We Made History At Malaysia Women Marathon

I HAD FUN! Yes, I had fun running 42.195km. It's like running from my home in Seri Kembangan to my office in Bangsar and back but yeah, it was FUN, FUN, FUN. All thanks to all the people involved in the run.

Especially these two, who woke up at weird hours, stayed awake, cheered and at the last 5km, accompanied me all the way to the finish line. Love them, I do. *muaks*

• Great run, littered with crazy inclines. It's like 30% flat and the rest... The uphill felt looooong and the downhills were too short! *pant pant*
•  Excellent water stations starting from KM4 and about every 2km after that. I drank and ate too much, I only needed 1 energy gel and a few energy chews to keep me going all through the run.  
• Very energetic and friendly volunteers. They were all so chirpy even at 5am! Cheers aplenty from MSU students too.
• Pretty much nice and patient Shah Alam drivers. There were some busy junctions where we had to negotiate ourselves (with MBSA staff just looking on instead of controlling the traffic) but no honking, no (not much) impatient driver. Sure beats Putrajaya drivers. You hear that Putrajaya residents? So, thank you Shah Alam!
• Absolutely fun, friendly, crazy runners!

I started my run with a group of ladies, at 4.30am sharp, flagged off by Ms Kathrine Switzer; who is the first woman to officially run Boston Marathon. We ran together for 11km then I fall back... as I was taking way too much time taking photos and eating my first (and only) energy gel. Met them again (except the lady in white, who is a FAST runner, she did 4:52! Congrats!!!) at one of the Petronas station later around KM 14. 

 Got quite a bit of entertainment too...

Happy runners and volunteers are kinda entertainment too. You run with a smile when meeting such happy people.

It was around KM13 that I started to experience heel pain and it stayed on till the finish (and until today!) Each step after that was kinda excuriating. And I was praying hard that I won't get too badly injured as I still had 3/4 of the route to finish. *must soldier on* 

Was hoping for a spraying centre but only saw the Perskindol spray at Seksyen 7. Just one spray station. All through 42KM. Boohooohoo. Anyways, stopped there for a while but my pain didn't exactly went away.

It was around this strecth that faster runners started to loop back and I clapped and hooted to all my running friends. Yeah, they all ran faster than me and they all looped me. Spent more time darting to the opposite side of each road to take photos of friends especially the ones doing half marathons. And vice versa.

Andrew who was on volunteer duty cycled by and called out my name there. He was like "First Marathon Woot! Woot!" and I think more than a few runners got a shock at such loud noise. LOL Thank you for the motivation. ^^

Saw plenty of familiar faces at the water station. And FB/Twitter friends too. Plus total strangers who were totally warm and friendly. Getting hi-fives. Getting hi'ed by people by name. Sorry to those I kinda blanked out on your names. Thanks to Khairi for the shout and hi-five.

 This is a familiar face in races here.Me, on super high face.

 Neoh who was helping out at a water station.

Plenty of food here. I ate some deliciously cool grapes here. Plus took a whole lot of photos with runners who were enjoying a munch/a sip there.

2nd Skin team handing out cool watermelon, Hammer Fizz drinks and a water spray. Yup, runner got sprayed here with one HUGE spray bottle and it was invigorating! Thanks TriStupe and team!

and the famous Kak June and Mr Lee. This run sure seems like a run to forage for food! 

No wonder lah I was slow. heh heh *excuses* kakaka

I ran, I chatted with friends, I chatted with random runners, we waved to each other without knowing them, I drank, I ate and I cried. Yes, I cried. Not because I was tired but I got emotional.

As I was approaching the Persiaran Kayangan roundabout at KM32 or so, I saw a bus stop and got weepy. I suddenly thought of my dear, dear late grandfather who used to wait for me arrive from my boarding school at the bus stop. And this, at a time when there were no handphones and I took a bus from Bus Stand Klang to Shah Alam. How long did he wait for me all those times? He'd never say... But he's always there when I returned. *cry buckets*

But I wasn't weepy for long. Too many happy faces around to cheer me up. Can't help but smile to them. 

 

 

Love these signs! 

Actually, by KM30 onwards runners probably felt like they are running an LSD instead of a marathon if not for the water stations and these very, very nice people. OK, so the road was not partially closed for runners but then, this is Shah Alam. We can always run on the pavement instead of the road.

Traffic was getting busier after 8am, and at Seksyen 4 or so roundabout - runners have to cross the road themselves after coming down from Seksyen 7 because no marshall was controlling the traffic and drivers weren't exactly keen to stop for us to cross the road. But at most places it was OK so I'm not too annoyed with this.

I mentioned Shah Alam people are nice, right? Got my photos taken by several people - and they actually slowed their cars in order to do so! So funny! And by the lake area, there were a few people urging us to run. *super appreciate*

Because of all this, and the fact that I passed by my hubby & son three times during the run made me so happy. Never once did I fear about hitting the wall. Partly perhaps because I took it easy. I decided to enjoy this. Yes, I had hoped for a decent timing. Who doesn't? But I'm still OK with a 6:36 timing. More so because I didn't suffer too much post run so I consider it a success.

A BIG thank you to all involved in the marathon. The organizer, the volunteers (the ones seen and the ones not seen), the runners and especially this two guys who made it possible for me to run a marathon, with their staunch support.

Raimie wasn't supposed to tag along on Sunday because of the early hours but after meeting Kathrine Switzer, he requested to join his Daddy and support me.

We walked hand-in-hand to the finish line. He was tired and couldn't jog much so I didn't too. Never mind I was slow to finish. I finished with my Son! 

From KM37 to KM41. With Mommy. Just one more KM to go, Son!

Absolutely love this shot. The boy was tired. But thanks to the encouragement of other runners and volunteers, he ran the final 100m with me together with his Daddy. I felt like a CHAMPION that day. Thank you to PACat Adventure Team for the photos!

Training and running this marathon gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of generous people who are ever willing to share their experience and time to help out each other. For that, I am eternally grateful. One of the reason why I want to be a marathoner too. Marathoners are a cool bunch of people.

Don't you just love to be a part of these quirky people?

An oh yeah, this too...

Doubt if it ever get aired or anything since I just gave a lame answer. But still... ;p