SCKLM Full Marathon 2015 - full marathon race (haze) report

The race that never meant to happen. 

This race was supposed to be my comeback, my first and only marathon for the year. Unfortunately, it didn't turn to be because the race got cancelled. 

I have been away from the running scene for awhile ever since translating into working life for the first time in my adulthood and I couldn't spend as much time running like I used to. All of my workouts are cramped during the weekends and I can only do so much as I also want to kick back and chill before Monday chaos arrives. On the running side of it, I've ran all the categories of a marathon (except ultras) and I realised that there are no new targets to aim for, other than breaking some timing records that I've set before. But then, I was never a record seeker to begin with. Basically, I was demotivated. 

I made an exception to run the KL Marathon because it was the biggest running event of the year. So I started upping my training two months before the race. My marathon training is usually like this; run more, recover, and run some more. Of course it is simple said than done. Finding time to train is a battle. Then overcoming nibbling injuries along the way from playing other sports or from the training itself. I slowed down on all physical contact sports like football and futsal which I am inclined to get hurt, a month before the marathon.

It has almost been a year since my last marathon, Penang Bridge Marathon, in November 2014 and so this race came in a perfect time for my return. Then came the bad news; the event was cancelled due to the worsening haze condition that has been hitting the country for a couple of weeks. 

The announcement to cancel the event was made one day before the race was to be scheduled, after the organiser had initially announced the event to proceed two days before. There were mixed reactions on social media from runners when the first announcement was made as the haze condition was still pretty bad. Basically, local runners want it to be cancelled/postponed as it was not an ideal running condition and then we have the outstation/oversea runners that wanted it to be continued as they have spent a lot to get here. And most of these comments I assumed was coming from hm and fm runners as they are the ones that will be spending the most time breathing in all the haze. 

The organiser was praying for a miracle when they made the first announcement to see whether the weather would clear up by race day.  Hence, all the commotion on social media, runners were uncertain to run or not. As for me, I collected my race bib, bought tons of energy gels at the running expo and was ready to run haze or no haze. Was I ignorant, yes. Was I trying to show off, no. Was I naive, yes. All because I wanted to run so bad, and if the organiser gave the thumbs up, I knew I won't be the only one running for sure. But will it be a glorious race, filled with achievements and satisfaction, I highly doubt it. I knew a second announcement was inevitable as this has been the case with previous running events when bad haze hits.

I only wish that the organiser could've handle it better with earlier notice and postponing it to a later date which they had actually done before. Last year to be exact, where SCKLM 2014 was due to be in June, with similar scenario, bad haze,  they postponed it to October and they made the announcement almost a week earlier.

Race entitlements such as medals and finisher t-shirts were given to participants on race day till noon but I decided to sleep in. Later that evening, to my surprised the haze improved, so I played football with JAFC where I’ve been away from for a month. Full time result JAFC 1 – 0 SCKLM. 

This was always going to happen.
#jafcishuge