Nick Chan Dot Net

2008 Penang Bridge International Marathon

For your information, I joined the Fun Run 10KM category, the a$$ muscle still have a little bit pain. =)

So this year, I’ve joined the International Penang Bridge Marathon again, I was there last year. This year is my second time and I just love the fun so much. Thousands of people running (some walking) together on the long stretch of highway and bridge is just so nice.

(Andyooi.com)

(Khai Liang and Chien Chern)

Some of my friend went to the half marathon which is actually not 25km I believe but a few km more than that. I am not a stamina guy, so I was the 10km fun runner. My plan was having the camera with me but then I’ve forgotten to bring my sport sling bag, so no big camera. It’s just the small N95 camera and me.

Unfortunately, my phones ran out of battery. So I don’t really get to cover along the route, it’s just some part until the bridge then the phone ran dead. After it went dead, it’s the time for me to walk and run fast. I wanted to ask Yiphing.net to help me take photos but she was too slow, so I went on on my own.

The fun category is for everyone of any ages, covering 10km running route, starting from the Pulau Jerejak Jetty then to the highway, then to the middle of the bridge, a U turn then back onto the highway then to Queensbay’s open carpark.

I woke up at 5am, have a changed then I and Andyooi walked to the Pulau Jerejak Jetty, it’s just stone throws away. Some of my friend on the half marathon category did not get any sleep, they just went walking around the mall in the middle of the night until the event started. I wonder how did they do it.

Registration was just taking a simple piece of yellow band for tagging on your wrist. Then we waited. In the mean time, there’s music, DJ and balloons for everyone.

(photo by Yiphing.net)

The Digi balloon guy said that I could have as much balloons as I want to, so I took a bunch from them, it made me a balloon guy.

Some walk, some run. I assumed that there’s around 10,000 people in this 10km category. At some times, runner from other categories (25km, 43.5km) will join you on your side, they started early and in the end joining you running at the same time.

Fun run was walking on the bridge for fun because basically, you don’t really have the chance to walk on the middle of the road of the bridge. Peoples were busy taking photos but I was not. The scenery is nice but it was little too hot comparing to last year’s run, the sun rise a little bit earlier this year at this time.

Here’s one of me in the middle of the road. It’s not a break or rest for me but a photo break.

There’s ambulance, St John’s and Red Crescent members at some point of the bridge providing instant first aid service and there’s free isotonic drinks too, though I didn’t get any. Keep running then.

It’s a good run. After getting to the finishing line, I got a certificate of participation and lots of free isotonic drinks. It then started the lucky draw event where the first grand prize was a Proton Saga. No luck for anything of it for me, the probability of being drawn was 1/16000 and there’s a lot of people went back before the lucky draw so it’s always redraw, redraw and redraw.