My first half marathon, Cyberjaya Twin City Run 2014

Race starts at 5:00am, but woke up at 4:30am, rushed to toilet to brush my teeth, after putting paste on the brush then realized it was my housemates tooth brush, luckily didnt brush yet. Then after brush my teesth wear my bib, tights, shoes pinjam housemates motorbike, rush to cyberjaya from my rental house puchong (luckily cyberjaya is just 15 minutes from my rental house aman putra). Should set 6 alarms next time, I set only 3 yesterday night.

Reached around 4:48am, warm up with Jason, and go to staring line for start and sharp at 5am race flagged off. Saw Edan, Fadil, Lo Choon Sieng leading the way. Managed to catch up with Choon Sieng after 2km plus minus, ran together till edan and fadil fades away. Around 16km reached cyberjaya dell building and the volunteer told us the to go the left junction without even asking we are FM or HM, then I asked again is that for HM, and he said FM left and HM go straight.

Circled is where the route confusion happened, left is Fm and right is HM.

 

 

Luckily I didn’t follow  the volunteer instruction or else end up covering extra 4km. Then reach HP/LDHN tower there no marker in junction for HM, I shouted at the water station from the FM route which merge to that junction, shout 2-3 time only they said HM have to take left, another mistake by organizer which me and Choon Siang manage to avoid, the last 5km I remember the route very well, ran with Choon Siang all the way till few hundreds meter to the finishing line I said” Lets go taiko” but he said go first and let me sprint alone, my calf cramped for the very first time while running(usually while sleeping bcs of cold). After crossing the line, there was no tag no water, nothing(even though I was 1st and I didn’t realize it & no one from organizing committee acknowledge it) . After go to medic and rush to subuh prayer and go talk to some people they said fadil and edan took the wrong rout, ran extra 4km which I avoided at Dell building.

Terrible mistake by the organizer cost Edan & Fadil their podium. Its pretty simple to avoid such mistake, have a bike marshal to lead the first pack of the race and make sure there are people in every junction to show and clear signage to notify the runner on their route. I wonder how many races has been handle by this organizer previously.

I was ready for route confusion, usually it may happen in a newly organized race. Same case happened in Terengganu bridge run while I ran my 10km with Amirul few years back, it cost him the podium but you cant really protest for this kind of case. We as a runner, we can prepare for this by trying to memorize the route, but if you have confidence with organizer you’ll be fine. I hope the organizer will learn their mistake and be well prepared for next year.