4 am at Merdeka Square

In tropical countries marathons almost always start somewhere at night or at least well before the sunrise... for obvious reasons... it's hot. Kuala Lumpur was no exception.

According to my pre-race routine I woke up 2.5 hours before the race, which makes it 1.30 am... right. You might ask why I even bothered to go to sleep? Well, even a few hours of sleep is better than nothing.

This time however it was all a little bit different. I wasn't alone in my hotel room. My family was here and I had to be super quiet as to not wake them up. Thanks to the hotel's mix up with rooms we've been upgraded to a bigger one with a giant bathroom that was like a separate room itself. I sneaked there with all my clothes and food, had breakfast and dressed up comfortably. What would I do if we got a standard room? I would probably just quietly dress up and go downstairs to the hotel lobby or empty restaurant to have my food.

Any way, time flies when you're stressed and check everything over and over again, and soon it was time to leave. I always try to book my hotel about 1 to 2 km from the start line, this was no exception with 1.7 km walking distance. Not too close, not too far, just enough to warm up the muscles a bit, get the feel of the city and maybe... meet some other runners on the way. Yes, I'm usually so stressed before the race that I just start chatting with some random people to stop thinking about what might or might not happen. This time I met a local runner. It was his first marathon and well, he was very excited and a bit stressed too.

Then we got to the starting village at Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square), wished each other good luck and entered crowds building up slowly. There was a stage, set up for announcements and later entertainment, and a giant tent with chairs for runners and their families to rest, long row of tents with big and clearly labelled information booth, stalls from sponsors and partners, and a separate, huge one for the title sponsor.

I was however more interested in something more essential to all runners... yes, of course I'm talking about toilets. I found 4 long rows of them at the northern side of the square. The set up wasn't exactly the same as on a map inside SCKLM 2017 Guide Book that runners could download from the website, but still easy to find and totally sufficient. There were plenty of porta potties and, when I got there, barely any queues.

Time to go to the start line now. Finding my pen was easy. Helpful volunteers were everywhere and at each pen entry, checking bibs and directing runners. 15 minutes to go and I was already inside Pen 3. Sea of heads in front of me and behind me. Official speeches, excited commentators counting down. 4 am and the gun went off!

It was still dark when we started and a bit spooky along the empty streets of Kuala Lumpur. No people, no cars, just us - runners, and the city. For the first kilometre we headed north towards Chow Kit, then turned right into Jalan Sultan Ismail running next to Menara Kuala Lumpur - one of the tallest landmark towers in the world. Between 2 and 14 km we were basically doing a giant loop around Petronas Twin Towers so we could see the famous buildings from every possible angle. The only downside being that it was still dark and hard to see anything in a distance. From about 8 km it got really boring, we went on highways and it was just concrete, concrete, and more concrete, with glimpses of the city, until almost 33 km.

I found it hard to enjoy this part of the route and was really happy I had my music on, but then I heard something beautiful. It was 5.48 am when muezzins from all nearby Mosques started adhan (call to prayer). It was magical, I turned off my music and just listened to these beautiful voices breaking pre-dawn silence. Of course I knew that Malaysians are quite religious, but was still surprised seeing runners actually stopping to pray at specially marked and prepared surau (places for prayer).

It was sunrise now and temperature started to rise. I had to pour water on my head at every water station and made use of every sprinkler tunnel set up for runners along the course. From semi-comfortable 26C at 4 am we moved to 28C and soon, when the sun came all up, to 30C.

What a relieve there were plenty of drink and fuel stations on the course. Water was available at every 2 km after first 4 km, and every 1.6 km after 20 km; isotonic drinks (Lucozade) every 4 km; High5 energy gel at 25.6 and 31.8 km; bananas at 28.6 and 31.8 km. There were also plenty of toilets in blocks of 3 or 4 before and after every drink station.

Finally we passed 32 km mark and after nearly 25 km on highways we got onto more residential narrow streets of green and hilly neighbourhoods of Bukit Tunku and Kampung Padang Merbuk. Now the run was very pleasant although more challenging. Sometimes there was only one side of the road blocked for runners so we had to be very careful and watch for incoming traffic. And there were hills. Many hills. Beautiful, green, with winding roads and nice houses. Didn't expect that at all after those wide expressways before. Then we passed Tugu Negara - a monument to the freedom fighters of 1945, and Malaysian Parliament House, and went around Perdana Botanical Gardens. Now we could finally see people cheering us up. The crowds got thicker and thicker and it was hard at times to negotiate my way towards the finish line.

I was very happy and surprised to spot my boys standing just meters away from finish, even though my husband said he won't be there 'cause it's too early. It was nearly 9 am, not early at all.

When I crossed the line I was super relieved. It is extremely hard to run in the heat, although I found Kuala Lumpur a bit easier than Singapore. Maybe because is not as humid or maybe I trained longer this time. Either way I really enjoyed the run, was able to finish strong, and even speed up for the last few hundred meters.

I was rushed to the finisher's gates and got a green bag that was quickly filled by many volunteers with fruit, drinks, my finisher's t-shirt and a medal. Smooth and well organised. I was ready to find my family and celebrate but then... it started to rain, pouring heavily from the sky. People were cramping under tents and umbrellas... not for long though. The rain was gone as quick as it came. I found my boys and left Merdeka Square in a search of some serious Malaysian food feast.
Bye, bye Kuala Lumpur - challenging, interesting, safe, and surprising city to run my 4th marathon.

P.S. It looks like it is very important to thoroughly read Runners Guide provided on the website. At 30 km mark volunteers were handing out green Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2017 wristbands. Good I took one, I didn't really read the Guide and didn't know that without the wristband I wouldn't get my finisher's t-shirt and medal.