Penang Bridge Marathon

16th of November 2008, it is day for Penang Bridge International Marathon, quite a big event for Penang sport. Happily, SL and I are able to take part on this event.

We woke up at 4:30am at the early morning (which I thought we couldn't make it) to prepare ourselves for this marathon event. I was taking longer time (5 minutes late) than expected and SL started annoying with my delay, I just ignored him as this is his style (always punctual and plan too much earlier) :P

While we were on the way to Jerejak Jetty (this is the start point of Quarter Marathon and Fun Run), we saw many people were going to the same direction as us, I felt touched when seeing this senario because so many people were waking up early and getting together on doing the same things, just like what Lim Guan Eng said in his speech - one world, one dream, one spirit. This is really a great spirit, many people are willing on doing this, that is 16,000 participants (according to organiser) from 38 countries in the world.

After parked our motorcycle near to shoplot at Queensbay, we walked toward to Jerejak Jetty and we were able to see the memorable moment at the Queensbay roundabout. There is a Kenya participant becomes the first arriver to the end point, he is followed by another Kenya first runner, I felt too amazing with his performance and looked amazed to him, because his record is much earlier than the time limit from organiser (no matter which category he is from). After the result announcement, we just knew that he ran for half marathon (25 km) with 1 hour and 34 minutes for route completion, this is less than half of timed limit (3.5 hours for qualified runner). Too bad that we didn't take picture on his arrival.

We took a picture before we started to run, this is our first run for PBIM, and that is crowd for fun run categary.

Fun Run is the last category to start and that is no any prize will be given but a cert at the completion, but I still saw a lot of fun runner were running with their best performance and happily because it is really a pleasure to participate the event, this is more than enough than getting a metal.

SL and I stopped for a while before the Penang Bridge tower for photos taking, we also saw some people were taking pictures on the bridge because this is memorable moment for us, Penang Bridge is closed for the run and this is the only chance for taking pictures at Penang Bridge because cars normally are disallowed to stop on the bridge. However, it is too dark at time when we took the picture and we were using camera phone, which doesn't equipped with long distance lighting function, therefore our photos aren't clear. Never mind, we will come again next year :P

We were taking an U turn at the middle of bridge (while Half and Full Marathon are required to run whole the bridge), the sky started to turn bright at about 7 am, we took another stop just before we exitted the bridge because we saw the beautiful scenery at the port. We were really tired until this moment, where you can see my exhausted face in the picture but I was happy still because this is really a good experience for SL and I, this will be another topic to us during free time, about the run, about the event, about the fun, about the thought, about the first Kenya arriver and his result, plus more and more.

Finally, we took about 1.5 hours to complete the route, this is within the timed limit for Quarter Marathon (haha... we considered we are qualifier :P) and got a certificate as fun runners.

After exchanged our sweety T-shirt, we went to have breakfast at nearby shoplot before proceed to Queensbay open area for the rest of event, prize given, all men and women open for Half and Full Marathon were won by Kenya participants, they are really too strong.

We are also about to take a picture while Lim Guan Eng was walking down from stage after speech, but too bad that is some people blocked our best spot, therefore we only able to have picture of his back.

The event was ended at about 10++am, well... we still are not able to get any lucky draw :P, but it is happy enough for joining this great event in Penang. This is another milestone of our marriage life :)

ps: a reminder to us, the next Penang Bridge International Marathon will be held at 29 November 2009.