Padang Merbok 30 minutes later. I left the wife and kids to catch some zz while I strapped up and headed out to Dataran Merdeka.

The good thing was that I didn't need to register again and just did some stretches and look around while the rain came down in a drizzle.

I line up about 30 meters from the starting line, anticipating the pacers' balloons to go up accordingly. Strangely enough, it was a no show although it was clearly indicated in their runner's guide.

There was a countdown done by the announcer who went "6 minutes to go!", then blah blah, blah, "5 minutes to go" blah, blah, blah...you get the idea. The start was a bit funny though. He announced 'the race is going to start shortly!'. The next thing you know, BANG! off went the starter gun. No 3,2,1 or anything of that sort. Everybody was startled for a few seconds before moving.

The race started quite well, even with the rain until KM6. I started feel twinges in my left hamstring. That got me worried and thinking if I had to walk the remainder 36km, it would take another....hmmmm 10min/km x 36, 6 hours! *%$#

Anyway, I kinda shoved it at the back of my head as everything else was ok. The twinges were there until KM33, when everything else started hurting.

For first 33km, other from the twinges, everything was quite smooth. I ran pretty conservatively because of that, though.

I took my "special power juice" (2 red bull + soya milk in 750ml bottle) when thirsty or from the water stands when there weren't too many people. The banana servings at KM15 was heaven sent, as I did manage to pick up my pace after that.

On power gels, I took 1 at KM22, half at KM28, another 1 at KM32 (provided by POWER GEL), the other half is KM35 and the last one at KM38; 4 of them. Never really thought I would need all of them.

As we hit the Istana flyover KM33, which was quite steep, quite a number of runners started to suffer cramps. At that point, I was feeling good, but I was thinking of the wall coming up soon.

As I slowly made my way up the highway to Jalan Duta, the slight slope increase ever so slightly until it becomes noticeable. At KM37, the wall was slowly taking shape. I had to walk a bit every 500m.

By KM38, it deteriorated to a half run/half walk as the cramp twinges became more frequent. That's when I pulled my mental strength together, asking help from God, to give strength. Although I'm not a particularly religious person, I do believe that the Almighty one is always there and every time I ask for strength, I felt a tingling sensation in my body for a short boost of energy. Hmmm... I have never thought of running a marathon as a path of spiritual learning too :)

I spent about a minute trying to call my wife but just sent an sms instead. It was then I realized I was really cutting it close for my goal time of 4:30.

So near yet so far, I willed myself to push harder and strangely enough, the cramps didn't come in the last 2 km. As I accelerated down the stretch, the realization of finishing the marathon within the goal time became apparent.

I caught a glimpse of my son taking my picture as I approached the finished line. I looked at the clock 4:29:21 with 10 meters to go and the feeling of relief and a sense of personal accomplishment washed over me.

I had done it! A goal set when I was 21, trained 6 months and ran more than 1000km, through pain and injury of my achilles tendon in my right heel, was finally achieved.

The feelings that I have now as I type this posting is similar to the time I climbed to Gunung Tahan over 8 days.

In a way, it gives me insight that each man or woman does have control over their lives to a certain extent. It also instills a belief that everybody who has ran a marathon, he or she believes that they have a say in the direction of their lives.

With this, I'll close this posting with a saying I heard somewhere from a popular email - the environment influences only 10% of our lives, the rest of it depends on how we react.