Standard Chartered KL Marathon

Race kit collections was in Dataran Merdeka and it was for two days (Fri and Sat). Having run in several runs before this, I have secretly telling myself and thinking that this is 'the' marathon of the year since Standard Chartered is the main sponsor and (Octagon-organiser) it has good reputations in other Countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE. But they failed to prove their worth this time around since the distribution of the numbers and kits were not done systematically. I can safely say that AmBank KL (FTAA) marathon is a much better organiser compared to Standard Chartered KL Marathon. It took me almost 2 hours to collect the 3rd and final Bib numbers for the Fun Run category.

They kept mentioning that 12,000 runners are to run in the Marathon but they failed to divide their volunteers according to categories which has most participants as oppose to the number of booths and computers. They cannot expect the number of Full marathon runners to equal the number of 10K runners. Because of this fundamental mistake, a lot of people got stucked queuing in long lines that barely moved.


Saturday was spent with family and friends and managed to squeeze in some cycling on the trainers to keep the muscles loose. And of course I had plenty of food the whole day. But tried to cut off the intake by 1800. It was not going to be possible since we had a wedding to attend later in the evening. So I limited myself to only eating as little as I can with hope that I can empty my bowel before the run.

I have no problems when it comes to emptying them before a workout. But it seems to be different this time. It doesn't work. And before I left to fetch Ayman, I gave him a quick call and he only got up to that phone call as he was sleeping in. Already a sign that this is the most ill prepared and unorganised race. Ayman even left his wallet behind! It was that chaotic.

We were at the starting area by 0600 and headed towards the end of the line and did our stretching. It was gun off at 0615 and we slowly ran our race. The route was nice and steady for the first 15km i supposed. It started to get though along Jalan Istana as fatigue has set in and the route was uphill. It seems that ALL the climbs were reserved in the last 5km which is double the pain when your legs are wobbly. I resorted to brisk walking during the last climb near Wisma Pertanian in an effort to save some legs for the last 3km.

Ayman and I managed to run the entire 21km within cut off and without any cramps. Alhamdulillah. During the run I took one ORS and 2 powergels to keep those cramps and fatigue at bay. This is only my 3rd half marathon and I am looking forward to more and hopefully of doing the Full marahon one day. But until that day comes I shall make myself more comfortable with the half marathon.

The run was alrite I suppose. But quite a number of runners in the full marathon suffered in the last 2 hours of their runs since the water stations were out of water. This is very demoralising to runners to know that they have to run without water. Which is why quite a number of them bring their own water or extra cash to buy their own drinks.

Here's the run summary;
Name: MUHAMAD SHAZALI BIN SHAIRUDIN (MAS)
Net Start: 06:15:28 Category: Half Marathon 21km
Net Time: 02:48:01 Position: 1376
Finish Timing: 02:50:28.96