PJ Dawn 2012 Race Report

This is another half marathon starting at 3am. My first HM started at this difficult hour is the last Penang Bridge International Marathon. But this time, I don’t need to travel so far and stayed in a noisy hostel. The pre-race preparation went well. The whole family went to bed around 8:30pm (I don’t know about the rest, but I collapsed around that time once light out). Wake up about 1am and felt fresh and excited, and the coughing and blocked nose seem to at ease.

Left home around 1:45am, drove to Kelana Jaya Stadium but the organizer blocked off the entrance of Old Airport Road from Federal Highway. I guess that is a good sign as they are putting some effort on the traffic control (but it can be hard to others whom less familiar with the other access ways to the stadium). Reached the parking around 2:20am. Done some usual stretching, warming up, and then standing in the starting pan wait for the flag off. Met my colleague who took part in 12km. Took some photos.

Race flagged off few minutes before 3am, I think this is the first race that flagged off before the planned time. Usual start off jam only cleared until we reached the Old Airport Road. I stay with my 5.5~6 minutes target pace all the way until we turned into the Ara Damansara after 9km, and then drop the pace to 6.2 minutes. The initial part of the race is very hot without any breeze; we only felt some breeze after few km into Ara Damansara. I lost my pace around 13km when facing the climb before the 2nd U-turn. May be due to the blister forming in my toes, the light breeze, or the very quiet Ara Damansara. I don’t feel like pushing it back to target pace after the U-turn. Stayed at 6.5 minutes all the way until finish. Again missed my sub-2 goal for 7 minutes. Anyway, still a PB in HM distances.

Look back to my HR records, the average HR only 157BPM, typical tempo running mode. And it is inflated too as I pushed at the final 1km back to 5.4 minutes pace. I imagined the average HR will be someway around 165~170BPM if I pushed all the way. It may not be a sub-2, but it will land closer or may be right on the target. I think the issue laid on myself i.e. I am not ready to die for the sub-2 HM. Read Jamie’s blog about this, I think I am still lagging the will to pushing all the way till the end. Need to include some training on the endurance in the mental stage.

Next race will be the SCKLM, I will do my first attempt of sub-5 marathon, but seriously I am lagging of training lately. The workload is catching up and I am currently down by coughing and flu. The training plan went out the window for about 2 weeks now. Hopefully I will be fully recovered by this weekend to squeeze in LSD that more than 32km. Else, I will only have one more chance for a 32km LSD before SCKLM. This is importance for the mind/mental stage training.

Next importance issue, get a replacement of my VFF KomodoSport. Brought the New Balance MR00 last week and tried it on BA-Sri Hartamas 20km, don’t think it can replace the VFF. Stay tune for more detail review next week after I put in more mileages to MR00.