Muar Half Marathon

This wasn’t a planned event in my Calendar, decided to enter it at the 11th hour. I found out that the registration was already closed at the time, but a quick call to the organizer enable us (Deo, Zaki Otoromen & yours truly) to register it at the final hour.

It was one the best decision ever, Zaki decided to pulled out last minute after injuring his ass during Saturday LSD. We drove all the way from KL that morning and greeted with heavy rains on arriving at race site. It’s going to be a cold run that morning.

The rains finally beginning to slow down as the event approaching starting time at 6:35 am. Found many familiar faces among the crowd at the starting lines, runners from KL, Chap Ayam Gang and even celebrity runner from Singapore – Mohan Marathon. Well it’s speaks volume about this event when Mohan ditched Nike 10k SG for Larian Amal Muar. Furthermore, it’s a sure bet that this will be a quality event when James from Marathon shop involved with race organisation.

It’s a special event for me as it’s the first time i run Muar, and it’s nice to be back in town after leaving my boarding school in Tg. Agas back in 1989 (SPM).

The route is the flattest among many of my event in Malaysia, it’s better than Taiping (i hate hills). You need mental perseverance to run this long stretch of route, started from Tg. Emas and running towards Parit Sakai Laut, Parit Keroma Laut, Parit Raja Laut until Parit Unas Laut where we made a detour towards Jalan Junid and going back to Tg. Emas for the finish line.

The road was wide and deserted in early morning, the traffic control was superb, manning by Police, Rela and the organizer. Two thumbs up for this event, i definitely will be back next year.

Although the finisher Medal was average and they only served water at WS (no isotonic), it’s still the cheapest entrance fee for a Half Marathon event – RM30.

Started the race with Deo, Dan plus the Chap Ayam Girls. My strategy was to finish the HM in whatever time thus complete 100km week mileage and maintained a constant speed plus keep up the correct running posture.

I completed the Half Marathon in 2:09 at position #40 Men Open and happily accumulated a week total of 111km mileage. The toughest week so far and really pushed my limit for TNF preps, i still got it baby :)

Congrats to Deo for his PB and the Chap Ayam Girls for dominating the podium. It’s a must do event to record new PB – see you peeps next year here.