Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2016

Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon 2016

August 7, 2016 at Merdeka Square

21.1km completed at 2:40:14, my second fastest half marathon.

Twinning!  SCKLM 21km medal in front of the actual Petronas Towers :)

My Instagram post.

Start/Finish line at Merdeka Square

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~


It was a family event this time.  We drove from Penang to KL straight after work last Friday.  We reached KL about 9:30pm and checked in at our default (and favorite!) service hotel, Somerset Ampang.

Saturday was spent meeting friends.  Ravi met with one of his best friends, Guga, at Bangsar Village while I took the girls with me for a long lunch at Italiannies Pavilion Mall with the Varilla family.

Brunch before we went our separate ways to meet friends

Long lunch with the Varilla family at Italiannies Pavilion Mall

The same evening, I left the girls and Ravi at Somerset and checked myself in at The Explorer's Guesthouse, which was a 5-minute walk to the race venue, Merdeka Square.  The road in front of Somerset was part of the 21km route and was closed to traffic, as well as most streets around Merdeka Square.  Taking a cab or uber at 4:30am to reach the race venue will be crazy, hence the hostel stay.   

I got one last slot in a 4-bed female dorm, my first experience sharing a hostel room other than family members.  I slept early, around 9pm, and didn't meet my dorm mates although I heard them when they all came back to the room later in the night.  Sneaked out of the room at 4:30am to shower and head for my run.  When I came back from my run, my room mates have already gone out.  As I was leaving the room to check out, one of the girls came to check out as well.  We had a friendly albeit quick chat before I left. 

The hostel was pretty clean, had a good vibe all around and was the perfect location for my purpose.  I've actually booked the place again for an October half marathon.

Sunday.  

Ravi took both girls to Petrosains inside Surial KLCC mall.  The kids enjoyed the place too much they didn't want to leave yet even though they've spent 5 hours already!  

I checked out of the hostel, took an uber ride  back to Somerset, packed and loaded our things in the car, checked out the hotel and went to Suria KLCC to meet them.  After a stopover at the Kinokuniya book store, we bought baked goods, headed back to Somerset to get the car before driving back to Penang.  It was a full weekend but everyone loved it.

Playground time and obligatory shot with the Petronas Towers