Greetings earthlings! I’ve been quite busy lately. Litlegras Music Club just completed their Karaoke Finals, MIMATES just recruited department members, and I’ve been especially busy with SCOReD. Anyway despite all the busyness, I still manage to korek some time for PBIM! Haha. WC and I registered quite late, in July or August if I’m not mistaken. Both of us registered for half Marathon. I’ve never ran more than 5KM before (I think), sometimes in campus I jog pun 10 rounds on the tracks at most which is around 4KM kot. Well I don’t know what got me to register for the half marathon. Maybe it’s because of this female schoolmate who initially said she’s running 21KM. I thought that if she can run 21KM, so can I (cause I think I’m fitter than her. Haha). Turns out she only ran 10KM.
There are a total of 12 categories. Below is the route map of PBIM 2014. It’s the first time they are organizing PBIM on the second Penang bridge. It’s also the first time WC and I are participating in a marathon. Look at the yellow route on the map! That’s how far we ran. Haha.
Once again many thanks to Liang’s car if not we wouldn’t be able to make it for PBIM. I slept around 5.30PM on Saturday, hoping to sleep till 8PM but around 7PM I woke up cause my roommate switched on the lights. Lazed on bed for a bit then took a quick shower. Around 9PM WC picked me and we went to Auto City for McD drive thru. Haha. After eating, we headed to Queensbay Mall. I wanted to watch Big Hero 6 really badly. Hehe. So we left early and caught the 11.10PM movie. The movie was sooooo good! Baymax is adorable! I cannot tahan. I wouldn’t mind watching this movie again. After the movies, we changed into our running vest, running pants and shoes.
There were free shuttle service from Queensbay Mall to the marathon site. We opt to take the free shuttle so that we won’t be caught in the jam. The free shuttles were packed like sardine. Okay so apparently Queensbay and the marathon site wasn’t that near. It was about 40 minutes I think. Maybe because there was traffic jam also. Anyway we arrived around 2.55AM. And WC’s event was 3AM. We quickly munch our Power Bars while making our way to the starting line. Since there were so many runners, WC pun slowly make his way to the starting line. Cause sampai awal pun kena tunggu (reach early also gotta wait).
Usually WC handles the luggage check in stuff. Both of us just dump everything in one bag. But since we were late, I helped with the luggage check in stuff. Haha. After checking in the luggage, I went to the back of the starting line to do some warming up. That was when I realize that I have lost my hair tie. Aih clumsy me. I knew I couldn’t run with my hair down. Cause it’ll fly all over and the hair will stick on my back when I sweat. So I went back to the luggage check in area and asked for a rubber band. While walking back to the starting line, my event started. However since there were so many people, I took my own sweet time warming up a little then slowly walk to towards the starting line.
About 3 metres before the starting line I started jogging. I jogged and jogged. There were sooooo many people! It was hard to overtake at times. I especially dislike those who just suddenly stop while running in front of me. Make me need to emergency break. Haha. So during the whole time I ran, I saw some girls wearing skirts (well I’m sure they have pants under them too). I was kinda confused lo. Like you’re coming here to run right. Why are you wearing a skirt? I know that tennis players were skirt but this is a running event not a tennis match. Yeah so the whole time I was confused (even though I’m a girl). There were some who wore tight fitting skirts, some frilly skirts, some lacy skirts etc.
After the run, WC was telling me that he came up with a theory while he was running on why girls wore skirt to run. He said that they wore skirt to cover their body shape. Well that’s plausible. I guess they have their own reason. There were water stations and Revive stations all around the route. I stopped at everyone of them. Haha. However at the banana and bread station, I didn’t bother. Gotta stop to open the bread and banana ganggu (disturb) my momentum jer. Haha. I simply say one lah. Most probably cause I’m lazy.
What kept me going?
Throughout the whole 21KM, I didn’t stop running (except at water stations and Revive stations). I didn’t even ran out of breath. Only my legs got tired. However during the run, WC and I both had a of stitch (abdominal pain kinda feeling, WC says it’s called stitch). Most probably cause our Power Bar didn’t have enough time to digest before we started running. Throughout my run, I had a couple of motivation.
- Self Motivation: I’m quite good with positive thoughts (I think). Haha. Since I had zero training for this marathon (the last time I did any physical activity was during Viper Challenge. LOL), in my mind was just to complete the half marathon and if possible, get a finisher medal. For half marathon, you gotta complete it within 3 hours and 30 minutes in order the obtain a finisher medal. I told myself that if I wanted to stop, I can only stop after I have completed half of it, which is around the 10KM turning point. So I just kept going till the U-turn. After the U-turn, I thought to myself, since I have already ran 10KM, I’ll just have to repeat what I just did in order to complete the half marathon. Yeah so that was my self motivation. Not bad huh. Haha.
- WC was one of motivation too. He started off earlier than me. And he told me that he would wait for me at the finishing line. So while I was running, the thought of having WC waiting for me at the end kept me going. Other thoughts I had were to not make WC wait to long so I had to keep going and don’t stop. I was also thinking that if I stop running I would get to him slower so yeah I shouldn’t stop. These were some of my thoughts while running the half marathon. Haha. It’s great to have a partner as my motivation. Thank you Saturnian.
- If I reached the finishing line within the qualified time, I would get a finisher medal. Then I can boast to my dad! Haha. And like tell my family about my achievement. Sometimes if I have a failure, my dad would encourage me to do better (at the same time tease me also. Haha). Or if I have an achievement, my dad would also tease me. Aiya I also don’t know whether the word is tease or not but yeah my dad talks a lot. So I was thinking better go get an achievement so can boast to dad then what he wanna tease let him say lah cause at least it’s an achievement. *odd thinking*.
I guess those are my main motivation. How did I find WC at the end of my run? Haha since both of us didn’t have our phones with us. When I was about 10m-20m from the finishing line I heard someone call out ‘KIM!’. I turned towards the left and saw WC waving. Haha. After I completed my run, I went and try out the Salonpas spray since I’ve never tried it before. There were Salonpas staffs beside one of the water station but I didn’t bother to try then cause many people were lining up and I didn’t wanna wait. I quite like the spray leh! Make my legs hurt less and so cooling. Haha. Then I went and collect my finisher medal and searched for WC.
Well we didn’t bother to wait for the lucky draw session cause it was about 7AM and we didn’t wanna wait till 10.45AM. We went and collect our luggage, got 2 Starbucks voucher, and squeezed in one of the shuttle bus back to Queensbay Mall. Changed our shirts then headed to Auto City for breakfast. We were sooooo hungry. And guess what we had McD again. Haha. I ordered Sausage McMuffin but I got Sausage McMuffin with Egg instead. Damn lucky. Lol. After gobbling up our breakfast, we headed back to campus. Both of us were extremely tired. WC was yawning a lot and I was determined to keep him awake.
Aih but guess what. Sleepyhead me sendiri keep dozing off. I’ll be like subconsciously dozing off then realize it and shout his name and ask if he’s okay. This process repeated a couple of times till we reach campus. I got back, showered then plopped onto bed for some rest. I think I did quite okay despite no training at all. Haha. Would I go run for a marathon again? Why not if I have time. I would really wanna attempt a full marathon one day. If possible with WC also. Then got extra motivation. Lol. Anyhow, it was a great experience. Go home can boast to dad. Haha.
WC and I with our finisher medals. Unfortunately we asked a guy who would hold a camera in one hand to take the picture (he used another hand to count. Haha) so the picture is not that centralized. It’s about 2 days post marathon and my legs hurt quite a bit, my back also. I feel like a total grandma. I feel older than my grandma. Lol. Thanks to Bumblebike I was able to to go class with ease. Oh yeah and the female running vest had to be pink when I’m joining -_-.
