Penang
So I ran my maiden Penang Bridge Marathon over last weekend. The run coupled with the trip in its entirety made it an experience to remember.
Friday
Was rather busy in the office with the packing of files and my belongings for the then impending move to a new address. Moving to the new address means that it would be a mere 2kms from my apartment. Having done my part of the packing, I left the office by 6pm, parked my car at the club and proceeded to Lake Gardens for my final workout before the run on Sunday. My final workout was a 15 minute jog, proceeded by 5 x 100 meter strides. Went to bed rather late despite planning to drive to Penang at 10am. As I was packing, I realised that I wanted to wear the blue and yellow Nike vest (that Jamie sold to me some time back) for the race, but also realised that it was in the Subang house. Planned to drive to Subang early tomorrow morning to collect that vest, and have a quick breakfast with my parents.
Watched the play in which the Penguin KC Leong was involved in, titled Flagrante Delicto. Good show put on by the members of Toastmasters.
Saturday
Woke up early in the morning, headed to Subang. The vest was nowhere to be found! Did I also lose that vest from the time I picked Jeanne up from KL Sentral a few weeks back when my car was broken into? Anyway I then decided to wear my predominantly gray Nike vest/shorts for the race. (I found the vest later and it was the domestic helper who somehow contrived to put the vest in the store room!) I filled the car with petrol, checked that the tyres were properly inflated, etc and drove back to the apartment. Waited for Adam to arrive at my apartment. He was following me to Penang. When he arrived, we headed to Pusat Bandar Damansara to buy a sandwich from Subway because Jeanne hadn’t had her breakfast. Then we began our journey.
The journey itself was uneventful but I’ve always felt that the scenery northbound is far more picturesque as opposed to the scenery southbound. Plus, when driving back to KL, one always has to deal with the nasty traffic from Seremban onwards. At least the traffic is pretty alright when one is approaching KL from northbound, public holidays and special occasions excepted of course.
We arrived in Penang in quick time (about 3 hours 15 mins) and were pleasantly surprised that traffic was alright. We were expecting some sort of chock-a-block due to the warnings of some road closures. Adam helped collect the bib numbers and we then proceeded to Vistana Hotel. Along the way Adam showed us the place in which he grew up and his memories of Penang. Interesting stuff.
We checked in and I called Jamie, and agreed to meet up with him at Swatow Lane for tea/snack/dinner. Called up Adam, (who had changed his overnight venue- he would be staying with Kevin Chow and RunWitMe in Vistana Hotel as well) and asked him to join us. We then headed to Georgetown and found Swatow Lane, (after a few wrong turns!) before proceeding to devour Char Kuey Teow, Kuey Teow Thng, Fried Eggs with Oysters (Oh Chien), Ang Tow Sng (Ice Kacang), Yam Cake, and Prawn Mee. Oh yeah, I got completely lost with the food there. Chin and Jamie were there. It was good stuff. Anyway, that was dinner sorted out- all done by 630pm.
After a brief visit to Prangin Mall (Jeanne wanted to go there to conduct a semi-market visit in line with her work) we headed back to the hotel. I was starting to get really sleepy, possibly because of all the food I consumed and the fact that I had slept little the night before. Set the alarm for 330am and knocked off at 930pm.
Sunday
Woke up at 330 am. As agreed Ronnie was picking up Kevin Chow and RunWitMe from the lobby. I saw CM as well and his friend Kelvin. I drove my car and followed Ronnie from behind. Shortly after CM parked his car near Ronnie’s sister’s place and followed my car, and we headed to a housing area somewhat near the starting line of the race.
After parking our cars, we walked to the starting line. The marathon had started, and we could see the runners on the road. We saw a familiar face- the Buluman Kelvin Ng PM2 who was his usual gregarious, loud, cheerful self. He stopped and asked us to take photos of him, much to the amusement of all of us.
Anyway we headed into the entrance of USM, but not without first giving our reporting cards to the officials. We were then made to walk quite a distance, across the USM field to another gate. Apparently we were supposed to walk through that other gate, and walk another distance before finally heading to the starting line. What nonsense! I sat at the kerb and chatted with Jamie for awhile.
520am approached, before we were finally allowed through the gates But because the gate was so narrow (in relative to the number of runners for the 22.3km distance), only a handful slowly streamed through each time. There were just so many runners. Then- came the surprise- I was still walking with Jamie and was some few hundred meters from the starting when I realised that the race had started! And there were still so many runners behind us! Chastened, I quickly said bye to Jamie and started running as quickly as I could. I was quire irritated that they started the race when virtually the remainder half the field were still walking towards the starting line, through no fault of their own. What do you expect when you only open one gate for a (my approximation) two thousand runners? I zig-zagged among the runners overtaking quite a number of them but I only finally settled into my race pace when I arrived at the bridge. With the distance markers on the bridge (presumably being accurate), I clicked off 4:20 km pace for about 3kms before settling around 4:53 km pace. The air was cool, and I felt it predominantly on the left side of my body since the wind was blowing in that direction. Past the slow incline, and onto the decline, I ran about 4:40km pace for a while, before easing back to arouynd 4:53km pace again. Then, I made the u-turn back to the opposite side of the bridge. As I was avout to make that u-turn, I saw that Ronnie had just completed his and was already on the opposite side. I estimated then that I was about 5 minutes plus behind him.
The return portion of the bridge saw me tiring and reducing to a 5:00km pace. Going up the incline again, I was hoping that the decline would push me to a faster pace but I just did not have the legs to push it faster than 4:48- 4:55km pace. On the flats I just about glided through and maintained the pace all the way to the end. Overall, point-to-point, I completed 22.3km in 1:45.23.
Overall I really enjoyed the race despite my initial frustration of starting late. The weather was good, it wasn’t too hazy, the route itself (which was on the bridge and was flat most of the way apart from the middle section which was a slight incline and decline on both sides) and the cool breeze on the bridge made it quite an enjoyable experience. I will definitely return to race there again.
After the race I saw Haris and the rest of the gang- Ronnie, CM, Draco, Kevin, Adam, even Tan Khee Meng (who ran a 4:02 in the full- salute to him!), DK, Ah Seah, Lai and so forth. After hanging around for a while, I headed back to the hotel, rested a bit and then headed to Penang Road for more food. The coffee shop was called Joo Hooi and it served out-of-this-world Char Kuey Teow, Assam Laksa, Kuey Teow Tng, Cendol and Lobak, all under one roof. Alas, the lobak stall was closed for the day but we devoured the rest. Absolutely superb stuff.
After our food, we headed to a nearby market and bought some snacks in the form of tau sar piah, before heading back to the hotel to check out and, begin our journey back to KL. The journey itself, once again was uneventful and it took us a 3.5 hours, including a quick stop at the Tapah rest area to buy some fruits.
Overall I truly enjoyed myself. After not being in Penang for almost 20 years it was certainly quite an experience. I must thank Adam for helping me register for the run; picking up the bib; and being my tour guide around Penang. Thanks man! Really enjoyed it. It certainly won’t be another 20 years before my next visit!
Friday
Was rather busy in the office with the packing of files and my belongings for the then impending move to a new address. Moving to the new address means that it would be a mere 2kms from my apartment. Having done my part of the packing, I left the office by 6pm, parked my car at the club and proceeded to Lake Gardens for my final workout before the run on Sunday. My final workout was a 15 minute jog, proceeded by 5 x 100 meter strides. Went to bed rather late despite planning to drive to Penang at 10am. As I was packing, I realised that I wanted to wear the blue and yellow Nike vest (that Jamie sold to me some time back) for the race, but also realised that it was in the Subang house. Planned to drive to Subang early tomorrow morning to collect that vest, and have a quick breakfast with my parents.
Watched the play in which the Penguin KC Leong was involved in, titled Flagrante Delicto. Good show put on by the members of Toastmasters.
Saturday
Woke up early in the morning, headed to Subang. The vest was nowhere to be found! Did I also lose that vest from the time I picked Jeanne up from KL Sentral a few weeks back when my car was broken into? Anyway I then decided to wear my predominantly gray Nike vest/shorts for the race. (I found the vest later and it was the domestic helper who somehow contrived to put the vest in the store room!) I filled the car with petrol, checked that the tyres were properly inflated, etc and drove back to the apartment. Waited for Adam to arrive at my apartment. He was following me to Penang. When he arrived, we headed to Pusat Bandar Damansara to buy a sandwich from Subway because Jeanne hadn’t had her breakfast. Then we began our journey.
The journey itself was uneventful but I’ve always felt that the scenery northbound is far more picturesque as opposed to the scenery southbound. Plus, when driving back to KL, one always has to deal with the nasty traffic from Seremban onwards. At least the traffic is pretty alright when one is approaching KL from northbound, public holidays and special occasions excepted of course.
We arrived in Penang in quick time (about 3 hours 15 mins) and were pleasantly surprised that traffic was alright. We were expecting some sort of chock-a-block due to the warnings of some road closures. Adam helped collect the bib numbers and we then proceeded to Vistana Hotel. Along the way Adam showed us the place in which he grew up and his memories of Penang. Interesting stuff.
We checked in and I called Jamie, and agreed to meet up with him at Swatow Lane for tea/snack/dinner. Called up Adam, (who had changed his overnight venue- he would be staying with Kevin Chow and RunWitMe in Vistana Hotel as well) and asked him to join us. We then headed to Georgetown and found Swatow Lane, (after a few wrong turns!) before proceeding to devour Char Kuey Teow, Kuey Teow Thng, Fried Eggs with Oysters (Oh Chien), Ang Tow Sng (Ice Kacang), Yam Cake, and Prawn Mee. Oh yeah, I got completely lost with the food there. Chin and Jamie were there. It was good stuff. Anyway, that was dinner sorted out- all done by 630pm.
After a brief visit to Prangin Mall (Jeanne wanted to go there to conduct a semi-market visit in line with her work) we headed back to the hotel. I was starting to get really sleepy, possibly because of all the food I consumed and the fact that I had slept little the night before. Set the alarm for 330am and knocked off at 930pm.
Sunday
Woke up at 330 am. As agreed Ronnie was picking up Kevin Chow and RunWitMe from the lobby. I saw CM as well and his friend Kelvin. I drove my car and followed Ronnie from behind. Shortly after CM parked his car near Ronnie’s sister’s place and followed my car, and we headed to a housing area somewhat near the starting line of the race.
After parking our cars, we walked to the starting line. The marathon had started, and we could see the runners on the road. We saw a familiar face- the Buluman Kelvin Ng PM2 who was his usual gregarious, loud, cheerful self. He stopped and asked us to take photos of him, much to the amusement of all of us.
Anyway we headed into the entrance of USM, but not without first giving our reporting cards to the officials. We were then made to walk quite a distance, across the USM field to another gate. Apparently we were supposed to walk through that other gate, and walk another distance before finally heading to the starting line. What nonsense! I sat at the kerb and chatted with Jamie for awhile.
520am approached, before we were finally allowed through the gates But because the gate was so narrow (in relative to the number of runners for the 22.3km distance), only a handful slowly streamed through each time. There were just so many runners. Then- came the surprise- I was still walking with Jamie and was some few hundred meters from the starting when I realised that the race had started! And there were still so many runners behind us! Chastened, I quickly said bye to Jamie and started running as quickly as I could. I was quire irritated that they started the race when virtually the remainder half the field were still walking towards the starting line, through no fault of their own. What do you expect when you only open one gate for a (my approximation) two thousand runners? I zig-zagged among the runners overtaking quite a number of them but I only finally settled into my race pace when I arrived at the bridge. With the distance markers on the bridge (presumably being accurate), I clicked off 4:20 km pace for about 3kms before settling around 4:53 km pace. The air was cool, and I felt it predominantly on the left side of my body since the wind was blowing in that direction. Past the slow incline, and onto the decline, I ran about 4:40km pace for a while, before easing back to arouynd 4:53km pace again. Then, I made the u-turn back to the opposite side of the bridge. As I was avout to make that u-turn, I saw that Ronnie had just completed his and was already on the opposite side. I estimated then that I was about 5 minutes plus behind him.
The return portion of the bridge saw me tiring and reducing to a 5:00km pace. Going up the incline again, I was hoping that the decline would push me to a faster pace but I just did not have the legs to push it faster than 4:48- 4:55km pace. On the flats I just about glided through and maintained the pace all the way to the end. Overall, point-to-point, I completed 22.3km in 1:45.23.
Overall I really enjoyed the race despite my initial frustration of starting late. The weather was good, it wasn’t too hazy, the route itself (which was on the bridge and was flat most of the way apart from the middle section which was a slight incline and decline on both sides) and the cool breeze on the bridge made it quite an enjoyable experience. I will definitely return to race there again.
After the race I saw Haris and the rest of the gang- Ronnie, CM, Draco, Kevin, Adam, even Tan Khee Meng (who ran a 4:02 in the full- salute to him!), DK, Ah Seah, Lai and so forth. After hanging around for a while, I headed back to the hotel, rested a bit and then headed to Penang Road for more food. The coffee shop was called Joo Hooi and it served out-of-this-world Char Kuey Teow, Assam Laksa, Kuey Teow Tng, Cendol and Lobak, all under one roof. Alas, the lobak stall was closed for the day but we devoured the rest. Absolutely superb stuff.
After our food, we headed to a nearby market and bought some snacks in the form of tau sar piah, before heading back to the hotel to check out and, begin our journey back to KL. The journey itself, once again was uneventful and it took us a 3.5 hours, including a quick stop at the Tapah rest area to buy some fruits.
Overall I truly enjoyed myself. After not being in Penang for almost 20 years it was certainly quite an experience. I must thank Adam for helping me register for the run; picking up the bib; and being my tour guide around Penang. Thanks man! Really enjoyed it. It certainly won’t be another 20 years before my next visit!
posted by pm19 at
11:47 pm
2 Comments:
Excellent report! I hope to run in PBR next year. The trouble with the gates near USM happens every year I am just amazed it has to happen every year.
Is always a pleasure to have you around, so need not thanked me, glad that everything went out fine. Thanks for the ride and also sorry for the wrong turnings I promise no more in future, I am sure by now you are familiar with all the turnings and able to navigate your way thru.
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