It has been one exhausting Sunday. Grabbed only a few hours of sleep last night, and then had to be up at 4am to take part in the half-marathon for the Stanchart run. This is the first time that Stanchart is holdings its marathon here in KL (it used to be the Ambank KL International Marathon) and I had many good memories from the well-organised Singapore Stanchart run.
There were already some hiccups in the collection of the race pack, where there was a massive queue to collect it on Friday. Problem was aggravated by the rain which seemed to short circuit the server. Organisation of the run was off to a bad start. I collected the pack first thing on Saturday morning and no problems. A little bit disappointed with the race pack, since there was hardly anything in there. Just a bunch of pamphlets. The racing singlet was definitely not as nice as the Singapore one too, with Stanchart going with a white Reebok singlet.
So at the crack of dawn this morning, Dataran Merdeka was crawling with runners. All in all, there were more than 12,000 runners who had signed up for the entire race. My preparation for the half-marathon this time round was pretty much non-existent, with me barely having once a week of running, and most times only around 6-7km. Wasn't going to be good.
Anyway, the run started at 6.15am, and the route was pleasant. Took us all round KL, eventually looping round Berjaya Times Square. That corner where we looped round was my favourite section of the run actually. By that time, I had already hit more than 10km, and the run was going fine. Cleared 9km in my first hour and was feeling alright.
Once I hit the 14km mark though, that is when everything went downhill. The pain in my knees had gotten worse, and it was getting harder and harder to keep running at my pace. That's when the lack of training hit me I guess, muscles and body just not used to the long distance.
Every single water station was like a godsend, giving me time to drink the 100 Plus or water, cool my body down and to walk a little. By the 15 - 17km mark, I was literally just telling myself to clear 1km at a time. It became more of a mental thing, as my body felt like giving up on me. It didn't help that by that time, the route started going uphill and downhill, torture on my knees!
I had my GPS watch to track the distance but I noticed that there were no distance markers for the half-marathon route. It was only set for the marathon runners. I had to off and on break into a walk, especially when going uphill and this was a lot worse than my Singapore run. Gasp.
As I looped back round to the roundabout near Menara Maybank, I could hear the cheering of the crowds near the Dataran Merdeka finishing line. I knew the distance was deceptive as we still had to make a loop up Jalan Raja Laut. So near yet so far. I just had to keep repeating to myself the slogan "Pain is temporary, pride is forever" (saw it at the Singapore run). But I had already repeated that to myself many times during the run, and I just had to force my lead legs to keep moving.
I finally finished with a time of around 2:25 which is decent. Slower than my previous time of 2:15 but alright considering the lack of preparation. The agonising run is also a lesson that I need to train for these longer distance runs.
The organisors did not arrange the layout of the tents very well, and there were no real clear signs. I had to wander around to find the 100 Plus station and then walk again to find the banana counter. People were grabbing the bananas as if they had to feed the whole of Africa! Some were stuffing like 20 bananas into their bag! Come on lah. After having scoffed down 2 bananas, it was then time to collect the finisher medals.
More chaos this time, with no real clear directions as to how to collect your medals. Long snaking queues were building up, and the reason I found out later was because the finisher medals were combined with you collecting your own bags. Those who did not check in the bags should not have to wait in the queue like that. Only sensible to split up the tents to separate places. And there was no system to monitor who were collecting the medals. People were just scribbling their names and numbers down on scrap pieces of paper and then grabbing the medals. Anyone could grab multiple medals if they wish. Again, the sensible thing is that every person should surrender their bib in order to collect the medal.
The list of complaints stretch on endlessly on the Stanchart KL Marathon facebook group. Some of the common complaints were how the water stations for the full marathon were no longer set up after the 20km mark. Can die! And the disorganisation for the 5km run, resulted in no clear markers for the route, and then people running and returning in 10 minutes!
I had an alright time, but the Singapore run is definitely a benchmark on how to organise a good run. It was such a pity to see the marathon runners getting a cheap-looking white cotton t-shirt to state that they were a Finisher of the full marathon.
The day did not end for me though, with no time to rest, it was time to shower at home, and then head straight into the office where I had to work until 8pm. My knees have now given way and they are really hurting. I am actually afraid that I might not be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning because of the pain.
There were already some hiccups in the collection of the race pack, where there was a massive queue to collect it on Friday. Problem was aggravated by the rain which seemed to short circuit the server. Organisation of the run was off to a bad start. I collected the pack first thing on Saturday morning and no problems. A little bit disappointed with the race pack, since there was hardly anything in there. Just a bunch of pamphlets. The racing singlet was definitely not as nice as the Singapore one too, with Stanchart going with a white Reebok singlet.
So at the crack of dawn this morning, Dataran Merdeka was crawling with runners. All in all, there were more than 12,000 runners who had signed up for the entire race. My preparation for the half-marathon this time round was pretty much non-existent, with me barely having once a week of running, and most times only around 6-7km. Wasn't going to be good.
Anyway, the run started at 6.15am, and the route was pleasant. Took us all round KL, eventually looping round Berjaya Times Square. That corner where we looped round was my favourite section of the run actually. By that time, I had already hit more than 10km, and the run was going fine. Cleared 9km in my first hour and was feeling alright.
Once I hit the 14km mark though, that is when everything went downhill. The pain in my knees had gotten worse, and it was getting harder and harder to keep running at my pace. That's when the lack of training hit me I guess, muscles and body just not used to the long distance.
Every single water station was like a godsend, giving me time to drink the 100 Plus or water, cool my body down and to walk a little. By the 15 - 17km mark, I was literally just telling myself to clear 1km at a time. It became more of a mental thing, as my body felt like giving up on me. It didn't help that by that time, the route started going uphill and downhill, torture on my knees!
I had my GPS watch to track the distance but I noticed that there were no distance markers for the half-marathon route. It was only set for the marathon runners. I had to off and on break into a walk, especially when going uphill and this was a lot worse than my Singapore run. Gasp.
As I looped back round to the roundabout near Menara Maybank, I could hear the cheering of the crowds near the Dataran Merdeka finishing line. I knew the distance was deceptive as we still had to make a loop up Jalan Raja Laut. So near yet so far. I just had to keep repeating to myself the slogan "Pain is temporary, pride is forever" (saw it at the Singapore run). But I had already repeated that to myself many times during the run, and I just had to force my lead legs to keep moving.
I finally finished with a time of around 2:25 which is decent. Slower than my previous time of 2:15 but alright considering the lack of preparation. The agonising run is also a lesson that I need to train for these longer distance runs.
The organisors did not arrange the layout of the tents very well, and there were no real clear signs. I had to wander around to find the 100 Plus station and then walk again to find the banana counter. People were grabbing the bananas as if they had to feed the whole of Africa! Some were stuffing like 20 bananas into their bag! Come on lah. After having scoffed down 2 bananas, it was then time to collect the finisher medals.
More chaos this time, with no real clear directions as to how to collect your medals. Long snaking queues were building up, and the reason I found out later was because the finisher medals were combined with you collecting your own bags. Those who did not check in the bags should not have to wait in the queue like that. Only sensible to split up the tents to separate places. And there was no system to monitor who were collecting the medals. People were just scribbling their names and numbers down on scrap pieces of paper and then grabbing the medals. Anyone could grab multiple medals if they wish. Again, the sensible thing is that every person should surrender their bib in order to collect the medal.
The list of complaints stretch on endlessly on the Stanchart KL Marathon facebook group. Some of the common complaints were how the water stations for the full marathon were no longer set up after the 20km mark. Can die! And the disorganisation for the 5km run, resulted in no clear markers for the route, and then people running and returning in 10 minutes!
I had an alright time, but the Singapore run is definitely a benchmark on how to organise a good run. It was such a pity to see the marathon runners getting a cheap-looking white cotton t-shirt to state that they were a Finisher of the full marathon.
The day did not end for me though, with no time to rest, it was time to shower at home, and then head straight into the office where I had to work until 8pm. My knees have now given way and they are really hurting. I am actually afraid that I might not be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning because of the pain.
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