Post mortem - Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Half Marathon 2011

Work has been so crazy busy the past week, that I have not had the time to write on this. Alas, the euphoria from the Standard Chartered Half Marathon on 26.06.2011 has died down. But I was on cloud 9 for a good 2 days after though.

Well I have to hand it to the organisers, the run was really well managed! I was impressed! The atmosphere in the morning before the flag off was pure excitement coming off from everyone else. Although it was still very dark and you could barely see the person's face next to you. As I anticipated the massive crowd there, I took a taxi at 5am instead of driving there.

It was an early wake up call for me at 3am and breakfast at a mamak at 4am. What else is open at that hour right. So there I was in my running tights and green SC shirt surrounded by clubbers from the night before sobering up at the mamak. I was laughing inwardly as they probably thought I was nuts or something, in running gear at 4am :p

I got to Dataran Merdeka before 5.30a.m and wow it was so exciting to see so many people! Granted it was still pretty quiet. I think most people were half asleep. So I proceeded with some light warm up and managed to catch the flag off for the full marathon. Full marathoners, wow, that's a whole different class, really respect those runners *hats off* Hopefully soon, I can be strong enough to do a FM.

Anyways, next was the Ekiden flag off. This was, I think a team relay for HM. And 5 minutes later, off we go, the Half Marathoners! There were so many people running that it was quite stuffy and no room to branch out for the first 4km, I think. But that was fine with me, since I start out slower anyways. 

I loved the route! It was fairly even for me, with not much hills, except I think up one flyover or two. There were water/iso drink stations every 2km after the first 4km. And not forgetting sponges too. The first 15km was okay for me, and I had a good pace on me. I took my power gel at the 12km mark. My iPod stopped working after the halfway mark. But that didn't stop me. In fact, I realised it is much more enjoyable for me to run without music. I can easily listen to my own breathing and check if I am dragging my feet, which I tend to after a while. 

The 16km - 18km was killer for me as I felt most tired then. But the crowd was getting more excited. We were already near Pavilion then. I think everyone just couldn't wait to finish! I pushed through for the last 3km. But alas, the last one or 2km, we merged with the 5km group category. There were so many of them! And most of them were walking in groups on the street, blocking those running. I could hear the cheers of the crowd from the finishing line! I was adamant not to be slower than my Energizer run which was 2.30 so I picked up my pace then, bumping into a few 5km walking people. (I did say sorry, coming through!)

Pushing past the finish line, I felt a surge of happiness! Definitely happy with my performance, I did not stop throughout the race (which I did in energizer, walking at parts, boo) and I felt good! Not wiped out as I thought I would be. My official time? 2:27:27! 2 minutes faster than my first HM in April! And I ranked 169 out of 955 runners in my category, which was the women's open. 

This run has definitely given me the inspiration to train harder! I want to complete a HM below 2:15. How was your run?