THE BIG RACE - PBIM 2011

I finally did my first 21k aka half marathon, been planning for this event for the whole year. Lame I know 21k need 1 year of preparation but who care. I finally did it. Anyway our journey for begins earlier Saturday morning on November 19, 2011.

I woke-up at 4.30AM when Tina call asking what time would I come to pick her up so I said at 5.30. Giving myself 30min to prepare and 30min travelling time and Tina 1hr to prepare. Alas when I reached my mum's place Tina have yet finish taking her bath and have not even packed her  bags so I have to wait for her to get ready. Hish.... well that is Tina for you. Before went off to Penang we pick up 2 other running buddies Kak Sue and Yana. There was suppose to be 3 others joining us but they all cancelled last minute.

Anyway we reached Penang around 11am and went straight to Queensbay Mall to pick up our race kit and afterwards had our lunch at Subaidah (Nasi Kandar + Telur Sotong. What else ?? Hei we are in Penang after all!).

Finished with lunch we drove to check in our hotel rooms where Tina book us in Eastin Hotel. It was expensive but the starting line was just in front of the hotel we figure this will save us the effort of waking up extra early and trying to look for a parking later. Sadly something must go wrong somewhere lah kan since everything went on well so far. Tina book us from 20th Nov instead of 19 Nov !! So we did not have a room for the night. Panic ... we call every hotel near by but all was fully book except for B Suites. They have only 1 room with 2 single beds available and we took it. Can't ask for anything extra at all even the pillows :-( everthing was not available and was taken, so we had to make do with the 2 beds.... Tinaa !!!!!!

Anyway the at 2.30am on November 20, 2011 Kak Sue and Yana drop us at start off location. We lepak for a while, saw the men half marathon went off first at 3.00am and the women categories was off at 3.15am.

Everyone came for the race ..... Digi, another major sponsor of the event chartered and this is what we saw 32 busses to move the people. Everyone who came for the fun run got the Yellow t-shirt sponsor by them. We met a guy that came from Kuala Terengganu, he also came in a bus chartered by a Kuala Terengganu based running group and 1 bus was from a Klang based running group. Yups lots of runners in Malaysia ... this is so cool ..... kan

The run was fun, the weather was windy and cooling it was just lovely. The route was a bit hilly but it was gradual so it was manageable. Lots of water stations and portable toilets station throught out the route but I still saw a few runners going in and out from the bushes. Neanderthal !!!. Anyway I finished within 3:06 waited for the others at the finishig line with a cup of Milo. Yeay me ......

We rested, went back to the hotel and check out.

Love the race ..... will be back next year and do a full marathon .... Hopefully Tina will get the hotel booking right next time around.