Peang Bridge Run International Marathon Report

My preparation for the PBR IM 2009 was never going to be optimum due to the ever present right knee problem. I did almost all of my training on a treadmill and limited each session to between 3 and 5 km. Long runs were out of the question. The farthest I ran was 6.5 km and it was the longest distance I ran in two and half years. Running on the treadmill allowed me to train but there is a price to be paid as I found later during the race. Going overseas (USA between 7 to 16 Nov.and Myanmar 18 to 21 Nov.) put paid to my plan for last minute training.

In previous years, I stayed at Sri Malaysia hotel at Bayan Baru. Since last year the race start had moved from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) to Queensbay Mall. I decided to stay at the newly opened (12 Nov.) Eastin hotel because it is located at walking distance to the starting point (200m).

The starting time of 3.30 am gave me about 3 hours sleep. I went to bed at 10.00 pm but the faint booming music from a nearby Karaoke establishment (O'Reilly KTV) at an adjacent shop lot reached my room on the 8th floor. I managed to doze off at about 11 pm. As a measure of my anxiety about this race, I set 3 alarm devices ; Hand phone, iPod and also my Timex wristwatch all set to alarm at 2.00 am.

My race plan was to run at least 16 km and finishing the remaining 5 km by walking and running. The goal was to finish within 3 hrs.

The race started on time accompanied with the beating of drums, a nice touch I think. I started to run gingerly amongst the slow pack of runners. The distance (3 km?) and time it took me to reach the bridge seemed to be forever. At this early stage, I hoped that I was able to keep running and not embarrass myself by walking so early.

Once I reacheed the bridge I felt more confident that I could keep going provided I maintained a sustainable pace. Was I running too slow or too fast for my own good? It was hard to tell at my unknown state of fitness to run 21 km. However I thought I was running quite well up the slope towards the bridge apex. Going down the slope, I sped up a bit and I saw some distance away the bridge turn mark.

I passed the turn mark (10km) and was able to check my time; 1 hr 14 minutes. I was running at a pace of 8.1 km/hr. I figured if I could maintained this pace, I should be able to complete the race in 2 hrs 35 minutes. I think I still had enough endurance to do it.

The price of training on a treadmill came at 12 km. My legs were becoming sore. The soles of my feet were the hurting the mostt. It felt as as though my soles were being pounded by rubber hose. A description of torture involving beating on the soles is give here. Training on on a treadmill was a necessity but it did not condition my legs for the impact of running on the road. I had to stop running and started walking.

I mostly walked the remaining 9 km to the finishing line. In the end I completed the race in 3 hrs 02 mi. 33 seconds.

If I run another half marathon, I still have to train on a treadmill out of necessity but I have to run the same or longer distance on the road at least once a week.

PS: There were lots of complaints last year about the race (shortage of water among them) but this year, they seemed to have fixed most of it. They were even handing out mineral bottle water instead of water in a plastic cup.