My blog has been dormant for quite some time. Quite occupied for the whole month of March due to work commitment and didn’t train sufficiently for my maiden marathon BIM KK. Anyway, I survived the gruelling 42km though all my strategy went down the drain for my first marathon event. Here’s some quick summary:
1) There was no portable toilet from KM1 to KM12 or so. At KM5 I had to pee in the bushes. Luckily I bought a bottle of mineral water just before the flag off and I held it until KM35. My instinct tells me that I just can’t rely too much on water stations as after 25km, the 3km distance in between water stations is just too demanding.
2) At KM17 – after taking an apple, sakit perut pulak. So I decided to make a pit stop at the nearest shell station. Toilet was full and had to go to McD. Did my subuh prayer there as well. Then I continued my run. At this point, there was no half marathoners yet. About 400-500m after the shell station, sakit perut lagi, aduh. So I knew the next portable toilet is gonna be the next 3km or so. So I made a u-turn back to the shell station. This time I think I started seeing some of the half marathoners passing by. From my Suunto, I spent about 35-40 min there. By the time I got out (from the toilet), I was competing with the full HM crowd. No more familiar faces of the FM crowd.
3) Then comes the infamous UMS hill. The UMS hill was tough, but luckily it was shaded with trees but the stretch after UMS was even tougher, KM25-KM30. The sun was direct on our faces. This time I started donning my running hat. More walking than running at this stretch. I think I started seeing stars at this point. The intense heat, the glaring sun was just unbearable. My first thought was, that Mulu climb, I did last 2 weeks, was nothing compared to this. Haha. My Suunto recorded a peak temperature of 38.1 C (plus my skin temperature of course).
4) KM30-KM35: after some ice packs and cooling off, I managed to do some slow run at this stretch.
5) KM35-KM42: Hitting the wall stretch. I can’t recall much from this stretch as I was a zombie at this point and just in total brain dead mode. Oh and another toilet break at my favorite Shell station on the way back. Bought a bottle of 100 plus as all the chilled mineral water sold out. Saw some FMs fainted because of heatstroke. I heard at least 4 ambulance trip at this stretch. I ran mostly on shaded stretch. Total distance covered = 43.9 km. The 42.129 km is a sham. Hehe…
Tips: If you can’t beat the sun, then please bring along your own water supply, running hat and better still, sun glass. That’s all folks…



Carbo carbo…



