This is the furthest run that I joined since I started running, around 90km away from my house. So, I stayed overnight at my hometown, which is 50km away from Taiping, and it took me 45 mins to drive to the starting line. In terms of traveling time, it is about the same as I drive to Rock to Rock Run from my house.
Also, this is the race that joined while I have not fully recovered from flue, which I had 2 weeks ago.
Because of flue (and raining in the afternoon that prevented me from running), I haven't been running consistently. My weekly mileage was around 5~10km for the last 2~3 weeks since Penang Bridge Half Marathon in mid of Nov. So, for this run, my plan was to run slowly and not to have high target for finishing time. But... I know myself that I might be pushing myself too hard during the run. So, I had to constantly remind myself to listen to my body during the run.
Before the race, I checked out the route to know that there were 2 hills for the 12km route in the 1st 4~5km. I knew that I had to conserve energy for the hills and for the rest of the route.
As usual, I started in the middle of the crowd. So, as expected, I can only walk at the beginning. However, since not that many participants (several hundreds I guess), I managed to run slowly just a few steps after the starting line.
Running at slow pace (I didn't even check my watch), I was able to handle the 1st hill without problem. However, at almost the peak of the 2nd hill, I decided to slow down by walking. With this, not too hard for me to handle the two hills.
After the hills, I just ran at conservative pace. At certain points when I felt that I ran too fast, I actually had to slow down. When I checked my watch occasionally, I noticed that I was running at pace of 5:50min/km, which I think was a bit fast. Anyway, since I felt that I could still handle it, I just kept going.
Probably around 10km, I really felt tired and I slowed down a bit. However, I picked up the pace again when close to the finish line.
Surprisingly, I finished the run with just slightly over 70 mins (70 mins and 13 seconds to be exact). My target before the run was to finish around 80mins due to the 2 hills and flue. So, at least, with this finishing time, I think my stamina haven't been dropping too much. Most importantly, I don't feel any serious pain whatsoever on my legs after the run.
Well, this is the last race for this year. Overall, my running time improves from previous year. However, I joined too many race (total to 9) this year. I will need to cut it down next year!
A good concluding run for the year to me!
