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: River Jungle Marathon 2015

Signing up this race was an accident. I was looking for another marathon as replacement to SCKLM, as I cancelled my registration when it first planned to shift to 10 Oct. The cancellation was mainly due to unhappy with the last minutes of change for a major event like SCKLM. RJM was in the list because it had a new reversed route compared to 2011/2012 edition, and I missed the 2014 edition when this route was first in use. It will be good too, to return to this full marathon event, where I started my first full marathon 5 years ago.

Lately my marathon training hitting the wall, hence I didn’t have much plan for the race. Just ran at easy pace, enjoy the tough route and finish it before 5 hours. I got a 526 in 2013 RJM, so 5 hours will still be a nice personal improvement. Instead of pushing hard, maybe I just spent the time to reflect my current relationship with running.

I reached the race site around 4am, it was packed with cars and running. We had around 800 participants in this event. I didn’t expect to see so many people and car in RJM, lucky the starting line moved from the Chinese School to the Water Front Restaurant (same place as TITI100), else the parking itself will be a disaster. We were flagged off on time at 4:30am, we ran towards the city before turned towards the Batu18. We had some rain on Saturday hence the weather was perfect for a run. I just let the pace carry me along and it settled around 5.7min/km where I trained the most for the sub4 target. Can I hold to this pace until finish? Of course not. As we getting closer to the climb, the fog around the area was getting thicker. I was running alone around 17km (6:10am) and there was a light flashing from my back but I didn’t hear the running sound. I was too into my thoughts and also it overtook me quickly (I just took note of it for about 5minutes), it was kind of spooky when I recall the incident now. The light turned out to be from a lady riding a bicycle to support the race (maybe).

Hit the first big climb at 20km and I slowed down to 8min/km. The climb is actually quite short and I slowly regain the pace back to 6.5min/km range. I reached the u-turn point at 23km and durian was waiting. Still not dare to take the durian and I just continued the race. I still not very good in handling the descending, lost some speed and only keeping a slower pace for now. Very soon, I arrived at the 2nd big climb at Bukit Hantu. The memory from 2013 Titi50 still haunting me. It took me 1:36 from this point and not much improvement in this round; it still took 1:15 to clear this session. I am still very weak in descending. Finally, I completed my 17th full marathon with a time of 4:34’49”, with this under distance route of 40.9km.

Overall, this is still the best full marathon in Malaysia. Scenic route with challenging climbs with long cut off time (sweeper at 8 hours pace if I remembered correctly), there will be something for runners from all difference level. The finisher medal is very nicely designed too. Anyway, the only area to improve will be the under distance route. Please move the 23km u turn point to 23.7km, then the course will be measureable to 42.195km. It’s kind of ironic when the finisher medal and t-shirt are highlighting the 42.195km but the actual course itself is short in distance.

Race Report: Kuching Marathon 2015

This will be my 2nd full marathon in 2015 and the starting of the 4 marathons in 3 months kind of crazy ride. I have been barking too long for my sub4 and I won’t need to plan too much this round. I am going to set up my GF910XT visual partner to 5:36min/km pace. With the recent half marathon result, I am kind of confident that I am going to sub4 this time. Then the story turned sour.

I did 300km in July with the 3 to 4 times a week work commuting as part of the routine. Then early August I started some weight lifting training too. The body seem to have some trouble to fully recover from the double workouts a day, and the body muscles soreness from the weight lifting lasted longer than expected. I was obviously over trained. The body and mind struggled to keep up with the demand especially from the few double workouts routine. Even though I was looking forward to run in Kuching, but I was not ready to get the sub 4.

From my experience in Seoul, travelling to just run a marathon doesn’t work for me. This trip was booked before the Seoul marathon hence I just need to bear with it. I booked a guest house which is only 200m away from the starting line. Great guest house but poor marathoners stayed in the guest house. I don’t understand how people can stay up late (at least 11pm) on the Saturday night when they had a marathon to run 3am in Sunday morning. I hit the bed around 9pm, but waken by these noisy neighbour few times. Only got like 3 hours of broken sleeps before my alarm finally rang at 1:30am.

I walked to the starting line around 2:30am, met some running friends and joking a bit trying to ease my stress from the poor sleep. The event flagged off on time. I started off from the mid of the pack, then slowly picked up my pace to the target 5:36min/km. I was on the dot for this pace until 21km. Then I lost my push to maintain this pace. May be the long lonely stretch of road, may be the tiredness finally caught me, or may be…… finally, completed the race in 4:34’42”.

Overall the race is very well organized with sufficient water stations and manned with supporting volunteers. The route is flat and straight, it can be quite boring if you need external stimulus or attraction to assist in your race. The last 5km full marathon will join with half marathon, but no issue here because there are not many runners in both categories. Anyway, traffic control can be improved especially in the final stretch when we back in the town. The medal is really nice and the extra "top 200" finisher t-shirt is great too (just I didn't managed to get one).

On my end, I will need to rest until I am fully recovered from the exhaustion, then rework on my training plan if I seriously wanted to run to office few times a week. I will also adding in some weight lifting to build my core for next stage. I noticed that my mind doesn’t work very well to stay focused if I ran with my sun glasses. I think I gave up too early for all 3 races I ran with it. And I did well in Seremban half marathon where I actually forgot to bring the sun glasses. The sample size is too small to make any conclusion but maybe I need to give it up in RJM, run with normal glasses only.

Looking at current condition and the route, I will be very happy if I can sub 5 in RJM. 3 more weeks to go.

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: Route 68 Challenge

This is my 2nd ultra marathon that’s goes beyond the usual 42.195km, and I started the preparation of it with a really ambitious plan. The publish route indicated a 1900m elevation gain in total out from this 69km course (for comparison, Titi50 only 900m elevation gain in total out from 52km). In the end, I only completed this ultra with the similar speed like I did in Titi50 2014.

Around 20km, thank Tey for the photo.

Race attires,

Nike We Run KL 2010 T-shirt, 2XU compressed short, Injinji socks and Merrell Bare Access.

Rudy Project Argon Impact X2 sunglasses, running cap, Ultimate Direction SJ 2.0 vest with 1x 500ml Gatorade bottle (plus all mandatory kits).

Didn’t slept very well and woke up at 1am, so I decided to left for the race site earlier and arrived at the starting line around 4am. Got nothing much to do and just hang around looking at busy volunteers getting ready for the race. The weather was great, no rain on the night before but not very hot too. Did the final preparation and get myself ready for the race to start at 6am. And off we went!

I broke the total 69km into 4 sections (about 17km each). First quarter was 17km of incline and I planned for 2:15 to reach A3 check point at Genting Sempah. Then 17km of descending, I planned for 1:45 to reach the A7 check point at the u turn. Coming back will be similar cause it is an out and back course.

The first quarter of the race went well, in fact very well! The inclines were fun and adrenaline rushed; I reached A3 in 1:45! This should be the pace I used for descending, but now I did that in ascending the 17km! I was happy, but quietly took stock. The body seem to be doing just fine hence I only slowed down a bit after A3. Slowly but surely, the fatigue kicked in, I was struggle to kept a 6min pace after 30km. Then I finally arrived at A7 after 3:56 time lapsed. The incline after the u turn point was still gentle, so the body still pushed on with a 7-8min pace. At 38km I bonked totally.

Mostly run and walking from there onwards, tried really hard to keep the average pace around 8-10min. Finally, arrived back in A3 after 7:00 lapsed. Gave up running altogether and I decided to walk the balanced 17km back to finish line. It should take me less than 3 hours to complete this torture! I swore to myself that this would me my last ultra marathon. While descending to the A2 water station, one cyclist called out “3.2km until the next water station.” 

Suddenly, I felt angry! 

“I should have completed this by now!" 

"Why I can’t make it happen?" 

"How many more training required for me to achieve my goal?” 

While I hated myself for another failure, I slowly picked up my pace. Back to run walk routine and made sure that all my split time average maintained below 10min/km. Anyway, later the flame ran out of fuel and I reduced back to walking mostly after A1 water station. 5 more KM later and I completed this race in 9:47’58”. Overall position 67, with total of 26 competitors overtook me in the last quarter of the race.

Key learning from this race, pacing is top priority in ultra marathon. Likewise in marathon, the result will be 99% based on what you put into practice and training. Merely 1% of the result may be on luck. And to deliver according to what we practiced, we need to pace accordingly. I planned, I practiced/trained, but failed to pace. Btw, looking at the overall result for the rest of the participants, 8 hours finishing time is somehow too ambitious. If everything went well, mostly I will still finish by 8.5 to 9 hours only, but I will felt much better compare to the defeated sour taste left in my tongue now.

Another stumble block in this race was the coke and rather emptied stomach. I took a refill of coke near 25km A5 water station into my bottle. Most of the water stations didn’t serve much food (banana, orange and biscuit, only A5 had bread). I did bring along energy gel, but my plan was to fuel the run by real food. From A5 to A6 water station, when coke met with the rather emptied stomach, it caused gassy stomach condition which is damn painful to run with.

Overall, the race was well organized. Only my execution part failed to deliver. There were no chafing or blister in any part of the body (inclusive the feet, which were first time running in Bare Access for such a long distances and period), only both big toes nails are painful now. Probably due to too much of pulling from the new Injinji socks.

Will there be any more ultra marathon for me in future? I am not very sure now because the painful experience still fresh in memory. At least it won’t be any more for 2015. Now, I will take some time off from running. The next marathon training program will start in first week of June.

Keep running.

Race Report: Seoul International Marathon 2015

I was highly anticipated this marathon as my first sub4 marathon, but it’s turned out to be another failure. I was so determined to run this race and got my flight booked July last year. The race date only confirmed towards end October, and registration only open on 8 December. The key lesson learned in this race, I ran a better race back in home ground and I don’t need to purposely travel for a cold climate marathon for a PB. The body is a complex organism and it won’t always work the way you think it should.

I travelled to Seoul on an early morning flight on Thursday. This is my second trip to Seoul, and I had no issue to travel to the guesthouse from Incheon Airport to Dongdaemun around 6pm. Despite most of the Korean don’t speak English, Seoul City is a tourism friendly city. You can move around without any problem via Subway and trains. These transports will display/announce in 4 languages (Korean / English / Mandarin / Japanese). On other hand, the quality for the guesthouse is ok. I got a single room with bath room attached. The room will be great if I came few years earlier, but now I think I was spoiled by all my business travels in the past few years. I couldn’t sleep and rest well in the room, the bathroom was too cold and the room was cold too at night time. I was too conservative in choices prior to the race, most of the meals were familiar name like McD (plus LotteRia, the Korean version of McD), Subway & BurgerKing. Some sightseeing planned ahead of the marathon. Dongdaemun, Insandong, Jamsil Stadium (finishing area), Gwanghwamun (starting line), Namsan Tower, Myeongdong. Lots of walking and these tourism activities continued until Saturday evening until I felt I walked too much.

Saturday night I was not able to sleep well, may be too cold, too tired or just plain excited for race. I woke up 4am, but the race only start at 8am. I slowly prepared myself and left the guesthouse for breakfast around 6am. The morning plan role out nicely, morning breakfast at McD after a 30 minutes’ walk from the guesthouse, used the toilet and slow jog to the starting line (about 2.5km from the guesthouse). Reached the starting line around 7am and it was filled with runners. I took out all warming cloth and packed them into the baggage to be transfer to the finish line. Walked around in the freezing 1degC weather, I found many runners stayed inside the lobby of the Sejong Performance Art center, it’s located just next to the my assigned starting pen C. The starting pen setup was so simple and it’s depend on your own judgement if you wanted to stay in the assigned starting pen. There are not check point, not barriers, just few ladies holding up a banner with a big A/B/C/D/E on it to indicate which zone is this.

8am, the elites were off. After some speech and the national song (my guess), zone A and B were let off too. When I finally past the starting line at 8:18am, spent more than 30 minutes in the cold with only my running attire plus the poncho, but the cold is much bearable may be due to adrenaline building up. Running with the poncho for the first 3km, I took it off but still kept it on my hand. Only confirmed that I won’t need it any more then I disposed it in the 5km water station. The route bring us from Gwanghwamun to the Dongdaemun twice, 1st time via the famous Cheonggyecheon stream, 2nd time via the main Jungro road. I managed my pace around 5.5min/km, when we reached Dongdaemun area for the second time, it was about 20km done. The pace was right on the dot for the first 20km. Then I struggled from there onward. The average pace getting slower by every km.

A blind runner with a pacer overtook me. The pacer doing a great pacing job with the blind runner and pace command was loud and clear. This is the first time I saw this live, and it spike up my spirit to run with them. Hence I was still managed to keep the pace around 5:45min/km. But they are strong, I finally lost them, and after crossed the Hangang River at 36km, I felt I lost the determination to continue. My soles were still great, no blister (dry weather with minimum sweat). The right ankle seems to be alright, and the tights & calves were tight but still manageable. But, I just lost the determination to continue. I started to walk. One by one, the 4:00 hours’ pacers overtook me. I knew I failed.

I didn’t run much, I felt really cold on the route. Until 41km, where I certainly felt that maybe I should at least aim for sub 415. Then the fire started to heat up again. I started the run walk routine and finally arrived at the stadium. I enjoyed the entrance to the stadium and sprint to the finish line. And I remembered the last time I finished my marathon in an Olympic Stadium, I was still doing a 5 hours marathon. I felt great! I crossed the line at 4:12’22”.

Seoul International Marathon 2015 Finisher Medal

Official Split Time 

Overall Finisher Statistic, FM average @ 4:6'16"

At the finishers’ area, I had plenty of Pocari Sweat. Actually this was the first time I had it. It tasted way better then 100Plus we used to have back home. I drank too much until I felt really cold and my tight and calf muscle almost cramp up. I shivering and walked to the warm changing area but can’t walked fast with the tight muscles. What an experiences.

After reflection, this failure was mostly caused by under trained. The down time from the injury and the work commitment caused few delay in the plan. I only done 6 weeks of serious training prior to this marathon, the endurance was not fully built. Also, all the tourism activities and the few nights that not slept very well contributed too. So, the key to complete a marathon with great timing is simple, training. With great training, I can run faster even back home (408 in SCKLM). I don’t need to travel all the way for a cold climate marathon for PB. Without sufficient training, that’s day dreaming.

So, will I return to Seoul for revenge? Probably not in the near future. I need to correct my mind-set, travel to run a marathon is not for a PB, you travelled, and the marathon supposed to be the highlight of the trip, but not the only reason for the trip. Of course if you PB too, that will be a great bonus for the trip. I suffered in this trip. I travelled with my mind all into the race. Walked around the famous tourist spot like a zombie, ate only familiar food before the race (worried that the kimchi and spicy food will upset my stomach), and no photos taken! I had 2 plates of toppoki after the race for dinner. For next oversea race, I will register for 2016 Tokyo Marathon. If I got thru the ballot selection, I will bring my wife for 2nd honeymoon.

Keep Running!

Race Report: APBIM 2014

Originally, I wasn’t planned to join this race. I registered last minutes after the route announced in August. I was thinking I should be able to avoid the congested route if I go fast enough (i.e. sub 4), and shit did happened. Felt regrets about my action now.

This was a touch and go marathon trip. I took the flight on 8pm from SZB and arrived PEN 9pm and Queensbay Mall by 10pm. Many runners thinking the same and some even changed in running attires from SZB. The free shuttle buses from Queensbay Mall to the race site were still aplenty during that time (fewer participants for FM compared to the rest of the categories). Grab some supply (supper and coffee) from AEON then took the bus to the race site. Arrived at the starting point around 11pm, I still got plenty of time to kill and took my time change into my race attires.

The men open category flag off at 1:30am. The starting pen was overcrowded and one water tanker from the MPPP decided to join the flag off... The first 2km was chaos! We was flagged off from a 3 lanes highway, and then funneled into a single lane up to the bridge. Best part was, some participants already started to walk! The incline was not stiff and we were hardly 1km into the race! This gave me a hard time to warm up my engine. The start-stop, acceleration & breaking really messed up my pace. The situation only eases up after we came down from the top of the bridge.

The rest of the route heading to main land was only me, other runners, the bridge, the sea, and the lamp poles. The endless lamp poles view posted a great challenge to the mental strength. And you will need to at least double that challenge because we will u-turn and heading back to the island later! The weather was beautiful and I slowly set into my running rhythms. I reached my target pace but the heart rate stayed on the high side (~165BPM compared to my usual racing HR of 155BPM). I knew something going to break in the later part of the race. 16km, left ITB felt very tight. 18km, right tight felt like going to cramp. Blister under my left sole, knees pain, and ankles pain, one hit after each other, even the bandage over my nipple washed away and it started to bleeding. 24km into the race, I took a longer break in the water station, decided this wasn’t my day hence reduce the plan to just running from water station to water station with slower pace. Think this was the result of less training since SCKLM.

Looking back from the main land to the island, the endless lamp poles view was magnificent, but torturing too. Repeated the strategy running from water station to water station, until 32km, where we met the half marathon-walkers. I was already behind my schedule hence I was expected to crush with them, but I forgot to take into account for the inexperience newbie runners/walkers – they don’t travel by consistence pace. Tentatively, they running very fast at the start, and very slow when exhausted. If the pace were consistence, they should be at least running (7-8.5 min/km pace), but now everyone were walking on the bridge (>10 min/km pace)! No one cared if you were still running cause they just took up the 2 whole lanes. I was demoralized and started to walk more. Later my life saver (Chua, men-open 4.5 hours pacer) came and I tried my best to tag along. Thank to his encouragement I finished the race with 4:27’01”.

Trusted GF910XT, returned just in time for APBIM

Finisher Medal, APBIM 2014

Overall, this is by far, the worst Marathon Event I ever attended. But nonetheless, still some good thing happened,

1. My registration was towards the end, the courier options ended earlier. But the organizer still entertained and I received my race kit 1 week before the race.

2. The experience running over the bridge was great. Even though the route is flat, but the boring and endless route view (yes, you almost can see the whole route from the top of the bridge), gave sufficient challenge to the runners endurance and mental strength.

3. Dedicated Full Marathon finished area was good, the sponsors booths also duplicated inside the finished area.

Things to improve,

1. Basic requirement for a race is not fulfilled. Poorly designed water stations (short and only using one side of the road), no or minimum distance markers, bottleneck/funneling of race route in varies location, insufficient of portable toilet, no notices boards to divert the human traffic at varies points.

2. Flag off or starting time design. May be the organizer thought of women ran slower that man, hence in FM & HM, men open flag off first. But how come later 10k women got flag off first? Should copy how other major event perform, flag off by target finish time. Don’t bother if the runners are honest enough to declare their timing correctly, but at least the human traffic jam will be reduced.

3. Starting pen got a water tanker inside! Come on!

4. Finish area were too dark, put up some more light please.

5. Route design for varies categories. The delayed starting time for 10k participants is good for the HM and FM, but too bad the 10k participants have to run under the hot sun. May be can separate the 10k and HM from FM (Saturday and Sunday).

At the last turn into finish line, elbowed too many people until no eye see :P 

The list goes on, but I recalled that the organizer seems to be hardheaded and never listened / learned from runners’ complaint, hence no point for me to continue to complaint here. My recommendation, if you are serious runners, there are many more others races in this country or region for a better running experience. Don’t waste your time and money on this event.

Race Report: SCKLM 2014

This is my first marathon in 2014. After the preparation for almost a year, finally I was about to face the challenge! I am still remembered the feeling of sub 5 result from the last marathon in Munich (it will stay until I return to Munich next time to claim a better timing). And the conclusion I made in that race report, that I am doubtful if I can replicate the result back home. Now, one year later, I aimed even higher to attempt sub 4 in my home country. How could this happen? Actually it divided into 2 parts, internal and external drivers.

Let’s start with internal driver. For the few years in running, I was never a competitive runner. All I wanted was to enjoy the run, race, and slightly improvement of my racing time from time to time. I was talking about sub 5 marathon for 2 years before I achieved one, and I was talking about sub 2 half marathon but still none until today. I got the awareness that I am not trying hard enough for my target in Munich Marathon. In that race, I knew that I can run the whole 42km without walking, and hold my heart rate up to 160BPM for the whole 5 hours without killing myself! It was like open up a brand new chapter with so much more possibility to be discovered. Then I was thinking it will be great if I can do the sub 5 back home soon, but how badly I wanted it?

On external driver, I met few more crazy running souls in FB. Few of them introduced the Hanson Marathon Method, and few of them are really crazy about getting faster. With the new blank page that I just discovered, naturally I drawn to their reason, training, improvement and races. All these are new possibility I wanted to try out! I wonder if I can run faster or go further. I am convinced that I should stick to marathon for now until I discovered my full potential before I moved on to ultra. Hence the project sub 4 started.

It was dramatic towards the race day. Not about my training, but the hazy condition in KL going up and down since October. Like I concluded in my last blog post, I was about 75% completed to the training program and I was optimistic about the result. But the hazy days in KL reduced the tapering mileages to even lower level. Last week I only ran twice before the race. Emotionally I was disturbed and the self doubt went over the roof. To make thing worst, my wife joined her company trip and I left home with two young kids… (I didn’t leave them alone at home for the few hours during the race, my brother’s family was kind enough to stay with the kids over my marathon race). Finally, Saturday came, and after settle my kids, I get myself some well needed rest around 10pm.

Alarm went off 2am, and the race day started. Arrived at Padang Merbok by 3:30am, found a nice parking slot and get myself ready for the race. I foreseen some blister issue with the VFF around the toes, I wet them with plenty of Vaseline. The starting line filled with lots of people, found the barefoot gang and took a few ground photos, and then time came to get into the starting pen for the flag off. I don’t want to block by too many runners, hence I got myself moved towards the front. Bang! We flagged off on time.

The 2014 KL marathon has a new route this year. We went straight into the heart of KL city (Jalan TAR, Jalan Sultan Ismail, KLCC, Pavilion, Jalan Tun Razak, Jalan Ampang), then move on to highways (AKLEH & DUKE), then back to the usual KL marathon route at Jalan Kuching. The traffic control is much better this year cause most of the roads involved are closed from traffic, and the Jalan Kuching traffic is much better this year (I could be wrong cause I arrived at this stretch way earlier compared to 2 previous years).

There are 3 pacers for 4 hours group and using dark green color balloon. They did great by actually spreading out (one leading with ~5.5min/km pace, one tailing with ~5:40min/km pace, and one more person running in between). I chased down the middle pacer and tailing the pace leader from far (200-300m). The running effort controlled at a manageable level and only pushed when I hit the inclines. Heart rate was maintained at 152-155BPM. Everything was great and hit the 21st km within plan (1:56). Then I felt the VFF getting too wet, and thing started to fallen from 26km. I felt some pinch from every step near my left feet arch. Then follow by the right feet at the same part too. It affected my pace and I felt difficult to keep up with the pacers. Finally, I can’t take it anymore and had to let the pacers goes. I stopped after the DUKE toll gate around 30km to adjust the shoes.

Blisters, after the rubbing of the very wet VFF arches supports, from 26km to finish line. 

I felt the efforts spent in my training wasted! I was only 8 seconds behind my planned 30km split, but I knew I will not able to kept up with the pace because the adjustment of the VFF can only slightly reduce the pain. But I learned from my previous marathon, it was still too earlier to throw in the tower. Nonetheless, I only took 2:48’08” to cover the last 30km. If I keep going, I will surprised by my own finishing time later. Slowly, I restarted the run by slower pace (6.2-6.5min/km). Stopped few times to adjust the VFF in the Bukit Tunku area and walked up the long incline after the Tijani2 entrance. Lucky, after that, I found the pain was more bearable (may be the mind just shut off the sensor) and I slowly gaining speed over the long decline along Jalan Tun Ismail. Then after the Bank Negara, we joined with the half marathoners.

This is the worst stretch in the new route. Most of the HM already started walking after only 100 minutes into their race, and I need zigzag to dodging lots of people just to kept a 6-6.5min/km pace here. Water stations from this point onwards were all at chaos mode. After 37km in the race, I felt regretted not running with my bottle. Traffic built up at the Mahameru highway and the last water station located in this session with only one lane blocked off for the runners. This created a major bottleneck for both runners and the traffic. I almost elbowed my way to the water station here. Finally the homing stretch, decided to drop the hammer after the National Museum. Slowly but surely I was gaining speed and sped across the finish line with 4:08’30” on my watch.

First sub 5 timing achieved in home ground!

This result again left me with some unfinished business. Nonetheless still a fantastic PB that improved 51 minutes and I finally packed a sub 5 marathon at home ground! Apart from very sore tights and calves (plus the blisters on my arches), I finished without injury and not cramps! Hence I am optimistic to attempt sub 4 again in next month APBIM. I just need to figure out how to deal with the VFF (may be wet the whole feet with Vaseline next time).

Overall about this race,

1. New route, we avoided the usual last 2km people mountain people sea from the old route. But that exchanged with last 5km with walking half marathoner. Anyway, after the rough calculation, I was unlucky to choice to finish around 4 hours. If I run faster than 3:45, or slower than 4:30, I will not hit the bulk HM run-walker whom will finish around 2:30-3:00.

2. Traffic control at most of the route, except within the Bukit Tunku area. Those big cars some time is difficult to stop by volunteers.

3. Plenty of water stations. In fact to some point in the race, I felt there were too many water stations. As I don’t have my trusted bottle with me, I need to stop at every water station, sometime, this disturbed my pace (in a good way of course).

4. Much better control at the finishing area. This year it was fully barricaded for finishers only, and practicing a very systematic way to distribute medal and t-shirt.

5. Please relocate the last water station, 100m down the route and the road opened up widely.

My 13th Full Marathon Finisher Medal

Now, time to go back to the drawing board to fill up the training plan until APBIM. See you guys in Penang next month.

Race Report: CICM Responsible Care Run 10km

This is the yearly event that my office took part in the corporate category, and few of us tasked to take the trophy back to the office. We did that for the past 2 years, and we hoped to get a 3x streaks this year. The boss committed to pay for 50 participants and we did some promotion of this race within the company, hence we have a much bigger group joined this race (~50 compared to 5~7 in the past 2 years).

To me, this is the final trial exam before the SCKLM. My plan was to test out my capability to run the equivalent pace for a sub 4 marathon in the 10k race, which is 5:06 min pace from McMillan site. The sub 4 project been going on for a while (more then 6 months now), its time to check out the result and fine tuning the final stretch with only 34 days from SCKLM. Anyway, as my last race was >3 months ago, I was excited to join a race to again taste the rush of the adrenaline in the blood stream.

Not much special preparation on the race and the 18k training run on the Saturday before felt terrible. I think the body was yet to recover from long working night on Thursday. Both legs like steel rods and I was really in doubt. Should I just go for 5.5min pace like last year (which is very manageable effort now), or should I continue my plan to test out the 5.1min pace? On top of that, the PF syndrome at right foot still occasionally caused some pain. Lucky when I woke up Sunday morning 4:30am, the body felt normal, not overly excited or too tired for a short race. Left home at 5:10am and it took me 45 minutes to drive to the race venue, SMK Bandar Tasik Puteri.

There are many other races in KL city, hence this event only have less than 1000 participants. Half marathoners flagged off around 6:20am, I think less than 200 participants started. After a few warming up lap, I get myself into the starting pen around 6:40am. The crowd of 10k was more than the half marathoner, but I was not in the mood to count. Tuned my mind to the racing mode, waited in the 2nd row from the front. Then “Bang!” Charging out from the school, the expected adrenaline kicked in but I was still consciously hold myself back so that I will not going out too fast.

After 1km, the number of fast runners reduced to only 20-30, and I knew at least 2 other colleagues were in front of me. The rush of adrenaline pushed my pace to 4.9min, but the body seems to taking in positively with a heart beat rate of around 160BPM. I was looking for a chance to slow down to 5.1min pace. The first 3km past just like that, until I saw one runner in uniform (other company representative) running not too far in front. Then I pushed, past him. Then I realized one of my colleagues was not too far in front. I pushed, past him too. Closing up to the first u-turn point, I counted the returned runners on the other side. Less than 20 now! And there was another colleague not too far in front of me. After the u-turn, I pushed, past him at 6km. From that point onwards, I told myself, WTH, and started to push all the way back.

Approaching the 2nd u-turn point, I did another count of runners in front of me. Hell! Less than 10 now! For sure the top few runners could have finished, but I may still be able to take home one of the individual trophy! I dropped the hammer and thrown in all I had. Past the last lady in front of me and charge back to the finish line. Hack! Finished 49’16”, only 6 second behind the 10th placed in Men Open category. If only I pushed earlier... (I am fully aware that my current capability is yet to enable me to finish on podium, I get these close to it only because of many speed demons when to other races in KL city) On the Corporate Category, as all 5 of us came back before 52 minutes, we won. Our top runner finished with 4th placed in Men Veteran category with a respectable timing of 46min.

Team Linde Malaysia

Overall, the race was ok. We are running around the golf course hence the weather and the route is very nice. Almost no traffic observed during the race but still, occasionally a car or motorcycle zoomed by, overall traffic control actually quite poor. Also the venue is really too far and it directly impacted the number of participants.

Anyway, I still packed home my 10km PB. With a 6 minutes improvement from last year, I couldn’t ask for more. The trail exam completed with a result beyond my expectation. I am very comfortable now for my sub 4 project, I only need to keep going with 5:40min pace for 42km or 4 hours. Now the challenge will be on the new SCKLM route. The elevated highways sure will increase the total elevation, but I will only know the full impact until I tested it out. Hopefully it will be like what their race director said, “A route to produce new course record”.

33 more days until the final exam.

Happy Running.

Race Report: Kuala Kangsar Larian Hari Keputeraan Sultan Azlan Shah 2014

I was running the previous edition of the same race, which was only 12km back in 2011. The experience was great. As I missed 2 years on this race, I signed up immediately once it opened for registration in December. Then I tuned down my races appetites after the burn out in early January this year. Initially I was thinking of DNS, but after I worked out my plan for sub-4 in SCKLM, the race served right as a trial exam to gauge my training progress. So I decided to give my best and see if I am on track with my aim. The game plan is simple, set my Garmin Virtual Partner to 5.5min pace and go for it!

Figured out that few races happened during the weekend, we may not have many photographers taking runners photos, hence I tagged along with my Olympus TG2 for some photos during and after the race. I reached the event site early around 6am, met some running kaki and taken some photos. But the TG2 not taking very good night shoot (may be is my scene setting issue) hence only few of them can be used. We gathered in the starting pen 10 minutes before start, some 7km school children queued in and joining us. As there are not marshal manning the starting pen, this is not surprised me. Told some of them to start later, but eventually some were flagged off together with us.

The flag off is 2-3 minutes earlier than the plan 6:50am, but I am ok with that. Stuck with the usual jammed start, but still the starting pace was furious! Not much slowdown in the first KM. The jammed eased after we turned into the main road. The first water station emerged after we came down from the bridge (2.8km). After the water station, finally some one was checking the 7km and diverted them into difference route. We continued into the kampung area. Nice view and friendly villagers cheering the runners to keep going. The feeling was great!

The 2nd water station at 5.8km and the 3rd water station at 8.2km where we made our u-turn back to the town. The sun was rising beautifully before I made my u-turn. I kept consistence pace at 5:10-5:20 for the whole stretch except took brief stop in every water stations. The heart rate was averaged at 160BPM. As I was pushing all the way, I didn’t noticed much what is the content in each water stations. Before the start, I heard there are more then the usual water and isotonic served, but I didn’t pay much attention to that. I noticed there were one local food stall in the kampung area that allocated some of their food with a board said “Free for Runners!”, but I was not able to take a photo. There were coconuts served at the final water station at 11.6km, I gave it a miss as I was still feeling strong and eagle to see how far I can sustain this pace. The finish line approaching fast, I decided to push harder to finish strong.

Sprint into finish. Thanks Sean for the photo.

Overall the race was very well organized and really value for money (RM20 registration for timing chip, medal, t-shirt, socks, shoes bag and buffer breakfast). Live entertainment, special water stations (coconuts and fried banana), marshals and traffic control, all made this event near perfect for runners. The only area for improvement will be the route. The 15km route no longer going to the palace and town area, it will be perfect if we can have the route cover that part of the royal town. Saw one incident of a collapsed runner when I near the finish line, hope he is doing fine now.

What is the feeling of staying 160BPM or 86% of max heart rate for 15km? Tough! But one has to recognize that you really need to push, and then you can expect a break thru. I have confident in my training regime and belief all the hard works had transformed and built my body to go with that pace and rate. The result? I completed the 15.6km with total time of 1:21’59”, average pace 5:15min/km. The fastest pace achieved at the final 1.6km @ 4:52min/km without injury (but left with some very sore muscles, I think it was mainly due to no stretching after the run, I continue to take photos right after my ice-cream).

My conclusion, I am on track in my Sub-4 Project. I think I am ready to first sub-2 in the half marathon. The next test will be in Ipoh Half Marathon on 22 June. Frankly, I still think Ipoh Half Marathon (or the official name is Ipoh International Run) is suck. Until today their official website is not fully updated and functioning (but I registered online since the online registration part is working, yet I can’t check my registration status). I signed up with only one reason, to do it in 5.5min pace, in order to gauge my training progress. I will fine tune my training plan for SCKLM with the outcome from this half marathon. I wish to see how fast I can go.

The finishers photos taken stored in my FB page HERE.

Race Report: Titi50

My first ultra marathon, trained hard for it but some how the training was held up since January,  by injury and subsequently flu. From some self assessment, I more or less concluded the stamina will be sufficient, but some parts may give way as there are not seasoned to take the extra long distances. Hence the realistic target for the race will be just complete it without injury and gain some experiences.

The 100k race start at 4pm. From some photos posted on the FB, it was hot like hell. For 50k, we were lucky to flag off by mid night. Reached the venue around 10:30pm and the site was packed with enthusiastic runners. Checked in myself, race briefing, then we were flagged off on 12am.

The first part was easy 4km before reaching the Bukit Hantu. I used this section to adjust the hydration waist belt (concluded that the waist belt type is not suitable for speed. It was doing fine when walking, will put up a review later). Started to brisk walking right at the start of the climb. Then ran at 7min pace when descending towards the first check point. Took some watermelon and refill my Gatorade bottle, then I left for CP2.

Running toward CP2 under the moonlight, thanks Victor for the photo.

From CP1 to CP2 was easy. Kind of familiar with the route (RJM route). Going at a decent 7min pace, reached CP2 ahead of my plan. Took some bread and refill water, then I left for the long ascending to CP3. 9km climb with 300m elevation, I will say it was not really tough. The elevation are segregated along the 9k nicely, and I think my engine was warmed up totally. I almost ran all the way to the peak. The night was cooling and windy. It's helped a lot to cool down my hearth rate and maintained it around 150-165BPM.

The CP3 located at 26km, hence from that point onward, I knew the race will be over-distanced. Used the toilet at the check point, took more watermelon and refill my bottle, then I u turned and heading back to CP2. The time was only 3:26am. I can't help but started to think if I can complete this by 7 hours. And lucky the descending to CP2 brought me back to reality. I am strong during climb the slope, but extremely weak when it come to descending one. The first part of the descending to CP1 already taken it's toll and now every steps going down the slope were painful. If I was not bounced into one of the crazy 100k runner and pushed each other to clear to last 4k descending with some speed, I would had did the 9k climb faster (71 minutes) than my 9k descending (67 minutes). Again repeated those eating and refilling, then I left for CP1.

Not much left in the tank, run-walk-run-walk and I finally reached the 42.195km mark on my Garmin around 5:35am. Now, every steps is unknown. The CP1 located around 43km on the way back. Cleared the check point, and I was heading back to finish line. I planned to walk up the Bukit Hantu, then run all the way back. But I was over optimistic. Not only the tank was emptied, the legs were so painful until my will to push was emptied too. Tried to restart the enigine to running mode, but failed. Part of me wanted a good finish time (I will be sub-7 if I ran the balanced 7km), and part of me understand the risk and don't want to push. Finally, walked almost all the way back, and only able to start running again about 1km from the finish line. It was due to panic cause at 7:15am the Garmin marked 51km and the finish line still not in sight. I pushed cause I don't want to missed also the 7.5 hours mark. Finally, finished at 7:23'36".

Hard Earned finisher pack

Food intake during the race,

1. 4 packs of PowerGels.

2. 2 loafs of bread, with some jam or butter inside (too tired to taste).

3. 5 pills of salts.

4. Plenty of watermelon.

5. 6x 500ml of water (mainly, only started mix in 100Plus and Revive after the u turn), plus 1 liter of water from the hydration bladder (almost finished toward the end).

Race plan versus actual

Elevation vs Time, almost symmetry chart. 2nd half of the race not slowing down too much.

Overall, this was a great experience. The challenging route, the use of hydration bladder, the helpful volunteers, the moonlight, the sleepless night, the loneliness, the company and the long winding road, all these will be an unique remark on my running journey.

Race Report: MPIB 2014

This was a simple short 12km race around double hills area and Padang Merbok. I love to run in that area, but with the raising crime rate and shortage of parking, I cut back my visit since 2013. Race will be a best opportunity for me to visit and run in this area comfortably. The training menu some how indicate a key long run of 26km on that day, hence I will need to start earlier to complete a 14km, then continue with the 12km race.

Started the day early around 5:10am and decided to park at the parking next to the Lake Garden Club house entrance. The area was still quiet and I was the 3rd car at the parking. Started in the Lake Garden loop and I only encounter 3 others runners. Later I found out part of the Lake Garden loop is under construction, may be this was the reason of less runners looping there. I too don’t like the looping, hence made the decision to heading out. Knowing that the race marshals will soon start to set up the route, I should have no problem to warm up on part of the race route. The warm-up took place from Jalan Parlimen – Jalan Sultan Salahhudin, about 4km each loop, and I did 2.5 loops (last loop cut short from Padang Merbok to Jalan Sultan Salhhudin). Total warm-up distance of 14km finished by 6:50am and felt great.

Towards the finish line, thanks Tey for the photo

After I changed to a dry vest and reached the starting line, the 12km Men category already flagged off, and the lady already lined up. I got no problem to start with Women category (over heard that Jamie said the lady whom started with the Men category will be disqualified, hopefully the guys were ok to start with the lady). The start line was packed, and the first climb rights after the start really slow me down (lots of lady started to walk...). Initially I was still ok to hold back my pace at relaxed 6.5min/km, but after dodging thru lots of obstacles, the fire built up. I decided to speed up after the climb, cruising with 5min/km pace at the descend part of Jalan Sultan Salahhudin, and started to caught few guys who started earlier. I kept the fire on and entered the Bukit Tunku area, completed the stretch with 5.4min/km pace. And I think I went bonked after climbed the incline of Jalan Sultan Salahhudin for the 3rd times. Pace dropped to about 6min/km, and finally finished the race in 1:09’15”.

 

I am happy to found another gear within. According to the training manual, the long run and the weekly mileages was designed to simulate the last 26km of a Marathon. If I could firm out the realisation of this new gear within to appear in all my races, I will be still pushing hard on the last session of the marathon towards the finish line, without crashed into the Wall.

Anyway, after few weeks of high mileages training, the body decided to login a complaint. The left foot suffered a syndrome that similar to extensor tendonitis. Need to slow down and have a day or two off from running.

Caught by Mohan during my post-run icing (while waiting the traffic jam to clear off)