There will be no photos in this report as compared to the first serie. The night before I drove through the first 10km of the race and found that from 3rd to 5th km, it is a slow incline up to 180meters, and it does look as if we're going to start running up Cameron Highlands.
The Start
At first I wanted to get to the finishing line by 4:00pm to utilize their shuttle bus back to the start line, however when I woke up at 3:30am, I had a massive headache. I didn't sleep though, just rested, took a bath and then by 4:30am I'm out of the homestay at Kampung Titi Teras, Balik Pulau.
Arrived at 5:00am, I waited a bit before walking to the start line. Met an old friend there, I had already taken my ablution but I shook her hand anyway. The start was quiet. No shouting of rules and regulation, no music, just a countdown and we're off.
I ran on the average of below 6min/km till the hill started, and I decided to do something I've never done in a race before. Walk for 3km. And so I did. Runners ran passed me, but I still maintain the walk and ended up having about 8++min/km on that 3kms. As it turns to downhill, I sped up and had about 5:30min/km on the next two kms after that.
The Middle
The route is, how I would say, boring. The scenic part is only at the first 6km but at 5:30am to 6:00am, there's hardly any view to enjoy. I had a stop to pray Subuh at a mosque, then I had my first energy gel at km6 and another one at km15. I was not really ready for this distance this time because it's been two weeks since I did any LSD due to the haze, so at that km15 water-stop, I requested for muscle spray but all the guy had was just Yoko-Yoko. I had that applied and continued on the race, but it didn't help.
In terms of my "similar time mates", I was running with a group of two guys and three girls who kept cutting each other over the kms. What I noticed is that while the two guys were like me, whereby we take walk breaks, two of the girls didn't seem to stop except at the water station.
The Finishing
Right after I crossed the 20km mark, I had my cramps. Had to hobble all the way to finish the 22km race, however I still manage to create a new PB of 2hours 35mins and 21secs, beating about 2 minutes from my previous Half Marathon PB. However, due to the walk, it actually took me more than 9 mins to finish km22.
I walked passed the finish line, took my medal, nasi lemak, bread, drink and placed them on the field while I stretched to cool down. Then I sat and ate, and later.... as expected, there were no taxi. Ended up walking about 2km towards Balik Pulau town and luckily a good samaritan sent me to my car and I insisted on paying him a token of a sum of money.
Summary
This race has nothing to shout about. Finished the race at 50% bottom percentile again. I hope to buck up as I do more half marathons.
