Malacca Historical City International Marathon 2005

We prepared, we enjoyed and we, the Penguin Runners, ran the race at the Malacca Marathon on Sunday, 17 July 05. Other than the runs, I like coming to Malacca for the nyonya food. Of course, not forgetting the camaraderie with other runners.

We reached the Malacca Municipal hall about noon time for the collection of bibs and T-shirts. I was surprised to meet Tang Chee Loon, my childhood team leader friend who now lives in Johor. He is collecting bibs on behalf of his team members.

Three of us went for lunch at the Makko nyonya restaurant, recommended by Penguin-2’ sister. It was pack with customers inside. We later looked for our hotel accommodation. To my surprise,

Thien Hao Kong hotel, which I thought earlier that sounded like a temple, was actually a temple.

From the temple to the Tun Fatimah Stadium was 2.2 km passing by the Bukit China cemetery. We later went to the Straits Meridian Apartment Hotel, which Penguin-11 made a double registration earlier. It was handy. We decided to stay in Straits Meridian. While we checked-in, we met Pai Choo, a KL Pacesetter runner.

We later went for a walk at the Jonker Streets, passing by the famous red building. I stopped to

take a few photos there. We met a Japanese lady and took a photo for her. Penguin-11 and -2 later went for hair-cut. Hmmm… must be more aero-dynamic and reduce air resistance when running the full marathon.

You would be amaze at the amount of food we ate. In the name of carbo-loading, each of us ate two bowls of rice. At the Jonker streets, we tried the famous ice-chendul, then tried the toasted bread and coffee. We later had our dinner at the famous chicken rice-ball. We later went to Makhota Parade for window shopping.

At the starting line for the Half marathon, I saw a few familiar Pacesetters: Ang CK, Francis, Ronnie See, Ryan Teoh. The race started at 6.42am, 3 minutes ahead of scheduled. Overall, the terrain was flat. The route took us through the Makhota Parade, Jonker Streets, a few highways, the blue Municipals building (where we collected our bibs the day before), and eventually lead us back to the Tun Fatimah stadium. Overall, the routes are busy with traffic. My timing was 1 hour 51 minutes to complete the half marathon, a 3-minute improvement over the Seremban half last Sunday.

I adjourned to the drink stations. It was a bit unusual hiding in one corner outside the fencing of the stadium. While standing behind the crowd, I was thinking how to get a cup of much needed isotonic drink. A lady emerged from the crowd; to my surprised, she was Pai Choo again. She was very kind to offer me the cup of drink, which she queued for quite a while.

Penguin-2, who ran the full marathon, came in a little passed 4 hours. When I met Tey ET and Ronnie See, they told me that Penguin-11 had “pom chat” (punctuate… meaning having difficulty to complete the full marathon). I was worried. But a few minutes later, I saw Penguin-11 running in -- what a relief. Otherwise, we would not know how long we have to wait.

As usual, we walked around, chatting with other

runner friends. I met Barefoot Sing who told me that he had missed the 10km race. According to the schedule, it was 7.15am but when he reached the starting area at 7.05am, the 10km race was flagged off at 7am.

On our way back, we met a few runners from Singapore who stayed at the same hotel. We struck up conversion with them.

After checked-out from the hotel, we went for another sumptuous nyonya lunch again. This time, each ate two bowls of rice also.

Click here to view 50 pre-race photos ...

Click here to view 42 post-race photos ...

By Penguin-1 :-))