Penang Bridge Marathon 2010

It has been weeks since the Penang Bridge Marathon 2010 ended but the burning spirit that was the catalyst during my run will never fade out. Before this, my furthest run was 10 km and before that was 1.5km. This time I ran 42.195km, yes a full marathon.

1.5km-Penang Free School Sports Test (2006)

10km-Nike Run (2010)

42.195km-Penang Bridge Marathon (2010)

So thats my running record history, lol. Notice the jump from 1.5 to 10 and from 10 to 42.195. Here's how it happened in the beginning, I was talking to my housemate after I came back from my Nike Run 10 km. I was telling him that i felt quite satisfied finishing 10 km in 1hr 19min. He said it was nothing as he ran Penang Bridge Marathon completing within a given time and achieving a finishers medal. So I was like 'Hey if he can finish it, why not me? after all physically, he's similar to me.'

So I like a hero signed up for Penang Bridge 2010 full marathon, a whopping 42.195km. I was thinking 'hey if i can jump from 1.5km to 10 km, why not 10 to 42?' lol. Weeks later, I felt I made a mistake by signing up for 42.195km, so when I collected my running gear from the booth, I tried asking whether was it possible to change to half marathon because I happened to find out at that time that my housemate actually completed 21km which is half marathon. LOL

In the end, nothing can be changed and I had to run for 42km! I drank 100 plus and went to Queensbay Mall which was the starting point. Coincidentally I met my junior scouts from 8th Georgetown South, Penang Free School who were doing scouts duty there. Whistle blew and I ran!

1st part was not bad, I ran continuously for about 2km, then after that I walked-jogged-walked-jogged.

Route: Queensbay Mall - Seagate(Bayan Lepas) - Penang Bridge - Buterworth - Penang Bridge - Jetty - Queensbay Mall

Running on the Penang Bridge was as good as walking! Due to its stunning length, it feels like youre not moving at all and this was quite demoralizing. As I ran to Butterworth, its started raining heavily which was fine by me except that my shoes were wet [becomes heavy and harder to lift your legs due to puddle of waters everywhere]. Another bad thing was the water point stations, out of lets say 10 stations they had like 2 stations with 100 plus only.

When I was running back to Penang Island from Butterworth, almost completing the Penang Bridge, I felt pumped up as the biggest obstacle in the marathon was the bridge and i survived it! However, my spirit didn't last for long as when I reached Penang Island, I had to turn right and kept running [opposite direction of going to Queensbay Mall]. I was thinking 'this is so damn bloody demoralizing as I'm almost out of juice and now im running further away from the finishing point?'

I kept running and was asking where on earth is the U-turn, I ran past Gelugor, Island Glades, Jelutong and almost reaching the jetty, I see the turning point stating 33km mark (5hours spent out of 7 hours time limit). After that I sat down for 10minutes as my muscles were all strained,stamina wasn't the problem,muscles were. After that, I couldn't jog at all and only had to walk all the way back to Queensbay Mall.

I finished the marathon in 7 hours and 7 seconds to be precise. I was quite proud as I thought i would break down halfway and I mean trust me, 42km is way longer than you think it is. I got the finishers t-shirt, medal and trophy. I couldn't really walk after that, my calves and thighs were GONE. Took me 4-5 full days to fully recover. What an experience!