Allianz Penang Bridge International Marathon

28th of November, 2011 Monday


Once again, the once a year PBIM (Penang Bridge International Marathon) is being held at Pulau Pinang on 20th of November 2011. This time the main sponsor is from Allianz, New Balance and also DIGI telecommunication. This years' marathon event had 27,500 participants, a record breaking previous years. More and more people is joining, age ranging from even 8years old to as old as you could get. I was amazed i can't even tell the oldest participant's age.


What to prepare before joining the marathon. A pair of good running shoes, a running thighs, sufficient training and also strong mental determination. For those joining the full marathon, could get a belt for inserting power booster when running half way through. What to bring when going, the Number Tag and the Running Tag by event organizer. The Running tag is to record and check your time of every check point. To avoid anyone from cheating.


Official Webpage for PBIM


The marathon consist of different category:

• Men's Open 42km
• Men Veteran 42km
• Women's Open 42km
• Men 21km
• Women 21km
• Men 10km
• Women 10km
• Fun Run 10km

Most of the people will join the Fun Run category but what i anticipated was the 42km Full Marathon. This year there are more people who join the Full Marathon. But the one thing was that this year all the running kit was Blue colour for Men and Pink colour for Women. Last year every category have their own colour.

The Start and Finish line for the Marathon

As the event draws close, people started to gather all over Queensbay Mall. Me and my colleagues went there before 10pm.(I didn't join, only to become driver for this day) The Penang Bridge will be closing from 1am to 9am and only Ferry service is available. Walk around meeting people and those who participate went to sleep in the car awaiting their turn to start. I alone was wondering around, camera in hand taking pictures.

From Left : Ee Chee, Chee Chaw, Choong & Amnard joining the 42km Full Marathon

42km Full Marathon starts at 2am. Before the start, there is Dragon Dance, Sport Dancing by performers. And all the participants starts to gather behind the starting line. The road was full of Blue colour. The count down begins, 10,9,8.....3,2,1 and poof the pistol sound. All the participant start to jog slowly going through the starting line. After that went to the car and wake up another two people for 21km Half Marathon runner.

Khairul (Blue) & his Sweet heart Szu Pei (Pink) joining the 21km Half Marathon

3am for Men 21km and 3:15am for Women 21km. This time, the crowd is bigger and doesn't even have the space to fit everyone. It was tiring enough for me as i wanted to quickly get some rest before all my colleagues and friends run pass the finish line. Hehe, giving full support towards them. Its 6am when i woke up. There's a lot of event going on as participants for 10km and Fun Run is occupying the field. I quickly walk to the finishing line to take pictures. Too bad i missed out some of them.

Fun Run participants in Yellow T-Shirts

After finishing, everyone was tired enough. But you could see all their happy faces as they hold on to their medals and showing off, taking pictures with everyone involve. The relief of finishing the run and the satisfaction of completing it. All was shown is their sparkling smile and tiring soul. Haha you could say everyone just wanna quickly get a nice rest. Volunteers was distributing drinks, foods and also Salon Pas pain relief. There was also events happening everywhere. The most eye catching was the water balloon battle from DIGI. Thousands of water balloons thrown at each other. Flying around on the field.

Finishers of Marathon from Different Categories running towards the finishing line

DIGI Water Balloon Event

Soon it was the prize giving ceremony. The first Prize for Full Marathon Rm15,000.00. It was topped up from last year when it was only Rm10,000.00. Most of the prizes goes to Kenyan people, and we also had a different prize category for Malaysian. There was also one Motorcycle and one Proton car to be given out as lucky draw. The fastest runner for 42km Men category was 2 hours and 20 minutes. At an average the Kenyan was running on speed of 16km per hour.

Showing off Medals Ee Chee and Chee Chaw (42km Full Marathon)

From Left : Choong (42km Full Marathon), Goh (10km Marathon), Khairul (21km Half Marathon)

Soon everything has settle and no one of us wins the lucky draw, its time to get packing and went back to Alor Setar for a nice nice rest. Congrats to all the participants that joined and finished the Marathon. And thanks to all those to joined the event, making it another successful PIBM.

Me myself was disappointed as i couldn't join the Marathon this year. I joined last year when everybody called me a freak for entering the 42km Full Marathon. But i ended up completed the race and get the medal. This year when i was standing with those who are preparing to start the race, my heart started to remember the feel standing out at the starting line and getting nervous, wondering will i complete the race. Thanks to someone special, i had the determination and the nerves to complete the whole journey. I will definitely join again someday when the event will be held on the 2nd Penang Bridge. Looking forward to it.