Penang Bridge Half Marathon

I've conquered the Penang Bridge (Half) Marathon along with Foo, Daniel, Kok Fang, and Tham (the last three are first-timers)! Do not get excited over the word "conquered". Although "finished" would be more appropriate, I couldn't have cared less! Haha! This being only my second half-marathon, I set a realistic goal of finishing in less than 2.5hrs. Well, I finished not only below that, but also timed better than my half-marathon debut at PDIHM which had a shorter distance!

Yours truly, Kok Fang, and Daniel. Compare the luggage size!

I definitely prepared myself better than my half-marathon debut in Port Dickson last April. So much so that my travel luggage is so much more massive compared to the two other half-marathon newbies!

Posing as if I'm studying hard for exam!

Having have to sit for our end-of-posting exams this week, all of us had our study materials on board of the lousy and bumpy bus that took us from Seremban to Puduraya to Penang in a fatiguing EIGHT hours ride (there were plenty of stops in between to load/unload passengers)!

The bus was so bumpy we were rocked to sleep in no time. The sleep-wake-read-sleep cycle continued till we reached the Penang Bridge, our marathon venue!

The bridge felt undoubtedly long, even when we're travelling on a bus! It's a 13.4 km of architectural wonder (we later found out it's actually a 13.4 km stretch of garbage/faeces stench)! We had to run the length of this bridge twice!

Queensbay Mall - huge resemblance to 1Utama!

We headed straight to Queensbay Mall after collecting our return bus ticket in the bus terminal. The taxi charged us RM12.00 for a distance less than 2km! Bloody cut-throat! Like any other part of the country, the cabbies don't use meters!

After paying the registration fees and collecting our running numbers at the booths outside Queensbay Mall, we proceeded to collect our T-shirts but were told they had run out of stock!

The five of us - from left: Foo, Daniel, Tham, Kok Fang, KK.

We decided to use the KFC coupons for dinner while waiting for their T-shirts. The coupon is good for a set meal of 2-piece chicken, potato wedges, a bun, and carbonated soft drink for RM8.00. I went a step further by ordering another set of fish & chips for RM5.00. Was pissed bloated!

Foo, yours truly, Daniel

We stayed at The Northam All Suite Hotel near Gurney Drive. It's bloody far from our running venue, but Foo insisted we stay there as he could get us corporate rate for the junior suite, and the possibility of free upgrade to deluxe suite free of charge (which never happened). Protest as we might (heheh, kiddin ya Foo), but he had already charged his credit card for reservation! Alrightey then...

You know Northam is a stylo-mylo, mumbo-jumbo kinda hotel when you see the supercars parked at the entrance. Foo kept arguing with me that this car here resembled his, while I retorted that my car had the exact plate number. Haha...


And here are some clowning photos inside our hotel suite. Very nicely decorated and spacious. Comes with a huge "open-concept" bathroom with jacuzzi tub and a smaller "poo-ing room", a business table, sofa set, and all the standard stuffs.

Foo getting ready to dip into the jacuzzi tub.

Daniel getting aroused seeing a partially-naked man.

I was a bit uneasy when Foo told me that he'd arranged the hotel transport to send us to the running venue at 0400hrs, when our reporting deadline is at 0415hrs and starting time at 0430hrs! Brushing it off and hoping that all would go well, we ventured out for some mineral water and isotonic drinks for the big day.

A trip to Penang is not a trip to Penang till you have some of the local food. We simply walked into one of the restaurants near our hotel, I had the Hokkien noodles and some fried omelette with oyster. Verdict: Tak Boleh Jadik / Can Not Make It One!

Penang Hokkien-style noodle. Laden with 99% MSG!

Fried oyster omelette - makes you feel sad!

Got into bed at 12am. Couldn't sleep that night, couldn't help wondering what'd happen if we missed the reporting time. It's clearly printed in the runner's guide that no participants would be allowed on the bridge if they missed the 0415hrs reporting deadline. We've came so far... what if... *ZzZzZzZzZzZzZZ*

And sure enough, we were LATE! We reached the venue at 0430hrs. By the time we checked-in our bags for safe-keeping and did our last pee-ing, the race started. Foo raced AGAINST the traffic in search for the reporting station, and I was on hot pursuit from behind. I soon missed him, and decided to cross to the other side of the street which was clear of charging human beings, and raced towards the rear entrance of USM, across the wide football field, to reach the front USM entrance to get my arse registered. Now I had to run back to where I came from, across the field, around the housing area, and back to the starting point. I saw Foo halfway through the field. Guessed he had some great struggles with the traffic earlier. All in all, I lost a whopping 25 MINUTES, and ran a good 3-4km extra! What a good way to warm up.

By the time I reach the starting line, the street were already empty. I re-started my stopwatch and off I went. On entering the bridge, I saw Kok Fang, one of the three newbies. I later found out all three of them went straight to the USM front entrance, which was directly across the road from where we kept our bags. They were definitely the smarter ones, they bypassed the detour I and Foo made!

Soon enough, I caught up with the crowds. In fact, my whole run was wading through crowds and crowds of people, zig-zagging, slowing down and picking up speed. 00:50 into the run, I emptied a packet of PowerGel and downed it with water. On doing the second loop of the bridge at 01:10, started to have severe intermittent tummy ache. All I had was a sachet of PowerBar Endurance Sports Drink and two PowerBars back in the hotel and a packet of PowerGel! I thought that would be the end of the run, coz I had to slow down to walking pace whenever the pain came. But everytime when the pain climaxed, it went away with a warm and long flatus (fart). The on and off tummy ache lasted about 10mins. Must be KFC's Hot&Spicy wreaking havoc!

Luckily, the pain was gone for good right after downing half a bottle of mineral water at the water station. And I was picking up speed again. Had minor calf muscle cramp at 01:30, but no time to whine. Continued to run and wade through another throng of youngsters from the "Fun Run" category.

And I crossed the finishing line clocking 02:14:50 for the 22.3km half marathon! The only consolation I had was that I finished ahead of the three first-timers despite our bad start and the extra unnecessary distance me and Foo covered.

Post-run, downing Gatorades.

It feels good to know that I'd improved since the first run; I did a slowish 02:20 for a 21km in PD. Here I'm doing 5 minutes less with an extra 1.3km thrown in, plus an almost 4km pre-race "warming up"!

The five IMU stars. From left: Kok Fang, KK, Foo, Daniel, Tham.

Foo, the most experienced runner among us five, was unlucky to have diarrhoea during the run. He visited the makeshift loos along the bridge twice, and came in at a disappointing 03:00. Again, must be the KFC!!!

The three first-timers completed the run too - with a medal and participating cert each to boast! Tham finished in 02:20+, Daniel in 02:30+, and Kok Fang 03:30+.

On returning to our suite at Northam, we discovered these majestic seafront views! Didn't know there was such a nice seaview the night before!
Some more cam-whoring at Northam while waiting for transport to the bus terminal. Time was a bit tight as we purchased the last few tickets that were still available the day before, scheduled to leave for KL at 11am.

Foo and yours truly.

The four of us.

And what happened to our three half-marathon first-timers from IMU, post-race? Scroll on...

Kok Fang

Tham

Daniel

Wanna have a peek at the Penang Bridge medals? This is my first proper marathon medal, as the one from Port Dickson Half appeared to be medals recycled from secondary schools (click here for the image). Penang Bridge medals on the other hand is made of pewter - damn solid look!

There would be definitely more medals to come, but for now it's study time for exams! Anything past August, rope me in! Anybody going for Singapore Marathon come this December?! I'm thinking of joining the full marathon!

p/s: Ray, sub 02:00 still cannot make it lah. Give some tips to prevent mesenteric ischaemia during run leh!


My Training Log for Penang Bridge Marathon:

28.05.2007 - 6.0km @ 00:30:30
31.05.2007 - 14 km @ 01:19:58
04.06.2007 - 9.8km @ 00:55:41
05.06.2007 - 7.0km @ 00:35:52
09.06.2007 - 8.4km @ 00:44:27
11.06.2007 - 1.4km (post-gym sprint)
13.06.2007 - 5.6km @ 00:29:39
15.06.2007 - 14 km @ 01:20:42
18.06.2007 - 5.0km @ 00:26:24