Ke Padang Merdeka

The full marathon was supposed to start at 5 am, and the half-marathon at 6:30 am. But many of the halfers wanted to support and cheer the fullers (Kops21, DreamRunner, DO, Wei Shan and Astrogirl) as they set off, so we decided to all get up early and go with them to Padang Merdeka. That was why I woke up at 3:15 am, and gave morning calls to David's room and SportsVenturer's room. Then I went for a quick shower, after which I woke up Seal and Cokiee. Feeling hungry, I sneaked over to Brokie's room for a packet of Milo :)

On the steps of Ancasa Hotel on the morning of the race

At 4 am, we gathered for a photo-taking at the steps to the hotel, and then began to make our way by foot to the starting point, Padang Merdeka.

The padang was quite quiet. No music was played; there was only repetitive announcements made in Bahasa Melayu by a lady and in English by a male chap. There, we met IronmanDreamer and his girlfriend, and Sumiko and her training partner. When it was almost time for the full marathon to begin, there was still a surprising lack of people, compared to the Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon.board.

The start line

When the gun was fired, we, the halfers, cheered on the competitors as they ran past us, but our cheering hardly lasted a minute...because there just weren't that many competitors running!

There were two latecomers in the full marathon. One woman appeared at the starting line about 5 minutes into the race, looking disoriented. 5 minutes after her, a male competitor also showed up, with a large sheepish smile on his face. :)

Being the warm and friendly supporters that we were, we gave the two latecomers a roaring send-off. Then, we adjourned to the nearest 7-Eleven to buy something to eat, cleared our bowels at the mobile toilets, and began to wait for our turn to start the race.