5th Penang International 12 Hours Walk Post Race report

OK, the walk is over. It's the 2nd day after the walk. My muscles are not that aching anymore and my blisters are gone. I can walk almost back like normal except for still cannot walk fast and still having some difficulties going up down the staircases. Before I proceed with my race report, there are few points I would like to highlight:

1. Distance calculation : Men's Open result is quite a mess. There aren't any proper updated result from time to time. They print out the result from time to time, but was told it was not updated. When I asked one of the official, the reply I got? "Ya, Men's Open result will be messy, we have 280+ participants in this category, so we are going to have a problem!" My final tally was not matching with what the official counted, but where and how to verify this? Disappointed...

2. Food serving : Overall, the food being served is OK, thanks to G-hotel's generous sponsor. However, they should have at least prepare more food knowing that this year's edition reached the record 740 participants! Seems like they only anticipate 500 people. At 9pm food serving, I didn't even have the chance to have any food! The 2nd round serving at 12am, by the time the queue reached me, the fried beehoon is gone! Only left banana and 1 slice of watermelon...thankfully there's this uncle approached me and offered to share half of his beehoon with me :) For the 3am and 6am food serving, I was already quite tired, so I went to queued up once I saw them preparing the food. Please be considerate a bit...

3. Drinks : 100 plus is the official drink sponsor, but somehow they only serve out the drink bit by bit after 12am. Again not enough allocation? Thank god we still have plain water, else surely will be a sorry state for all walkers...

4. Certificate of Participant : When you walked for 12 hours (I'm counting out those stopping or leaving early), you could at least expect a much higher quality cert that comes with the finisher medal. But somehow this round, we are only given a blank cert without stating our final distances we covered and our position in our own category. They should have at least make it more professional. After all, it was called an International event :(

OK, enough complains, now on to my race report, I will try to make it simple and short, since I'm still quite upset about the final result. My friends was teasing me what's the point of walking so hard getting pain all over and still ended up with nothing? Haiz...

1st - 2nd hours:

Still energetic, walking -pace very fast. Was almost like my Starwalk pace, even though I tried to slowed down a bit knowing that I'm walking for 12 hours instead of 1! Didn't managed to take any food after 1 hour since it was super crowded. At the end of the 2 hour, I completed 15 laps...1 round short of my target.

3rd - 4th hours:

Started to feel boring. Still going fast but not at the pace of my first 2 hours. Managed to tag along one of the ex-colleague and walked together with him for at least a good 4-5 laps. He slowed down in the end and I keep on going. At the end of 4th hour, added in another 12 laps, again 1 short of my target.

5th - 6th hours:
OK, now is the struggling time. Both legs are so tired and felt numb. I stopped by after 4th hour for some food, but there's no more food left...only fruits...haiz. At this moment, I was telling myself to keep pushing. My pace is dropping fast. Each time passing the clock tower, I was looking at the time. I'm trying to divide my laps covered into each hour and every 30 minutes. My target is at least 10 laps every 2 hours, so I will go a bit slower for the first 5 laps of every hour, and faster a bit if I still have time left to push for lap no 11. At the end of the 2 hour internal, I added in 11 more laps, total now is 38 laps.

7th - 8th hours:
This is killing me period! My sleepiness was hovering me every single moment. Every lap while walking, I was yawning big time. The crowd was reduced to merely 100+ at this time I guessed. Hungry and sleepy, I couldn't take it anymore and stopped by to queue for food at 3am. Was a bit napping while downing my food! Poor fella...At the end of 8th hour, I was adding in my 49th lap.

9th - 10th hours:

The latest results for all other category have been posted up, but not the men's open one. Deep in my heart, I was wondering, there must be some serious calculation error. I do not really care anymore about the laps, just wanted to cover as much as possible and pray that 8am faster arrive. Met with Mr Jordan Lee, one of the main man for this event at around 530am, he was telling me "Fight your own race, do not compare..." I just replied with a simple smile. The result finally came, I stopped short to check out my latest result...completed 34 laps at 430am????!!!! After 10 hours, I already did 60 laps and official only counted 34 at the 8+ hour internal....

11th - 12 hours:

My motivation is at the lowest point. It's almost gone. I do not have the urge to continue anymore. I felt that it's better for me to just sit down and rest for the remaining 2 hours without wasting my time, effort and pains I have to suffer. My friend told me not to care for the result anymore, just follow our own calculation. I stopped by for meal at 6am, after that slowly carried on. I knew that I will not be able to hit 10 laps anymore for the last 2 hours, so I'm just targeting 8 will do. In the end, I did...I'm just glad it's over...

Still have 8 minutes on the clock, but I don't think I will be able to put in another lap, so that's it for me. Stopped by at the food tent to get some plain water and pastry, then sitting down at the finishing line eating while watching the final clock countdown. I then proceed to changed my smelly t-shirt and shoes and went to take few cups of Milo before lining up for my medal and cert. The result at 730am puts me at position 15 with 58 laps covered, but deep down within, I just don't really care anymore...

Got my medal and cert, then proceed to wait for the lucky draw. Empty handed as expected, I just wanted to go home bath and rest that very moment. After the event finished, saying bye bye to my friends and while I was walking towards the main road to wait for my wifey, she arrived just in time. Felt so glad seeing her, just like looking at my savour :) Slowly walked like an uncle towards the car, putting my stuff at the back seat, hop on to the front seat and then with 1 glance backwards, saying bye bye to the venue I have walked almost non-stop for the past 12 hours...