Ambank KL International Marathon 2007

The adrenaline is still pumping but at the same time, fatigue is setting in a very big way. I finished the 10 km race of the Ambank Kuala Lumpur International Marathon in 60 minutes and yeah, I'm very happy as it is my maiden 10 km race.

The race started off at 7.00 a.m and having arrived at 6.00 a.m, I had a good look around of the starting venue, which was Dataran Merdeka. Thank God for PowerGel (with 4x caffeine), otherwise I would have been walking around like one of the living dead. Besides me, a couple of my colleagues and friends entered the same race but we were pretty much separated and on our own.

Participants started herding into the starting enclosure at 6.30 a.m and it turned out to be the best place to be as we got a front row view of the top 10 finishers coming in for the 42km marathon race. Participants for that race started running at 4.30 a.m and the top 10 were dominated by Kenyans.


Malaysian timing wasn't the order of the day (Thank God for that as well) and we started the 10km race right on the dot at 7 a.m. Honestly, the main thought on my mind at the start of the race was that I wanted to pee (seriously, I drank too much water) but that feeling was long gone when I running pass by the Istana. I slowed down to a walk at the uphill stretch towards Dewan Bahasa but started running taking advantage of the downhill stretch towards Pudu Jail.

The first water station was located at Jalan Imbi, after running pass the junction to Jalan Bukit Bintang. Kudos must be given to the water guys and ladies under pressure as they had alot of runners to serve. I chose to walk on the stretch leading into Jalan Bukit Bintang as it was another uphill stretch but started running again as the route lead into Jalan Sultan Ismail.

It was only at the last stretch of Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman did I find my own pace. The relatively flat stretch was by far the easiest to negotiate and after the 2nd water station, I decided to sprint on Jalan Tunku Rahman and that helped alot in setting my time. Somehow, the sight of the Dataran, made it abit easier to sprint to the finish (although it was actually quite painful). Arrival time: 8.00 p.m, well within the 80 minute time limit and I got a cert for that!!

Running at such at early time in the heart of KL city gave out the feeling that we owned the streets of KL :). Having finished ahead of my colleagues and friends, I need to thank especially my colleagues as without pressure from them, I wouldn't have given the race a 110%. A fellow 10 km race finisher asked whether I was interested to run in another 10 km race, but somehow I didn't catch the name of event. Even so, running is pretty addictive, I'm looking forward for my next race.

Come to think of it, this month seems to be a good month for Malaysian sports. First, a Malaysian pair took the All-England doubles badminton crown, and just yesterday Nicol David took the KL Open squash championship.