Race Report: SCKLM 2009

Pre marathon:

Firstly, happy birthday to my Grandpa who celebrated his 86th birthday over the weekend!

My SCKLM weekend was packed with a lot of activities. The week leading up to the race was really busy at work with plenty of meetings/trainings so that left little time in the day for work. I had to spend my nights catching up on work. I had planned to depart on Friday after work at 4pm with Chin Leong, Kenneth and Peck Yee in my car. Unfortunately, I had a team celebration at lunch time which lasted until 2.45pm. By the time I got back to the office, it was just a mad dash to pack up and leave before traffic builts up.

The drive was smooth enough although traffic on the highway was very heavy. We did stop by a pretty good Italian cafe for pasta in Ipoh. It was called Sweet Tea Spaghetti Cafe. We had the Aglio Olio with Turkey Ham and the Tomato with Potato (I'm not kidding you!). The pricey were a bit steep but the food was pretty good! Thanks Chin Leong for treating us!

Reach KL and dropped Chin Leong off at Petaling Street where he was staying. Then on to Lynn's place to rest up for the night. I was tired but stayed up late doing stuff. You know how sometimes it takes forever for you to get to bed even when you are tired? Most of the time it involves doing stupid things like folding clothes? That was me on Friday night. Finally hit the sack at close to midnight.

Saturday was a super packed day. Ribbit and I already have breakfast, lunch and dinner plans. Breakfast was early at 8am with Alan, Bee Wooi, Jocelyn and Pang. We had it in the EXCELLENT bakery called The Bread Shop in Damansara Heights. Ribbit and I went crazy as we both love good bread and had close to everything in the shop. Highlights include the cinnamon buns, the chocolate croissant, tuna mushroom bun and the sausage cheese roll. To die for!

We then decided to leave for Dataran Merdeka so that we can get there early to collect our bibs. Surprise, surprise that upon arrival at around 10am, the bib collection had already started and was a far cry from the disorganized mess that I heard about the day before. We collected our bibs smoothly enough but the heat at that time was unbearable. In my mind, I was thinking how screw I would be if I were still be running in this sort of heat.

For lunch, we met with Shih Ming (42k -denotes SCKLM distance to be run), San (42k) and Sue Anne (10k) at Umai-Ya at Damansara Perdana. The lunch was a tad bit pricey and the food wasn't particularly good. Lots of carbo-loading took place.

For dinner, we met up with THG (Team Hyper Gila) to have dinner at around the Kampung Pandan area at a place called Rendezvous Steakhouse which has very affordable and tasty pasta. Ribbit and I both had the "Spaghetti Napolitana" which was spaghetti with grilled chicken, mushrooms and mixed vege in a tomato sauce with a hint of cream. YUM!

We tried to leave as early as we could to go back and crash but ended up leaving only at 9pm. Upon arriving home, we still had to book our Macau tickets (to run Macau Marathon in December) and I only ended up sleeping only at 11pm.

Marathon day:

Ribbit woke up first at 2am and allowed me to continue sleeping while she showered. She's such a sweetie. After that I jumped in for a quick shower. A simple breakfast of peanut butter toast for me and egg with peanut butter bread for Ribbit. We packed our stuff and was out of the door by 3.30am. We arrived at Bukit Aman carpark with sufficient carpark space for us still. Whew! I met my co-worker, Sean Chan who will be running his first marathon.

We strapped on our respective knee guard and hydration belts and was off to the starting point. I was quite nervous, as I kept worrying about how I would run a marathon after a long injury break. I tried to curb my nervousness by focusing on my mind in completing the run.

My first screw up was lining up for a porta-pottie which occupant didn't seem to be exiting it soon. It started drizzling while I was in line which never bothered me. In fact, I'm happy it did as it cooled the air down. I finally left the porta-pottie 10minutes later in a huff of frustration to drop off the bag at the baggage area before trying again. I was luckier the second time around. My second boo-boo was failure to find Siew Swan, who had carried my HRM for me from Penang. I am terribly absent minded and forgot it. I didn't find her until 10minutes before the race. Whew! Two scares before I finally lined up at the start with Guan Choon, Siew Swan and Ribbit.

The gun went off and I shuffled to the start. This time around I didn't have a race strategy, race pace or time goal. My goal was to run with Ribbit and to finish, hopefully under 5 hours. As we started running, Ribbit suggested that we try not to lose two women runners from the WWW, namely Siew Swan and Hooi Fang. My legs felt so tight and they appear to be running so fast that I got stressed that I wouldn't have been able to keep up so after about 4k, I told Ribbit and she said to slow down if I felt discomfort. However, I kept at it and soon after awhile I found myself feeling pretty good about the pace and felt I was running comfortably.

I saw Oy Leen then Tuan Tuan and eventually Mich Looi. Oy Leen pulled ahead soon but I would be seeing Tuan Tuan until around 28km. Ribbit and I tried to pace with Mich Looi for most of the way after that and it was a nice pace of 6:15-6:30. We would run with her until around 26k. After that we would lose her. By around 28k, Siew Swan passed Ribbit and me. Not too long after that Guan Choon ran by.

Surprisingly, I would feel pretty good until 35k and this was where I totally tanked and took my first walking break. After that point the race was just a countdown in my head as I countdown the last 7k in my head. I look forward to hitting the 37-38k water station as I had ran out of water in my hydration belt. However, upon arrival, I found out that the water station was closed as they had run out of water. WTF?!? Okay, never mind, I will not let it sway me. I plodded on a tad bit grumpy now. Ribbit was so kind to give me the last sip of her Cytomax. At around 39k, SP and Sunny would pass us. As we came upon the junction I was excited to hear the blarring music coming from Dataran Merdeka although I know from my GPS that we still had a ways to go.

Picture courtesy of Winnie

When I arrived at the junction I was told to turn right. I knew it! Stupid route planning. That has to be by the far the longest 3k that I would run in awhile. It was agonizing especially without water. The organizers saved themselves from my wrath by having water at 40k. At that point, I was running a lot harder as I know the end of the race was coming. Ribbit was right behind me this whole time. As we passed the 500m to go mark, I counted down each 100m as I saw Dataran Merdeka come closer and closer. As we enter into the home stretch, Ribbit and I joined hands to run across the finish line together. Woo-hoo! According to my watch it was 4:53. Yes! A sub 5-hour marathon. Not my fastest but not my slowest either.

(Picture courtesy of Ben Swee)

I must take some time to commend Ribbit who such a trooper! This power woman ran a marathon after 2 months of not training. I was only out for 6 weeks and I was lucky enough to come back from injury in time to do two long runs (26k and 30k) but she just went to the start line and still got herself a sub-5. I am so proud of you Ribbit. You rock!

Team Hyper Gila

(Picture courtesy of Jenn)

Post marathon

Had a less than spectacular buffet at Tenji. After so much hype, I was terribly disappointment. It was exactly how I felt about SCKLM. Wow! Deja vu. The evening was much better as Ribbit and I watched Eve Ensler's "The Good Body" which was being staged at the Sime Darby Convention Center. It was such an awesome, hilarious play about some very serious women's issues. Ribbit and I were laughing a lot and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Problems with SCKLM 2009:

1. NEVER RUN OUT OF WATER IN A MARATHON

I do wonder if organizers here wish to wait until some one dies on the course from dehydration like that time in Chicago before they learn their lesson. I would rather be harsh on them now so that such things do not happen. The ironic thing was, they had so much water at the finish, they were giving away bottles of 1.5litre water.

2. What traffic control?

Either get your traffic control down or choose a less ambitious route. Runs that go through the heart of the city can be asking for trouble. How badly do I want to run past KLCC, really? I practically see some cops just standing there as cars whizz by them.

3. Where is my finisher's medal and T-shirt?

You mean after running 42km, I have to walk another 2km to get my medal and T-shirt? And what am I going to do with a size L finisher's T-shirt? Ribbit and I plan to wear it together as our Halloween costume this year.

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