STANDARD CHARTERED KUALA LUMPUR MARATHON
May 2017
This is technically my 2nd time to race in the SCKLM. My first time was in 2014 and I have experienced race cancellations (2013 reschedule, 2015 cancellation) due to haze.
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2013 - MOVED TO ANOTHER DATE!
2014 - 21 KM DONE
2015 - CANCELLED!
Beginning 2019 there is already a lottery process for you to get in due to the high number of interested participants, so I am quite lucky to have raced here without needing to go through that. Competing for slots is already tough enough. I learned the hard way last year that the half marathon registration fills up on the first day alone, so I made sure I signed up as soon as the online registration happened.
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As the family was residing before in KL it was easy for me to just hop on the train in KL Sentral all the way to the starting line in Dataran Merdeka (Masjid Jamek). This time though since the family is no longer based in MY, I had an AirBNB near a train station to make sure going to the race will be hassle free, as most roads will be closed.
Lo and behold, I made a mistake on that last part. I learned the day prior that not all train lines or stations will be open early for the race, and the road near the condominium was one of the closed lanes! To prepare for this I woke up an hour earlier than planned and hoped for the best by booking an Uber. Thank God I was able to book an Uber ride but the problem was the driver could not go near the condominium since the road was closed. After 30 minutes of going around in never-ending loops, the driver found a way to pick me up. I saw a fellow runner who was also looking for a driver and I asked him if he wanted to go with me since he was also having a hard time looking for a ride. In less than 10 minutes we were in Merdeka. The trip was way shorter than the anxious filled moments! Still, I am very grateful.
As always, the start of the race is always pleasant. There is so much energy from runners across various nationalities and the support rendered by volunteers could not be stressed enough. Long after the full marathon runners have been called to start the race, the half marathon runners were soon called to the starting line.
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There were a lot of uphills in this race course and the weather is as expected of countries in the tropical region. It was great though that it was generally cloudy, there were enough water stations and we passed through good landmarks in KL.
I finished my half marathon around my expected time and I was happy to get my finisher’s kit. I didn’t get a finisher’s shirt since it was only for the full marathon finishers. In a few days’ time I was able to get not only my online certificate but also some analysis on my race performance. As for the official photos, this needed to be purchased from Marathon Photos so I am generally thankful to the individual photographers who took photos along the route and posted them on social media.
All in all a good racing experience, which is why I keep coming back to join SCKLM.
