Penang Bridge International Marathon - Results

After many hours of sleep and gallons of fluids to rejuvenate, I realized that I have gone through my very first official half marathon.

Before the event, I wanted to get some shut eyes, but excitement got the best of me. I did not get any rest and with the butterfly in my stomach, I left for the event wearing my old pair of New Balance shoes, my polar HRM and my Nokia phones.

I hooked up with an old friend of mine at the Penang jetty and took the shuttle bus down to the race event. There were thousand of participants at the site and can feel the adrenaline in the air. The marathon is one of the biggest in the region with 24 thousands participants. The full marathon started at 2.00 am, and the racers already left when we arrived. The half marathon was schedule to start an hour later.

15 mins before the half marathon started, thousands gathered around before the starting line doing stretching. At 3 pm sharp, the race started with the loud speakers voice keep reminding all racers to step on the race mats to record our time from our champion chip tied to our shoe.

This is how it looked like after the half marathon started half hour.

On the bridge, we ran accross the bridge until near the other side of the island. At about 3 km from the mainland, we made a U turn running back to the island. This is where it got interesting.

It started to rain! And boy the rain was so heavy with the wind blowing over our heads and the rain drops hitting on all our faces made our journey back feels like 10 times harder. Every step become heavier, and the rain coolled down my body, making me feel even more tired. I could see other runners started to slow down, and my shoes was making some squishy sounds like water in a bottle.With my body cooling down, I took a deep breathe, then I tried running faster with the music still playing in my headphones.

At about 5km left in the race, my phone failed as it got wet although I tried to keep it dry by wrapping it with a plastic bag. It stopped playing music and my sports-tracker stopped recording my work out. I ran the rest of the course in silence. With shots of isotonic drinks, I continue the race and completed my 21 km in nearly 3 hours. At the finish line, I stepped on the final running mat and a volunteer passed me a bottled water. I couldn't take any more pictures as my phone has died. I joined a queue to collect a finisher's medal which look like this.

I slept for 12 hours straight after I got home and I realize that it was a great feeling to finish the race. The result was published on the organizer's website on Monday evening with my time 2:44:49. Not bad for an amateur.

Would I do it again? Of course! I feel a great sense of accomplishment in finishing this race.
See you next year, Penang Bridge International Marathon.