Penang Bridge International Marathon 2016

First ever Full Marathon done! 😃 at the Asics Penang Bridge International Marathon on 27th November 2016.

One word regarding this race, it was a torture. Maybe because I did a 30km run just a week before and couldn't recover in time. During the beginning of the run, I could still feel the strain of the leg muscles and joints from last week's 30km! Should have given a 2 weeks recovery.

Since we were in Penang Island, we had to do hawker food carbo loading. Plenty of choices of hawker food in Penang and reviews can be easily found online. We pretty much had everything we could order within reach!

The race started on time at the road in front of Queensbay Mall. After walking through the starting crowds, I started running at a very comfortable pace, keeping heart rates down. Maintain that pace and only walked the water stations. It was a long route on the island with humid still ait before finally reaching the bridge.

Once on the bridge, the wind blew and finally cooled down and sweat a lot less. But at 28km, I hit the dreaded wall. Had major pain at the back of my right knee reaching to the calf too. I thought it was cramp and just continue one but at a slower pace. Along the way, got ice to ice the back of the knee and also some counterpain. Was doing an average 9-10 mins/km.

Kept trying to run in between walks making sure that I kept to the targeted sub-6 hours run. At about 37km, the 6 hours pacer caught up with me! Had to start to pick up the pace and keep running to ensure I finish within 6 hours. As I kept pushing it, the pain started to go away. Must have been the adrenaline of chasing them. Slowly, I picked up the pace to catch up with the 6 hours pacer by 39km doing low 7 mins/km pace.

Kept the head up and pushing as I saw the last 2 km sign and nearing back to the Queensbay Mall area. By now, I am doing a low 6 mins/km pace to the finishing line.

The feeling was amazing. Never have I thought I could do a full marathon and with all that pain, yet finish within the targeted time of 5 hours 56 minutes.

So what does a recently accomplished full marathoner do? He went ahead and sign up for another marathon in 2 months time!

Check out my race on Strava.

Unique Penang International Triathlon and Duathlon 2016

The special thing about the Penang International Triathlon is that you have an extra 3km run leg and the many hills to cycle and climb for a triathlon with an Olympic distance plus. Plus because of the extra long run UPHILL run!


The event on April 17th, 2016 starts from the beach at Teluk Bahang with a 2 laps swim. It was indeed nice to see the famous Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, flag off the race.

The first lap was full of punching and kicking and some fool even pulled my legs. I can tolerate the hitting of each other as that is accidental. But pulling?! 2nd lap was much clearer after I got past most of the Men's open guys which started 3 minutes ahead. Came out 20th in my age group out of 163.

Then you go into a transition and run 3km up the steep Teluk Bahang dam to the transition area right on top of the dam. The run and transition saw me lose 7 spots. Oh well, wasn't too disappointed as I sort of expected it.

Off on the bike I went. It was climb madness really got my thighs burning over time. And then the fast downhills and flats into town and a quick u-turn and back to a climb. The scenery was beautiful though and that was the best part of the ride. By the time I got done, I dropped to 39th spot.


Made 2 spots in the transition and off I ran. Tired but I ran. Back to that steep downhill into the Teluk Bahang town, with a loop and back up that same (OMG!) steep hill to the finishing line, crossing it at 4:05:26 with 59th place and 156th overall (total 434 participants).

Not too shabby as I was close to the 4 hour mark I was targeting, wish I was happy. Wonder if I should come back for this again next year to improve on my time and placing? It feels like one of those events whereby you been there, done that. But the rewards of the after race Penang food sure makes you want to come back for more!

*I did not take any of these pictures. All rights to the photos posted here belong to the rightful owner and photographers.