Press Launch: Nestle Fitnesse Malaysia Women Marathon

Nestle Fitnesse Malaysia Women Marathon, or better known as MWM for short, will be held on the 7th April 2013 at the i-City of Shah Alam, Selangor. It will be the first ever women's only running event in Malaysia (South East Asia, too!) and everyone is extremely eager and excited (triple E's!) for the event to kick off.

During the press launch held at the i-Gallery on 5th February 2013, MWM race director Karen Loh, revealed to the sponsors, media, bloggers and everyone in attendance the objective of this event. As a passionate runner (and woman), she believes that we women are capable enough to take up the challenge of completing a marathon, or any distance of any kind. There is no reason why we women should be hindered from participating in this event.

MWM race director, Karen Loh.
Photo credit: Wong Yi Bin

She also mentioned something like we should be "embracing the joys of completing a marathon", which if you asked me, meant 'the relief and euphoria of crossing the finish line after running/walking/crawling/crying 42.195km of tarmac'. Oh, the pain and tears...

Nevertheless, you will cross the finish line with an amazing feeling that stifling your sobs of joy could be a bit difficult. :)

The press launch in session.
Photo credit: Wong Yi Bin

Organised by Ironman Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the MWM will have 3 distance categories such as the full marathon (42.195km), half marathon (21.1km) and 8km run. Both full and half marathon categories include a couple registration, where a female runner will sign up with a male partner, be it her husband, brother, father or trainer / running buddy. For this category, the male partner must run alongside the lady runner to cross the finish line together.

Let the woman be in control, male pacers! :D

The Nestle Fitnesse division under the Nestle Cereal Partners Malaysia Sdn Bhd are proud to be title sponsor for MWM. Brands manager, Carlo Marino Agbayani informed us that they were extremely excited to be on board and were proud to also sponsor the engagement of Kathrine Switzer for this event.

A glimpse of Kathrine Switzer on video at the press launch.
Photo credit: Wong Yi Bin

A glimpse of the epic photo of Kathrine Switzer being forcibly removed from the
1967 Boston Marathon where women were not yet allowed to participate in marathons.

Kathrine Switzer is best known as the first woman to challenge the all-male tradition of the Boston Marathon and became the first woman to officially compete and complete the event. 

She will be at the MWM pre-event programmes on 5th and 6th April 2013 for a Meet The Fan Session as well as a dialogue on women in running respectively, and will be flagging off the runners on 7th April 2013.

MWM will also have Couple on the Run, Sue and Andrew O'Brien who are best known as the couple for completing 8 marathons in 8 countries in 8 weeks, and Barbara Oravetz,  founder of Jakarta Free Spirit and race director of Bali Marathon, present during the pre-event days.

You may even find yourself running alongside the couple on the 7th!

The more reason you should sign up for this event and get a chance to meet these inspiring people! :)

Pn Noorul from Tourism Selangor, having a good laugh during the Q & A session.

Photo credit: Wong Yi Bin

How different is the Nestle Fitnesse Malaysia Women Marathon compared to previous running events held in Malaysia, you ask? You will get:

1. Pareo (wraparound skirt / sarong) for all participants.

2. Finisher Tee with women's cutting, unlike the usual baggy and unflattering ones.

3. Dog tag shaped pendant as a medal for full and half marathon finishers. For a fee, you can have your finishing time engraved on it.

4. Dedicated cheering miles along the route which includes:

- The Kathrine Switzer Mile

- Be Fit with Fitnesse Mile, which I understand will have hunky cheerleaders to cheer us on :D

- The Capital Women Mile

- AirAsia Allstars Mile

- Banana Boat Sunnies Mile, where sunblock will be made available for runners.

Personally, I would like to request MWM to provide hunky hubba hubba men be the ones to slather us with sunblock at that last mile!

The race starts and ends at i-City, Shah Alam and the route will bring us past the Blue Mosque, the Royal Theatre, Stadium Shah Alam, Stadium Melawati, Tasik Shah Alam, 3 universities and loads of roundabouts. Tourism Selangor is excited to host MWM in their backyard as Shah Alam was recently awarded the 'Zon Bersih' title in 2012. Pn Noorul also mentioned that the route was going to be "challenging yet enjoyable" and boy, did that bring out the chuckles from the crowd!

We all know how slopey the roads can be in Shah Alam. ;)

Nevertheless, I'll see you there on the 7th April and let us rock the streets of Shah Alam, ladies and gentlemen!

L-R: Julie, Alvin, Soon Chung, Karen, Sue Ling, Dannie, Yvonne and Yi Bin
Photo credit: Sue Ling Wong

Please visit http://mwm.my or the Facebook page here for more information and updates.