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| The cube medal when you combine all the 3 triangles. |
Having a tough time updating the blog lately mainly due to family and work commitments. And for the past the few weeks my brain is only filled with ultras...ultras and ultras. Having registered for the 84 km for the Penang 100 which will be on 6 September 2014. My biggest physical and mental challenge for 2014. My first ultramarathon ! Probably will be doing a series of blog posts as "The Journey to My First Ultramarathon" as a remembrance. Another milestone in my running journey.
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| The 3 medals that are triangular in shape |
This year the Penang Run 2014-2015 has moved over across the sea to Seberang Perai. Honestly, there are a lot of Penangites who stay on the island who only knows about the island and nothing about the mainland area of Penang. Come on guys and gals, Seberang Perai is still part of Penang. Don't be so ignorant. If you can travel to KL for runs, Seberang Perai is just across the bridge. And you can always enjoy the ferry ride by taking the ferry. And one of the great night view of Penang is to take a ferry ride at night.
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| Race Pack Collection |
Of course, this year the Penang Run 2014-2015 has been reduced to 3 series, i.e. Seberang Perai Utara (SPU) on 1 June 2014, Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS) on 26 October 2014 and Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) on 11 January 2015. But it is still all Half Marathon of 21 km distances. And the medal this year is super unique. Three triangles with magnets join to form a cube, a creative idea from Mr Andrew Loh, the race director. The good part of the Seberang Perai series are that it will be mostly a flat route for all 3 series.
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| Landmark along the SPU course |
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| Starting point of SPU |
After 3 months of not much training and with a short race of NTCRC 2014 of 9km this Penang Run SPU was tougher than usual. Although it was really a flat route. The lack of training really shows after 10km as tiredness and leg fatigue started to set in. Managed to pick up the pace after 16km when we started to run at the Butterworth Outer Ring Road (BORR) and managed to complete in 2:29. The straight and flat course at Jalan Teluk Air Tawar was real mental challenge. The best view is at the BORR where you can really see the whole view of Penang Island. I saw some runners stop and took photos of the view.
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| The star attraction of the race is "Sam Tai Chi". It actually weigh 15kgs. And they ran a relay wearing this. |
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| Lone Runners attracted by the "Sam Tai Chi' |
This is one race that I have seen excellent road marshaling and support with lots of volunteers and police support along the course. The water station was well attended to and the starting atmosphere of the race is just great. The main attraction in the race is the "Sam Tai Chi" from Tow Boo Kong Temple (Nine Emperor Gods Temple) at Butterworth. These costumes are actually from Taiwan. And I heard they actually run the full race in relay wearing the 15kg costume and did a techno dance on stage ! We also have Malay kompang along the course. Other than the complaint of the nasi lemak, it is the most organised race of Penang Run series so far. Time to start my ultramarathon training after this race and I only have 14 weeks to train.
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| Thanks to Running Malaysia Magazine for the great photo. |
