About IJM Allianz Duo Highway Challenge 2025
- The Only DUO HIGHWAY CHALLENGE in Asia.
- No.1 Highway Run in Malaysia, First Duo Highway Challenge in the World.
- Full Highway Closure just for the run without a Single vehicle.
- Most Safest event in Malaysia
- Only Once a year NPE Highway and BESRAYA Highway with Full Closure
- 7th edition
- Theme: Highway Legend, celebrating the determination, grit and triumph of every participant.
- Certified by World Athletics, in cooperation with the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS)
Pre-Race Thoughts
I didn't know what got into me to sign up for Duo Highway Challenge 2025 (Aug 3) at the first place, knowing very well 2 weeks before that, I would be running Pattaya Marathon 2025 (July 20). I wasn't sure if 2 weeks would be enough to rest fully. Having burnout from running is the last thing I wanted to happen!
The last time I ever ran a race in Malaysia was 3 years ago at KL Standard Chartered Marathon 2022. It has been a long time. I was getting out of touch with Malaysia running events and community already. And I am starting to wonder how running a race in Malaysia would be like.
But I think the greatest motivator for me to signup for Duo Highway Challenge was the fond memories of running at Adidas King of the Road 16.8 km at NPE in 2012 and 2011. Those days were fun and memorable! I kind of missed those days. I wanted to run NPE again to relive my memory. This round, it came with a bonus: Besraya Highway.
Hence, I decided to give this Duo Highway Challenge a try!
Race Entry Pack Collection
REPC was held at 3 Damansara. The whole process was fast. I was glad to see my name on the 42km runner wall as well. Entry pack was awesome - high quality vest, towel and eco bag. Himalaya sweets are my favourites too!
Running Strategy
I presumed Duo Highway Challenge would be more challenging than Pattaya Marathon, with its countless up-and-down highways and high elevations.
Nonetheless, I still decided to follow the same running strategy as Pattaya Marathon 2 weeks ago.
I would try my best to follow 4:00 hour pacers, covering as many kilometres as I could. Hopefully, my legs had fully recovered from Pattaya Marathon.
Once I failed to keep up, I would then just follow my heart, run by feel at my own pace, and enjoy the journey.
On hydration part, I've learned my lesson from Pattaya Marathon. I over hydrated before the race and ended up using mobile toilets at KM1 and KM 21. I also skipped water stations to avoid going to toilets even more often, resulting in leg cramps.
For this race, I planned to drink just enough water before start, and to stop at every single water station to replenish myself. Hopefully, this would prevent me from leg cramps and going to mobile toilets during race.
Making effort to keep up with 4:00 hour pacers for the first 21 km
The 4:00 hour pacers were very professional and experienced. I was very impressed!
The lead pacer even guided us by shouting aloud:
- "40 minutes.. you can take your energy gel now..."
- "Our average pace now is 5:34 min / km. We have 4-6 minutes of buffer time to do a sub-4"
- "Downhill now - can do some downhill recovery!"
- "For those who have salt stick, you can take it now..."
- "Water station in front..... you can walk a bit here since we have some buffer time"
- "We do a positive split - faster pace at first half, and slower at second half."
- "I got 2 extra energy gels - anyone who needs it, come and take from me."
I received a lot of encouragement from their guidance.
I also picked up some racing tips from the lead pacer:
- Ah.. I should try to take energy gel every 40 minutes instead of by distance.
- Ah... salt stick is something I have not tried. Maybe I could consider in the next race?
- Ah... positive split is the strategy instead of constant pace throughout 42 km.
- Ah... when downhill, I could relax a bit for recovery.
The up-and-down hilly highways were really killing me! And I never trained hills - making it even tougher to ensure throughout the whole 42 km!
At around KM 21, I could no longer keep up with the 4:hour pacers.
Then I saw them gradually running further and further ahead of me, until I could no longer see the orange balloons!
I stared ahead feeling helpless and hopeless. My legs just refused to follow and to keep up.
Oh well, I guess I had reached my limit!
100% concentration and focus
To be honest, I couldn't recognise most of the 42 km course. Maybe I was very focused on running the race.
For the first 21 km, I just ran behind the 4:00 hour pacers as close as possible. Instead of looking ahead, I just focused 100% of the balloons and pacers. In fact, the pacer balloons hit my head countless times since I was literally behind them most times. haha!
Toll-free run
What a beautiful experience - running past 2 toll plazas without having to pay tolls! No cars, only human traffic and no tolls!
I also saw some runners having fun making the Touch n Go tag sound when running past the toll plazas. They must be imagining they were cars! Nice!
Most beautiful background
I think this was the last 6 km from finish line.
I didn't realise the high-rise condos along the highways looked so beautiful. And I couldn't tell even where the exact location was.
I like these photos a lot.
I decided to purchase one to remove the water mark - with me smiling and the beautiful skyline as backdrop!
It must be a tough job for photographers camping out long hours to take photos for runners.
Kudos and credits to all the photographers who took nice photos of us. How I wish I could purchase most of them to remove watermarks.
Second half (21 km to finish)
I don't quite remember at what distance these shots were taken by photographers. I guess there were shot during the 2nd half.Yeah - I ran alone from KM 21 onwards.
Without the encouragement of pacers or friends, running alone at highway with no cheering crowd or supporters along the route was boring and demotivating.
What lied ahead was either endless road or discouraging uphills!
A few times, I was wondering where I was.
I also got distracted by my thoughts.
I started to lose focus.
In Chinese, there is a saying, "跑到开始怀疑人生”
That's how I felt at those moments!
Finish Line
I was very happy to have completed my full marathon no. 39 with a net time of 4 hours 14 minutes 39 seconds. No complaints at all! At KM 40, my COROS watch showed exactly 4 hours - same as Pattaya Marathon. I was still slower by 2.195 km to achieve a sub 4 finish time! haha!
I also felt very grateful that I could still run and finish another full marathon at my current age (turning 59 in a month's time!). I treasure every step, every kilometre, every race, every moment of runinng!
Duo Highway Challenge 2025 was also my first race in Malaysia since 2022 (3 years ago). I thought perhaps I would not be able to see any familiar faces after such a long gap not showing up in local running community. But I was glad to have bumped into a few running friends from the old running days. They made me feel like I'm finally back to local running community again!
Thank you to all the wonderful hard-working photographers taking great shots of us. All photos credit to respective photographers.
Event Name: Duo Highway Challenge 2025
Event Date: August 3, 2025
Distance: 42 km full marathon
Full Marathon No: 39
Running Shoe: ASICS Evoride Speed 2
Watch: COROS Pace 3
Net Time: 4 hours 14 minutes 39 seconds
Race Milestone: Click here
