hedwig's sky: Penang Bridge International Marathon™ 2009

yes, I did it!!!!!

Yesterday, 22.11.09, Sunday, I had my first time joining a marathon other than the "merentas desa" in high school. Since I came to Penang, I had had the intention to join the event but didn't do so because of timing problem and no friends wanted to join together.

This time, the date was after my final exam, and since I would stay in Penang until early December (maybe) for doing FYP, why not I grabbed the chance to take part? hehehe...

Besides, my dear had bought the flight ticket, from Sabah flying to Penang after his final exam. Therefore, no problem could be the reason stopping me from joining this marathon! huhu...

Both of us had joined the Fun Run category with 10 km distance. Firstly, our main purpose was not about running/jogging; as I am not a good runner, er... he is quite good though. The Motives that were quite unrelated to running:

1. To experience crossing Penang bridge w/o vehicle

2. To take photographs of people, scenes, and us with the bridge especially

3. To get the T-shirt and goodies hahaha!

4. To have a chance in lucky draw session

5. To get the certificate proving that I had joined and completed the marathon!

6. To have a memorable event with my dear

7. To join in fun~

The route map for FUN RUN

http://www.penangmarathon.gov.my/portal/

Both of us didn't have enough sleep actually lolz... we slept quite late and woke up at 4.30am. Thanks Ann and her bf for fetching us or we couldn't reach Queensbay mall with ease. We thought we needed to register, but seems like we were wrong.

My shoe and his white sport shoe (which I bought for him as his belated birthday present)

Since the time was still early, we wandered around and had some "breakfast" as there were some booths distributing food samples like biscuits, 100 plus, milo, cereals... banana too!
We met Jien who was working with "Breathe Right", he was promoting and helping fellow runners to stick on the nasal strips which helped to open the nasal passage for better breathe. Well, it seemed working well, but it caused my nose to open big and I looked like a piglet =.="

There was a bag deposit area provided for fellow participants. However, we didn't need it as we had brought along a small waist bag, and we had planned well to bring only a mobile phone, a camera, ICs, key, a towel, a plastic bag, a packet of tissue and a bottle of water.

The big space in front of Queensbay... the place every participant gather and with booths

Fun Run category with different starting point -- In front of Eastin Hotel

When it was about 7am, we followed the crowd walking to the Eastin Hotel. Fun Run runners were required to gather in front of the hotel as it was where the starting line located. It was too bad that the hotel employees replied to us that we couldn't use the toilet in the hotel when we asked for; by that time, there were a lot of people crowding inside the hotel lobby... she said that we should go back to the event location for using the toilet. Seems like... we would be allowed to use its toilet only if we had our breakfast there? Okay... never mind, I cancelled my call for toilet.

oh, I spotted few people with weird combination, for example the above with such bag..

indeed FUN run...

While waiting, I met Nikki, a friend from USM too... she was joining without friends... she's very independent! Unlike me, she was joining for running haha. There were many people scattered at the starting point, and I noticed few people actually brought along handbag which girls usually use for shopping outings @@"; and some with not-so-sport mode outfits. Without really knowing how it was started off, we just followed the crowd in front to start "running". Not far from the starting point, we spotted a couple with wedding suits! Wow... they must have grabbed this great chance to create extraordinary memorable wedding ^^

The sky was not clearly blue that morning... it started to rain lightly when we ran near to the bridge. But everyone continued "running" for sure... it didn't really affect unless it was really heavy I guess...

Yea... Finally we saw the bridge! huhu.... at that area, many people started to stop by and took photographs, with the bridge as the background~~ It was such a precious moment to walk on the bridge with no cars... and at any lanes of the highway, enjoyed a short while of breeze with my dear too lolz...

with the Penang bridge as background~

wearing the Couple shirts (wakaka... just official t-shirts la..)

and with the waist bag bought purposely for this marathon ^^

The Penang bridge

On the bridge... with the signboards~~ a rare chance

The left board had guided my family to USM successfully, when we first came to Penang!

Here, I met my direct junior Yee Mei who also joined the Fun Run too

with bottles being abandoned on the highway...

these were distributed at the water stations

Spotted GREEN LUNG group from USM

they were in big group and kept on shouting:

Say NO to smoking, Jangan merokok, 不要吸烟

quite a good way to promote this campaign, good job

salute them for having enough stamina to shout while run!

http://usmgreenlung.blogspot.com/

On the way 'running' towards the U-turn back to the finishing point, there were parts of people playing cheat by using shortcut, across the field of highway before U-turn, to reach the opposite runway. =.="

the view from the bridge going down the highway... it was the route after U-turn

heading back to Queesnbay mall, the finishing line.

the shortcut users

Although we were slow (my dear just adjusted his pace to follow mine...) as we were "running", we insisted on completing whole 10km on own strength. Without any training, I didn't dare to run much, and hence I just ran for not more than 500m... ops... still, my leg muscles started to get tense on the half way...

Finally, we crossed the finishing line! wuhooo... and we were in the time to get the certificate~! yoyoyo.... if not mistaken, we had used 1h50m to complete this 10 km. I would say lucky not to join the half marathon with 21km... if not, with my laziness to train, I would "die" @@