The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 results are out and my official timing for my maiden marathon run is 5hrs 37mins. I didn’t hit the time target of 5 hrs I set myself, I’ll have to try harder next year.
Congratulations to all runners who have completed a great run and/or better your personal best time! See you again next year!
December 6 was a day of reckoning and excitement for me, it was a day when I would attempt the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 full marathon for the first time in my life. Running a full marathon is one of the must-do things I wish to experience in my life and this was what I have all been training for the past 6 months.
More than 50,000 runners took part in various distance categories in this eighth edition of Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, with Guest-of-Honour Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr George Yeo flagging off the Full Marathon. The annual event also saw supporters taking to the streets as they cheered on the runners and enjoyed the various activities staged at the East Coast Park, the F1 Pit Building, as well as the Padang.
As my maiden marathon, I was bent on enjoying myself in this unique experience. From the early morning 3.30am wake-up call right up to the moment when I crossed the finishing line, every steps will be etched in my memory for a long time to come. No words will be able to describe how I felt when I crossed the finishing line and completed my first ever 42.195km. I was on an emotional high and it almost felt surreal.
Let’s take a moment to view some of the pics I captured at the post-race carnival at the Padang.
Here are some runners at the home stretch, giving a final push towards the finish line.
Even the Standard Chartered mascots are taking a break in their duties to cheer on the runners!
I stole a “photo finish” moment as I’m by the track side cheering the runners on.
Here’s me proudly posing with the hard-earned finisher t-shirt. Now I can proudly proclaim “I’m a marathon finisher!”
Those numbers in this post title represented the distance I’ve signed up for – 42.195km – the first full marathon I’m going to attempt to do in my life.
Completing a full marathon is one of those “must-do” things in my life and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 on 6 December shall be my baptism of fire.
Since it is going to be my first marathon attempt, the primary objective is of course to finish the full distance. Having said that, I’ll also challenge myself a time target of 5 hours.
I recently took a short vacation to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia and home of the imposing Petronas Towers, a design classic and until recently the world’s tallest building. In my previous trips to various parts of Malaysia, I’ve bypassed Kuala Lumpur but had never been to this capital city before. This time I decided to go Kuala Lumpur to do the touristy thing on a free-and-easy self-planned trip.
To and fro the Kuala Lumpur International airport or Low Cost Carrier Terminal to the city center, the journey brought us passed the Sepang F1 circuit, home of motorsport in Malaysia.
About 45mins of railway and cab travelling brought me into the Bukit Bintang neighbourhood where the hotel I’m staying is located.
Bukit Bintang is a very touristy area with lots of hotels and mega malls, so naturally the stuffs there are quite pricey.
Amidst this buzzing metropolis where towering skyscrapers and ultra-modern shopping malls and hotels resided along with historical buildings and street hawker stalls, a peculiar observation that left a deep first impression was that despite having a well connected network of monorail and light rail that ply most of the city, the roads of KL city appears to be jam-packed every hour of the day.
Coming up in the next post will be my visit to Chinatown and Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). Stay tune!
Disclaimer: This is not a call to extra terrestrial civilizations to migrate to Earth and join the Human Race.
This is the Nike+ run that I’ll take part in this October, as we enter the last quarter of the year and the countdown to the marathon begin in earnest. This will be the day the world runs.
The start/end points of this year’s race will be at the F1 pit building and participants will run off the F1 pit straight.
