Monday, October 20, 2014

2014 BSN Putrajaya Night Marathon

Race Information
Date: 11th October 2014 (Saturday)
Venue: Dataran Putrajaya, Presint 3
Organiser: Twenty First Century Sports (M) Sdn Bhd
http://www.bsnpnm.com/

Worried. That was going through my mind for this race. Why? It's due to the cut off time of the race. I need to finish 10km in 80minutes. Based on my virgin run, it took me 93mins to run 10km. So how the heck am I supposed to trim the 13min excess time???

I drove back from Penang at 5.30pm and arrived late for my brother's and niece's kenduri at 9.30pm. So dinner was late at 10.30pm. Nasi beriani hahaha (carbo-loading). Saturday was spent lazing around. Initially, I was thinking of going to SportsDirect to get a hp belt (borrow my dad's iP5) but I cancelled due to the laziness to go out.

Lunch was late at around 3.30pm and before the race, I think i ate some cream puff and snacks. I was really hungry during the race. Luckily, snacks were provided after the run.

By 6.30pm, it was already dark and by 7pm, it started drizzling. But when we reached the race venue, it was dry hahahaha! We walked around a bit and the split as the starting point for FM/HM and 10km/5km were on the opposite side of the road. I was supposed to meet my friend at the meet up point but ended up meeting other friends instead. Not having phone at that time was really hard as I hv no mean of comm (reminder to bring my pouch for next run). Well, at least I had companies while waiting for flag off.

My friends were eager to run so we headed to the front of the crowd ( i dont really planned to go upfront but what to do???). 9secs after flag off, we started. Of course, after 5mins I was running alone already hahahaha! No surprise there :p

The weather was humid and hot (now I know what they meants by Putrajaya being to most humid place to hv a run). I was sweating like crazy after only 10mins and the road felt long The boulevard was damn straight!! Distance marker is basically non-existence. I had to estimate based on the water station location (of course u need to remember the running route).

Like the years before, the organizer arranged a lot of entertainment along the route. The crowd of volunteers cheering really motivate me to keep running. There were a lot of percussion bands,  drummers and mascots apart from the (volunteer) crowds.

At the end, I was a bit dissapointed to see that my running time only improved by few seconds and there is no medal for me. But I was surprised to see everybody was given the medal regardless of not finishing in 80mins! What a relief!!

I then waited for my brother at the 21km (HM) finishing line. There I could see different kind of walk after the run (and a lot of runners being wheeled to the medical tent as well) - limping, walking barefooted etc. These runners must have had a hell of a run. most of them are drained out but looked very satisfied (and relief!) to finish the race =)

My brother finished the race at 3+ hrs, after resting for about half an hour while eating; we drove back home. And due to the high adrenaline, I ended up sleeping at around 4pm (3+hrs of sleep) and my brother didnt slept at all that night hehehehe.





Pro:
  • A lot of things to look around, i.e selling booths (GNC, Brooks etc)
  • A lot of entertainment along the route- bands, cheering, people dressing up
  • Snacks and drink provided post-run
  • U still get a medal after the cut off time!
Cons:
  • Most of the booths closed at around 11pm. So those running for HM/FM doesnt really got a chance to look around when they finish the race (well... not that they hv the energy to do so)
  • NO DISTANCE MARKER. i used the water station to roughly estimate where i am.