Race preparation without a hydration belt this time
Udon meal at the D pulze mall
The Road to the start point is getting ready to be blocked off
The start point in the morning
Cyberjaya, many people will be thinking where is this place. Well, just like the Malaysia Women Marathon, Shah Alam. Cyberjaya is near to Kuala Lumpur, if you take a plane to KL, after you exit the arrival hall. Head on straight for the KLIA Express. The KLIA Express will bring you to Cyber and Putra Jaya. These are two new towns near to KL. I guess they were built to become IT hubs for the Locals and overseas investors. The towns are relatively new and very easily accessible by the KLIA. Being a new town, most of the buildings there are new. The population there seems to be lesser as compared to Kuala Lumpur or other older towns.
The Marathon
In general , I do not spend a lot of time to stay longer at most of the Malaysia races. Reason being that it feels like just another neighbourhood in Singapore, only that the shopping and food are more affordable. I stayed at the Citadines Cyberjaya, it is located at D’Pulze Cyber Jaya. The mall is very new and there are many Caucasians living there. The location of the Mall is near to the start point of the marathon. The room is not expensive, about SG$50 plus, and it is very clean and comes with a kitchenette. Although the toilet does not have a bath tub, the big bed and Astro enabled paid TV is good enough for me. The higher floors of the hotel actually has a good view of the whole area. There is a Jaya supermarket on the ground floor with a lot of good eateries. There was even alcohol on sale, with a full fledged wine shop.
The price of joining the marathon is about RM 80 and can be registered with this link:
https://event.howei.com/event/twincity2016
But of course the next year will be a different link.
The race pack collection is also in the very same building, there was a small expo selling some sports related items like compression wear and shoes. The tee shirt is very simple but kinda big from the usual measurement.
Race Course
The race began at 4am for the full marathon. There were actually not many participants. Mostly hailing from the region and a lot of Malaysian Runners, the pacers were all the power houses of the Malaysian Running scene like Yim Heng Fatt. The race boasts of having Roti Channai towards the ending of the race ( 36KM). The race us actually a road race going through the Cyber jaya and also Putra jaya and thus its name , Twin City Marathon. The race route is pretty winding and has a couple of up hills along the way. I must say the signages might not be that clear along the way especially those turn ins to clock the mileage. I personally missed the turn into the Roti Channai area thereby forgoing a good real timing for a full marathon, having clocked 39 KM. It was sad, but also a lesson learnt for me to be really careful and study the route way in advance.
Looking at the hashtags and facebook posts of many of the participants, we could see that they were enjoying the roti channai and also for the shorter distance participants they really took their time to take pictures etc.
Water points were sufficient and this was the first time I ran without a hydration pack or belt. It was quite an achievement for me as I always run with those. Bananas and also some fuel gel were provided at certain stations for your fuel needs.
FINISHING LINE
The finishing was at D pulze. There was a simple stage set up for the purpose of prize ceremony and also a quick warm up zumba session earlier on in the morning. As usual there was milo truck to provide you the energy drink and also some breakfast counters that actually served real Bee Hoon, that was really thoughtful for the organiser.
OVERALL
I will say , this race on the whole is really enjoyable. I have learnt a lot and also I do enjoy shopping at the mall. Most of all, I met with the usual fast runners from Malaysia and that itself was a reward to be able to run along side with them.