Are we there yet?

From the outset, things were not going as planned. With a bout of diarrhea and loss of precious electrolytes, I experienced stiffness and soreness over the knees and feet. On the race day, the newly replaced Garmin GPS watch went kaput on me and the music pod went on strike. So it was me left to fend for myself. For pacing, it was left to me to run pacing to feel and for auditory stimulation I was made to listen to my body!
Even though the organisers boast of 60,000 participant in this inaugural race in the new Penang Bridge, the starting line had only a thin crowd waiting to be flagged off at 4am. The runners were released in batches all the way from 1.30am to 8am depending on the length of the races and their gender.
Whilst waiting at the starting line, an old friend from KL appeared from nowhere. After the initial cursory, he complained that there was not such of eye candy for him to lay his eyes on. I told him that he was in the wrong category, the veterans. That itself was his motivation to spring forward from the starting line to catch up with the younger category who was flagged off an hour earlier!

pre-run carbo loading.

If the organisers thought that by staggering the release of runners, the congestion would be averted, they were totally wrong. The slower inexperienced runners were all over the place after we had crossed about the 7km mark. They hogging the road, walking in fours across the road practically blocking the road. Some made sudden unannounced 'pit-stops' at their whims and fancies in the middle of path. Many wasted calories were spent on everting clashes with haphazard movements of fellow runners. Perhaps, the instruction manual of the run should also include a little education on running etiquette. Just like how, by default, escalator uses in developed countries stand on the right side to keep the left side free for users who are in a hurry.
Sometimes nonsensical remarks can annoy you. Even as early as 3km into the overzealous cheerleaders would scream "You are almost there' when you have hardly started!
Along the way, I put on my philosophy cap...
That was a time in man's history not very far in our past when the Orientals left technological and engineering feats to the Western civilisation. They had an innate opinion that they were not up to the mark of Western giants when it came to technological wizardry. Over time, with available opportunities, the Orientals have come up to stand shoulder to shoulder at the same playing industrial fields. Just like that, some time ago, many (at least I did) thought that participation in an endurance running race like the Half or Full Marathon was no child's play. Obviously, the taboo seem to have been broken. Many participants, who do not fit my bill of a well prepared runner or with the correct predisposition, were taking the plunge. But, of course, they have to start somewhere. I shudder to think (hopefully I am wrong) that that was the reason for 4 speeding ambulances that interrupted the flow of our run on that humid and still morning!
The three musketeers in our running group completed with decent times. SK came out top of the trio, as usual with a sub-2hr feat. RS did his PB at 2'13" and yours truly at 2'17".
The lay out after the finishing line was much to be desired. The dimly lit grounds with soggy slippery mud devoid of markings to exit the grounds was not type of reception we were expecting after our adrenaline rush.
Slowly we wriggled back to our ordinary lives to do what ordinary do come Monday morning with the memories of an unwinding weekend.

P.S. Another member of the running gang attained the status shared by 1% of the world population - to complete a Full Marathon. RvS completed his inaugural first FM in 5'15".