just did it.

Well this is long overdue.

Sundown Marathon was my first run requiring a(n almost dead) passport. My friends and I were really excited for it. It was the most I’ve ever paid for a race (for I am a cheapskate), so I was looking forward to get the most out of it, hehe.

The flagoff time for half marathon was at 12:30 after midnight. Kurang pasti sebenarnya konsep marathon ni ialah Sundown or Sunup.

I was intrigued to see if race organisation outside Malaysia would be better than what we’re used to having. At first I was impressed with the race village setup and how they split the runners by speed categories. There was a reaaaaaalllyyy long line to the portaloos though, so I didn’t go. (thought of going to the portaloos in the race course, but turned out there was a long line for those too. this is the first ever race that I’d managed to hold my pee throughout the entire race, I was surprised that that was doable! Although not very comfortably.)

I guess I expected too much from my first international race. Some of the factors were out of the organizer’s hands (weather played a BIG part on this night), but there were also other things that I thought could’ve been done better.

Fun points

• i really like the running vest. V-neck bergaya.
• impressive race village and pre-flagoff/flagoff
• they were gonna have an open air movie screening after the run! Was kinda looking forward to that
• running along the Marina Bay area was pretty cool. I loved the view.

Not so fun points

• I think the organizer went a bit overboard with the volume of runners vs the amount of road space they could provide for us. Most of the race was spent running very congestedly in a small emergency or side lanes. When someone at the front stopped for a walk, it basically forced everyone behind to slow down and had to struggle to navigate past. A lot of brushing against sweaty strangers and feeling like cattle. And given the really humid weather early during the race, that was a really uncomfortable experience.
• some of the lanes were dark. Like really, really dark. Some of the areas were only lit by glo-sticks!
• water stations weren’t fully equipped to deal with the volume of runners. Whenever we got to a water station it was either utter chaos or there was not water at all.
• it started to pour in the last 3-4km of the race. I’ve never run in THAT much rain! The rain did motivate me to go faster though. (I kept thinking I needed to run faster to save my shoes, even though they were already soaking wet. Whatever works to keep you going.) This wasn’t the organizer’s fault, though.
• because of the heavy rain, there was no movie. Kesian gak lah to the organizer, they had to bungkus everything. It wasn’t possible to do anything but huddle uncomfortably under whatever shelter that was available. Me and my friends dragged ourselves, limping wet and all, back to our hotel.

So yeah, it was, well, one-of-a-kind experience.

I ran the entire race with Moon, Sundown being her first half-marathon. My target for this race was just to survive it, at whatever time, because it was my first 21k in the Newton and at the time I was entirely unprepared for that distance. True enough I ended finishing the race in 3:01, my PW, but it really helped to have a partner to run with throughout the whole thing. Kalau lari sorang tu confirm akan berjalan every 10 minutes!

And my legs the next day! I was like a wet rag (a very slow one, too) all over Orchard Road.