Race Report: Oren Sport Half Marathon

This is the 2nd half marathon I registered in 2015. The hazy weather lingering I was once decided DNS this race, but the thirst of adrenaline flipped my decision. Unlike the most of the race which usually held on weekend, this one is special as it tagged to the Malaysia Day, which is a Wednesday this year. Over the weekend, the API reading peaked at 180, then it dropping towards 100. Hence I decided I will run this race, if the API reading below 100 at 3am on the race morning. Came race day morning, I woke up at 3am, check the reading. 90! Straight a way I pack my running gear and drove to Klang town.

This was my 2nd time running a race in Klang, the first one was 2 years ago Run For It 7, which on the Klang Botanic Garden and Pandamaran side. This one is located in the center of Klang town. We ran past all the famous landmarks in Klang, via the Federal Highway of course. The race flagged off on time, 5:30am from the Stadium Padang. We ran past the Istana, then heading to Port Klang via Federal Highway. For the long battle of 7km of highway run, I kept a manageable pace at 5:15min/km. But I felt the needs to slow down after the U-turn. Nothing really bothers me at this point, only problem was the haze. It’s reduced my engine efficiency. My heart rate pushed up to 165-170BPM. I knew I will be able to sustain the pace until 21km, but the body will probably need lots of time to recover after that. Running in hazy weather is tough. I slowed down a bit to around 6min/km pace.

Finally we back in the town area 6km after the U-turn. The 10km runners joined us. The traffic control is ok, most of the major junctions was blocked by traffic police. We were directed to Taman Eng Ann, then back on the Federal Highway towards Bekerly roundabout to make the final U-turn. I decided to push again. My pace now back up to 5.5min/km and I was cruising back to the finish line. The route is over distance by 800m, hence I finished this race @ 2:02’44”. Still sub2 HM with an average pace of 5:35min/km. For all the HM finisher completed within 125min, we got the special souvenir of 125 years anniversary of the start of Local Authority for Klang Town back in 1890.

Overall, the race was well organized. The route is flat mostly, and it does bring you around the Klang town center. Good traffic control plus sufficient water station. Anyway, the air quality is the problem in Klang town. Not only the haze from the forest clearing activities in Sumantra Island, but the port itself with the sea traffic will generate lots of pollution. That’s why you always have Port Klang API reading higher than the rest of the Klang Valley. 

With the rain lately, the hazy situation seems to be under control now. Really hope it will subside in the next 2 weeks because I need to condition my body back in shape for SCKLM. There were hazy too last year SCKLM (around 60-70 API reading if I recall correctly). Hopefully we have a clear sky this year.

Race Report: Seremban Half Marathon 2015

After 2 years of working with my full marathon timing, I finally signed up a half marathon. I was looking forward to fulfill my sub-2 half marathon target which missed for many years. My PB for HM was 2:03’35” in GM Klang Run For It 2013. There are actually too many half marathons available nowadays, but I picked Seremban HM mainly due to it is a familiar route and small town event.

This is my 4th times running in this HM (3x official racing, 1x bandit run on own support). Most of the issue (pro & cons) remained unchanged, so I won’t elaborate here. Seremban town area had not much changes compare to my first visit 15 years ago. But if you going with the HM route, you can see the urban area was moving really fast. The numbers of cars were growing too. Lucky the people still, roughly follow the small town style. Traffic will usually slowing down when they approaching, and will wait patiently when stopped by traffic police while waiting for runners passing the busy junctions.

On the other hand, I think runners really need to improve our running etiquette. Most of the time I observed runners took up the middle of a lane without any reason. Some cross the road without considering his / her owned safety. If you are familiar with this HM, you will know that the traffic controls for most sessions on the route actually none exist. With the narrow kumpung style 1 lane trunk road, you really need to run at the road side and be careful with the traffic.

Back to my race report, the game plan was simple, run at 5.4min/km pace until finish line. Knew the route is under-distance by about 1km, this will give me a nice 150 HM PB. The race flag off on time, lots of people sped out from the start. I need to hold back to maintain at my target pace, from the starting line until we left the town center. At the long inclines up to AEON Big and McD at Forest Height, I started to overtake others. This basically continued for the rest of the race. I kept overtaking others, few on the flat, and many more on the 13/14km stiff incline where we finally turning back heading to town center. Pace maintained at 5.2-5.5min/km thru out the race. To certain extend, the consistence pace is a bit boring, but it paid off nicely towards the end. The pace was held back until 18th km, then after the final incline where we merged with the school boys and girls. I dropped the hammer and sped to the max, clocking 4:30min/km like how I did in my speed intervals. I finished as 58th, with 1:47’20”, a nice PB for my HM.

SHM 2015 Finisher Medal 

Need to work on my posing while running in front of the camera man. TQ Tey.

Turbo mode ON! TQ Allan.

This year the Royal Selangor pewters only for the top 10 position (or 20?) so I only got a cheaper version of limited medal. The field were extremely competitive and crowded too (650 participants in HM compared to 320 participants in 2014). The organizer should really start to address the traffic control issue if they wanted to grow the numbers. The finishing area support too was obviously overloaded by the growing numbers of participants. Overall, if you are looking for a short break from the usual KL / Selangor race, this is the best nearby alternative. Muar and Bidor are too far for a touch-and-go race.

Race Report: Newton Challenge 2013

Newton Challenge was one of the race that offering the unique distances (15km & 25km) on the very challenging route in Bandar Kinrara. This was also the 3rd Newton Challenges in the past 2 years (twice in 2012) and I was running in the first one, now I returned to this race as it was one of the most challenging route with the Amah Hill and her two daughters.

This was a good testing ground to gauge my training result. I ran the first Newton Challenge when I was in relatively good form and took down all the climbs without much issue. Running on identical route served a good indication of one’s physical form. Anyway, the new route added in another climb towards the 20km just to make it more challenging. I planned to have an easy ride on this race to practice my target marathon pace (6.4 min/km). From the recent 2 races, I knew I don’t need to push too hard for this pace, but those were only 10k & 21k. I would like to find out if I can last for the 25k.

Closed to 1500 competitors lined up for 25km category. I started at the back as usual. The race field was packed from starting line all the way to the first water station, and then the pack eased up further when we turned at the traffic light to take down the first climb. I maintained a good average pace from start, at 6.3-6.4min/km. The situation started to be tricky after reached the top of the daughter hill. My legs felt extremely itchy, there descends was calling them to charge... no choice but just listen to the body and charged on. From there, the pace increased to 5-5.5min/km when descending, and 6.1-6.2min/km when climbing. Basically that’s what repeated for the rest of the distances left.

Towards the finish line, photo taken by Vivian.

Refuelling becomes very important when you are pushing for the race. I took a heavy breakfast (coffee with 2 tea spoons of Chia seed, plus 4 loafs of bread with cheese), but start to felt hungry after 12km. Took the PowerGel at 14km, but it can’t last until the end. The route joined with 15km category from 19th km onwards. I again felt hungry around 22km, and this time I didn’t had another PowerGel. No choice so I pushed even harder so that I can fill up my dummy at the finish line. Saw the water station at 23km, and I was hoping to see 100Plus, but only plain water available. Finally, got to the final turn and finished the race with 2:30’37” net time (gun time 2:32’16”, position, Men Open 164, overall 282; 12 minutes faster than previous). But I was disappointed to found no food at the finish line. Only watermelon was served, and I think I took at least half of a watermelon :P

The average pace from the race is 17 seconds faster than my target pace, and the heart rate averaged at 146BPM, with overall max at 161BPM. This showing that the training program hard brought me to a much better physical form. I am confident that I am doing fine now and heading towards my target of sub4.5. Looking at the pace chart, I think I will need some hill-repeats cause there will be more hills to climb in Titi50. Bukit Kledang at my home town will be my best friend come Chinese New Year :)

Race Report: GM Klang Run For It 7

If I took out all Setia Alam races (2x CICM), then this is my first race in Klang. I didn’t know why I always missed races in Klang, and this year I only did 2 half marathons, hence I sign up this race as soon as it open up. No target set for the race but as it was at the mid of my training plan, I would like to check if the training workout positively.

From the last week’s 10k, I knew better on my current fitness level. So the plan will be hold up an easy pace (<150BPM) for the first half, then speed up to the finish line after 12km. Only I wish to avoid the repeat the previous mistake of pushing too hard, hence the max heart rate should be 170BPM. I will be looking for another PB if I able to stay between 5.9-6.1 min pace all the way. Btw, the race is on a very flat route you normally don’t see in other local races.

The race flagged off on 5:35am, I started slow but steady around 6.5 min pace. Not too many runners in this category and the road are wide in this part of the town, the crowds eased after 1km. I sped up to the target pace of 5.9min. Heart rate was steady and stayed below 150BPM, and start to overtaking other runners. Said hello to few familiar runners until I met my colleague Fong. He is going with about 6 min pace, and I figured that I should stay at my current pace (I was still speeding, almost 5.5min pace right before I met him) hence we ran and pace each other at the 6 min pace. The race felt much easier when you had some company. We exchanged some stories and office gossip, 12km just past like that. We merged with 10km runners, and then is time for me to push on.

I knew that I had lots left in the tank, so I took my PowerGel at 12km and sped on alone. The burst only last for 1km, then not too sure what was the reason, may be I was too comfortable with the company, the formation of the blister on my toes or the route is just plain boring. I lost the steam to stay on 5.5min. I can only push my best to sustain the speed at 5.9-6.1min pace. The situation finally over after I stopped by the water station at 18km to refill my bottle. I then sped all the way to the finish line and completed with a PB of 2:03’35” (Fong did returned with a PB too).

Towards the finish line. Photo thanks to KelvinTan.my

Finisher Medal and PB for Half Marathon

Overall, the race is ok. I enjoyed the flat route, the friendly water stations volunteers and the check point volunteers (as they busy recording top runners from other categories, I reported my number just to make some fun out of it, the response was great). On the other hand, the organizing part got nothing to shout on. Water stations gave out 350ml bottles to all runners, some sections no marshals, traffic control only at most of the big junctions (this may not be an issue as we don’t observed heavy traffic during the race). And the best part was my medal… I got a finisher medal of 10km, on a race that I got my half marathon PB. Only realized it when I reached home and I wouldn’t drive all the way back to Klang just to exchange it. Anyway, I will still return to this race next year. I will push harder for my sub-2 HM target here :)

The PB shown the result from the training program, and I am heading to the right direction. Also I reconfirmed my targeted marathon pace with my 10k and HM race result, hence the 4.5 hours finishing time is achievable. I will continue to stick on my training program and enjoying few short races in between. 69 days until the big 50KM race.

Race Report: Back to Basic 30KM

Like last year, PACM arranging a training event in order to support our preparation on the coming marathon races. This race happened in Mardi Serdang this year. I intended to use this as my last LSD before the SCKLM, and judge my fitness level to look at how much harder I can go during SCKLM.

The event started at 5:30am and target to end by 11am. Knowing well my LSD pace will only cover 30km in 4 hours, I planned a solid 30km as minimum and hoped to go further than that. So the key is to arrive there early and may be do a few km warming up. Anyway, I am not very familiar with the place so I missed the SKVE entrance from LDP and went straight into Putrajaya. Only arrived at Mardi around 5am and I got no more moods to cover some extra distances up front. Just hang around the starting point and chatting with friends. The race director conducted a briefing, and at 5:30am we let loose to do our long slow distances. I didn’t aware about the last minutes change of route, until I completed the 1st loop at only about 7km. May be the race director announced it but most of us can’t heard what he said without a loud header.

4th loop, I was looking at the party happened at the finish line.

Running in the Mardi / MAEPS for the first time, I seriously love those rolling hills. It let me practicing how to scale back my strides and adjusting from running to brisk walking when climbing a slope. But I think I haven’t fully recovered from the RJM, the tights and calves were not doing very well in descending. Covered the first 3 loops with steady pace (slightly slower than my target marathon pace) but the mind was keep debating how many loops should I go. The finish area was partying since we started. PAC will give you the finisher medal as long as you completed one loop; hence lots of runners didn’t continue but chose to hang out with their friends at the finish area. This made the decision to continue the next loop getting harder as more runners joining the party after each loop. Finally, at the end of 4th loop, I decided to just continue and I left the finish area alone without anyone running in front or behind in sight. The sun was overslept and the volunteers did a good job to keep us running; it will be completely wasted if I didn’t continue for the 5th one. The last lap was tough, but I am glad that I did it. Learned the real meaning of "bloody nipper" during this training, now I can claim myself one bloody hardcore runner.

Hard earned medal and finisher t-shirt

I really enjoyed the event and thanks PAC to organize the run in a new venue. Now is time to zone into tapering mode and get myself ready to push real hard for the sub-5 target in SCKLM. See you guys next weekend at the starting line :)

Race Report: Seremban Half Marathon

I got no plan to run this year Seremban Half Marathon. It’s only because of the postponement of SCKLM, and I am starving for some race, I decided to join. This is my second bandit in a race. The registration actually extended to 5 July and I still able to register online, but the draw back is the race kit collection. I will need to drive 2 hours to just collect my kit from Seremban on 6 July. I am ok to drive that far for a race morning, but not for just race kit collection. Hence I decided to just bandit in this race.

Seriously lack of mileages due to laziness and work, I knew this will be just a race in training mood. Target pace will be the marathon pace @ 7 minutes and should complete the run in about 2:20~2:30 hours. Arrived in Seremban town 6:10am, decided to park the car at the pay parking area near by the padang and next to some budget hotels. Went straight to the starting line and surprisingly seem to be more participants this year. May be all runners are starving to put their training in to test due to the postponement of the SCKLM.

Flag off on time, and we will do the same route like the previous year. I felt lacking of traffic control since the first km. Few cars trapped at the traffic light in front of Seremban Parade when we flagged off. They are allowed to go by the traffic police even before all HM runners cleared that stretch. I thought that was just one off coordinating issue...  As usual, Seremban HM route give you a difference feeling compared to the usual city races we had. We covered mostly sub-urban area and kumpung area. As usual, we ran on the road side which most of them had zero traffic control. But I felt the traffic was heavier now compared to previous years. The situation getting worst at the last 3km, the road get narrower and after that, we emerged with the school children from 10k category. Runners forced to share the 2 lanes climbing roads with lots of walking students, motorcycles, cars and buses.

The support in term of refreshment is good though. Gatorade and sponges was aplenty. But may be next time can use paper cups instate of PS cups. Also observed serving of half bottle of mineral water in the water stations near the D-tag check point. Perhaps they ran out of cups, I think the half bottle is fine, but just wonder what happened to the other half of the bottle :P   As I bandit to the race, I ran with 2x 500ml Gatorade (500ml water plus 500ml Quiet Storm). It proven the 1l of fluid is enough for me to survive the 21km. The only problem is my right arm’s muscle was not used to the water bottle, it sore until now.

Around 11km, thanks Zaini for the nice photo

This was the 3rd times I ran this route, the easy pace game plan is gone after 8k in the race. Felt great and decided to play harder! Pace increased to 6:30~6:45, also the hearth rate went up to 160BPM. Body was doing fine and holding the pace all the way until finish. This is a short distance course of 20.3km and finished on 2:18’. I loved the herbal tea that the organizer served in last 2 years at the finish line, but this year they changed it with some diluted grape favorite solution and no more Gatorade at the finish line too! Another minus point is the same finisher medal, again! In conclusion, tentatively (learned from previous experience, you will never know) I will not return next year. If I need another half marathon, I will join Bidor next year.

As SCKLM postponed, my 10th Full Marathon will be the same River Jungle Marathon that I did as my 1st ever Full Marathon 2 years ago! And it will mark the 3rd running year in my life. 55 more days to go and I am aiming for a sub-5 full marathon this round :)

Brooks Half Marathon Race Report

Very long overdue race report…

This supposes to be my first barefoot half marathon, but last minutes decided to pull out and put on my VFF, as I really lack of training since Jan 2013 (only 30k mileages in the whole month). Knowing the route will be very challenging, I played safe with a target just to complete the race in 7 min pace.

Arrived the venue by 5am, saw the crowd I knew this is definitely not a PB race but the 7 min pace plan is doable. Did the usual routine (warm up, use toilet, and walking around), met lots of familiar faces and took a photo with Lina before the race flagged off. The flag off is uneventful, and the crowd were moving! It took me close to 5 minutes to cross the starting line. Started with slow jogging and met some more friends. I didn’t push at all, only kept my pace at steady rhythm, not stopping at most of the water stations. Maintaining my cadences on climb and focusing on dodging people most of the time :P

Before flag off with Lina

The route changed this year. We starting from outside of the stadium, went into Happy Garden first before the usual 10k route from TPM highway into Seremban highway, and finish outside the stadium. From the official result document, the half marathoners who completed the race are about 4500, but the route definitely not wide enough for 4500 runners. Timing mats, ribbons check point, water stations are not able to cope with the 4500 runners. The situation getting worst when we merge with 10km runners after IMU. People just walking and blocking others who is still running. Runners (or walkers) literary just flooded their way to TPM highway, and everyone running at risk with traffic. After the 21km, the finishing outside the stadium is just another anticlimax.

Almost finish...

The mini trophy that draw the crowd...

2 weeks after the race, all I can remember are dodging people and talking to some friends along the way, especially with Nick. The talking part is very useful to keep my self on track and stick to the planned 7 min pace. I felt great with this speed and will have more long run in 7 min pace as it is also my target marathon pace to finish by 5 hours.

My next race will be volunteering in Malaysia Woman Marathon in 7 April. Together with the BWM running group, we will run a water station in barefoot :P Come to support our fellow ladies runners in iCity, Shah Alam. It is not too late to sign up if you wish to challenge yourself.Click here to find out more.

My next Marathon will be in Langkawi. I am not even able to dream of finishing sub-5 there. I will take this as another long run during my vacation. Then, I should be ready to challenge the 5 hours target again in SCKLM.

Race Report: PACM Back to basic 30k

Like I said in previous post, running 30k alone in LSD is very tough and mentally challenging. So, what is better than having few hundred more people training together with you on a beautiful Sunday morning? I signed up this event immediately when it opened. The route is very challenging. We start from Padang Merbuk, the reverse double hills, and then run one round of Hartamas Height. That only counted 15k when we back in where we started, 2nd loop is there waiting for us.

I didn’t train specifically for this event, just make sure that I had my normal short runs during the weekdays and I should be ok to complete this 30k. The only concern will be the temperature. I will at least spending 3.5 hours on the road in order to complete the 30k. Looking at the recent weather, it will be on the extreme, either a very wet run or a very hot run. But we had some luck that morning, the weather is running friendly and the sun only came out 7:30am.

After the 1st loop, don't know why I am so happy :P

On the 2nd loop around 24k, can't smile anymore ;P

The event flagged off around 5:30am. Lots of participants still chit-chatting and taking picture when we flagged off. Everyone seems to have the same plan, “take it easy and have fun”. That’s what in my mind too, back to basic and have fun :)  I enjoyed every single pieces of this event. The challenging and changing terrain made the event even more enjoyable. Not much issue on the 1st loop, and I think I handled the mentality challenge posted by the 2nd loop quite well. The reason for me to signing up these long distances events/races is to see how far I can go when my energy drained off. The few marathons I did previously gave me the experience of coming back or running on reserved tank after the main one drained off. I repeated this thought whenever the mind trying to shut down the legs when the sun is high up, magically there were always some new energy coming up when I dig deep enough. This kept me going and the GF910XT only recording about 600m of walking in this 30km run (mainly over the water stations and a short distances around 28k). Finished the 30k (slightly under distance, recorded 29.62km only, may be I cut too much corners) in 3:36’45”.

 

 

As usual, plenty of food and refreshment served after the finish line. Took lots of watermelons to make sure I replenish the hydration level. Waited a bit to collect the special PACM finisher-T for SCKLM 2012, loved the design but the event was in June, it will be much better if we can have it earlier. No complain about the even, everything smoothly organized. My only suggestion will be providing icy-cold water/Gatorade at the water stations. The weather is tough after the 9am and the cold water will be great help.

Coming weekend will be a short run in CICM. Only doing 10k so I don’t over stressed my body before the PBIM. Tapering will start after that event, but I doubt that I will slow down significantly. Really looking forward to PBIM, which will be my last race for year 2012.

Race Report: KRI Anniversary Run 2012

This is my first ever bandit into a race. Incase you are not aware what is bandit a race is all about, it means running in a race without registration. Why I did this? I did that just for fun and I planned to support myself all the way from the starting line. The only resource I used is the marshals and traffic control, so I think it is ok to try it out. The initial feeling is ok, but I don’t really felt great after bandit a race. I quite agreed with the blog HERE. Guess this will be the first and the only bandit race I got for experience sick.

The right feet still feeling some pain, I grounded for few days to see if it will heal by weekend. But sadly the pain was still there when I did my 7k on Saturday morning. Anyway, as I need some long distances run to see if I can go for next week Putrajaya Night Marathon, I decided still give it a go. The drizzling started about 30 minutes before the race flag off, just nice to wet the road and give some nice cooling ambience to start with. I started with very conservative pace, stay with the 6:45~7 minutes pace all the way to 7km. This is to test water to see how my feet doing, and I need to save the water in my Gatorade 500ml bottle until 17km.

The route is actually very flat with only an overhead bridge at the start and the end. Great PB route but I am really not in condition to push for one. Btw, Jalan Kuala Kangsar is really not very good for runners and traffic is heavy even in the Sunday morning. When we directed to cross a traffic light @ 7km into the Tasek Industrial Park, I found that I am running all alone and the traffic police under lots of honks and pressured me to go faster. The right feet straight away complaining right after that, I need to slow down and adjusting my landing to see if I can continue. Lucky, the pain subsided after a while and I continued my 7 minutes pace without issue. After the industrial park, we got detoured to a housing area for another u-turn. Then back to the main road, I stopped by the Shell petrol station @ 17km for a Gatorade. Without much hesitates, I up my pace to 6.3 minutes and hold it up until finished with 2:22'17".

Running with the free t-shirt from MPIB 2013 Running clinic

Great things about this race,

1. Great organizing especially on the water stations, the supplies are plenty (eventhough I didn’t use any of the supply).

2. Route is relatively flat, good if you aiming for PB.

3. Ipoh race, plenty of lenglui (pretty girls) running in this race. You always got a reason running right in front of you to run faster to chasing them.

The only thing to improve will be the traffic control, especially on those traffic lights crossing points. Saw a near miss for the 10k lead runner stopped for traffic.

Overall a great event and I will come back next year to run as an official participant. On a side note, the registration fees for this event is actually on the high side. Lets hope that next year they will improve on this too.

Races Report: Men’s Health Night Run and Seremban Half Marathon

Often we saw some hardcore runners doing back to back races, some even packed in Full Marathon in the combination. I though it will be fun if I can try it out. Further more, it is July and there will be no race during the fasting month. We raced like a bear that preparing itself with food before the hibernation in winter :p  I took part in both races 2011 editions.

Men’s Health 2012 took a difference route, but it is still rounding the similar Putrajaya Night Marathon route. Missed the limited medal last year, but as this year there are 500 units allocated for Men-Open category, so I am not worry at all. Game plan, hang in the race and flow with the crowds’ pace at about 6 minutes, conserve my energy for the big game next day. Seremban HM is the same challenging route like last year. Limited medal too, but I am not very worry to miss that cause as usual it will be not many runners running in this event as there are lots of other races in Klang Valley. Game plan, trying my best to sub-2.

Yes I planned big for these two races, but there are some variance came into picture later. I got an urgent training assignment to Pakistan, and need to travel until 14 July morning. My coughing and phlegm conditions are still moderate, yet to fully recover from the flu I got since end May. This means I will have very minimum training before both races and will run in sub-optimum conditions. When I touched down in KLIA on Saturday 11am, I felt to DNS both races. But I got some sleep in the afternoon and decided to follow the plan for the night.

Reached the starting line around 6:40pm, still had lots of time until the flag off. Met Nick with his new handsome running shoes (GoRun Ride), and then just did my routine warm up until the starting pen open. As I had no intention to push for speed, just took a place about 30+ m from the line. Lots of people tried to get closer to the line, but obviously some of them are none runners. Started in the few meters closer to the starting line but walked from the first few km on the race? I find it hard to understand the logic behind this move, but that is usually happened when the race is too commercialized. You will found more of these people in coming Adidas KOTR or Nike WeRun.

After few races last year in Putrajaya, I become very familiar with the route. We headed out to PICC, then turn into the dreaded final stretch of the Putrajaya Night Marathon (30km onwards). If you kept your eye on the asphalt, you will notice some distances marking. Btw, the route is very quiet this year. I am actually looking forward to be cheered by those cheerleaders like last year or any other races done by Twenty-first Century. Further more, I maintained a very boring 6 minutes pace all the way from the start. I start to felt bored after the hilly part of the route at the final 2km. Saw GusGhani running in Barefoot, have a quit chat with him on the BF experience, and I started to cheering the walking people around me. It is a great experience! But I think I annoyed some of them :P   Charged to the finish line after the last turn. Finished the race at 1:11’48”, got my limited medal.

 

Didn’t stayed long, I left the venue once collected my goody and cool down. Straight to the bed after cleaning up myself. But heck, the adrenaline still active, I can’t sleep very well and the alarm clock sounded as it was already 4am. Left home around 4:50am and reached Seremban around 5:40am. Got another book from Melvin before the flag off on 6:30am. It started to drizzling around 6am and we had a wet flag off. Eventhough the weather is superb for running, but I knew very well that I will not able to achieve my sub-2 HM. The body felt refreshed by the drizzling, but its’ still tired from the flight and the 12km earlier. Tried hard to start and maintaining a 6 minutes pace, but hit by the climb right in front of the Seremban Carrefour and the pace start to drop to 7 minutes. Decided to run this as another LSD at 7 minutes pace. Used the same trick last night and start to “encourage” (i.e. disturbing) other runners who started to walk. Btw, I was started to run-walk-run strategy from about 16km. Caught by Melvin after about 1km run-walking, got my new energy source via chatting with him and avoiding the school boys & girls. Completed the race at 2:21’48”, got the limited medal too.

There are lots of race reports talking about the pro and cons about these two races, I will not repeat them here. I will only focus on my key learning,

1. It is not fun (at least not now) to do back to back races. May be this is due to my lack of training, other commitments or the total distances (covered 33km in total). At my current condition, I am obviously not ready for this.

2. Game plan is great to ensure a comfortable race and achieving the preset goal. But the execution power is also importance. I had a relatively easy and enjoyable race in Saturday night, but struggle on Sunday morning as there is nothing left in the tank to execute the plan.

3. Talking to others and cheering others up in the race is very enjoyable experience, and it’s helped to divert the stress (and sometime focus) from the race.

After 2 days off from running, I restarted my training this morning. There will be another race next Sunday (4x3.2km Relay @ PAR8), then we will break for Fasting month and Hari Raya. And the rest of the year will be focused to the sub-5 Marathon target.

Gambateh!

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.

Brooks Half Marathon Race Report

This is the 2nd race of mine in year 2012 after New Year Newton Challenge. I was so excited until I can’t sleep well on the night before. Waked up by 3:30am and decided to prepare myself for the race. The routine chores done and I left home around 4:30am. Reached the Stadium around 5:20am, but the organizer only open a small passage for ~3k runners to enter the field. Caused some delay in the flag off. Most of the participants only enter the field before the flag off at 5:37am.

The starting line is really packed, it took me 3 minutes to cross the line. The packed feeling continue until 4km when we heading back to the bus station next to the Stadium. I ran this part of the route before, kept a good sub-6 minutes pace all the way. Planned to go faster but the traffic and participants were really packed, some time I need to go outside the barriers in order to keep my pace. Hit the first climb in front of the bus station, the pace still maintained quite well. Still ok at the second climb entering the Happy Garden. After the climb, I charged at 5.5/min all the way to 11km. Then, flatten by the back to back 3rd & 4th climbs near the new apartment/condo project site. After that, my mind didn’t register any other significant climbs until the last km heading back to the Stadium on TPM highway. Good thing is, I didn’t walked on these climbs (though I ran at 9~10min/km pace).

Similar to PJ Half Marathon 2011, we entered the Stadium and ran the oval track towards the finish line. Completed the race by running into the Stadium really gave some difference feeling. Passed the finish line on 2:17 (gun time, net time 2:14). Although I missed my target to sub-2, but looking at the tough terrain on today’s route, I think I completed in a reasonable result. May be I can train harder and plan for my sub-2 HM again in PJ Dawn.

Leaving the field and rested at seat had a good chat with Nick. He ran with some injury on the tight but still completed in a decent timing. He is also doing the review of the very handsome running shoes from Skechers, click HERE to find out more.

Overall, this is a good event that I will be returning next year.

Pro,

1. Challenging route

2. Starting point and finish line inside the Stadium

Con,

1. Crowd control. Organizer need to consider the movement of the participants, pre & post race. Pre-race, we were entering the field by a single man passage. Post-race, we needed to walk up the seating area again via some narrow passage.  

2. Traffic control on the route. We ran on the main access roads to Bukit Jalil area, is there anything we can do to avoid holding up the traffic for too long? The exhaust from these running engines not good for runners too.

Btw, I ran with Garmin Forerunner 910XT. Will post some review about this unit later.

Next race, full marathon @ Energizer Night Race.

New Year Newton Challenge Race Report

It was 4 weeks after SCMS but I am still struggled on my usual mood swing towards the end of the year. Whenever a major event is over, I normally felt kind of loss. Often, end of the year will posting the similar effect to my mood swing. That why I normally don’t schedule any major event towards year end. This year, this is unavoidable and SCMS is hitting me hard. Especially there the list of registered race is depleting fast and I can’t find any local race (oversea race will burn a hole on my wallet and may worsen the mood swing to depression) to fill it up.

During the Malakoff 12k, I don’t felt the usual excitement before, during & after the race. May be I took it too easy or I really got the over-trained syndrome (as described by Doc PuiSan in HERE). For time being, I am just following the 6months plan to tune myself properly for a sub-5 marathon (SCKLM) and hope I will soon recovered from the dipping mood. The New Year Newton Challenge is actually what I am looking forward to flip the mood.

The race is held at very challenging Bandar Kinrara Ammah Hill. There are lots of warning and sharing by experience runners about this route, so I will not really pushing for any dramatic speeding or PB. On the other hand, I am planning to run this race with slightly difference strategy, starting slow, pushing hard only if I felt like it towards the end of the race.

The race flagged off on time. I started at the mid of the pack and kept my pace at around 7min/km. The first 4km are ok, the usual settling period come and goes, and I can finally settle into the comfortable running mode. Then, the first drastic climb came right after the left turn at the traffic light towards the first U-turn point. My pace dropped but I pushed on and never stop for walking. Pushes my effort to conquer the peak, slow down when the Hearth Rate touched 160BPM, continue to push again when HR dropped to 150BPM, and then wait for the descending come. I hold back my legs during descending so that the HR dropping back to 140BPM zone. You can tell from my HR chart which it peak with the route climbs. After we took the U-turn and back to the traffic light, at 10km point with the dawn skylight, we can see the breathtaking Ammah Hill with 120ft climb for the next 1km. I went on and take down the Ammah Hill with the same push and hold strategy. I was only repeating the same thing for the rest of the course.

Towards the Finish Line, Photo by Louis Ong

Finally, I am at the second U-turn clocking 15th km (average pace 6:50/km). I felt like I wanted to push more, so I kicked in the high gear and pushing all the way back to finish line. Btw, the hilly route limited my effort; I can only do 6:23/km on average for the balance 10km. I took the advantage of the final 2km which is rather flat to push to sub-6 minutes pace and finished the race in 2:42’36”.

I found that I really enjoy this very obvious up-down hilly route. If you look into the elevation chart, there are total of 6 continuous ascends that more than 100ft in 1km. So, on the bright side, there are also total of 6 continuous descends with the same scale. You can really looking forward a good rest after each tough fight with each hard climb. I guess the Ammah hill is highlighted as it actually lay down the total 1km climb right in front of you (without any turns and twists like other climbs on the same route). Overall, the race is well organized but some improvement needed in term of water stations manning (at 14km) and traffic control (from 4~10km, and the finish line area). I fully understand that some of the roads are the only access to some housing area and highway, but a better planning will sure helps to reduce the potential hazard to all the participants.

I am happy with my game plan which actually helps me to finish strong in this race. This valuable lesson will be great helps in my future marathon or other running events. This adds in motivation to my running, and I am now looking forward not only to races, but also to each training and long runs. I guess I had successfully flipped my mood. It may be due to the great run in Newton Challenge, or just because it is now January! I will not digging in further, now, time to enjoy the life with lots of running :)