A Half Marathon in Angkor Wat, Cambodia?

The sunrise at Angkor Wat is just breathtaking

Two days after my Penang Bridge Half Marathon last year, I went for a trip to Cambodia. Starting with Siem Reap ending with a 6 hours bus ride to Phnom Penh.We arrived at LCCT KL on the early morning of 23 November 2011 and departing to Siem Reap the same morning at 6.45am. To save on the cost of the hotel accommodation we decided to spent the night at the airport. The lack of sleep was  really killing on arrival at Siem Reap.

However, the excitement of travel chased the sleepiness away. But I end up having "red eyes" on the second day due to the lack of sleep and the dustiness from the trip. And these vampire eyes lasted until I am back to Penang. One interesting part of the trip I have to travel in "tuk tuk. Other than the main roads which are tarred the rest of the roads have quite a lot of potholes. And this is the only trip that I actually lose weight because when you are in a "tuk tuk" and going on the road with potholes, you will be like riding a horse. If you do not hold firmly to the handle, you will be thrown out of the "tuk tuk".

The airport at Siem Reap and the mode of transport "Tuk Tuk" and the conditions of the smaller roads.

The magnificent of Angkor Wat and temples around Siem Reap is a sight to behold. It makes you wonder how could they build such huge stones structures so many years ago. And the Angkor Wat with sunrise as a backdrop and casting a shadow on the lotus pond is just breathtaking.  There are so many photographers waiting to capture the perfect picture for the sunrise. And one unfortunate photographer forgot to bring her camera's battery. It is like a sight you must see before you die. Just like the sunset at Tanah Lot, Bali. (http://thorrunning.blogspot.com/2012/08/running-in-bali.html)

The stone structures in Angkor Wat

The tree entrance for Angelina Jolie's "Tomb Raider"

And how about running a half marathon in Angkor Wat, Cambodia? Yes, you can. It will be a great to run in such a historical place. There is a actually a half marathon organised for Angkor Wat each year with the theme "Building a better future. Aid for children and disabled in Cambodia.". I was pretty surprised when I saw the signboard and I just ran a half marathon in Penang  a few days ago. The coming event will be on 2 December 2012. Link to Angkor Wat Half Marathon. So you can run the Penang Bridge International Marathon on 18 November 2012. Then fly off to Siem Reap for a half marathon.

Half Marathon at Angkor Wat 

Cambodia has a very interesting history but lots of killings during Khmer Rouge regime which has been shown in the movie "The Killing Fields" where millions have been killed. There are a lot of poor children running around Angkor Wat areas and people have been advised to bring them candies or stationery. There are so poor that they cannot afford stationery for their studies. And here our children has an overabundance of it. Probably it will be good to bring our children to see unfortunate the Cambodian children are. This would make them appreciate what they have better.

The adorable children of Cambodia

The girl with a smiling face is "Nech"

There is an incident where I am deeply touched. It happens around the Angkor Wat area where we have given a box of stationery to this 11 year old girl named "Nech". She actually wrote us a thank you note in English wishing us good luck. It makes me realised that our children has only been taught to get good grades but not been taught the two important words, ie "Please" and "Thank you". I remember my school headmaster said "Academic excellence is no substitute for poverty of character". So true !

Her Thank You Note

A Journey to My First Marathon Part 2

Running up the middle span for the second time is one of the toughest run I have ever done. It is really more like a "crawl". The thought of "The Hare and Tortoise" story crosses my mind. Will I make it in 3 and a half hour for the medal? Or should I just start walking for the rest of the race? But my positive mantra of "I must never stop running" kept me going. Slow and slowly I ran...up and down the middle span. It is still a very long way to the finishing line. The water stops only served water and 100 plus and no food in sight. I was damn hungry !! Tired and hungry at the same time.

I have never ran so slow in my life until I notice that people were walking faster than my running. This is tortoise speed. The finishing of 3 and a half hour crossed my mind. A bridge too far I supposed. At that moment, I was passing some flats and I heard the morning prayers from a nearby mosque and I knew it was about 5.45am. The finishing line was not far from there. I have to dig deep into any reserve energy that I have left in a hungry stomach. Yes, at last I saw the turning into Queensbay Mall the final stretch to the finishing mark. A guy who has finished and holding a medal was walking along the final stretch shouted at us "Run, you are about to finish". That kind of add petrol to an empty fuel tank and I just ran as fast as I could to the finishing line. Finishing in 3 hrs and 10mins. 20 mins to spare to get my medal !! The "Thortoise" finished the race, YEAH !! It is nice when the volunteer hang the medal over your neck.

My finishing medal 

After the race, the first thing I look for is FOOD!! Never been so hungry in my life. So many runners were queueing up for food at the kiosk. Luckily there was one kiosk without queueing because they only give bananas. Beggars can't be choosers. I took 3 bananas and finished them immediately. I am just hungry beyond words. 3 hours 10 mins is such a long run. Took me 3 months to get over the fear of running after the run. Running for a marathon, no way....it will take me more than 6 hours !! Although technically you are given 7 hours to finish the race. Can't imagine myself wanting to run more than 6 hours on the road. Running a half marathon is already such a torture. Why would anybody want to "Embrace the Suck" again...

But what makes me run again? Not only run but running a marathon...

To be continued....

A Journey to My First Marathon Part 1

Having completed my 10K run (in 2010) two years ago and a Half Marathon (2011) a year ago, I have mentally psyched myself to run The Penang Bridge International Marathon(PBIM) this year. 42km is really a long distance.

Night View of Penang Bridge

I was training for my half marathon for PBIM with no training program or information but just a passion to run. I spend most of my training on the treadmill running from 40 mins to 60 mins. And at times a 60 mins to 90 mins run around my "taman"(housing area) on a Sunday morning. Never knew anything  about nutrition or what to eat before or after a run. A real newbie in long distance running. Probably it is because I attempted a half marathon 25 years ago doing the same thing. But I have forgotten that I am 25 years older now with a heavier body and a much deteriorated stamina. I have stopped running after that half marathon due to the amount of training I have put into that. I just become scared of running.

What get me back to running after 25 years? I would not say that I have not run during these 25 years. I have still been running on the treadmill over these years but the passion is not there and running is just an exercise. I spend most of my time doing weight training. Ending up with a much much heavier body. I have moved to a new gym about two years back where the treadmill is mostly not fully utilised all the time. So I started running on treadmill most of the time. I started with a walk/run routine. I could not run 20 mins continuously not even at a 7.5km/hour speed. That is actually very slow!! So I later drop the speed to 6.0km/hour speed which is almost like walking speed. It took me a few weeks before I could run for 20 - 30 mins without walking. And the maximum speed was probably at 6.8km/hour. The interesting part is I was hooked!!

I have read that if you do endurance exercise for a longer period the endorphins will kick in mostly referred to as the runner's high. I started to run 3 times a week on a regular basis on a treadmill and slowly increasing it to 40mins and then 60mins on weekends. After about 4 or 5 months of running I thought I would entered a half marathon of PBIM at the end of the year. But later I decided to do a 10km which was in 2010. The 10km run that year was  not that difficult as I was already running about 6 -7 km at that time for 60mins.

My 10km Medal

As I like to take on challenges as it comes, the next race will be a half marathon next year. Continuing my training on a treadmill most of the time and occasionally doing longer runs around my "taman"(housing area) on Sunday. My runs was only about 45 mins to a maximum of 90 mins. I did not even bothered what is the distance that I have covered. I did not really find a training program or information on long distance running. That was really a big mistake !!!


On the race day, the run starts at 2am for full marathon and 3am for half marathon. I did not sleep for the night and never ate anything before the race except for the dinner the night before. And I have to finish before 3 and a half hour for a medal. I was calculating my speed earlier that I ran on a treadmill and I was doubtful I could even finished in 3 and a half hour.

When I was at the race venue, I was wondering why some of the runners was carrying bananas and energy gels for the race. Probably I would not need that. The atmosphere of the marathon is great. Very fanfare type. Gets you into a happy mood. And we saw the full marathoners running off from the start. We will be the next at 3am. You really see that runners come in all shapes and sizes and age too. There are really so many older runners in the race. The good thing is it makes you feel young !! Although I have been used to people calling me "uncle".

The race starts...and I was running with a group of runners and going at my leisurely pace. The stamina was good although I really did not know about my pacing. The running up of the mid span was the first toughest challenge of the race and you have to run so far before you can do a U-turn back on the bridge. After that you have another run up the middle span of the bridge. Gosh! This is really tough! This is like hitting the wall !! You just run out of energy at that point of time. The insufficient training and nutrition really come to bite me at this moment. The mental strength was the only thing that keeps me going. My only mantra was "I must never stop running".

To be continued....