Hello my wonderful readers and friends!!! Did you all miss me? :P
Arrived safely back at home yesterday morning... It was a super-rushy trip for me since I spent 4 days in Gold Coast and 5 days in Melbourne catching up with friends and family over there...
This is my 2nd time running a marathon in Australia... I decided to join the GCAM at the very last minute because my dadaa gave both my sister and I the green light to visit my brother earlier last month, and of course I had to squeeze in a marathon during the break... ;P
With only 3 weeks to train for this, I tried my best to clock in as many kms that I could with the super limited time... Thank God for the 2 running events last month too!
A few days before leaving for Australia, my friend and fellow G member, Irwan and I were talking about the marathon and we decided to run together and pace each other for this since we both wanted a PB... Oh by the way, Irwan won his ticket to the marathon simply by blogging about his marathon experience in London through a blogging contest by Air Asia... You can read about his experience by clicking here... ;)
Though it was a wishful thinking at that time due to my trainings, I thought that it would be nice to have someone to run with for the entire 42km route... :)
Pre-race day:
Decided to meet up with Irwan at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre since he was having his lunch over there with the Air Asia team...
Picked up my bib and shopped a lil' at the expo... ;)
Race-day:
Only slept about 4 hours the night before... Oh, the anxiety! Hehe... And decided to get ready and took the shuttle bus which was about 100m walk from the apartment to get to the race venue...
A sea of runners with the beautiful background :)
Half marathoners started their run at 6am... It was a cold morning indeed... I noticed that this event has a lot of Japanese participants from the tour groups and the tents that I saw at the venue... Must be because of the weather and the 'beachy' factor... ;)
Our marathon run started at 7am, so I had about an hour or so to camwhore at the venue with Irwan and friends... ;)
With my pacer who was running as one of the Air Asia team members ;)
Photo credits to Mohan
With Rosey, Irwan and Nyna...
Finally running a FM together ♥
With KK and his famous tights ;)
Photo credits to KK
The first 10km was quite a breeze for the both of us, as we were both running at a 6:20 - 6:30 per km pace... Clocked in at 1:09 on our 10km marker and 2:15 on our 20km marker...
We even had time to stop and get our pics taken by the Marathon-Photos team and our friends who were cheering as well on our first 20km of the run... :)
Photo credits to Sab + Zaki
Us kicking and alive still ;P
Photo credits to Mohan
Photo credits to Mohan
The real test was after crossing the 30km marker... I started feeling super hungry and my legs were feeling very tired... Served me right for wanting to run a marathon without enough training... :P Thank God for Irwan as he kept pushing and motivating me on our last 12km of the route... Some of his (garang) lines were:
1) At the water station: "2 gulps and then we go!" (Of course I had more than 2 :P)
2) While running: "Stop looking at the watch! Don't bother about PB, just finish the race!" (Garang right? :P)
3) While walking: "30 seconds...20 seconds... 10 seconds... OK let's run now!" (Sometimes I didn't listen to this :P)
The idea of chasing a new PB seemed impossible at this time and all I wanted to do was to cross the finish line... PB or no PB... But, at our 40km marker, a video of Irwan's message on getting a new PB that he recorded at the expo the day before was shown and that really 'kicked' me inside to give all that I've got at the last 2km of the route... And of course, the Jalur Gemilang was proudly carried by both of us respectively towards the finish line... :)
Both Irwan and I made sure that we will always pose for the cameras...
And by far, this is the marathon where I have so many pics from the official photographers...
A total of 24 pics! Haha! :P
Both Irwan and I crossed the line with a new PB of 4 hours and 47 mins!!! That's about 6 mins earlier than my previous record at Paris de Marathon... :D :D :D
With the supernice medal + finisher tee :)
This jap dude was running the marathon carrying and playing the trombone...
Super MAD respect to him!
With Baba, Irwan and Nyna :)
Baba PB-ed her half marathon here... Awesome!
And Nyna PB-ed as well for her 4th FM... Well done to you my fellow penyeri!
Hugs to you both! :)
Both Nyna and I walked hand-in-hand with Rosey at the last 300m of her marathon :)
Rosey was still suffering from her knee injury and just recovered from a flu...
Kudos to you for finishing your 4th FM Rosey! *Hugs*
Met this random jap guy and he decided to sign-up and run his first FM a week before the event and he wore those black loafers to complete it in 5 hours 17 mins!!! Respect!!!
It was definitely a super organised event... Water stations were more than adequately enough (every 1km yo!), the streets belonged to us runners on that day, the volunteers and cheerers were unbelievably supportive and that it was like a party for us at the end of the race with performances and music blaring out of the speakers... And that's what a marathon event should be... :)
And HUGE thanks to Irwan for being an awesome (but sometimes stern :P) and supportive pacer, my jalan2 partner and my carboloading partner in Gold Coast... Treating you to a meal soon ok? ;)
Congratulations to all of the runners and my friends for completing the marathon!!! :)
So, that's my last FM before my NYC marathon... Which is less than 4 months away... Going to celebrate and spoil myself back here in KL this week before training again for NYC... Anyone wants to spoil me as well? ;P
Congrats Nana, new PB woot woot :)
ReplyDeleteray ray: thank you! only 6 mins but woot woot indeed! ;)
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