The flag off is separated into three intervals. The first flag off is for Men Open wearing bib starting with initial "A" at 1:30 am. The second is for Women Open at 1:45 am with bib "B" and at 2:00 am the Veteran Men and Women are flag off bibs "C" & "D".
The course I would say is about 90% flat. The start of the race is immediately a steep ascend, thereafter a flat route up to kilometer 19. Another climb there and we make a "U" turn at kilometer 21. Again flat surface all the way until kilometer 41. Immediately after the ascend, you run down straight to the finishing line.
My flag off time is at 2:00 am, this is for the veteran category men & women. We are 15 minutes behind the women open category and 30 minutes behind the men open category. My plan for the race was to run at pace 8 mins/km for 3 hours and 8.30 secs/km for the next 2 hours and finally push at pace 7.30 until the finish line. This would get me below 5:45 for the full marathon if I don't experience any cramps or knee pain. In my previous 2 marathons I never miss experiencing cramps at kilometer 25.
This is what actually happen. After running 5 km, I notice that my comfortable pace was at 7.45 to 7.50. So I let it be. After 3 hours at that pace, have got 23 kilometers pass me. I have exceeded by 500 meters from my initial plan. I stop to change my socks as they are already soaking wet. I continue my run planning to go at 8.30 pace for another 2 hours. However I found that I am more comfortable at 8.15 pace. So I thought that would be alright.
Reaching the 30th kilometer marker I was told that many runner would Hit The Wall. I don't know what that is, but I assume it has got something to do with you feeling very tired, getting the cramps and cannot run anymore. I was waiting for it to happen to me, but the kilometers seems to pass by relatively easy for me without any of those feelings. At kilometer 38 I can already see my last ascend two kilometers ahead of me. I am already feeling very tired. Since I have gained some extra time and there is only 4 kilometers more to got, I thought to myself - forget the plan that I have the past 5 hours adhered to.
During the ascend and kilometers 40 to 41, I walked. But at a fast pace. My plan was, upon reaching the top, I will run down fast, straight to the finish line. But this did not happen. I guess I hit the wall at kilometer 41. After finishing the climb, leaving the last kilometer to run downhill, I could not run anymore. Every step I take felt like I was pulling something heavy. So what I did was run, walk, run & walk. Of course, nearing the finishing line I ran as strong as I can to have a nice photo finish.
That is me at kilometer 41.5 running and walking. I finished the race in 5.48 placing me at 829/1770 in the Men Veteran category. Had I registered for the Men Open category, I would be at number 1565/5311 (within the 30% group). If I were to combine the Men Open and Men Veteran category, at 5:48, I would be at 2391/7081.
From the above computation, I can say that there are more strong marathon runners in the Veteran category then the open category.
As for the organisation of this event, given a rating of 1 to 10 with 1 being bad and 10 being very good, I would rate at 5. There is no exit after finishers run pass the finishing line. There was havoc at the finishing line with some people taking selfies right at the finishing line. My compliments is that there was sufficient water station with bananas and buns. Good food for breakfast for 42 km finishers. My advise for the organizers is to go for quality and not quantity.
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