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: 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)

Race Report: CICM 10KM 2013

This race becomes part of my office routine, another year into the corporate challenge. Some of the members not able to make it as the race rescheduled from September, we had 2 new team members this year. No pre-race meeting as we all knew that the Managing Director will be at the race site on that morning so we need to win! And we did, successfully defend the champion this year. The event is some how less eventful compared to last year. I think about 400-500 in the HM and 800-1000 in the 10k. Many withdrawn from this race as it not only rescheduled, but also moving back to Setia Alam from Putrajaya. We are 3rd times running the same route since CICM moved to Setia Alam from Bukit Jalil. And you can see how much the township built up from scratch.

Didn't bring the Official Event T :P

As I am mid way thru my training program, I took this as one of the training pace determination run. If the race result matched or better than my training pace, then I will continue with the current training pace, else, a revise may be required. The training pace I picked needed a 10k pace of 5:52, which converted to a finishing time of 58’40” for the 10k. So my plan was starting with 5.5min pace, and speed up to may be 5min pace after the 3rd water station heading back to finish line.

Reached the starting point 5:30am and walked around to finish my breakfast. Not long, the HM was flagged off around 6:15am (I still think is ridicules to flag off a 21k race in Malaysia after 6am). I started my warming up after used the toilet. We gather into the starting pen around 6:40am and flagged off on 6:45am. The start off was kind of packed, but lucky the traffic police block off the traffic on the main road. I started with 6min pace due to the congestion, but managed to catch up the plan 5.5min pace after flying off the descent. With the momentum I pushed a bit to 5.1min pace on the 2nd KM. Then I slow down and kept a decent effort on maintaining the 5.5min pace. The crowd was cleared. The heart rate was already 168BPM, but I was not panic like last year (knew very well that you need to push hard to get speed, and I held up that HR for few hours in my last marathon). I stopped at all 3 water stations for half cup of water, for hydration and regulate the heart rate. The heart rate actually stayed at below 168BPM until the 3rd water station at 8km before I decided to push harder.

The race was too short for a second wind, hence the decision to push harder was a difficult one. The speed again went up to 5.1-5.2min pace, but I was not able to maintain my heart rate this time. It’s burst from 170BPM all the way to 197BPM and my Garmin made hell lots of noise due to heart rate high alarm. No choice but to hold back and slow down. Finished the race with 55’28”, 8 seconds PB from last year race (I can continue with my training pace now and aim for a 4.5hours full marathon).

The paces for both races are very similar. 2 biggest lost time for this year race compared to last year, was the start up (I didn’t get to the front like last year), and I didn’t push after climbing the 2nd incline at the 5th KM. Overall pace kept very well at 5.4-5.5 min pace at 5-8th KM. And the heart rate kept very well below 170BPM until I pushed. One of the possible improvements will be the push (apart from starting in front). I should push earlier and not too hard. It’s really not a very good feeling when your heart rate went beyond the maximum (safe exercise zone).

Next week will be my 3rd HM for 2013. I will try to challenge my PB (2:07’19”), just keep going with the 6.0-6.1 min pace and I will reach another PB. Sub-2? May be next year :)

Race Report: Salomon X-Trail 2013

My 3rd barefoot race, and the first one on trail. The decision to barefoot on this event is mainly just for fun. I didn’t put in any training on trail and my last trail run was January 2011 (was only less than 2km on trail plus other in Lake Garden area, in a Cross Country event by FTAAA KL), it’s not even in my blog :P  I don’t have any target, just planned to have some fun and play with some mud.

It was hot in Saturday, but the early morning rain before the race start made the race more interesting. Arrived the MAEPS site around 6:20am, and it already packed with runners. Preparation was simple, just took off the sandal and walked to the starting point. Hang around the area to chatted with some other barefooters (I am not the only crazy one in this race) before we headed to the flag off point. Flagged off on time and we are heading towards the trail which is about 1.5km away. I just kept a comfortable 6.5 min pace.

Once I entered the trail, ops, I felt regretted to barefoot as there is a trail filled with lots of stones & pebbles. No choice but to slow down to brisk walking and needed to be mindful to put down every step. Lots of runners overtook me, I started to get used to this humble feeling. I only ran when the trail surface is dirt, mud or grass. Uphill is relatively easy for barefoot, but descending on the stones/pebbles filled trail barefoot is really painful. So most of the time I did the reverse compared to other runners, running uphill, walking down hill. The pace is awful 10-11min walking pace for that whole 4km trail section.

Finally the trail ended at about 6km mark. All runners heading back to the finish line via tarmac. I slowly pick up some speed here and finish the under distances (7.18km only) race with 1:09. Luck, no damage on both soles (only the usual water blisters formed and gone).

Thanks Dexter for the nice photo towards the finish line.

Overall the race is very well organized. Organizer and volunteers did great to make this happened and everyone had fun. Overhead some one said the route cut short due to rain and some section is not safe to run. It will be great if the organizer can announced up front the short in distances.

With out sufficient trail training and the race was jam-packed with another thousand plus runners on the trail, I don’t think I could run any faster even if I went in with VFF/sandal, hence the decision to play with barefoot still a great choice. With this race, at least I confirmed that I am not really for trail running (at least at this point of time, hard to say never especially after you read the story about the road racing Carboman Jamie also started flying over those trails).

No matter on what surface, keep running :)

Race Report: Adidas KOTR 2013

This is my 2nd barefoot race so far, and first time I joined KOTR. The previous editions often crashed with other races, so I planned to sign up this event immediately after it announced. Eventually it still crashed (or some say back-to-back) with Putrajaya Night Marathon, but the choice was easy cause I ran in PNM for the pass two years.

The race started from Sunway Pyramid, actually just 6.5km from my place. The plan A is to run from home, do the race, and run back to home, then I will clocked 30km in total. But I don’t really had a race in near future needed this LSD, so plan B, to cycle from home. Reached the venue with about 10 minutes before flag off, rushed thru the baggage checkin and breakfast, then I joined the big crowd in the starting pen to start off from the back. Then we were flagged off on time. Expected from this kind of popular event, the starting part was people mountain people sea. The human wall only starts to clear up a bit after 5km.

I decided to run a full barefoot race, hence didn’t bring along any spare tires. I concluded that it felt really good to ran barefoot on NPE. I was too excited and speeding all the way! The pace maintained at 6 min/km at until 7th km, overtook lots of people until I hit the usual limit of my soles. I am lacking of barefoot training, hence the soles are not conditioned to go long distances or go very fast. From the previous experience, I knew very well that the soles still were doing fine, no actual damages yet, but they getting too sensitive now. No choice but to slow down to 7.2-7.8 min/km. Then lots of people I overtook earlier not overtook me. The stamina and muscles were all doing fine, but the soles can’t kept up now, it felt terrible. Key notes, must plan and adhere to race strategy. Finally, finished the race on 1:52’08”, with a great relief.

People mountain people sea, but start to clear off now.

Entertainment at the U-turn point.

Merging with the 10k runner.

Finally finished.

Nice Finisher Medal.

Hang around with some barefoot kaki and took some photos, then heading back home to checkout the damages on the soles. There were 2 water and 1 blood blisters formed. I didn’t pop them, just clean up the surface and let it heal by itself (didn’t felt them anymore until Monday evening, and Tuesday morning I can continue my usual running). Think these blisters are from the soles condition, and the speed I started. I should be doing fine for the whole 16.8km if I only go with 6.5-7min/km.

Barefoot kaki Hawaii style!

When barefooters met the Viking...

 Overall, this was a great event with the overall closure of NPE. The only draw back will be the number of participants. Most of the participants are not regular runners, so you need to anticipate the human wall at the start, and dodging lots of people who slowed down half way (me inclusive this round).

Now, back to regular training plan. Signed up a big one in February next year, and planned to follow the Handsons Marathon Method. Btw, I have not much confident on myself to take in the whole 17 weeks of training program. Since the program started this Monday, I already missed 2 workouts :P

Quick Update

I have to admit that I lost my driving force or motivation to updating my blog. May be I am too busy in my work and traveling. Or may be the election result hit me really hard. Or may be just plain lazy. Anyway, this is just a quick update about how myself doing lately.

I was busy at work since April. Knowing very well that this will be an extremely busy year for me, I only signed up a handful of races. Attending trainings, conducting trainings and catching projects deadlines will be the main focus of the year. The sub-5 marathon target only comes after these, but I think I enjoyed doing them so far. Conducted 6 trainings (varies length from half a day to 4 days in a roll), attended 2 weeks of training and completed 1 project so far. From the plan I had, I am more or less at the mid way point now, just another 7 more trainings to conduct, 2 more trainings to attend, and 2 more projects to seal. All these will done by October, and after that, I can realign the focus to running again :P

I got myself a new training partner – a hybrid bike. Very basic unit and don’t cost me an arm or a leg (~RM750, whole set with helmet, carrier, mudguard, lighting and speedometer). I think I am working very fine with it now. Cycling become my cross training activity and I think it helped to build other supporting muscles that not functioning or trained in running. I also changed my training plan. No more easy run at training, all my weekdays run is now short (4k) / normal (7k) / long (>10k) tempo run with hearth rate at 150~165BPM. Saturday / Sunday will be my long run of at least 20km at easy pace. I started to felt the impact of the new training plan. I am now able to sustain at 6 minutes pace for longer than 10k without stretching into 160BPM range. But the down side of the story is I get quite tired in the weekdays after those normal or long tempo runs :)

 

Not really working on my barefoot now because I am not able to afford any down time in training. Got myself another toy (Xerox Shoes or Invisible Shoes), still need some adjustment on the laces to avoid some potential hot spots. Will stick to my VFF for may be another year or 2.

I did my LSD in Putrajaya and bandit in the Mizuno Run last Sunday. Planned to do a 30k but was first time doing LSD here and it take me some time to find a secured parking lot in the wee hours (4:45am). Only enough time to finish 14k, and start tailing the race pack all the way from behind as the race started 20 minutes earlier. As I am just another normal-middle-pack runner, not many chances for me to passing so many runners, it was a good experience for me. Unfortunately, I puncit after 9km into the race. The flyover after the 9k water station gave perfect reason for me to start walking. Then the rest of the race is mainly walk-run-walk-run repeats. Met with fellow Ipoh mari-barefooter Lee CW around 10k mark. As my VFF is totally wet, I took it out and barefooting for a while. Not really a clever move, my soles were soften by sweat and no seasoned enough to handle the rough surface. It forced me to stop, clean up my soles and put on my VFF just after the bridge heading back to Precint3. Again walk-run-walk repeats, until the last turn into finish line and I stopped at the parking lot. Clocked only 29km for that day, but I walked so much and clearly I was not in the condition to push for another km. Hopefully this Saturday can challenge the 30km again nearby my home ground.

Another 2.5 weeks to SCKLM, I am not too sure if I am ready to sub-5 in this marathon. I think I trained to my best effort, but the problem is my working schedule and the mental preparation. To me, doing >30km in training will prepare you both physically and mentally. Is all about the mind after you hit the wall :)

Good luck in your training and stay healthy for the rest of the 18 days. See you guys at the SCKLM starting line.

Race Report: MPIB 2013 Run 12km

This is my first barefoot race.

I am full of doubt before the race started, but eventually I survived.

And to my surprise, I actually enjoy lots on this race.

Like the normal race, I prepared myself with plenty of shorter runs, ranged from 3~10km in December, all barefooted. I even went for a trial run on the route, but I only managed 8km. Stopped mid way before reached the Commuter station at Bank Negara, and walked back to the Bukit Aman car park. The route is so rough especially on the Bukit Tunku @ the Double Hills route. Also, the flu stacked with me for closed to 2 months and it basically took away all my long run, speed and stamina. I knew very well that I will not doing a fast race. It took away my confident and I seriously thinking to race with VFF. I was not able to decide until the Saturday morning. I saw this old slippers when I cleaning my car porch. So I decided to run barefoot with the slippers as spare.

Race kit

Due to the race excitement and the doubts on my own decision, I was not able to sleep well. Reached the starting line with about 3 hours sleep, I walked like zombie around the Padang Merbok. Met some fellow barefoot runners, exchanged best wishes and good lucks (yes, lots of luck required for me to complete this 12km). At 7am, without too much of notice or count down, the horn blew and the ladies 12km flagged off. And now is our turn. Maybe the race is too early or the starting gangway is too narrow, the crown in Men 12km didn’t seem to move after the flag off. Anyway, I just took my time as I didn’t have any target to chase.

I carefully picked my way ahead. The stretch from starting line to the entrance/exit of the Bukit Tunku is relatively smooth and barefoot friendly. I kept a steady 7 minutes pace until the rough road and tough climb at Bukit Tunku caught me. The pace dipped to 8 minutes. Btw, I didn’t felt the same roughness at Bukit Tunku like I did during the trial. I guess we have the whole road to pick my landing. During the trial run, I can only ran on the road side due to the traffic. As the road was closed during the race, I was following mostly the middle white line, and this helped lots on my barefoot.

The happy barefoot runner (by KahWai)

Not much problem all the way until the turn into Istana Selangor. This stretch of the road just resurfaced. But the tar/asphalt used is bigger and created some gaps on my landing. Also my stamina was about to finish at this point. No choice but to slow down to 8~9 minutes pace. I was thinking that my soles going to be bloody bad at this point of time, but I didn’t stop to check it out. Finally we reached the entrance to Padang Merbok. The parking area in Padang Merbok is really rough hence I can’t push towards the finish line this time. Finished the race in 1:29’07”.

I put on the slippers once I crossed the finish line and find a spot to check out the condition. Surprised to see the soles held up very well with out blisters or cuts. The barefoot training paid off nicely :) The only problem I got after this race was the blister between the inner tights. I must crossed my legs too much when I following the white lines.

Overall, I am happy with my first ever barefoot race. It builds my confident to run and race barefoot. The race itself was very well organized. Had been a while not getting so much of goodie from a race kit. Water stations and other supplies were plenty. Traffic control is great too. Not forget the effort of the series of running clinics organized since the registration opened. If you plan to start running but don’t know how, join this race and the running clinics. Running in a group will definitely help to get you over the starting barrier, and very soon you will addicted to this sport and ready to go on your own.

My next target? Barefooting in Brooks Half Marathon (it sounded weird to race barefoot in a race sponsored by a shoes company). This is another route with lots of inclines. No a place to speed or trial on my sub-2 half marathon target. So I will focus on barefooting only.

Btw, 6 weeks until the next race and my flu still lingering… any alternative cure apart from seeing the doctor?

Race Report: CICM Responsible Care 2012 10k Corporate Challenge

It been a while I didn’t signed up any short distances races, and the 10k race in CICM was actually my first and only 10k race in year 2012. CICM 2010 was my first official race and first finisher medal. I missed the 2011 edition when it moved from Bukit Jalil to Setia Alam. This year, the company took part in the corporate challenge, so I ran in this special category together with another 4 colleagues. Total of 7 companies took part and the result was taken from the total time of top 5 runners from each company.

My first ever finisher medal

My colleagues are ambitious; we did some planning up front to see if we can take back the trophy to the office. There were lots of races happen yesterday and there 10k only a sub-category of the CICM race, some of the fast runners will be attracted to other race/category. We actually stand a good change to win the corporate challenge, if we all completed the 10k with a sub-60 minutes time. My last race that had closes to a 10k was the Men Health 12k and I did 72 minutes. If I pushed harder from the start, I think should have no issue to finish with a sub-60 minutes 10k. The only problem now is the flu/cold I got from the changing weather. From the experience, I know that I will be ok to start with some flu and running nose, as long as I don’t have fever. Anyway, one of my 2012 goals is to complete a 10k race in 60 minutes. Let see if I am ready.

I woke up on Sunday morning around 4:30am, happy to see the long life rain finally stopped. Reached the starting point around 5:40am, the area was crowded and we have to park on the mud filled car park. The temperature is very nice for running and I know the race will be a great and enjoyable one. Our plan is simple, run at our best and try to keep up with the fastest runner in the team (he planned to go with 5min pace, we need to at least keep him within sight). The half marathoners flagged off around 6:15am, and then we flagged off around 6:45am. The 10k route is generally flat with steady incline, only 2 significant climbs on the flyovers. The first flyover located right within the first km, the legs is still fresh so no slow down on it. The second flyover located around 4km, I was struggled to keep up with the team and I actually lost sight of our lead runners! Properly due to the flu, the heart rate was already 170BPM when I overcame the 2nd flyover. I can slow down when coming down from this flyover to regulate my heart rate, but I will drag back the team effort! So, I charged down the flyover instead of my normally slow descending style. Carefully maintaining my hearth rate at 170~175, I continued to push on to kept the pace at 5.4~5.6 minutes and kept the 2^nd runner from our team within sight.

CICM 2012 Finisher Medal

Finally, I completed the loop of CityMall at 8km, and heading back to the start/finish line. Few of the top half marathoners passed me, and it’s really enjoyable to see they pushed on with their effortless strides. Nothing left in my tank and my hearth rate already warning me, so no final push in this race. I completed the 10.35km by 55’36” at 28th in category D (10k men open). The whole team was completed the race within 60 minutes as planned, and the lead runner actually finished at 50 minutes. We won the corporate challenge!

Corporate Challenge Trophy

Overall, the race is nicely organized and the route is very challenging. Some possible improvement,

1. Distances markers, very limited distances markers available along the route. For 10k and 5k, the one and only distances marker I noted is the “1km more to go”!

2. Traffic control. We are running the starting and finishing stretch on the highway, it will be great if the traffic cons placed to separate the cars and the runners.

3. Earlier flag off time for half marathon, start at 6:15am will be very hot for slow and even average runners doing around 2+ hours (sun raises around 6:50am in this time of the year). We are lucky yesterday as the sun took extra nap and only came out 7:25am.

Finally, I checked the 2nd goal out of the 4 goals that I set for year 2012.

Done,

1. Completed 4 full marathons.

2. Completed sub-60 minutes 10k race.

Pending,

1. Sub-2 hours in 21k race.

2. Sub-5 hours in full marathon.

The sub-2 half marathon is out of the question as I the only race that I have for this year is a full marathon in Penang Bridge International Marathon. I will give my best to see if I can stay with 7 min pace all the way and wraps up 2012 by achieving this goal too. 12 more days to go.

Race Report: Pacemakers 8th Anniversary Relay Run Series 1

This is my first relay event. Thanks for KY who brought us together from Dailymile to take part in this event. The event organized by Pacemaker in conjunction to celebrate their 8th anniversary. This is the series 1 which flagged off in Tapak A at KL Lake Garden, with the distance of 3.2km per leg. Four of us (Lina, Nick & CK, KY last minute pulled out due to injury) will run the same distances and same route, which inclusive rounding the lake for 2km, and then climb up many stairs before continue for the balanced 1+km.

Team photo before the race

About 1.5km rounded the lake, before the dreadful stairs

Final km, after the dreadful stairs

Happy faces team photo, after the completion

This is a high speed event, so I put in some speed repeats for the last 2 weeks workouts. It’s turned out the effort well paid off. I ran the fastest 3km in my life with the 4:38 & 4:54 minutes pace for the first 2km. Running in 2nd leg after Lina. Like most of the participants, I sprinted to my limit for the first 2k until the stairs, and then walked up those stairs. Finished my leg with 16’30”, and the team finished in a total time of 1:08’53” for the 4x 3.2km, placed 44 out of the total 80 teams. Happy with the result and glad that we will not going for the series 2 eventhough we will missed the medal in Autobat design (the organizer claimed that is a much challenging route compared to series 1).

An overview of the stairs on the 2nd km of the route

Finisher Medal - Decepticons

The relay was really fun and we can go all out for sprinting as the distances are short. The other great experience is cheering and being cheer by the team members and others. Many photographers were supporting this event. The FB wall is flooded with photos from this event. The above photos taken by varies supporters from FB.

Now is about time to restart my training plan for the sub-5 marathon goal, a nice 16 training weeks from the APBIM. But life won’t the free from obstacles and went smoothly. My works and family demanding more time at this moment, and the hazel just returned to KL. Lots of adjustment needed to fulfill my goal, but all these obstacles will only make the final result taste better. I will return to my first marathon race, RJM for its 2012 edition on 9/9/12. Looking at the elevation at Bukit Hantu, I will be happy if I complete this marathon within 5.5~6 hours.

Happy Running!

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gambateh!