Race Day: KLIM International Marathon 2008

3.00 am sharp, and I was up staring at my watch. For fuel, I had a banana, 2 piece of bread and milo.
I had like 5 hours of sleep, but wish I could still sleep more. Luckily, it's not everyday I had to do this, or else, I'll just not sign up for crazy starting time at 4.30 am.

Met haza, Geraldine, tomatoman, stupe, karen, and john (3:16). This time, I was not as nervous as previous year.
The gun went bang at 4:30 am, and soon, all runners were moving slowly out from the starting line. The wheather was pretty humid, and no wind. I quickly settle on my usual pace of around 5 to 6 min/km. The road is still long, and there'll be no point pacing with others who are faster than you. The rule to remember is that you are on your own.

Around 20km, I did a pit stop for dawn prayers just in time.

Things started to look bad from this point. I had a left knee pain, but I just keep reminding myself, it'll go away, or with phrases such as "no pain no gain"...yea rite. By 30km, thanks to powergels from support staff over there, I gulped one of those uneasy food. Then my pace slowed considerably.

Actually, I could have forced myself to run faster, but I didn't. The heavy traffic on the road, with buses and trucks, and cars, provided a not so nice scene to run on. Where's the cheering? Where's the malaysians who should wake up and cheer for these marathon runners, who are "killing" themselves over 42k? Marathons in other countries provide such a great atmosphere, with people lining up, holding signs, cheering, and performing. While here, it's just a run in common KL taffic. Given any choice between hulu langat and KL, I'll run hulu langat where the monkeys could cheer me on.

At one point after the pahang roundabout, there's not even a path for runners. I had to walked on the green grass above the tarmac, while a bus is hogging it.

Things start to look better with the remaining 8km, but I was not going any faster. Moving yes, but just for the sake of completing. The faster the better. At 6km mark, I saw tomatoman on the right side coming back from the u-turn. Pretty fast I would say. He would make it sub 4.

With the remaining 2km, and all the way downhill, it was a mad dash, as I try to ignore pain and fatigue. I never knew Bank Negara looks so awesomely attractive.

Crossing the line at 4:09:10 was below what I target, but that'll be another challenge later. At the least, much better than 5:27 last year.

To all runners who had attempted the full marathon, take good rest, and lets rock Sundown...