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: 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: Munich Marathon

My new role gave me the change to travel to Munich this year for 4 times to attend some training. I didn't realize that the change for an oversea marathon came when I got the news that my last training week will change to October. I was planned to join my other colleagues to visit one of the trainer at Vienna. Later I had to drop the plan to visit to the beautiful city.

I been barking on to sub-5 in my marathon timing for 2 years and to be frank, I am very disappointed with my SCKLM result. I hoped to improve from last year but some how I didn't performed that day. Now I put some hope into this marathon cause the believes of

1. Runners perform better in cold weather.

2. It’s a relatively flat course.

I wished to improve the timing even if I need to seek for compensation of my limit in a cold weather.

I spent the whole week attending training and walked lots in safety boots. Both legs felt like iron rods each evening and the right calf even cramped in one night. I was thinking "Shit! I am going to shrewd up big time this weekend!" Fortunately, these legs got some rest with only 3k running gears test run, and the walk/shopping around on Saturday helps to relax them. Race kit collection done in Saturday morning. It also had a 4k fun run in traditional costume. Spotted a sarong man but didn't manage to talk to him. The run looks really fun but the weather was still very cold (~6°C) hence I only watched the flag off and quickly moved into the event area.

Finisher Medal (gingerbread hearth) for the Traditional Costume Run

Spotted Sarong Man!

 

 

 

Surprised by the first booth - Leguana, the Germans barefoot running shoes/gloves. Tried the shoes and it’s very comfortable to wear. But the price tag of €69 put me off. It’s still cheaper than VFF, maybe a possible replacement for it later (btw, from my observation, I was the only one running in VFF). Race bib collection was easy and lots of things happening in the event area. I spent almost 2 hours shopping, plus looking at the expert demo on how to fix the KT tape. Got all the supplies that I needed, and I took a different route with the tram back into the town. Time to do some shopping! Had a great dinner at one famous Bavarian restaurant, then head back to hotel around 8pm. Went to bed around 10pm and set the alarm to 6am. No rush like back in homeland, the race only flag off by 10am.

 

Race day morning, woke up earlier than the alarm, a bit pre-race anxious. What is my game plan? I planned to go with a consistent pace of 7min, as usual. It was still drizzling outside hence the concern was too cold to run. But it was too late to DNS now. Put on all the gear, took the hotel breakfast, then off to take the trains to the stadium. The organizer provided a big enough event bag for baggage check in, so I used it, and lots of other runners too. Hence it's very obvious that morning if you are going to do the marathon. There was only handful of us in the first bus I hoop on, then growing into plenty when I changed a train, and eventually in the last train to the stadium, the whole train was filled with participants! The race comrades came early! "We are going to do this!"

Paranormal view of the stadium

Before start

Starting line

The sun came out!

Reached the stadium with 45 minutes to spare, as they divided the baggage check in by every thousand, no queue at all. I just found a corner near by my 6000+ counter, took away all the warm clothes, and start to warming up slowly. The sky still gloomy and the sun didn't seem to coming out soon, but at least the rain stopped. I got a plastic bag to use as temporary warmer. Headed to the starting line around 9:45am. It's 2km from the stadium to the starting line, so I jogged slowly to keep myself warm. The race will flagged off in 3 waves. 10am for those sub-3 and elites. 10:10am for those 3-4 hours, and 10:20am for everyone else. So I started at the back as usual. The wave 1 flagged off with a big bang and instantly the sun came out and it started to warm up. It was beautiful and we made the weather! Waited no more and off we go.

Even though this was my 4th visit to this city, but I only covered very limited areas. The marathon route will brought me to some areas that I never visited before. We started from Olympic Stadium, heading to the city for a u-turn in front of Ludwig Maximilian University and ran into the famous English Garden. That will be the first part that covered 16km. Then we continue heading east and running past mostly sub-urban areas and we will turn to west after the starting point of the half marathon. After 24km, we will past the Munich East station and followed by the Deutsches Museum, and we are moving into downtown. From 27-32km, we will run thru the city center - Marianplatz and detour into the University area until 36km, finally we heading back to the stadium to the finish line.

After 4km, there will be a water station about every 2.5km. So I decided to abandon my water bottle, and first time running a marathon without a bottle on my hand. The first part of the race was easy going. I kept a consistent 6.5-7min pace, lots of people pass me and I needed to try very hard to avoid speeding up. The first challenge of the day came before I reached English Garden at 8km mark, I felt hungry! The breakfast was 4 hours ago, and I needed food! This wasn’t the usual marathon that I did back home, which happened mostly at ungodly hours and I can do without food replenishment. Luck they served banana from the 10km water station onwards, I made sure I took some from each water station. Observed some runners ran with a piece of sponge, I knew that the race will not provide sponge, but as the sweating level reduced, I wonder why people need sponge. But even you felt less thirsty in cold weather, but you still sweating during the run. I was drinking about 300ml of water from each station (about full one cup), sometime more. So what happened to those sweat came out on your face? They dried out and formed salt! Runners wet the sponge to wipe the salt off. Lucky I only felt them after I completed the run.

Exist from the English Garden we entered the sub urban area. This session of the route is like our normal housing area training run, not much excitement factor to share. But from time to time we pass some cheering groups that offered aid, music and even beer! At 2:24, I pass the half marathon starting point. From the start until now, the Garmin Pacer (virtual partner set at 7min/km) never passes me. So I still had enough time for my target. It’s getting hard to kept the pace now. If you think you will enjoy a better speed under the cold weather, you probably are wrong. My hearth rate stayed 150-160BPM since the beginning. The cold weather may only reduced the stress factor, so you can stay on with high hearth rate for longer. The sun had come out, most of the runners trying to follow the shed but I was on the other hand, following the sun. Even thought it’s noon time, it was cold when there is wind. I needed the sun to keep me warmed.

After 28km, back into the downtown area and we passes some office building and followed by the city center – Marianplatz. If you read until this point, you may wonder how the traffic control was. I can tell you, no issue at all. This is the marathon that 75% of the route had barriers that separate running route from traffic (being cars, trams, buses, bicycles and pedestrians), from the starting point, all the way back to finish line. Only few sessions that goes without barriers, mainly in the sub urban area and some part of the downtown area, where the incoming traffic is blocked outside of the city. This is the advantage of the city with great public transport. Btw, most of the shops are closed on Sunday, it helps on the traffic control.

After Marianplatz, at 32km, we can see the Siegestor, the Roman-style triumphal arches that we pass earlier in the first u-turn. But we still need to detour into the University, until 36km. And finally, we were heading back to the finish line. At this point of time, the Garmin Pacer passes me for the first time. I knew that I will had 4 minutes to spare if the course measured to 42.195km, but as my pace started to drop below to 8, it was too much risk to take. I must keep going! The sub-5 target was the only thing in my mind that time. Hearth rate goes beyond 160BPM, didn’t care! Left calf felt like going to cramp, didn’t care! Gear up and keep going!

Lots of runners finished and cheering us along the way back to stadium. Ran pass the starting point, I just needed to keep going! Ran pass the stadium perimeter, finally, we ran pass a dark tunnel passage with dry ice smoke came out, 2 photographers taking photos! So dramatic! I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and heard the cheering of the crowds inside the stadium! Like a champion, I entered the stadium with pride. But the excitement won’t last long, still another 400m to go and the clock is 4:56 now. Drained my last drop of energy, sprint thru the final lap inside the stadium, I clocked a net time of 4:59’57”. It was definitely a fantastic experience to finish in an Olympic Stadium. And achieving the sub-5 target definitely a bonus!

Paranormal view of the stadium, when I finished!

One Happy PB Finisher!

Served beer at the finish area, alcohol free...

 

 

In conclusion, I am happy that I achieved my target, but clearly I was still not ready for a sub-5 back home. Lots of improvement needed if I wanted to achieve the same result in Malaysia climate. Also, the cold weather will help, but you still need to face the challenges like the hearth rate, elevation (physically) and mind game (mentally) if you looking for a break through result. Anyway, once you tried it, you will be able to handle the challenges better. Like, now I knew that I can run the whole 42km without walking (only walk few hundreds meters in total, from all water stations stops, plus 2 toilet stops), and the legs will be fine too. So next time I will know it’s only a mind game when I am thinking of walking or too hard to continue before I reached 42km.

It’s time to take out the drawing board and workout the new training plan. Next year target will be sub-5 in Malaysia!

Race Report: Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2013

This race was postponed from it original schedule from June due to haze condition. I thought it will be a great opportunity for me to be more ready to sub-5, but turned out this is an unfinished business for my next marathon.

I arrived at Dataran Merdeka around 4am, walked a bit and said hello to some familiar faces. Then we gathered into the starting pen and ready to go. The weather is hot. I consumed almost half of my 500ml water, which never happened before the flag off in other races. I knew that it will be very challenging race. As the biggest marathon event in Malaysia, closed to 4000 marathoners flagged off together, and it took me 4 minutes to cross the finish line.

Before flag off, look so not into running mood...

I started off slowly and ramped up to target pace of 7 minutes. The route is packed with others but still manageable. After about 5km, I finally caught up with one of the 5hrs pacers and I planned to stick with him until we done. The only hold back is my condition, not able to sleep well before the race (anxious) and the running nose bothering me. The pace is slow, but the effort is high with hearth rate averaging at 160BPM. Tried my best to keep up with the pacers, but it getting harder by time. From 18-24km, I can only tail them from far, and I lost sight of them after KLCC. The traffic from that points onwards was havoc. The whole stretch of Jalan Tun Razak, Bulatan Pahang until Jalan Ipoh was in mess. Don’t feel comfortable or safe running on this stretch.

After turn into Jalan Ipoh (27km), the mind started to play trick. “The sun so hot, the pacers are gone, walk-lah…”, repeated in my mind whenever I struggled. Then, I gave up and started some walking around 30km. Repeated the last year mistake, started off too fast and got into other’s race (pacers). Then the rest will just the usual running from water station to water station. Planned to back in running after 38km mark, but the engine was too cool to restart. After merged with the 10k runners/walkers/shopping goers, the last drop of my will to push on gone. No mood to speed, I just walked most of the stretch for the last 2km and only sprint to finish after past those crowd blocking the way. Completed my 11th full marathon in 5:24’06”, only 2 minutes better than the RJM with much tougher route.

At 36km, not much steam left to run. Photo by Kelvin Tan.

In front of camera, have to pretend running a bit. Thank Lina & Zaini!

2013 SCKLM Finisher Medal and T-shirt.

Like what I observed last year, the race is still a very well organized and happening event, but none of the area for improvement resolved. The Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman still jammed by walkers and supporters. Especially the junctions with Jalan Tun Perak, people just block off the road and only left a small gap to let past 3-4 runners at one time. I appreciated the spirit to support, but please at least don’t obstruct the traffic! Ok, I think I going to kept this post a short one, else these complains will continue.

Unofficial Result.

The result page is now more like the one I got from Singapore 2 years ago. Looking at the statistic, not much changed, I am still fit perfectly into the middle pack of runners. May be is time to look into a difference running and training approach. Meanwhile, I got unfinished business with the sub-5 target. Look like I can’t go by my makan agin pace in Munich, but to give in my best. Need to focus on a good recovery now.

Race Report: River Jungle Marathon 2013

3rd time running in this event and due to some landslides, we had a new route.

My attempt to sub 5 again failed but I really enjoyed this race.

Split times on the arm.

We flagged off with some firework from the school at 5am. It was quite pack when we leaving the small Bt18 village heading towards the T-junction. The pack only eases up after the first water station at 5km point. Its helps on my pace cause no way I can ran too fast at this stretch and I was only planned a 7:15 pace all the way to the peak at the 1st u-turn. The early morning weather was humid but cooling with light wind, and it was very dark for the first 10km. Finally, when you able to look out far, 11km passed and the T-junction greeted you with a 4km long steep incline all the way to the 1st u-turn point. I was happy to reach this point because my pace still very steady and I actually ran all the way up to the peak. Time checked when I reached the peak, 1’45” behind my plan, great! Let’s push harder now when going down hill! Obviously I underestimated the decline part. This stretch taxed me more that I anticipated and left me a black toe nail with very sore quads muscles. I can’t pushed up to my target pace, and the climb at 20km really beaten me flat.

The other issue I had was the upset stomach. I tried new energy bar before the race, taken the new gel around 14km, the stomach started to felt rumbling. Managed to hold up until 20km then doing my first release. It was ok for a while, when I passed the 22km fruits / water station, it started again. I walked a bit from the fruit station (didn’t take any of the fruit because I don’t want to challenge my stomach further), and I realized that I will again missed my sub 5 target. I walked about 2 minutes and finally able to regenerate enough strength to continue, but can only kept a slower pace cause the stomach rumbling again. After the 2nd u-turn, went straight to the porta-potty for 2nd release =.=

I corrected my mistake this time. On previous race, I usually walked quite a bit once I missed or gave up my target, and often felt regretted. This time, I did a better mental check and knew that I still have some chance to hit 5:15 but for sure I will sub 5.5. Hence I pushed again from 30km, until I really hit the wall at 36-37km (or may be it was just the sun came out…), then I plugged in the run-walk strategy (ran for 5 minutes and walked for 2 minutes). Until I reached the mark of 40km, I gave myself a longer walking break. Then I charged all the way to the finish line. Finished my 10th marathon by 5:26’45” (net time). I stayed back for another 2.5 hours to snap lots of runners returned to the finish line. Enjoyed lots of happy face :)

Overall,

Great things about this race,

1. Well organized marathon, improved with fruits station (when coconuts became a norm). Being part of the marathon series also gave additional excitement when we received the extra t-shirt. Great medals design!

2.  The detour or alternative route is even better! We were like a bunch of runners having a great party over the 42km! The 2 u-turns gave you lots of changes to cheers or being cheers by your fellow runners.

3. Safest parking. We parked into the police station!

Possible improvement,

1. Shuttle service from town. Parking will be an issue if the number of runners kept the same growth rate. Some of us parked along the roadside and may create some inconvenience to the local.

2. To have an official cut off time. The race without cut off time is not very healthy because we tend to draw some participants who run without training. To complete a full marathon with sufficient training itself already a challenging task, without training will only make the situation worse and increase the injury rate. I think if we wish to encourage more runners to take part in full marathon, may be we can set the cut off time to 8 hours.

This is a race that all runners can enjoy. Had very challenging route for seasonal runners and long / no cut off time to ease the stress for FMV. Scenery route for everyone to take a break from the traffic packed city races. I will sure return in 2014! Now, back to training plan to revisit my sub 5 target in SCKLM.

Race Report: Island Ocean Marathon

This is the inaugural version, but the race got really great response from the running community, and it is almost full! James (the race director) told us on the flag off briefing that we had 997 signed up versus the full 1000 quota!

Children having fun at Cenang Beach

Flew in Langkawi on Friday afternoon with the family, rented a car instead of depending on taxi, (MYR120 for 2 days, Viva). The children were so happy when reached the Awana Porto Malai hotel, but later found out that the hotel got nothing for them except the swimming pool. We heading out for dinner after a quick dipped in the swimming pool. We had KFC for dinner… Day 2, kids woke up 7am and we heading to Cenang beach for some fun with the sand. Drove to Kuah town and had some Thai food in restaurant Wan Thai, had some very nice and spicy tomyam. Spent the afternoon in the wild life park fed animal and some bird. Then we were heading back to hotel for some more swimming in the pool. Had dinner in Sheela’s place with the usual pre-race pasta (stomach in upset mode since lunch…), then back in hotel to prepare the race and had some sleep.

Wake up 3am in race day morning, prepared myself and only took some bread in the hotel buffet, really not in the condition to take in more food. We gather at the starting point and James briefed us about the event. Follow with a silence prayer for the Boston Marathon victims, and we are ready to go. At 4:30am, with the air-horn and firework in the background, we flagged off. I ran with the impact from the tomyam still in my stomach, but I really enjoyed the eventful flag off. I throttled down my speed to 7.5~8 min, secretly hope that the stomach will get better after I set into the rhythms.

We turned into Cenang Beach, enjoyed a 1km beach run. The beach was dark and organizer marked the route with glow stick. We ran in the dark, only then I observed the starry night is so beautiful! Love the running at the beach even though some sand got into my Vibram. Came out from the beach and we were heading to airport. The stretch of route is again very dark. On top of the starry night, we also had the light refreshing breeze now. Then I bounced into Khoo, he actually right in front of me for quite some time but I just don’t realized that is him. We chatted for few km before the first u-turn, and I felt the call of natural… need to speed up to find a proper spot to clear the bladder. Btw, no porta-potty provided along the route and there are no patrol stations too, all runners had to settle their business on the road side. I did the same too. But don’t dare to do it again after the sun came out cause saw lots of dead snakes bodies along the way. Who know what will pops-up and interrupt when you half way in the business (lucky my stomach held up nicely all the way).

Last 1k to go, and I can't even run in front of a camera... :(

The crazy inclines started from 17k ahead. Rolling hills and the scorching sun really put our mental and physical strength on test. I had to give up my steady pace after 23k, changed the strategy to slow down when climbing, speed up when coming down. The pace start fluctuating from 6.5~9 min and I think the declining strides really impacting my legs. At 27k, I felt my right leg will cramp if I pushed further and we reached the really hilly part of the route. I decided to stop pushing further. Start the usual enjoying and doubting cycles along the rest of the distances. Enjoyed the coconut at 29k, supporting from water stations, and the up and down hills. Doubting about the earlier decision on pushing, about the whole marathon, about the tomyam yesterday, and about the running itself. Finally, completed the race in very low key/mood at 6:11’07”. I am still not sure why I didn’t felt the usual finishing high this time. Not meeting my target? Not tried hard enough? Or may be something else in my mind (like the uncertainty from GE13)? I really not sure.

IOM 2013 Finisher Medal

After the race, pick up the wife and the children from the swimming pool, clean up and check out. Heading to airport and flew back to KL. That concluded my first visit to Langkawi. Both ankles are slightly swollen until now and I think this is from the speed declining from those hills. In short, I am not ready yet for a sub-5 marathon being either mentally or physically. More training needed to pump in before the SCKLM in the next 66days. Will I return next year? Tentatively yes, but will stay in others hotel with beach as per the kids’ request.