PJ Half Marathon 2011 Race Review

The PJ Half Marathon, probably one of the oldest half marathons in this country made a comeback today and the turnout for it was pretty good. Didn't expect to have that much of participants but it made the run all the more merrier.

This event holds fond memories for me of the time when I first started my foray into the running realm more than 22 years ago. Back then, when I used to run this event it started in the Padang Timur field (Opposite AmCorp Mall) and used the entire Federal Highway into Subang and back. This was the first time I was actually running this route for the event. I ran the 10K the last time it was ever held years ago and never got to experience this route.

Not that I'm complaining too much. The darned sun made the end part of the race totally harsh and running the last, what, 6K with the sun right in your eyes is not a great feeling. The race in general was decent. The start was on time and the earlier part of the route (before the sun came out) was pretty okay. After the first incline at the start, it was relatively flat which gave me the opportunity to do some pretty fast times.

But one thing I learned today is never skip a light breakfast before your run and always, ALWAYS, carry an energy gel cos by the time I hit the 17K mark I was totally out of steam. It's a good thing Jamie caught up with me and gave me a spur to push on though he did blazingly disappear into the distance after that. Man, that guy is fast :D Well, that did the trick and I gathered whatever reserves I had in me and pushed on till the end.

Once again, I could rely on my earlier faster pace to keep me within the sub 2 hour mark even though my finish was much slower. I managed to cross the finish line in a time of 1.55.17 which was a huge improvement from the recent PNM. Not to shabby seeing as how I hardly ran the entire week save for a run on Deepavali day. The best part was, no crampings, must be the new shoe ... LOL!

My medal model a little lazy with her posing duties today :D

I was actually hoping the night before that it would rain but unfortunately it didn't and that made the race a hot one. Other than that, I thought it was a decently organized race. The water and sponge stations (which was godsent in the second half of the race) was where they were though I felt a pang of sadness when passing that poor hardened dead dog along the airport road (I have a soft spot for dogs).

The only complain I have is maybe they could have had the drink station much nearer when you crossed that finish line. It was way over the other side and lots of people didn't even know it was there. Imagine a parched throat and no water in sight. I had to walk back all the way to the car to get my stock of Gatorade.

After the race, I caught up with Jamie, Frank, Neoh and Kah Yen while waiting for the wife to come in. Congrats to her for posting a PB and beating her previous time by a huge margin. Awesome run, babe :D Congrats to all the runners out there who did an awesome job given the harsh conditions. Looking forward to next year already :D