The very first
6th June 2003 was the date of my very first marathon, in Penang Island. I had trained a total of 1 and a half years of waking up early, forcing myself in many cases, to get up, get my toiletries done, donned my running gear and out the door by the unearthly time of 5.15 am or so. I would drive about 2 km to a quiet place near my house where the roads were wide, brightly lit and plenty of trees. And the houses, they were massive, each one a mansion set back easily some 50 to 100 m from the main road. Yes, the road I am referring to is Nassim Road.
After 1 and a half years of training, conditioning my body to bear with the pounding of first 5km, then 8 km, then 10 km, then 14 km continuously. Over the months of rigorous training and following religiously a training 'schedule' from the Runners World magazine, I felt that I could progress even longer distances. So, next in line was 20 km runs on weekends, and about 3 months from the actual race, I did a couple of 30 kms over 2 weekends. Man, I was so fit then, as compared to now, more fat than fit !
Finally the date had come and I signed up for my first ever marathon, the Penang Bridge International marathon 2003. It was sponsored then by the New Straits Times paper, and I had to fly a couple of days before the actual race and collect my race pack and read and understand the indemnification process (in the event of any injury or death, the organizers were never at fault ; this is standard procedure. Every extreme sportsman will have to go through this procedure, they will have to undertake that they are fit enough, they have trained enough and so on and so on.
I remember Saturday was basically a nothing day for me, collected my race pack and chilled and fed myself pasta for most of the day. Pasta gives the runners some additional energy during the exertion. I had not learnt about power gels and hand packs etc, so was basically a newbie from start to end. The reporting time to the start point at the University Tenaga Malaysia (UTM) was an unearthly hour of 2 am on Sunday 6th June.
The course was basically 2 laps of the bridge each about 13.5 km long, or 27 km. The rest of the route was from the University, through the stretch of Gelugor facing the sea and all the way to a turning point and back to the University. We started at 4 am, and I was I recall at the back of the pack with the regular Penang Runners Club. They were seasoned veterans who ran like me many many kms every week and month. When we crossed the start line i recall it was very dark, very noisy with loudspeakers blaring hot disco music. After the first 1 or 2 km, our noisy bunch who had started with my fanfare quieted down and we took to focussing on our hard 40 km run remaining.
Somewhere along the start of the bridge I picked up speed and looked at the runners I was passing or who was passing me. They were mainly Asian with the odd Caucasion who normally was a really hard core long distance runner. The sound of the lapping water as we ran silently across the bridge still resonates with me. It was a surreal feeling.
Then around the 15 km mark, shouts from people ahead and behind me and I looked across the divider, the first runners were making their way back ! The first 3 were African and they were cruising like gazelles. People were cheering the leading pack and I felt the hair on my arms and legs rise. It was another unbelievable sight. Human beings who seemed ethereal, or superhuman.
There were few waterpoints, and I only drank every 5km only after the 20 km mark. This is the trait of a beginner runner, overconfident that I could hack the entire 42 km with not stopping for water. That was sheer stupidity. By around the 30 km mark, I was in trouble, I had aimed for a sub 5 hours marathon, but I knew my body was starting to ache, especially the hamstrings.
I recall I was struggling and there was this kind lady runner who helped me pass the time. We were around the same pace and at 32 km, started talking just to take away the aches and pain. I remember, she was kind enough to even stop her run and wait for me while I paused to stretch my fast cramping muschles. So the last 10 km were a hodgepodge of run walk talk, walk run all the way till the end point.
There were some oddballs, there was this guy who was dressed in T shirt and jeans and he was running. I thought, that is a 'killer'. How to keep comfortable in tight jeans ? There was another obviously Japanese runner who was huffing and puffing and muttering to himself Nihon - "Go" ! all the way.
Anyway, I finally made the finish line with my newly minted acquaintence, at 5 hours 32 minutes. I recall after that, I took my medal and slunk with a couple of bottles of water and sat under the shade of a large tree and basically 'stoned'. It was blazing hot 9 plus Sunday morning and I had completed my first marathon - overseas - with these wonderful memories.
I never got to introduce myself to the acquaintence and I went back to my hotel to shower and {gasp) hobble to the shopping centre next door for lunch and some air conditoned comfort !
Truly memorable first marsthon for me.
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