Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Standard Chartered KL Marathon

I'm glad to have secured a place in the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2015 on October 4.
This year registration closed only after three days as all 35,000 places were grabbed by enthusiastic runners in categories from 5K to the full marathon.

I'll be running again in the 10K (speed) category.

As the KL Marathon 2015 is all not that far away, I thought I should relive the memories of the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2014 to draw inspiration and rediscover my motivation for running in races.


The 2014 KL Marathon, winner of  the coveted KL's Mayor Tourism Award  saw over 30,000 participants and supporters congregate at the historic Dataran Merdeka. Participants from within Malaysia describe this annual running event as "epic", a truly international race and the mother of all running events in Malaysia
The sheer number of participants that turned out for the race was overwhelming. I was still new to running in race events at the time and certainly did not anticipate such a huge crowd on that day. The LRT trains were packed in the wee hours of the morning, with runners of every shape and size, all of whom were proudly wearing their Brooks green race tee. A thought crossed my mind, "While other KL City folks were sleeping in on this Sunday in October, there's a whole community of runners who were up and out as early as 5 in the morning and that's truly remarkable." I am totally not a morning person and yet, I found myself turned into one on this beautiful morning. I think I had already overcome the first obstacle of the day that is getting out of bed at a set time. I felt ever ready to conquer other obstacles that would come my way..


Participants heeding the advice of the organizer to travel by train to the race venue



The new route for 2014 gained positive feedback from seasoned runners of the KL Marathon. For me, it was sheer joy running the new route which traversed KL's iconic buildings such as Dataran Merdeka, DBKL, the National Mosque, the National Monument and the awe-inspiring Petronas Twin Towers in the background. I remember the uphill terrain at the Taman Tasik Perdana/KL Bird Park around kilometer 9, which was a challenge both mentally and physically.Thankfully, my brand new pair of Brooks Glycerin 12 served me well to handle the demands of the terrain.

Tears streamed down my face when I crossed the finish line as I knew that I had given it my all in the race. I was overcome with pride of having finished my very first Standard Chartered KL Marathon 10k race with a noteworthy time.
New cue words: "Finisher of the amazing KL Marathon, 10km"
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