Penang Day 3 : The Run

Sunday morning and it "wee" Morning to be exact. The Starting time for the 21Km, Half Marathon is @ 3.30am. What a Weird Timing...I was trying very hard to sleep from 6pm after visiting Perankan Place to no solution, I wasn't sleeping at all....end up.....I didn't sleep and was off to the site at 11pm.

Took a cab (Board it just outside our hotel, Tune Hotel) for MYR20. This event, The Penang Bridge Marathon is quite famous in this part of town...

Reach the site at around 1130pm though.....Lots of people are already at the site....Police are already there guiding the traffic...probably some motorist are still not aware of the road closure...

Since we reach the place so early, We take sometime to walk around and take some photos...Can't really find a place in the cafe to seat through the night....so we sat an a corner to wait...and also to dooze off for a while....Temperature was also unexpected...wonder is it due to the afternoon rain...it feel like 25C which I thought we will never feel this even at night....plus it is also rather windy and feel like it might pour anytime..

The Organiser are still busying setting up the Start and Finish Booth....First time I saw such setup, as back home in Singapore, setup is probably done the night before and race don start so early as well....so we don really get to see the setup process..

Even the bag deposit areas are so empty and u would have guess we are just way too early....for the race...no choice...in order to save on cost of midnight charges.

Took sometime to explore the area, here is a tentage setup for runners to rest....most runners stay here to wait for the race to starts. It was pack to the brine expecially as the time to start approaches...(Photo taken @ 12am)

The Row of Toilet, though there is plentiful, we still need to queue up for it..

There is also a fun run category which start at 7.30am....still a long way to go..those folks are probably sleeping now...

One of their sponsor arrive...that they are not ready to serve yet...would have been good that they start serving out the Milo....3hrs is a long time to past....but do understand the organiser concern, they may not have enough to distribute at the end of the race if they start giving out so early.

The Winners tent-age, this is probably the area for the Top 10 or 3 runners of each categories to wait in for their price presentation.

There is suppose to be a concert around, but since it still so early,,,,no-one was actually there...Looking at the list of singer coming on board....I don recognize a single name.....it's more for the Malaysian I think...

Since still got so much time, 3hrs to be exact, I took time to read up on the exhibition on the History of the Penang Run.....Looking at the picture, make me wonder whether this run is tougher than those 21Km I did back in Singapore....the Slope are super high...lol

Penang Bridge Marathon have been held since 1985 and it's the only time where the bridge is closed for a few hours to accommodate the race.

Photos showing the starting point of past races..not sure where this place is...does not resemble the place I am at now?

Lots of Rubbish on the floor...common is all races.... especially with fruits and water being distributed..

Look like support along the run is GREAT....

The slope of the bridge look intimidating....Are they really that high?

Down slope should be easy.....it the up slope I am worry....

This is the proof...of how crowded the place can be as the time to flag off get closer, especially at he tentage area.

Photos taken at the starting point of the race....the 42km run have a cut-off timing of 6hrs....way beyond my previous effort.....

Looking at the "crowd" behind, these must be one of those faster runners....

The 21km is the event where there are more runners....the queue from the starting point is long....compare to the 42km event..probably due to the fact that the cut-off time for 42km is 6hrs whereas the 21km event's cutoff timing is 3hrs...which is still manageable.

This is the 42km Flag-off situation...alot lesser runners...

Overall the run was not as tough as I thought, my IPOD went dead (no charge) due to my mistake of not checking whether it is full charge back in Singapore. I have to rely on my Hand phone's radio to accompany me during the run....and I got to say Malaysian Radio station do play good and catchy music..make the run enjoyable

I enjoy a great part of the run when it was on the Penang Bridge, the wind was especially refreshing and cool making the run bearable....and the water points are well positioned...though I find it wasteful that they give out full bottle of water instead of cups...it would have been much more environmental friendly this way....cos I just drank a few mouthful and throw the bottle way...as I don want to carry it along when I am running (Already carrying a phone and a camera)

This is the part where we are climbing up the tallest point on the bridge...it is funny how the slope look when it is far away, and when we approach the area, we can hardly see the slope up....just feel that the pace slow a bit due to the climb....(look at be deceiving)

The duration of on the bridge though not long, but we cover about >10km on the bridge for the 21km run.....about 10km spend running to the bridge and back to the finishing point and the rest on the bridge itself (11km)

Finish the race in 1 piece, though not my PB, I did clock a normal pace, the one I am used to, 2hrs 37min....the same as my 2008 timing.....and faster than my 2009 Safra Timing...my timing are not fantastic, alot of the folks are already back...resting...

Me, posing with my medal....tired and definitely worth it...thinking hard whether to come back here to run next year...but probably I would stay someplace nearer...(Let's see how things go...it still a long time to decide).

I miss my photo moments at the finishing point due to a long queue at the finishing line....I am surprise that the Malaysian Sponsor are really generous as they provided the photos FOC....a rare gesture in Singapore

Before I left, the runners are still coming in....and we still have the 42km folks yet to come in....(i don mean the 2hr + 42k runners, but those normal ones...clocking 4hr +)

Malaysia is 1 place nearer to home where u can flag a cab on the Expressway...I Did it here in desperate ways to get back to hotel to sleep...super tired....I didn't sleep for the whole 24hrs...and "Chicken Queen" is already fuming mad...during it's morning mood swings....We got a bargain price of MYR20 back to hotel....MYR10 cheaper than last night's trip....

Anyone...game enough for 2010's race? Let me know.....