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.

Start of a New Racing Season

18 more weeks to my yearly highlight race SCKLM, and now is the best time to start another round of training cycle. The previous training cycle actually dragged much longer than 18 weeks and it’s kind of back to back so often I felt drained after each major event I trained for. This time, I took 2 weeks off (almost totally off) from running, and went for shopping instead.

I got myself a pair of Merrell Bare Access 3, and a pair of Newton Distance 3, with good discount. With the good experience from R68 in Bare Access, I decided to explore my shoes running options. As there are lesser channel nowadays to get VFF in Malaysia, plus the build quality is deteriorating, I need some other options.

Bare Access 3 like its previous version, was a minimalist shoes. But it’s not really that minimalist anymore in this version. It’s heavier and harder soles; narrower in both toe box and arch area; make it more like a racing flat compared to the usual barefoot running shoes.

Distance 3 on the other side, with lots more cushioning and softer soles, flexible toes box (it’s still consider narrow, but the upper layer actually quite flexible and you won’t felt your toes restricted inside), with the strange feeling to running on those 5x lugs system.

Both shoes providing great stimulation to difference part of my legs muscles and also the workouts. Together with the 2 VFF, I am rotating shoes on daily basis. This also helped by taken away some routine from the running. As I am now so used to VFF, I usually just ran. I don’t check my gait, my posture, my form usually. But now I will need to adjust myself in every workout. Not to the extent of changing my gait, posture or form every time, but at least I am going thru my running form check list again. Lower back straight, kept those feet land below my centre of gravity, body lean forward, head upright, kept a high cadences, etc.. But with all these shoes added into my arsenal, now my wife started to question me regarding the number of running shoes I had :P

I will still follow the Hanson Marathon Method 18 weeks advanced training program and SCKLM will be my target race. 2015 SCKLM will be using the same route like 2014, I will be able to estimate and plan better to face the challenge now. Hence I am moving up my goal to finish this marathon in 345. Btw, this year the SCKLM sold out in record pace, only 4 days and all categories were filled. 6500 participants will be running full marathon. As this year the starting pen will be go by estimated finishing time (just estimated, no proof required), I don’t expect to have any issue at the starting point. 

The key challenge like last year, located at 37km when we joining the half marathon participant for the last 5km. I hope my training will allow me to go faster than 345, than the human traffic should still be manageable. The peak actually around 345-415, the full marathoners speeding at 5:20-6:03min/km pace will be facing the half marathoners who will be finishing around 2.5-3 hours with the 7 to 8min/km pace. The 1-2 min/km pace difference is too big so we will be blocked. The water station will be packed. I will make sure I run with my bottle this year, and padded up my elbows!

There are some races lining up in these 18 weeks, total of 2x half marathons (Seremban & Malaysian Day), and 1x full marathon (Kuching). All these races had their own target now aligned to my 345 goal.

Let’s train hard and aim high!

Training report: Training week 14, 15 & 16, MURA Challenge68 Route LSD

After the communication and arrangement with the house chores on Saturday, I totally dive into the heat training sessions. This week, I started the Saturday training only 10am. I spent 3 hours under the hot sun and the body was doing fine for the first 20km. After that auto defenced mode turned on and the body was heading to wherever the shades were. The racing attire was confirmed from this training. The NIKE We Run 2011 short sleeve t-shirt plus 2XU compressed short.

Week 14	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	Easy 4.3km
Tue	Strength 2x 5km	Strength 2x 5km	Shorter recovery
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 14.5km	12.6km	11km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 9.7km	5.1km
Sat	Easy 16.1km	27.5km	Started 10am,  heat
Sun	Easy 16.1km	22.1km	Hill training
Total Done		83km

Training week 15 started with an easy run. The strength training is getting tough too mainly due to the fatigue were yet recovered from the weekend training. Special agenda was arranged for Saturday as the Sunday Challenge 68 route LSD was postponed, I will be looping in the stadium at noon time for heat training! The ultra-lady Fujii planned to do some crazy 9 hours LSD for her coming 12 hours race, so I joined her for some fun in the UM track. Arrived the stadium around 12pm, but it was occupied by some other event. We only started around 2pm. First 5km I was sticking very hard to my 6min/km long run pace. But after that, I need to cool down in the toilet because the heart rate went above 165BPM. The heat was unbearable. I was probably thrown the white tower if I did this training alone. But now as there was someone else in the training, I had no choice but to continue. I was still managed the pace until 15km, until I ran into the wall. The stomach filled with too much of water/Gatorade and I can’t swallow any food. I was dried and emptied. I even struggled to run 1 complete lap of 400m track. Seriously I need to relook into my hydration strategy, in this kind of heat condition. Finally, 30km done and 4 hours gone, I called it a day. But the ultra-lady still continued strongly. She over took me around 18km and never looked back. Obviously I still need lots of training in order to embarking ultra-running.

Week 15	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy12. 9km	4.3km
Tue	Strength 3x 3.3km	Strength 3x 3.3km
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 14.5km	10.6km	9km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 11.3km	Rest
Sat	Easy 12.9km	30.1km	Started 2pm @ UM
Sun	Long 25.8km	13.6km	Easy pace
Total Done		72km

I was traveling on business in week 16. No running for the 5 days cause I was having some light fever. In fact the whole family was downed by fever and flu. Reached home on Friday night and still got some light fever (37degC) before my short workout. Lucky, the body temperature dropped to normal that evening. Decided I will still join the MURA LSD in Genting Sempah. 

The training run started around 5:45am and took the Challenge68 race route. It was 17km descending, then u turn and heading back to where we started. My game plan for the actual race was to cover this section in 4 hours. Hence I flied down the descending with 5.6min/km pace and completed the way out in 1:40. The main challenge came after the u turn, 17km incline. I was still go on with the planned pace until 11km ascending. Shifted gears to try out the run-walk strategy and I decided to call it a day after completed total of 30km. Saved the best part for the actual race day. Walked back to where we started, with a training of 904m elevation gain in the bag. Overall this part of the route is very fun to run. I am glad that I joined this rehearsal because I will not able to enjoy the scene come the actual race day.

Week 16	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	Rest	Sick
Tue	Strength 4x 2.5km	Rest	Sick
Wed	Rest	Rest	Sick
Thu	Tempo 16.1km	Rest	Sick
Fri	Easy 9.7km	Rest	Sick
Sat	Easy 16.1km	5.2km
Sun	Easy 16.1km	33.6km	MURA Route LSD
Total Done		39km

Now, with another 2 weeks to the race, I finalized my game plan. The 8 hours finishing time look realistic now and I am sure I will go out hard to get that.

Meanwhile, I also signed up another short race even, the Kuala Kangsar 15km run. This year, the date shifted to 29 November and heard some changes in the starting point too. But one thing not changed, the cheap registration fees, RM20 for 10km and 15km. With the finisher package are similar to a full marathon event, the cheap registration fees make it really attractive. This is one of the small town race that very well organized and highly recommended if you looking for something difference compared to the usual KL/Selangor races. Click on below link to register.

Play hard! Race hard!

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!

Training report: Training week 8 & 9, Final Preparation and Game Plan

Training week 8 involved the long missed 1.6km speed intervals. The mile repeats is the hardest amongst all speed work cause the length and pace. The last time I did this was more than 7 months ago. Now from the past few speed works, I realized that the training is about the speed during the interval, not the average pace. Hence I started to slow down lots more during the 400m recovery between repeats, from the usual 5:50-6min/km, to 6:15-6:30min/km. It’s helped to maintain the quality of the speed works. And I able to kept the pace I wanted for all 3 repeats. Still the problem of woke up early but started late, most of the workouts are short in distance compared to what planned. Also I started to reduce the load partly due to workload, and it’s getting close to the race. Monday and Friday were off. Sunday was revisiting the Padang Merbuk – Hartamas route at long run pace, and found out that the Sri Hartamas Petronas was closed again for renovation.

Week 8	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy 9.7km	Rest
Tue	Speed 3x 1600m	Speed 3x 1600m	All repeats paced at 4:50min/km
Wed	Rest	5km
Thu	Tempo 11.3km	9km	8km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 9.7km	Rest
Sat	Easy 16.1km	18km
Sun	Easy 16.1km	20km	Padang Merbuk – Hartamas
Total Done		62km

Training week 9 started with a day off. The back to back 18/20km over the weekend was unintended, but necessary preparation for the Challenge68. Been a while I didn’t do back to back long run, figured that some extra off time will ensure that I don’t inviting any injury. The body started to response to the amount of training, the speed work and tempo run completed rather easy, and another round of back to back 18/18km was done too. Heart rate and effort were moderate during these 18/18km workouts, with around 6min/km pace. This increased my confident to sub-4 in the coming marathon.

Week 9	Program	Done	Remark
Mon	Easy12. 9km	Rest
Tue	Speed 6x 800m	Speed 6x 800m	All repeats paced at 5min/km
Wed	Rest	Rest
Thu	Tempo 12.9km	12.6km	11km in tempo pace
Fri	Easy 11.3km	5km
Sat	Easy 12.9km	18km
Sun	Long 24.2km	18km	Long run pace @ 6min/km
Total Done		64km

I can’t help but kept revise the game plan during the past 2 day’s long run sessions. I read thru some great story about PB in Seoul International Marathon, the key factors the weather adaption and the flat course. The flat course is a fix fact, but the weather is a variable. That’s means I will need to force myself out for a morning run this Friday and Saturday in Seoul, to let myself adjust to the temperature and clothing requirement. I belief the challenge will be the waiting of flag off until 5km in the race. After that, the engine will be warmed enough to keep going. Forecast for 15 March now is cloudy with some shower @ 10degC. Only minimum faith in these weather forecast, I will need the 2 trail runs to fine tune the attire.

The planned attire,

Running attire, running vest plus running t-shirt, arm sleeves, glove, compress short, cap, running buff and VFF Komodo Sport. Running jacket will be on if light shower.

Waiting for flag off, my running attire, plus a cotton t-shirt, running jacket, poncho and some hand warmer.

Transport from hostel to starting point, all above with additional long pants and light winter jacket.

The long pants and winter jacket (tentatively the running jacket too) will be packed into baggage for after race collection. The cotton t-shirt and the poncho will be disposed after the flag off.

On the other side, the game plan for the marathon is rather simple. Just keep going with faster than 5:40min/km pace, I will be fine. That’s plan A (359 finishing time), plan B will be kick in if I felt great after the first 10km, will push harder gradually and aim for a 350 finish time.

6 more days until the marathon.