Marathon Man

I shot down another 2008 target yesterday by finishing the KL Marathon in under 5 hours - 4:53:57 to be precise. Here's my split times -

5km, 31:53 - 0:31:53
10km, 35:38 - 1:07:31
15km, 30:52 - 1:38:23
20km, 30:19 - 2:08:58
21km, 07:03 - 2:15:45
25km, 29:36 - 2:45:21
30km, 32:51 - 3:18:12
35km, 40:12 - 3:58:34
40km, 39:18 - 44:37:2
42.195km, 16:15 - 4:53:57 *not including pitstop

I was 124th/200 in my category. Official results for my category are here.

I met Eugene, Abu, Saiful, Ngae at the start and off we went. I went at my current "easy" pace which means about 65mins for 10km. Before Kg. Attap Azwar made an appearance on his "silly" bike. I love the way he has a triathlon-style aero bottle-holder on it! Along Syed Putra Steve Lee and Karoline came along, and Uncle Chan was accused by some DBKL guys of pacing runners as he ambled alongside us on his bike. (Pacing people already 30mins behind the leaders? - come on guys!)

Over the hill towards TUDM, I eventually shook-off a guy who was sprinting-walking (very unusual marathon strategy - doing that after only 6km!). Just after the 10km timing mats it was time for a pitstop - I won't go into details apart from to say that I was well-prepared for it. 3m31s later I rejoined the race and headed back into town.

Well into my stride now, I headed along Jalan loke Yew and then Jln Cheras. Just before 20km I joined Abu again, and reached halfway in about 2h18m. So far so good - I can slow by 25 mins or so in the 2nd half and still make it in 5hrs.

Through town again and I was beginning to overtake a number of runners. A few people beginning to suffer by now. Then the 21km front-runners began to whizz by. Gulped down a gel after about 2h30m and this helped me make it to the 30km mark. At 30km I was beginning to slow markedly - and so was everyone else. Once we we got to Jln Tun Razak I chatted to a Thai runner, who seemed to think I could speak Thai very well! Sorry to say I've forgotten a lot of Thai so it was a short chat.

Past PWTC and a long incline up to the first of the very attractive "...km to go" signs! My legs were beginning to struggle now but I kept going - baby steps. Finally got to the downhill stretch towards Duta, where I began to feel that I was losing my sense of the gradient (i.e. running slightly down still feels like running slightly up!).

Once on to Duta I was very slow now, down to about 8:00/km, but still ok for a sub-5 finish. From 6 to 3 km to go my stomach muscles became very sore which slowed me even more and I started walking a few times, but not for long. After a long time without seeing anyone I knew, I caught sight of Eugene on the other side of the road, and then Karen, Abu, Steve & Karoline in hot pursuit!

For some reason the last 3km didn't go down Jalan Parlimen, so we ended up on part of the Double Hill route past the JKR offices. I could sense the finish now and my timing was ok so I kept jogging along - there was certainly no repeat of my 21km sprint finish last year!

In the last 300m I was overtaken by a rather short - and friendly - middle-aged gentleman who ended up beating me by a few seconds. However I beat him to the girls handing out goodie bags a medals because he collapsed about 1m after the line! Glad to say I think it was a simple case of exhaustion.

So that was it. I'm happy I can say I've done a Marathon, but at the moment it remains to be seen if I do another one in the foreseeable future.

Gel intake - 2h35m, 3h20m and 4h05m.