Race Report: Putrajaya Night Marathon 2012

This is my 7th full marathon. Like all other runners, I was expecting a wet night run in Putrajaya. The sky was so dark when I am on my way to Putrajaya and no one will belief that we will eventually don’t have a single rain dropped that night, and the whole morning before the flag-off was dry and sunny too.

Arrived the parking around 6:40pm, already the parking is filled with cars and runners. Walked around the starting line and bounced into Khoo and his family. He was volunteer last PNM but this year only come to show support. Met with Nick before we were called into the starting pen. Not much warming up for me as I think the slow pace will only do the warming up on the route. The race flagged off right on time. I ran with Nick from the start. I think we started too fast, the pace for the first 10k was around 6.5~7 minutes, which is too fast for my target (but too slow for Nick :P). I knew that my under-trained condition will not allow me to hold on to this pace, so I just slowed down at 10k water station and Nick continued to pushed on.

This year got more runners in full marathon category, the route don’t felt so lonely this time. But this time I got new problem to deal with… I felt sleepy! This is the first time I felt sleepy in the middle of the race. The sleepiness really took away my pace and I beginning to slow down to some walking break from 21k onward. We were running on the long boring stretch of the highway at this point. Used varies methods to kept myself awake, counting lamp poles, cons, cars, and people passed me; stopped at all water stations too.

Finally, reached the 30k u-turn point and collected the gel at 33k (I don’t bring gel with caffeine). I gulped in the gel and slowly ramped up my pace again. Anyway, that the hilly section of the route started, and continued all the way to the finish. I had to reconfigured my running / walking mode. Walking up all the climbs and running on the declines and the flat route. I found that I actually enjoy doing this! Slowly regain my momentum, and I started to run all the way from 40k. Crossed the finish line in 5:46’13”.

Charging to the finish line.

Overall, organizer did a great job in PNM 2012. My only request for 2013 version will be allowing more runners to join the full marathon category (only about 800 of us registered this year). Putrajaya have wide open road to handle more 42km runners, properly this can be grow to 3rd biggest marathon event in Malaysia.

Good thing from this race, my feet seem recovered or the focus on the running gaits really help on it condition. I have one more full marathon (PBIM) to test out my goal of sub-5 marathon. I will need to ramp up the training to normal level now. Can I achieve my goal in Penang? We shall see :)

2,999KM

Just happened to browse thru the Dailymile site today, and saw this beautiful number on my total mileage. I started in Dailymile few months after I ran regularly, so I guess the total mileage since Sept 2010 will be about 500km more? I used to keep checking on these numbers especially the pounds/donuts burned, those were my motivation on my early stage of running. Rounding the world is another interesting number to looking at. I know this mileage is not really significant compared to some of the running hardcore, but I just wish to keep a record to mark down the distances I went so far. Hopefully, the running journey will continue until I rounded the world few times :)     …. btw, how far is it around the world?

Less than 48hours to my 7th Full Marathon.

See you guys in Putrajaya!

Race Report: KRI Anniversary Run 2012

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

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

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

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

Great things about this race,

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

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

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

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

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

Race Report: River Jungle Marathon 2012

A long overdue race report.

Finisher Medal (Front)

This is a very stressful race, eventhough this is my second time running on this beautiful route, but my physical condition don’t allow me to enjoy very much on the scene. I rushed back from Ipoh on Saturday night and can’t sleep well after prepared my race kit for the next morning. The alarm sounded on 2:45am, and I need to force myself out of bed and get ready to the starting point which is about 50minutes from my place.

RJM Route

Reached the venue about 4am and the parking were quite full. There are 400+ runners this year. Saw lots of familiar faces in the starting line, we took some photos. James briefed us about the route, promised the “fun” will begin from 17km (the Bukit Hantu) and some surprise along the route. The joke eased my stress a bit. Then we flagged off on time, and we heading to the 1st u-turn around 2.5km. The route is dark but I had less worry about the potholes issue as the roads seem to just resurface recently. I kept a very consistence pace @ 6.5 ~7 minutes all the way to 17km water station, right before the Bukit Hantu. The first stretch completed in 2hours as planned.

RJM Route Elevation

Stopped for some drinks and collected the energy gel for later. I took up the climb by slow jog. The mist still very thick when I start climbing, felt really great running in such cooling weather. The first km still manageable, but I had to slow down to walk as the elevation increasing, and finally reached the peak @ 20km. Charge down the descent at about 6~7 minutes pace and finished the 2nd stretch of the route in 51minutes, with 9 minutes to spare! Saw Khoo and his two princes volunteering @ water station, didn’t chat much as wish to use the balanced momentum to continue until the 2nd u-turn.

After 25km, still looking fresh. Photo by Khoo

This stretch is the most beautiful part of the route, it overlook to the magnificent water dams, but the sun start to come out and temperature raise. Completed the u-turn and returned to the water station for a banana, Khoo told me that there will be surprises in the 29k water station. That actually kept me going for a while. But I find it hard to kept on 7 minutes pace and the pace start to yo-yoing from 6.5 to 9 minutes. Not really good thing during the half way of a marathon. Finally reached the 29k water station and the icy cold coconut waiting us! Took my time to slowly drink it in and enjoy the surprised look on the other runners. Rested about 5 minutes, then dragged my legs out from the water station and move on.

From there onwards, I can hardly maintain an 8 minutes pace. I am not sure about my condition, I felt tired, weary and legs seem too heavy to keep moving. The situation continued and finally I gave up on running around 35km (even the great asam-boi ice popsicle handed out around 32k can’t help the situation). It must the longest 3km I faced. Walking alone under the hot sun, I can’t help to blame myself on taking up this challenge again, and swear that I will not return for the 3rd time next year. I tried to restart the engine by the run-walking interval, but that can’t help too. 5hours passed and I only completed 37km, I doubted myself could finish the balance 5km in one hour and I will definitely missed my target time. The feeling sunk to the bottom. I certainly missed Khoo who pushed me to continue last year.

Now, I can’t pin-point the reason that jump-started my engine again at 38km. Is that caused by the cheerful volunteers at water station, or may be is it the Singapore Mad Runner who passed me so cheerfully with other runners? Or I just get thru “the wall”? I don’t know. At that point, I just damped all my thoughts, ignored the pain, shut the mind off and continued the running. Stopped by the last water station for a quick refill, then I ran all the way back to the finish line. Completed my 6th marathon in 5:44’06”, 4 minutes behind my target.

Finisher Medal (Back)

RJM 2012, finish line

Overall this is a great marathon that you should try at least once. The challenging route, the scene view and the best organizer will sure give you the mixed feeling whether to redo it or not. For time being, I would like to taste that jump-starting feeling again, and I had the 3rd part of my game plan failed to execute. So I will return in 2013.

Key learning,

1. Lacking of training will definitely screw up the execution :P
2. GU Chomp not suitable for me as replacement of Gel. I don’t like the taste that staying too long in my mouth.

Preparation for 2012 River Jungle Marathon

Another 5 days will be my 6th marathon. River Jungle Marathon 2011 is my first full marathon. Back then, the route and the 42km really beat me up. I was really lucky to just finish the race, and I promised myself I will return to the course again to improve my timing. Looking back to what I had completed since then, I should be able to better the timing for this coming marathon compare to 6:31 last year. But I didn’t have sufficient training lately, so, a game plan is essential for me to optimize both speed and fun of running.

We can divide the route into three sections.
1. The first 17km from the starting line towards the 1st U-turn point, then all the way to the water station before the big climb. This section is rather flat, so I will go with 6.5~7 minutes pace to complete these 17km in 2 hours.
2. Then follow by the 6km of the famous Bukit Hantu, a combination of 3.8km climb and 2km descent. Plan to go with 10~12 minutes brisk-walking pace so I can clear this 6km in 1 hour.
3. Then the balanced 20km with a short climb, will be the real test on me to hold up to 7 minutes pace.
If everything went well, I will complete the race in 5:20. I will leave 20 minutes for spare. My target for this marathon will be 5:40.

This is from 1st edition, some changes made on the route

I will not put up a plan B, the mind will tentatively swift to auto mode and roll out the plan B (usually run-walking from 30km onwards) if I fixed something like that up front. Marathon, like other aspect in our life, we will need to push ourselves over the limit to enjoy the most of it. I planned to play hard this time, how about you? Good luck to those who running in Adidas KOTR.

Restarting Engine

Running had been one of the essential parts of my life since Sept 2010. As I peak my training mileages in March this year, it seems to be some over-trained effect posted on me. I find it hard to head right out the door eventhough I am still waking up on 4:30am. I normally dragged myself until 5:30~5:45am so that I only had enough time for 4~7km. The impact is clearly shown on the monthly running log. I am not really good at self reflection, so it took some time for me to make up my own story about this. The 11 days of grounding period that without running at all really helps.

Two main points (which there are not really stand alone) to summarize this,

1. Running is not solely for enjoyment anymore.

2. Sense of achievement some time can be too heavy to bear.

It is good to have a training plan and adhere to it to achieve a preset goal. It is embedded on my personality that I will normally felt depression after a big event, especially there are nothing else will be happen in the near future. Like we usually joked about the incline in a route, every ascent will be follow by a descent. The achievement is great, but we will later need to endure the down side of the story. Sadly, running which give big sense of achievement fall nicely into this model.

In other term, as long as I trained enough and did it right on the race day, the sub-5 marathon goal is really achievable for me. But I think I am too afraid to ask myself, what’s next? I am happy if I am running a 4 hours plus marathon, but I think I will need to put in many more effort if I wish to improve further, and it may tentatively take away the fun part from this activity. Eventually, I will hit my best and how should I handle that situation?

I wish I could have the answer to myself, but I don’t, at least for now. I am still running because I signed up some races and I still enjoy reading my fellow runners’ blogs FB posts. I am trying out some new thoughts and ways to handle the feeling. Isn’t that life always is? I am consider lucky that I am still understand my own feeling and able to put up some thoughts about it. May be one day I will be able to overcome the huddle and become more invincible to my emotion swing. I will settle with what I had for now. One good thing that I learned from running long distances, focus to your current step!

The Olympics Men Marathon last night gave me some adrenaline to continue. Meb Keflezighi can still come back after 8 years and finished at 4th at age 37. Stephen Kiprotich from Uganda running at his own pace and stayed on the chasing pack until 37km before he take the lead, break out 200m from the Kenyan and claimed the gold medal.

Meb Keflezighi took over the 4th place on the final stretch

Stephen Kiprotich win the 2012 Olympics Marathon.

Both Olympics 2012 photos taken from internet source: 
http://photos.presstelegram.com/2012/08/photos-mens-olympic-marathon/#24

I am restarting my engine now for the River Jungle Marathon in 9 Sept. No sub-5 expected from this marathon. I think I missed lots of scenes and other fun during my first marathon last year. I will take my own sweet time to enjoy this route again.

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!