Thursday, September 14, 2006

Putrajaya Marathon - More Stories

Here are the extracts of the stories from P1, P2, P3 and P5.

Congratulation to all the runners who pull through the hot Putrajaya Marathon. This event attracted almost full participation from the Penguin Runners: four in full marathon and three in half marathon.

It was a rude awakening for me. Next to the Milo drink station at the finishing line, I saw Maryann and Siok Bee (both gals) were sipping nice cold drink amid their conversation of the run. Though it was slightly hazy that morning, one thing was clear – that they came back earlier than me in the Putrajaya half marathon category. My timing was 2 hours 16 seconds. I thought I was running fairly fast but in actual fact, I slipped another 5 minutes from my usual timing of 1:55. And that timing was another slip from my earlier record of 1:50.


Here are my excuses: I have not been doing 20km long run for a long time. For the past two months, I have been focusing on 5km short distance speed work preparing for The EDGE Rat Race. Yeah, another excuse was too much venturing into taking photographs on running events instead of running in the event. This was also highlighted by a few of the runners whom I met before the start of the Putrajaya Marathon on Sunday, 10 Sep 2006.

I must be running quite slowly that I identified a lady of almost my running speed to be my pacemaker in the second half of the course. After a few times of overtaking her (I slowed down to enjoy the cold isotonic drinks at all the drink stations along the course), while running abreast, I complimented her that "you are very fast". Instead, I was given a cold and blank stare. It was at the finishing line, one runner told me that she is a mat salleh (but look like a Chinese). Nevertheless, she was a good pacemaker for me to stay focus in the run and at times, ran at faster pace.

By KC, P1


By Meng, P2

Congratulations to all the Penguin Comrades!

You have survived in one of the most challenging hot marathon available in Malaysia.

Enjoy the pain and suffering that you are having now as money cannot buy it. At the same time, recall and savour the "near dying" feeling towards the completion of the last few km of the run. Again, money cannot buy that kind of feeling as you have to do it yourself to experience it. I personally believe that the same feeling will lead us to appreciate our life more and live through it to the fullest.

Keep it up!!

By Tony, P3

Well done on the completing the marathon. Sure it was a hot day. KC and I was running in the half marathon. We chat most of the time but by the 11km mark, KC start to run faster, probably he saw 'leng lui'. As for me I was just about 5o metres behind from him till 18km where I encountered cramps at my calf and hamstring was tight. I have no choice but to run in tortoise pace till the finishing line.

In my years of running, only the race officials told the runners to stop running. Guess what happen at the Putrajaya 7km fun run: An 11-year old girl wanted to accompany her brother for the 7km fun run. However, she was stopped by a policeman telling her that she cannot run because she has no bib number.

The poor girl was frightened and started crying and the policeman just smile. She ran back to the car and her brother has to accompany her till her father finished the half marathon. Fortunately, she was not issued with any summons.


By Steven, P5

The Putrajaya Marathon was my weekend long run training camp. I ran unregistered and of course like the little girl in Tony's story, I ran without bib numbers. I came for training and not for the medal. Along the course, I paced with Rustam for the first 21km and with Weng for the second half of the journey.


The full marathon run at Putrajaya was to test my endurance on long run since my last marathon in Feb/Mar 2005. All systems went well up to 30km ... maybe I was stopping too long at 30km mark waiting for two other runners, my body was already cooled down to finish the rest to the distance. While waiting, I enjoyed eating watermelon, drinking nice icy cold 100 Plus. I also have the opportunity to help a turtle crossing the road to the other side of the highway, and shared my half bottle of mineral water with her.

It was a great long run but I will have to seriously consider taking a full marathon challenge in Putrajaya as it is hot and without any shade.

1 comment:

Yap! It's 3088.. said...

congratulations to all you runners! hope to run with u guys soon....pretty soon...