A 25,000-strong field of runners from 65 countries took to the streets of Bayan Lepas last Sunday morning, for the 2019 edition of the Penang Bridge International Marathon.

The event kicked off with the 42.195km Full Marathon being flagged off at 1:30am by Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow followed by the 21.1km Half Marathon at 3am.

Took part in the half marathon

I took part in the Half Marathon event, together with three of my running buddies – Martin, Renee and Dan.

It was the first time that I had been participating in the Penang Bridge International Marathon and as such, I was looking rather forward to running on the bridge.

Collecting our race packs

Together with Martin and Renee, I arrived in Penang on Friday morning and after checking in at our hotel, we made our way to the Queensbay Mall – where the race pack collection would be taking place.

Dan was supposed to have been there with us, but he had overslept and missed his flight as a result. So he had to rebook his tickets and would be catching the next flight out that afternoon.

Located at the shopping mall’s outdoor carpark, the pack collection was a simple affair. I have to admit that it was a little difficult to find and we had to ask a couple of people where it was. When we got there, there were a few sponsor booths by brands such as Counterpain, Brooks and Hi-5 energy gels.

Thankfully, there had been not much of a queue at the information tent for the race pack collection – so we were in and out within about five minutes. We’d only needed to show our confirmation slip to get our pack.

My main gripe about the outdoor collection location had been that it was scorching hot, so we did not stay there for very long.

Our race pack itself was also very simple, with our event singlet, race bib, and a few small random items from the sponsors, being given to us in a flimsy cloth drawstring bag.

Race Morning

Race day began early on Sunday. I was up by 1:45am for my pre-race morning ritual. My friends and I left our hotel at about 2:15am and took the short walk down to the race site. We were in good time for the 3am race flag off.

The first thing that I noticed when I got to the race site – was how crowded it was. There were so many people that it took some effort for my friends and I to remain together during the flag off. But we managed.

Congested at the beginning 

The race began punctually at 3am – but when we started moving, the first couple of kilometres felt so crowded that I was running literally at a snail’s pace and could not get into a rhythm. 

Race Route

The race route, which began at the open carpark where we had picked our race packs up, brought us around Penang Island before heading out onto a short segment of the Penang Bridge in the final third of the race, before making our way back to the Queensbay Mall open carpark, which was also the finish line of the race.

I thought the course had been quite boring and definitely not the most scenic of running routes, but at least it was a flat course though.

Due to the early start time, there was no natural lighting throughout the whole run, with the street lamps illuminating the way instead. I thought these had provided just enough brightness for me and I did not have any issues with visibility.

Target pace and race goals

Because I was running a full marathon the following weekend, my target pace for this race had been 6:30 minute kilometres – which would put my heart rate into my Easy/low-Steady zones. 

I was using the race to try and pace one of my friends, Renee, to a personal best, running with her and motivating her the whole way.

 It took a while before the crowd thinned out and we were able to finally run at the target pace.

No distance markings

As I ran, I noticed that there were no distance signages marking the 21.1km route. There had been some placed on the full marathon route, but these were sporadic seemed to be randomly positioned, for example, one being at the 7.5km point and another at the 10km point of the full marathon.

Due to this, runners who were not using any GPS tracking for the run, would have no idea how far they had run. In fact, there had been one point during the race when another runner had asked me what the distance was.

I think that having regular distance markings is important for any long distance race of this scale, so this is something that the race organisers should consider for future editions.

But at least there were route markings indicating to runners which direction to go, when it came to the split points for the different race categories. These were large and clear. As long as you were looking ahead of you, they were quite easy to spot and follow accordingly.

Pacing 

As well, I noted that while there had been several groups of pacers for the full marathon route, there was only one group for the half marathon – the sweepers. 

I can pace myself well during long runs, so this wasn’t an issue for me, but runners who may have been hoping to rely on official pacers for the half marathon may have been disappointed.

Race Hydration

Along the way, I counted a total of nine hydration points for the half marathon route. The first three were serving water only, but the rest had both water and 100PLUS isotonic drinks. The beverages served were slightly chilled, but were not ice-cold.

Additionally, there had been one hydration point serving bananas for the half marathoners, located around the midway point of the race. 

Providing bananas is always recommended for a long-distance race. I didn’t need the fuel at that point, so I didn’t take any.

As well, it was really thoughtful of the organisers to provide ice in plastic bags for the runners at several points along the route, though. 

We could pour the ice over our bodies and down our back, or even suck the ice if we wished. This is great for keeping participants cool when running in the tropical Malaysian climate.

Running on the Penang Bridge

The Penang Bridge segment, which I was anticipating the most, came at around the 14 or 15km mark. And it felt pretty therapeutic to be running on the bridge in the wee hours of the morning, with a gentle breeze blowing around me and being surrounded by water. 

I only wished that there could have been more of the bridge; we only ran about 2km down the bridge before u-turning back.

Road and Lane Closures 

Moreover I did not need to worry about cars or traffic, because the bridge had been completely closed off for the event – as it should be.

For the rest of the roads on Penang Island during the race, some had been fully closed off to traffic, but for other roads, there had been lane closures, with the lanes reserved for runners marked out by barricades of orange cones strung together. 

I thought that it felt pretty safe as the majority of the lanes seemed spacious enough to run, with no threat of any cars ploughing through the barriers.

Final Stretch

Renee and I stopped for a toilet break just after 15km, before picking up the pace for the home stretch of the race, finishing strong in about 2 hours 20 minutes. 

It was in the last five kilometres of the race when I finally noticed some distance markings. These signages were jointly for both the half and the full marathon, counting down the kilometres that we still had left to run.

The timing may have been just over one minute slower than Renee’s half marathon personal best, but it was nonetheless a solid performance, and both of us were happy with the way we had gone with the run.

Finished with plenty in the tank

I was still feeling good after I crossed the finish line with plenty left in the tank – which is a great sign for Saturday’s full marathon in Singapore.

 While waiting for the two guys to finish running, we took some photos at the race village and checked out what was available there.

Refreshments were not yet available 

There were some refreshments provided, free of charge, by the sponsors – such as Milo, granola and cereal flakes. 

But when we tried to take some to replenish our energies after the long run, it was a massive disappointment to find out that the food and beverages were only available from 7am onwards.

This is because with the 3am half marathon flag off time, it was not even 5:30am by the time we were done with our run, and it was not as though we were fast runners.

This meant it appeared as though the refreshments were only being made available for the 10km category – which would flag off at 6:30am.

This is something that the organisers can consider for future editions of the run: to make the post-race refreshments available for everybody to enjoy, and not just saving it up for certain categories of runners. 

If the organisers had been afraid that the supplies would run out too early, then they could have staggered the availability – by releasing a certain quantity of the food supplies for the bulk of the full and half marathoners, and the rest of their stock for the 10km runners and the back-of-the-pack marathoners.

Penang hawker foods for sale

At the post-race village, there were also Penang foods available for purchase from local hawkers, such as char kway teow, laksa and nasi lemak.

These foods had looked quite delicious, but I can’t stomach eating rice and noodle dishes so early in the morning, so I did not buy anything from there.

Taking photos

Our two other running buddies, Dan and Martin, finished in 2 hours 45 minutes, both guys crossing the finish line together holding hands. 

Renee and I met up with them at the end point, and hung around to take a few group photos, before then walking back to our hotel to take a shower and then catch up on a bit more sleep, before getting our breakfast.

And on the way back to the hotel, we came across an adorably cute little kitten, which looked to be a few months old, following us and mewling loudly with each step. It looked lost and scared. 

For a while, I admit that I was tempted to bring it home… but then again, I knew that it was not a possibility, because I would never have been able to smuggle a live animal onto an airplane.

Nonetheless, I thought that this random kitty encounter had been a nice way to end off my first Penang Bridge International Marathon experience, and a great way to begin my Sunday morning in Penang – before subsequently reloading again on some more Penang foods.