Review: Sandakan Marathon 2019

Hi guys, just to share my experience for my race yesterday at Sandakan,a town at the East Coast of Sabah. This is an inaugural marathon organized by a new organizer in which hold on 7th July 2019.

I arrived at Sandakan on 6th July with my running buddy and headed straight to collect our race packs at the town field. We thought it would be full house due to last day of collection, but supringly very less participants. The collection was smooth and there was no digital race pack collection such as scan bar code, to me it was nice because we only queued up and showed our Mycard only.

After that we checked in to the nearest hotel just few blocks away from the event venue. We had some food and went to a shopping mall nearby called Harbour Mall, which was the latest mall in the town. We didn'y plan for heavy meals unless after the race (you know what i mean🤣). Grab some noodles and rice and went back to hotel to rest.

The race started at 1am on 7th July 2019 and we went to the race venue 30 minutes prior to start. Supringly, the participants for 42km just around 200++, which were good, or else the whole event will be congested. Bang!!! Flag off and here we go, just like any other marathons but numerous rolling hills were not what we expected eventhough we didnt't really checked the elevation. I planned for a sub 5 finishing but ended but 6 hours due to my body rhythm was totally messed up.

At one point I tripped and landed like a Superman🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ due to no street lights and the asphalt was cracked and wavy. Luckily no severe injury, only few scratches and I continued. After 23km, both of my little toes started to have blisters, I was like (what!! I was wearing an anti-blister socks🤮🤮). I ignored the pain and around 30km, my serratus anterior and my upper abs started to sore, this was due to lack of core workout(my bad). Once My Garmin notify me at 42km, I thought I the finishing was just on sight, but I ended running for another 1km, but I didn't mind because this was the first marathon here.

I crossed the finishing line at roughly 7am and took my finisher tee, medal and had my selfie. After what I waited for my friend and we went back to hotel, got a quick shower and checked out, because our flight was on 11.30am back to Kota Kinabalu. So, my local Sandakan friend gave us a ride to have the signature Sandakan Springy Noodle at Fisherman's Boat Village before heading to the airport.

Overall the event was considered successful eventhough there were some minor hiccups.

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