The 21 km course started from Dataran Merdeka and the route followed several major highways in Kuala Lumpur. The route map is available at the official KLIM site.
Saturday night
I planned to sleep early and by 10.00 pm was already in bed. As it turns out. sleep did not come easily and at I managed to fall asleep at 1.00 am.
Sunday.
At 4.00 am (3 hrs sleep) my trusty alarm clock started to beep furiously. A second alarm from my Timex Ironman Triathlon watch also started to buzz. No more sleep for me but surprisingly I was not feeling sleepy- the adrenaline must have to started to kick in early.
I drove along the Federal highway and at 5.00 am was already at bus stop on the flyover in front of Armada hotel. I put on my shoes and settled down to wait for Kenneth. At 5.06 am, a car behind me started to flash it's headlights. It must be Kenneth. He too was early although rendevous time was 5.15 am.
Dataran Merdeka
We reached the planned parking area and started to prepare stuff for the race. Reporting card, gels (2x), camera, wallet and RM 10 in my wrist wallet. We walked to Dataran Merdeka from Dayabumi complex. As we walked, a cool breeze blew in the opposite direction. We reached Dataran just after 5.30 am. It was quite deserted as the marathoners had left at 5.00 am. Met Ketam Batu, Bernice and Ajeep. Ajeep looked to be quite nervous (his first half marathon). We spent the time looking for places to pee (I peed 3x) , walking around and warming up. Other familiar faces turned up; Karim, Azwar, Karim, Chin TM, Newton, Cheong, Justine, MJ, Kenny and Ronnie. Kwok Foo was also there with an iPod.
The runners for the 21 km were starting from a caged enclonsure. We had to line-up in two rows and two officials took our reporting cards and wrote down our bib numbers. Kenneth and I got in just 10 minutes before 6.30 am.
Race start and first 5 km
I was expecting a gun start but instead there was a 5 number countdown. The crowd started to move forward but had the race started or was everyone getting into a start position? I shuffled my feet faster as it became apparent the race had started. As I passed by the starting line there were several photographers taking shots - I gave a thumbs up sign and my best grin as well.
The initial route was along Jln Sultan Hishamuddin. It was still dark and several guys took advantage of the darkness, to water the plants in front of Dayabumi. Kenneth and I mantained a slow initial pace. Then we went up even steeper roads. I had to run very close to the road edge as the crowd was still thick. We powered up the hill and down to Jalan Istana. On the Federal highway, we caught up with Kwok-Fok here and we chatted as we ran along at comfortable pace. The first water station was at the 4.5 km mark and was well stocked with water and isotonic drinks.
Saw a short haired girl with two knots tied to the back of her hair. Managed to peek at her face before overtaking; chinese, cute round face with big eyes. Wore black shorts. Looks friendly and perky. Sometime later, she ran ahead and dissapeared.
5 km to 10 km.
It was very pleasant running along the Jln Syed Putra. Ihad a sense of freedom as the road was closed to traffic. For a while I ran in the middle of the road. Out of nowhere, a taxi sped by and I retreated back to the left most lane.
Soon we turned left to the KL-Seremban highway and had to run uphill for about 1 km. Damm! Here Kenneth reminded me to run at a pace suited for an uphill run. We shortened our strides, pumped our arms and slowed down slightly. Came across Chin Tuck Meng here - he was also pumping away too. There was another station (at 10 km) just before the top and I shouted to Kenneth "Do we stop or not?" We stopped and drank some water. At the 10 km mark, our pace was 63 minutes. Below and behind us, a steady stream of runners moved up this "hill" - some had been reduced to walking.
Throughout the 5 to 10 km route, another guy (yellow vest , wearing tinted glasses) had attached himself behind me and Kenneth. He was using us as pacers, running just 1-2 m behind. It was quite irritating as he was running too close and I feared he would trip me. Sometimes I moved to the right, glanced behind and was expecting him to overtake us. But he never did....... GRRR!
10 km to 15 km
This part is where we reached Jln Lapangan Terbang. We slowed down a bit in this stretch. Our unwelcomed "Pacer" had overtaken us and moved ahead. But I could still see his yellow vest, head hunched down grinding away at the tarmac. We came to an uphill stretch and we decided to "power run" up this stretch.
I saw the "pig tail" girl again - by now her black shorts was wet,sticky and creased with sweat. Could see her bottom move up and down in sync with her feet as she ran PM19 style. Random thoughts went into my mind as I stared on but must focus on the race.
I ran a bit harder to catch up with girl and made my move to the left. I fired off a "Hi" greeting and she replied "Hi" with a slight smile. Hmm, a prospect - what is my next line ? But she was quite breathless and I could see she was giving everything she had. I ran for a while beside her until Kenneth showed up. Had to leave her behind to continue with the race.
Jln Imbi - this was the worst part as this road was not closed to traffic. Why not - dear organiser ? We had to run squeezed between the cars parked at the right and cars moving on the right lane. To make things worse, the 5 km/hr traffic (students) was also running on the same road.
15 to 22 km
The final 7 km was in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. At Jln Sultan Ismail, there was a booth with a water spray. Raised my arms and ran through the water spray. Never mind my sweaty armpits - the spray will wash it off and suspend them momentarily in the mist for the next runner to inhale, ha-ha.
Legs were becoming stiff and knee started to hurt. Both of us slowed down a lot. The "yellow vest" guy was just 50 m in front. I said to Kenneth "Let's overtake this guy near the finishing line". But he seemed to be tiring so we ran past him. I had a good look at him and park his mug in my memory bank. GRRRR....next time..........brader.
From Jln Sultan Ismail, we turned left to Jln Tungku Abdul Rahman. On the left beside Pertama complex (PC) runners were pouring into Jln TAR. Were they marathoners ? Nope, they were 10 km runner. At this point I wanted to dash to the finishing line. But then I remembered we had to make a complete loop around PC to Jln Raja Laut and back to Jln TAR.
So another loop we went around PC, Kenneth reminding me to pace properly so as we give a strong finishing kick. When we went passed the last traffic light on Jln TAR, both of us sprinted off. This fellow Kenneth is a strong runner and shot off like a 100 m sprinter.
Time : 2 hrs 17 min 02 secons
Position:238
Post race
After the race, I hung around to meet other runners. Met Bernice and Andrew and we sat down to rest our tired bodies. Bernice had run 1 hr 57 minute , a remarkable performance and she stilll looked fresh. Julian and his female friend had finished their 10 km race. Met Sukaimi who ran his first marathon in 3 hrs 46 minutes. The guy looked to be strong enough to immediately run another marathon.
Later Kenneth and I proceeded to join the oher runners near the bridge. We sat down and cheered as our marathoner friends made the last 100 m distance. Saw Haris (first marathon), Jamie and Steven, all running PRs in about 4 hrs 40 minutes.
Good :
- Plenty of water and isotonic drinks
- Good traffic control except at the Jln Imbi stretch
- Breakfast
- Sufficient medical personnel along route.
- The ugly looking 21 km medal.
- Lack of facilities for supporters especially children - Singapore had a mobile playground.
- Registration screw ups.
- Lack of atmosphere - where was the music ?
- Insufficient mobile toilets.
- Distance markers were written on the ground and easily missed. Signboards would be more practical and useful.
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