PJ Half Marathon 2012 - Race Report

Photo courtesy of Penonton

I never really focused on training for half marathon races. All my training so far is targeted for running a full marathon. My next full marathon will be PBIM 2012 in November. This PJ Half Marathon 2012 was more of a warm-up race for me.

PJ Half Marathon 2012 was a well-organised event. This year the starting time was at 5:30am. This was a good move as last year the event started about 6:30am that caused most runners ran under the hot sun shinning into their eyes for the 2nd half of the race.

I started the race pacing with Tang Chee Choon. He also trains in Bukit Jalil. I was feeling quite strong but restrain myself so not to over commit myself too early in the race.

Then at around 4-6km, I overtook a few runners. At about 8km mark, iron woman Julie Foreman overtook me after pacing couple of kms alongside Tang and I. She also overtook me around the same area last year.

I think I surged a little forward from Tang then. However, Hong Zi-Shen who started just besides me overtook me shortly after. At about maybe 11km, ironman Richard Tang also zoomed past me and I couldn't follow. If there was any bad patches, this was it. My pace slowed at this stretch on the way to the U-turn near Terminal 2. The race become quite a lonely one for me.

After the U-turn, I increased my pace again and able to overtook a couple of runners. At the last 1 km, I catched up with Richard and was within 50m of him. I thought I should wait until near the finish before I tried to make a move. But I left it too late. I finished just a few seconds behind him.

My official result:

Gun Time: 1:34:32 (My Personal Best)
Rank: 8th (Men Jr Veteran), unfortunately no trophy nor cash prize. I'm still waiting for my first trophy or cash prize.

Overall good organisation of the event. The traffic control was a lot better than last year. Runners was diverted to run on the rightmost lane on the way to Terminal 2 on airport road and on the leftmost lane on the way back. Thus avoided cars that needs to turn to the left exit of junctions to Glenmarie, Ara Damansara, Plus highway.


The course is relatively flat and you can set fast time here. As for me, I didn't really think too much about doing well actually before the race. It was a pleasant surprise that I managed to improve my time by about 5 minutes compared to last year.

Maybe, just maybe, next year I can match Julie Foreman or Richard's pace. I will try-lah.