The Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon (KLSCM) took place last weekend on 5 & 6 October. The 5km & 10km events were held on the Saturday and 21.1km & 42.195km events on Sunday. This was to ease the congestion at Dataran Merdeka, the race site.
I took part in the 21.1km Half Marathon, which flagged off at 5:15am. I walked down the 1km from my hotel and arrived at the race site at 4:30am which gave me plenty of time to spare, use the toilet and catch my breath before my start.
I spotted lots of portable toilets clustered together soon after entering Dataran Merdeka and the queues did not appear too long. The entrance area was the only place that I spotted toilets. 
I entered the start pen at around 5am. I was seeded in Pen 1 which wasn’t crowded when I went inside. However close to flag-off, the ropes segregating the pens were removed and everyone was clustered together. The reason for this is because KLSCM has a mass flag-off rather than individual flag-offs for each wave.
We started running at 5:15am sharp. I started together with my buddy Justina at about 5:20 mins/km pace.
Having just run Berlin Marathon one week ago, I was feeling fatigued and also not yet acclimatised to the heat as I had just returned to the tropics from Germany a few days ago. So I had no clue how my body would react and if I would be able to maintain the pace I was running at. 
But I figured there was nothing to lose, at most, I could just slow down if the going got too tough.
The KLSCM route is notoriously hilly and consists of a number of expressways, especially in the latter stages of the run. 
The first part of the run brings runners around the city centre and the second half heads out of town and back.
I was surprised I was still running at around 5:25 to 5:30 min/km pace at the halfway mark. I expected myself to slow down to 6 mins/km. It seemed like I’m stronger than I thought. 
The km markers which are located at every km are accurate enough. Some did not quite tally with my GPS and were a couple or so hundred meters off, due to interference of GPS signals with the buildings and the urban environment.
There are water stations at regular intervals and these are serving ice-cold water and/or 100PLUS. The 100PLUS is not available at every station. A couple of stations also had cut banana for runners who were feeling hungry. There was one station at about 12km or 13km giving out High 5 energy gel. This is the official gel of the KLSCM and has a liquid-like constituency.
I really appreciated the cooling stations along the half marathon route. These were spraying mist to keep runners cool in the hot weather.
At one point in the second half, a counter volunteer at the aid station threw a cup of cold water onto me as I ran past; this felt good. We need more of these to keep ourselves from overheating.
I was surprised to be still maintaining around 5:40 plus min/km pace in the last 5km. I did slow down to a slow jog when it came to the uphills but managed to pick up the pace at the downhill segments.
I felt my energy levels lifting in the final km because I knew that the end was near. I picked up the pace a little bit and sprinted towards the finish as much as my legs would allow.
My official finish time was 01:56:07 hours. 
Sub 2. I didn’t expect this at all considering my body condition, jet lag and heat de-acclimatisation and all factors combined. So I had surpassed and surprised myself. I really don’t know or can’t explain how I’d held onto the pace.
We received a cloth bag to put our finisher entitlements into. This was good of the organisers to provide. We received a full 500ml bottle of water and 100PLUS each, a banana and a pear. Our finisher medal was then placed around our neck. Half Marathon finishers do not receive a finisher t-shirt.
Post-race, it was difficult to find many of my friends because the 5G reception at Dataran Merdeka was quite bad and I was unable to contact anybody or load the official app tracking. But at least in the end, I managed to locate a couple of them. 
I also took some nice photos posing with my medal at the race precinct so that was quite good. After all, if it’s not posted on Instagram, did it really happen? Haha. 
The race village was very happening with several stalls from the sponsors selling merchandise and items. Seiko also had a booth where runners could take photos with their official finish time but the queue for this was quite long. As well, due to the rain the previous day, Dataran Merdeka resembled a paddy field and my poor shoes got muddy. I guess I need to wash them now. 
Sponsors Boost Juice was also selling their yoghurt drinks there for those who wanted to refuel on a healthy smoothie, post-race.
Overall I would say that KLSCM is a well-organised race and most things came together quite smoothly. I definitely hope to be back again next year.
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