Race Report: Melbourne Marathon Festival 2014

Well, it wasn't really a marathon for me because I only ran in the half category. And this isn't really a race recap coz there is already one very well written here. The title is simply what it is because I just wanted to generate traffic to my blog. You know, SEO and stuff.

ANYWAY.

It turns out that, in spite of my many, many, many talents (shut up), it is actually impossible for me to find the right words to adequately tell you how cool Melbourne Half Marathon was. This whole time, I’ve gone full 90s-teenager-in-the-same-room-as-Britney and the only thing that comes out is “OMG SO AWESOME” which, really, doesn’t make for a very interesting blog post. But since I’ve just dipped into my savings to fly my ass over to Melbourne to run, I’m going to get over my little mental block and just tell you about how cool it was and add that, if you’re contemplating on your race calendar for next year, you need to get your shit together and squeeze Melbourne Marathon in now. Yes, even if you're living in Alaska. Take a second mortgage and start looking at flights.

The 2014 Melbourne Marathon Festival happened on the 12th of October and the weather on that day was simply bee-ee-ay-yewtiful! Clear blue skies, not a breath of wind and just perfect. As I was walking towards the race venue that morning, these full marathoners have already started their run:

Of course, I have to get in their way to snap a photo.

It was a little chilly in the morning but it began heating up a few hours after. There were thousands (I'm too lazy to Google the exact number) of people who entered the 42.2km distance category, breaking the record for the most people in Australia to finish a marathon. 11,000 people were in the half marathon category itself. 

It was a VERY flat course.

The race didn't quite start on time. I guess the amazing weather really helped in turning me into a more patient person.

I know these two guys in the foreground made my photo look a bit awkward, but this was supposed to be the starting line shot. 

I finished the race in 2:35, which isn’t my best time, but on the bright side, it’s also not my worst (thanks to Bromo!). That said, it was still an amazing run for me. Mostly because of how it allowed me to really see some of Melbourne's beauty throughout the race course. And for the first time in my running experience, participants were allowed to bring their personal refreshments to be handed over to the organizer, who will then take their drinks to the designated "Special Drinks Station" somewhere along the route for these runners to collect later on and consume in the middle of their run - which I find was pretty impressive.

Oh and the 42.2km runners were also given the option to sign up in the Slow Marathon category if they knew for sure that they will not be able cover the first 22km within 2hours and 40mins. Yes, there is such a thing. #notetoself

Amidst all of the random, nonsensical, funny, and irrelevant stuff I think about while I was running that morning, I also managed to draft a mental summary of the things that I learnt from running these last couple of years, which are:

1) To be sure of your goal (whatever it may be)
Make up your mind about the goal you want to achieve in every single run. The goal for me this time in Melbourne is not only to grab as many gummy candies as possible from the volunteers during the run but to also take as many *cough* selfies *cough*, and random photos along the course. So stop criticizing me for spending so much money to run in a half marathon in a different continent only to clock in such crappy timing because I did achieve my "goals". 

Exhibit A to prove that I fulfilled "one of my goals"; A SELFIE.

2) Don't worry too much about the weather
Just because you nearly got blown off while trying to walk around the race venue the day before, it does not mean you can't wake up to beautiful sunshine and almost no wind the next day. Case in point: Melbourne's schizophrenic weather, which was very much a pleasant surprise on race day. Stop worrying, dammit.

3) Good or bad, you’re 21km closer to where you want to be.
I know this sounds like terribly hippie new-age crap but it’s a comforting thought to know that you finished a half marathon when half of the entire world population can't even run 15KM.

4) Running events are the perfect excuse for a holiday.
Flying to another city just because of a running event might sound silly to some runners but if you know how to make the most out of it, you'll get the best of both worlds - like exploring new cities, and landing a new job in a different country and bringing home another running medal. :)

5) Stop whining.
Running 21km and crossing the finish line is pretty damn awesome. No one cares that it took you five minutes longer compared to your previous PB. You shouldn’t either. 

The summary stopped there because I got distracted by another volunteer handing out more gummy candies.

So obviously, I didn’t break my 2:15 PB (because I keep stopping every few kilometres to snap photos) but I’m still happy I got out there and bagged another half. The weather was perfect for running, the course was rather flat, the volunteers were super nice (read: super generous with the candies), and I got to make new friends with people who are crazy enough to get up at stupid o’clock on Sunday for stuff like this!

Despite the hefty race fees, I’m definitely glad I signed up for it and I also can’t wait to do it again next year.

With Marina and Ena, my girls from the Klang Valley Running Club

This was my absolute favourite race so far. I very much doubt anything will be able to top that any time soon.

Now before you start rolling your eyes so much they disappear to the back of your head, let me tell you this: I am now much more determined to get smarter about this whole running thing.

No, really.

Coz in less than a month from now, I will be at the start line of my very first full marathon - the Penang Bridge International Marathon. The clock is ticking and it’s time to catch-up on my training. According to the marathon training plan on my RunKeeper, I’m already behind (surprise surprise). Though it may sound a bit too late now, but training will be an essential part of my life in the next few weeks. I’ll probably even talk about it all the freaking time. So, dear friends, if there’s a holiday that you have been meaning to go without me, or any plans that involve not having contact with me, now is the time to put those into action.

It’s good to be back in training mode with a major goal in mind.

To prove that I’m taking my training seriously, the evening after I finished the Melbourne Half, I headed to Walker's for some jam doughnuts to officially mark the commencement of the final phase of my full marathon training.

Told ya I was serious.

So that's pretty much it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a very important slice of cake waiting on the table that I need to finish. ;)

Laterz.

Race Report: Bromo Half Marathon 2014

Oh wow. I just realized that the last time I posted on this blog was exactly one year ago. ONE FREAKING YEAR.

Okay, help me out. Pretend there’s a paragraph here where I give you a really good reason for not having written anything in a year.


*awkward silence*


Ummmm, no? :B


Ok finnnnnnne.. finnnnnnne, I know I've been slacking off A LOT. Like, A LOT A LOT.


But don't worry, I haven't stopped running (and being awesome). In between hours of sitting on my ass eating cakes and all sorts of other junks, the past year has been pretty kickass for me. I completed my 8th half marathon, traveled around Asia for a bit, explored some nice trails in and out of town, started my Master's Degree (while still being attached to my full-time job in Publicis), tried scuba diving, completed my French refresher course with Alliance Française, chopped off my waist-length hair which I've been keeping for the past 7 years to a short bob, picked up yoga, climbed a couple of volcanic mountains, drank an unofficial world record number of Vitagens, and did a bunch of other cool stuff I can't remember now. But from all those things I've mentioned, traveling to Indonesia last month is still my favourite topic to blabber about up to this moment, and I think it'd make an interesting blog post too. So, let me make it up to you for disappearing in the last 12 months and take this opportunity to do some quality bragging, since I don’t get the chance to do that very often. 

Prior to the Bromo race weekend, I had notoriously spent the entire week being a beach bum in Bali and Gili Islands. But as I was reaching towards the end of the beach bumming portion of the trip and should be ready to head West to Surabaya for Bromo, I suddenly had a slight flinch. I was even genuinely considering skipping this run, but then since all my flights and everything else have been booked, I decided to just go anyway and thought maybe I was just being bratty because I had spent way too much time on the beach, that going to a mountain area to run a half marathon doesn't sound appealing at all.

And here's something I don't often get to say about my decision: It was a good one. I guess it's true that the only run you regret really is the run you don't go and Bromo proved that once again.

 So why was I so ecstatic about the fact that I finished the race?

BECAUSE IT WAS THE HARDEST AND MOST GRUESOME HALF MARATHON I'VE RAN IN MY DAMN LIFE SO FAR.

No I wasn't being a drama queen. If you know how to read elevation charts, you'd look at the below, and understand why. If not, don't worry. It's perfectly normal to be clueless about things sometimes.

Look at all those threatening pointy bits! *_*

Just about every non-runner I know has asked me at least once why the hell I get out and torture myself with these things (especially since the next few days are spent mostly limping around and bitching about it). I find it such a transcendent thing that I have no skills to explain. I can only hope they assume there must be a really good reason I willingly put myself through the pain I talk about. Because that pain is just the result of a major rush of happiness and genuine feelings are supposed to leave you exhausted. Other runners know. We’re not as stupid as we look. We wouldn’t spend all this money, travel hundreds and thousands of miles, abuse our bodies this much for something average. For that, we have PlayStations.

So yeah, it turns out that Bromo had some unexpected surprises in store. The first of which was the journey itself as it took me a solid half a day to travel to the race venue. On the map, it didn't look terribly far away from Juanda Airport in Surabaya. After about 1.5hrs on the plane from Lombok to Surabaya (Lombok Airport is the nearest airport if you're coming from Gili), I then endured the 6 hour bus journey to get to Probolinggo, and another half an hour with a smaller van up the mountain where the race venue is located - a small village called Wonokitri, and caught up with my KVRC running buddies before we collected our race-kits and stuffed ourselves with a couple of bowls of Bakso.

I was glad that I came prepared for the weather in Bromo because IT WAS FREAKING COLD. Though I somehow felt like a retard for having to lug thick,warm clothing to Bali and Gili Islands before that where bikinis seem the only essential piece of clothing required, but it was worth it.

At about 6pm, race kit collected, tummy stuffed and happy, we eventually made our way to the villa and checked in at about 7pm. The villa owner even set up a small bonfire after dinner for us to sit around and warm ourselves up before going to bed, which was nice.

Yep, the alien-lookalike in our group photos is usually me

I have nothing much to complain about the villa, though the facilities kinda made me cringe a little. I then told myself to suck it in and be grateful that we at least had a fairly decent place to bunk in, because I did hear that some runners struggled to find a place to crash for the night. So, not too long after I've changed into my 37 layers of pajamas and used up all my 5 lives of Candy Crush, I dozed off.

Morning came, and next thing I know, I was already standing amidst the crowd with my running buddies, waiting anxiously for our half marathon flag-off at 7am.

Of course, it's pre-race pikcha timmmmme!!

I have to admit that the whole event was pretty well organised (as compared to the Jakarta Marathon I went to last year which was really messy). The weather in Wonokitri that morning, for a start, couldn’t be better...

Ah-may-zinggggg

We also got to run through some truly amazing scenery from the top of the hills, as far as your eyes could see.... (before the salty sweat threatened to burn them, that is).

Yup. That's what I'm talking about

The whole run was a very good reminder of how different trail running can be from road running. At only around KM6, a really steep incline had me and pretty much everyone else around walking up (and not even walking straight). The hill seemed to go on forever and there was a point when I seriously wanted to move to the side and just sit on the ground and give up on life. My legs felt heavy like they were two iron bars. I kept reminding myself of how it was all a big mental game and how I should be ashamed to ever lose a game against myself.

So I carried on up...

 And up......

 And up......

I had all my fingers and toes crossed for those bastard hills along the route to finally disappear but… nope! It keeps on going, in all its steep glory....

Clearly, I was already dragging my feet halfway through the distance. The dirt pathways made it very challenging for me to run as my shoes kept scooping in the sand and it annoys the hell out of me.

After about almost 3 hours into the run, the rolling hills on Penanjakan eventually tamed down a little, and the route took me running along the ridge of the mountains where I then came around a turn to a stunning view overlooking perhaps the most eerily beautiful thing I have ever seen:

The Tengger massif. Clockwise from bottom left: Mount Bromo (with the blown off top), Mount Semeru (the highest of them all), Mount Kursi (next to Mount Bromo) and Mount Batok.

Seeing that was enough to make me forget about half of the things I bitched about in the earlier part of the route and then I realized I wasn’t so cranky anymore. Amazing what some nice scenery can do for you. :)

I continued on with my little journey and after a few minutes (which felt like a few hours), I spotted the exit point arch of the Bromo National Park.

I ran faster to catch up with the only other runner in sight at that time and, as I got closer, she smiled and said to me in her thick British accent “we’re almost there!”. Not long after that, there it was – a sign saying we had only 1km to go. The final kilometer that, of course, felt like a whole marathon. I looked at my Garmin and was somehow relieved that I could still make it to the finishing line within sub-4 hours. After going through the difficulty of the course, I began to understand the rationale behind the 7 hours cutoff time set by the organizer (instead of the usual 5 hours for most half marathons).

I ran, ran, and ran, and eventually reached the finishing line to a loud cheering crowd along the final stretch (where I even heard some random locals calling out "Upin Ipin!!!" to me because I was flaunting the Malaysian flag.) -_-

(Thank you Rino Irwan for recording this! Note: Video only viewable from desktop)

I FINISHED THE RACE! 

And believe it or not, when I checked my results the day after, I found out that I actually made it to the top 100 from the total of 645 participants in the category! *throws confetti*

The day I completed the Bromo Marathon reminded of one of the most important things in life: beauty and amazement are all around us if we can only look past our temporary discomforts and inconveniences. If we let those stop us from connecting ourselves to the nature that surround us, we will miss so much wonder and so much breathtaking beauty. There is beauty in our friends, our families, our workplaces, and even in the stranger we pass on the street. I hope that you see some of that beauty today, that you find something that amazes you and inspires you to endure cold nights, long bus rides, or whatever has been leaving you feeling exhausted and worn out. Until next time, keep on keeping on and know that it is all going to be so very worth it.

PHEW, THAT WAS A LONG READ, WASN'T IT?

(Pic credit: Since my phone decided to be a diva halfway through the run, I had to steal a couple of photos from my running friends, Alfonso and Ena to complete this post. Many thanks to both of them).