Malakoff 26km Penang 2010 - Race in the Heritage City

Note the people around the finish line. They must had wondered if this guy won anything.

The feeling was incredible when I crossed the finish line. Completing my second run in my second home (Penang) since PBIM 2009, with my wife waiting for me at the finish line, the feeling was probably close to winning it.

I signed up for this race after I learned that I would need to skip Sundown Marathon because of a wedding dinner in Penang. I got my wife to join me although she opted for the shorter distance 6km. She is targeting her maiden 21km in PBIM 2010.

I didn't set any target in the days leading up to the race. I am actually training for SCKLM 2010 42km scheduled on 27 June. So I was treating this race as a training run.

The race started on time at 5:30am. My wife was near the start line to cheer me on. She would start one hour later for the 6km race.

After about 2km, the climb started on Jalan Mount Erskine. It was a quite a challenging (up and down) climb to about 4.5km mark but I was glad it was at the beginning of the race. After 7km mark, when I collected my second check point ribbon (the first was at the starting line), the race course took us downhill to Jalan Batu Ferringhi where the terrain is flatter. The run on this road was pleasant with a slight upward slope near Tanjung Bungah Hotel.

At the Gurney Drive round-about (about 13km mark), it was a familiar place for most people. I had also run several times from Gurney Drive to Esplanade (and back). This route overlapped partly with my training route, so it made me felt much more comfortable and I continued to maintain my 5 minutes per km pace. At this stretch, a foreign lady runner was trying to catch up with me but I was able to hold my ground.

When I was about reached the round-about at Light Street, I saw Michele Tan already made her turn and was about 500m in front of me. I thought it was a tall order to catch up with her, so I didn't.

I collected my third check-point ribbon at the turn, around the 18km point. From here, the course took us to part of the Heritage City roads. From here, I managed to overtake a few runners. The sun by now was already shinning brightly but luckily the buildings and the trees provided the much needed shades for the runners.

At the last 3km, I followed two runners in front of me closely and I was trying to find a right time to make my move. At the last km, three of us ran into heavy traffic near Jalan Utama on the way to back to Youth Park. I was running just less than a metre from the cars cruising at around 50-60km/h, not to mention the motorcycles. Luckily there were traffic police near the traffic light to Western Garden and we safely made our crossing to the other side of the road.

After I turned into the entrance of Youth Park, I made my move and overtook the runner in front of me. Then I passed another runner 100m before the finish. At the finish line, I was just enjoying myself and crossed the line with my arms wide open.

Then I met up with my wife who snapped my finishing photo. She had finished her 6km race in about 40 minutes and helped to take some photos around the race. I quickly returned my timing chip and got my medal and goody bag.

It was a good run as I completed with an unofficial time of 2:11:35 for position 24th in Men Open Category. Average pace just about 5 minutes per km. And I was able to break the 1 hour 45 minutes barrier at the 21km split. This gave me some hope that I could improve my half marathon timing and hopefully my full marathon timing as well.

I may give my comment about this event later.

Until the next run, do train hard and stay healthy.