Still running against the wind!*

Running against the wind

In the world of the uninitiated and non-runners, a run is a run. They are all the same- the same mile after mile of sweaty muscle power! There is a Malay proverb which says, 'Hanya jauhari yang mengenal manikam" (loosely translated to mean only the jeweler can appreciate the rubies). The Penang Bridge run this weekend was testimony to the fact. The run, in my opinion, had a few 'firsts' of its kind.
The marathon started at 2am, the half marathon at 3am and the 10km at 6am. This is the first time I had to run at a such unearthly hour - it is neither late night nor early morning. In fact, a precocious juvenile delinquent once told my now deceased uncle, when he was working as a counselor in a juvenile reform school, that the delinquent used to conduct his house breaking activities at 3 am because that is the time most people are in their deepest sleep. His bad luck, he was caught when a policeman was returning from a late assignment. This fact is also well known by most cat-burglars! Unfortunately the organizers (PBIM) had the Hobson's choice of arranging it at such times as the bridge is perpetually packed in the day time. Even then, in the newspapers today, we hear of 200 over passengers missing their flights as they were stranded by the packed ferries!
Another first for me was that it was my first participation outside the Klang Valley. Being an international event, the run was flagged off right on the dot of the stipulated time (another first)! 23,000 over runners in all registered for this event (another first). All in all, albeit certain deficiencies, kudos to the organizers for somehow managing the whole show (with more than 23,000 participants) in one piece seamlessly.
This time around I ran with 6,000 over runners in the half marathon category and my son, the chip of the old block, decided to give a go at the 10km category.
At 3am, without much fanfare, off we went flagged by the Hon. Chief Minister of Penang, Sdr. Lim Guan Eng from a podium erected outside Queensbay Mall, which is actually situated on a reclaimed land. It was not in existence when I grew up in Penang till 1985.
At the start, most runners were trying to get a head start. Yours truly went at a pace of 5'51"/km. The course soon took us past a highway leading to the legendary Penang Bridge.
The run on the bridge was a nostalgic one for a hopeless romantic fool like me.Back in 1984 when the bridge was just complete before it was commissioned safe for usage, we Penangites had the privilege of taking long walks on it, under the cover of the star-filled moonlit nights. Of course, they were some unfortunate lost souls who took the avenue as a spot to end their lives after RRF and other flats became less favoured!
And again, on 21st November 2010, under the full moonlit skies without any hassle and bustle of automobiles, I was there again. Only this time, it was 3 o'clock in the wee morning.

Penang Bridge

At 9.4km mark, (0:56:51), we made a U-turn past the mid-span of the bridge. That is when the Gods, for reasons best known to Him, unleashed their fury. The curses came in the form of thunder and lightning and catarrh in form of downpour of the dogs and cat kind! In a way, the cool rain did help to cool down the weary bodies. However, back past the mid-span of the bridge, the winds started howling and resisting our paths. It reminded me of the chilly winds of Edinburgh, minus the 'cold-to-the-bone' feeling. In spite of adverse conditions, running in water filled road and squelchy rain water filled soggy shoes, we persevered.
Feeling pity on us, mere mortals, the Gods mellowed after some time. He relented (16.5km, 1:42:48). He showered our paths with just a slight drizzle only afterwards. With His blessings, the rest of journey appeared shorter and less strenuous. Overall, the terrain was flat except for a few gradual inclination on the bridge and the highway leading to the bridge.The early morning madness proved no attempt at futility - I clocked my personal best of 2:10:31!
Wow! Who says all the runs are the same and runs are boring? Eat your words!
The narration on the events of the day will not be complete without mentioning the following two incidences...
Firstly, at about 9km mark, I started a twitch over at the area of the left Archilles' tendon. "Oh, oh!" I thought to myself. Trying certain self thought (certainly not weather beaten techniques) techniques, like landing more weight on the contra-lateral foot, landing more on the forefeet, tightening the abdominal muscles whilst running hoping that the core muscles will relieve stress on the calf muscles! Forget about double blind controlled studies that people often talked about, this worked. That is all that mattered here.

Is there a bridge in the
background? (circa 1966)

And the second event worth a mention is the drama that unfolded after the run. I decided to wait for Keshav (my son) to finish his 10km run which started at 6.30am so as to ease the burden on our designated chauffeur (my brother-in-law). He finished his run in 1h 10mins. However, due to the mammoth crowd, he missed both of us at the finishing line. After wandering about and failing to locate us after some time, he decided to walk all the way back to my parents' house which was a good 5 km away! Unable to locate him, as he did not carry a mobile phone, we were literally finding for a needle in the haystack. Just like losing a child at a fun-fare, we made an announcement on the PA system with no avail. A search at the St. John's Ambulance tent thankfully proved futile. Finally, a check of the timing chip at the Secretariat allayed our deepest fears and at about that we received news from home of Keshav's arrival there! Enough drama for a day!
By the way, since I am at it, my as well write about it! An interesting occurrence happened during this trip to Penang. It appeared like the leaders in Penang seem to be all over the place! Not only did the Chief Minister appeared twice at the run (flagging at 3am and awards ceremony at 9am), he also passed by in his entourage in a car bearing number plate PP1, 2 hours later together with the Governor of Penang who was in his Rolls Royce limousine. If that was not enough of V.I.P.s for a day, the former Chief Minister and the present minister in the PM's office, Dato Koh Tsu Koon was in the same flight as us. I suppose he was trying to win some sympathy from the public by flying budget no-frill airline like Firefly to emulate Lim Guan Eng who travels in Air Asia!

Bob Seger

That just reminded me of a friend of mine who did an elective posting in Maldives 20 over years ago. Maldives was then a laid back tropical paradise with a population of a few hundred thousand where everybody was nice to each other and knew each other as well. When my friend was visiting one of the country clubs there, the Minister of Finance actually came to him, started a conversation and played pool with him! That's another story for another day....