Malakoff KL 2011 Race Report

This is a yearly race organize by PACM. I took part in last year 7km and I can only eyeing on the 12km finisher medal. When the registration opened this year, I straight away register myself for the 12km category. I am taking this a part of my marathon training, so no plan to go very fast or PB.

As per my training plan, the menu for the Sunday morning is 19km. To make up the mileage, I arrived the venue early, started my warming up loop by 6am. The warm up loop done in 7 min pace, no stress at all except the 2 killer climbs right before the start and the end of the loop. I alerted some Rela, guess they may thought the race had started early. After complete the warm up loop and back into the Event area, the distance still short for 1km, so I continued to run a bit inside the resort area.

The time passed 7am, I took a short break when the ladies 12km category flagged off. Took a PowerBar from the sampling booth, and bounced into a very old friend before the men category flagged off. The starting line is jammed with runners. I can’t recall if we have so many runners in year 2010 version, but the congestion tolled 2 minutes from my gun time. Btw, I have no pressure and no target for this race. I just take it easy to walk until the gantry.

I felt comfortable with the slow start. I kept the very slow pace from the starting line until the end of the 1 killer climb. Then I pick up some speed from all descending and tried to maintain the speed on all climbing. I skipped both water stations on the first loop, as both were jammed up due to insufficient of manpower. I think this is a terrible mistake. I ran with my 500ml bottle during my warm up loop (which normally enough for 15~20km), took the PowerBar and finished the bottle before the flag off. I think it will be either my warm up session or the PowerBar lead to some extra demand on hydration. I felt slightly dehydrated with mild headache throughout the rest of the day. The 2nd loop is just a repeat but I actually felt thirsty and stopped at both water stations. Think next time need to plan my hydration properly.

Finish line. Photo by Jason.

Overall speed maintained around 6:10 min/km and finished the race in 1:11’56”. I ran slower compared to the 12km at the Men’s Health Night run. May be I found some other things from this race, the extra 7km I did before the start, or my ultimate aim isn’t here, I actually feeling great about this race.

On the race event, everything are well organized and the traffic control is ok. But we need to have a bit more volunteers at both water stations instead of the finish area (medal and goodie collection). Saw a photo that En Rustam was pull out from the race and to help the 1st water station, I am confident that we will have an even better 2012 edition.

This is the last running event I had for 2011. For sure, this event is a very good finale for my 2011 running journey :)