PBIM HM Worst (hopefully) Performance

 Hopefully, this is the worst HM.  I was walking after 6km of run.  At times, I wanted to run and tried to run, but can only hold for awhile before I have to walk back.  I was really thinking DNF, but I couldn't find runners sitting aside waiting to be carried back, so, I just walked back painfully.

In the beginning of the run, I didn't feel any different.  The only thing was, for the last few training seasons before the race, my heartrate elevated easily.  Typically, my heartrate was ~135bpm when I ran at 8 min pace.  However, for last few seasons, my heartrate was close to 150bpm even at 8 min pace.  So, I have decided to take it easy this time.

However, after ~6km of run, I started to feel dizziness when I looked down, and I felt the dryness of my lips.  Since my friend sent an article on people die while running with one of the symptom is lack of water.  As I was worry about my situation, I started to walk/run a bit in 7km.  After having a drink, I tried to start running but the dizziness feel when I looked down still remained.  So, I decided to just walk until the end.

The thinking of DNF started to surface up in my mind.  I was looking around to see if I can find any runner sitting beside the road waiting for transportation to fetch them back.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any.  So, I just kept walking and told myself to stop if I see DNF runners.  While walking, I started to wonder I can finish the HM before the cut0-off time.  This is the 1st time I had that doubt in my mind for HM distance.

Eventually, I finished the distance at 3 hour 19 mins, 10 mins before cut-off.

When I think back, these are the possible issues I had for this race:-

1.  Lack of water:  From all previous races, I will need to pass out urine before the race and then after 1 hour+, I will need to pass out urine another time for HM distance.  For this time, I don't feel the urge to pass out urine and even for the whole 3 hours + walking.

2.  Lack of rest: For this time, the day before, I still visited Taiping Zoo with family and only reach Penang ~4pm.  While trying to sleep at 7pm, I woke up 8+pm and couldn't sleep again until the race started.

3.  Higher heartrate: For some reasons, my heartrate was higher at typical pace, which I still have no idea of the cause.

I can have solution for the first 2 possible causes but not the 3rd one.  I can only monitor the progress of the 3rd one and hopefully the medical check out in Feb will have some hints.

Fuel:-

1.  Instant noodle with eggs 2 hours before the race.

2.  1.5L water 2 hours before the race.

HM in Storm

It is really a true experience for me to run in thunderstorm.  The wind was very strong until I felt the pain as rain drop hitting my face.

With lack of training, the last 3 km was really suffering.  In all the previous run, I felt excited when reaching 18km and wanted to run faster too complete the race, although not able to...  But this time, at 18km, I really felt like to walk for 3km to complete the race.  Anyway, I dragged myself with slow jog to complete it.

The heavy rain started at 16km on the bridge.  My eyes could hardly open due to the rain and have to use my mouth for breathing while the pace was down a bit to around 7min/km.

Except for the 1st 2 km where I was getting myself away from the crowd, I was running in a manageable pace of around 6:30min/km with heartrate of around 170bpm.  I guess that could me my space for 10km without really training...

Adding this run statistic into the heart rate vs pace will get the following:-

Comparing to other HM in 2018, I experienced a higher heart rate that could due to lack of training.

Concluding 2017 (7th year of running - my 1st FM)

After 7 years of running I finally tried out a full marathon.  It is not a pleasant one that cause me to be very demotivating in running for a few months before I start to like training again.  I guess this could be over train syndrome.  I didn't force myself to hard to get back to my normal weekly mileage of 20km and my weekly mileage drop for a few weeks or months.  Another possibility could be the change in my life style since I didn't take up a full time job this year and still looking to get a balance in my life.
The above caused me to run my worse HM in Jul and Nov.
All of these could pass now as I started to get exited in training again and looking at logging 20km consistently again as soon as I could.
I concluded the year with another Penang Round Island Relay, which initially I wasn't intended to join.  I joined the relay for the pass 2 years and found that very tiring to start my journey as early as 3am and ended around 2pm in the afternoon.  For this year, I just participated in my run and went back home for rest before going to the finish line again when the team finished.  I was running in Station #4 with up hill that not much people like to run.  However, it turned out not too bad to me to be able to run 5:49min/km pace, which I am very satisfy with despite having high fever the week before with less than 10 km per week for the last 2 weeks.
As I was working hard to cut down my races, I finally managed to do it this year due to other commitment.  For the whole 2017, I just joined 5 races including my 1st FM.  There were 2 races that I wanted to join but not able to due to schedule conflict.


Summary for 2017:-

1. Joined my 1st FM.  Concluded that I need more training to participate in FM.
2. Clocking my my worst HM timing which could be due to insufficient training or age!
3. Participated in only 5 races, vs 13 races in 2016!

My plan for 2018:-

1. Increase weekly mileage.  Slowly increase my mileage to ~30km per week.
2. Increase my weekly running days to 4 days a week.
3. Join less races.  Only focus on HM locally, or charity race, hoefully 5~6 races should be good enough.

My First Full Marathon

After running for 5 years, I finally completed a Full Marathon in Perlis Marathon.  I signed up for Full Marathon after several "encouragement" from the running peers and thought I should had more time to train now after I didn't engage with a full time job for now.

However, my running mood was very down that I practically stop running except for weekend 10km run for the last few weeks before the FM...

Since this is my 1st FM, my aim is just to experience the long distant and complete the race before the cut-off time.  So, I started the run with "slow" pace of around 8min/km.  To avoid muscle cramp, which I heard often from other running friends, I took 100+ in every water stations.  Everything progress as plan.  When I reached 22km check marker, I was very happy because that was the longest distant that I had ever run.  I felt excited to start a new journey.  My goal after this point is just to run as far as I could and start my run-walk plan!

Very soon at 25km, I started to experience pain at the ball of my foot.  I carried on for awhile (a few tens of meters) and I just decided to walk.  From my calculation, if I started the walk at this point, I still would be able to complete before the cut-off time.  I just counting down the remaining distance for the completion...

A few kilometer later, the pain propagated to the heel of my foot even thou I was just walking.  Very soon, I started to feel the pain coming from my thigh muscles of my left leg.  I had to keep walking with fast pace (~10min/km) in order to finish the Full Marathon distant before the cut-off time.  Thus, I just keep the fast walking pace with pain as I believe the permanent injury due to fast walk is not high.  Later part of the walking, the pain propagate to side of my foot and then top of my foot.

At around 30 km of the race, I also felt strain in my abdomen muscles.  I tried to jog slowly, but my pain in my foot was very intense.  I thought to myself that I just have to walk to avoid further injury.

At 40 km, I was thinking to complete the race with 2km jog but then I was just couldn't, the pain at my foot was so intolerable.  Anyhow, I force myself to jog the last 500 m just to look nice at the finish line!

Luckily, with the help of energy gel, I didn't feel that so called "hit-the-wall" symptom.  But really feel like to give up especially the last few kilometers!

Beside completing my first full marathon, I also logged the longest weekly distance of all time at 48.8 km!

Overall, I am very happy with the run although I feel terrible.  I managed to know my weakness to work on for the next Full Marathon.  I think I would not join another Full Marathon without a proper preparation.

I need to work on the core and a longer distant run during training.

1st Event in 2017

Gelugor Power Run 2 is the 1st running event in 2017.  Despite accumulating 30km this week, I think I did good in the run clocking 5:40"/km with 3 minor uphill.  I am attributing this to more regular training recently.  Although not long, but I had a more consistent run of 3~4 km every 2 or 3 days.

Except for the beginning 1st km and uphill at 9th km where I ran more than 6 mins pace, my pace was around 5+ min/km throughout the run with only 5:00/km in the last km.

If I can keep to this training schedule and stamina, I will try for another sub-2 HM again end of the year.

Get back my feel of running

Finally, after a few months of set-back, I started to get back the feel of running starting mid of May, after the NTCRC 3-state HM.

However, due to slightly busy work schedule, I only managed to train long run during weekend and very difficult to squeeze time for run during weekday.

During the FIT Malaysia Run in end of May, I really enjoyed the run and felt strong after completing the 8.3km run.  Although not achieving my best timing, I felt very comfortable after the run.

For my 2nd HM this year in Garmin HM on Jun 4, I felt very comfortable after the run.  Again, I only managed to beat the 2 hour 15 mins target this time.  I was running with the pace of 6:30min/km after warming up at beginning 2 km.  It was until 11km, after my toilet visit, that I started to pick up the pace in trying to hit 6:00min/km.  However, a few km after that was with inconsistent pace.  Eventually, I sped up around 17km in trying to catch the 2hr15 mins pacer.  Finally, I managed to catch the pacer within the last 1 km and achieving 2hr 13mins finish time.

Anyway, I felt that my running feel is back and hopefully can continue until end of the year and improve my self until end of the year!

My Worst HM

I knew I wouldn't be running a good HM this time due to lack of training but I still hope that I could be in par with my 1st HM that I ran a few years back.  Unfortunately, this NTCTC 3-state HM turned out to be my worst HM since I first running.

Not only I clocked the slowest pace, but I felt terrible for the last 6 km.  I only managed to drag myself at close to 7 min/km pace after 16km.  After showing my results to a friend of mine, he mentioned that I ran too fast in the middle of the run, which could be true.  I was running at less than 6 min/km pace after 6km for 7km.  During that period of time my fastest lap was 5:38min/km.  Since I could run with around 5:40 min/km for my previous HM in Nov last year, I thought I could hold on to 5:40min/km pace until end of the race.

It turned out that I couldn't!  And it is due to lack of training.  Due to my busy work schedule and injury, my March training mileage was only 13km for the whole month.  Yes, 13km for the whole month!  Then, I put in some effort to look my training mileage prior to all the HM that I ran before.

Following is the summary:-

	Avg training mileage (km)
HM Pace	16W	8W	4W
1) 6:13/km	18.0	17.7	17.3
2) 6:06/km	17.5	17.5	13.2
3) 5:51/km	25.2	24.5	22.3
4) 5:58/km	16.2	17.6	17.1
5) 5:41/km	24.1	24.2	23.0
6) 6:16/km	14.8	11.8	10.6

Note: 16W, 8W, 4W are the number of weeks before the actual HM race.

From the summary, it shows that I need to train with average weekly mileage of 25 km for around 16 weeks prior to the HM to be able to achieve less than 6 min/km pace during the race.  As for the 6th HM that I ran for 6:16min/km, my average training mileage was only half (or less than half as approaching the race) comparing to my 5th (best so far) HM.  So, there's no short cut in training to get good results.

Looking forward, I can only run back my best HM results if I start with more than 25 km / week training now for 16 weeks.  So, the timing would be after Oct!

I hope I can keep to the training volume that I'd like to be.

My 1st Penang Round the Island Relay

I have been hearing and reading blog regarding this annual event and have not joined any.  As this is the relay of 12 runners, and I usually run alone, it is not easy for me to join this event.  However, starting mid of this year that I joined a group of runners, I was asked to join them to form a Mixed Team.  Just to try out what it is like, I agreed to join.

From what I read, all runners would be sent to their station at the beginning of the race.  So, I thought that would be the case for me.  However, I understand from one of the team mates that the rules have changed since last year that only the first 3 runners were sent to their respective stations at the beginning of the race.  With this arrangement, the runners at the last few stations would not be that tired waiting for their turns to run.

I was arranged to be at station#11, which would be hot by the time of running.  As this is the mixed team, last few stations would normally be run by male runners.

This year, the race started at 4am, one hour earlier than before.  Again, this is good for the runners at last few stations.  Our team captain made the arrangement for all the teammates to go from one station to another to cheer for other teammates.  This was very fun and excited.

To make it more exciting, as this running group formed 2 mixed team, we have a friendly match between the teams.

As planned, I reached the starting line at 3am.  I met a few friends there.  After getting our BIBs, we just hanged out at the place.  Right after the 1st runner took off, we sat in separate cars to go to station #2.  We were there at station#2 to see the pass over of baton to another runner.  After that, we went to another station.  This is the process until the last station.

As we were competing with another team, our team was losing probably around 15 mins until the sixth runner.  When the seventh runner from our team started the run, we just hope that we can close up the gap with another team.  To our surprise, our team runner overtook the other team at the last 100m before reaching station #8.  This really gave pressure to the runners after that!

Before the run, I have been told that runner #11 from the other team is a fast runner.  So, I just hoped that runner#10 either losing to another team or can give me 6 mins advantage so that I would not be the one causing our team to lose.  Finally, runner from our team reached station#11 first.  The pressure was on me now and I didn't know how much advantage we had over the other team.

I initially planned to run at 6 mins pace due to the heat.  Also, I set my watch to alert if my pace is faster than 5 mins/km.  However, under pressure, I started up the run at 4+mins pace.  I knew I couldn't continue for long in that pace but I wasn't really able to slow down much under pressure.  Eventually, after 2km, I was too tired and just slowed down to walk.  Calculating by heart telling me that I should have 1~2 mins time to walk.

After walking for around 1 min I think, I ran again.  And this time, with slower pace, 5+ min, which I think I could continue for awhile.  So, I continued with that pace for awhile and stop for another walking session before reaching station #12.

Finally, I completed the 6.5km with 5:14min/km pace.  This is not the fastest pace that I had but certainly is the fastest under the hot sun.  This is really exciting event and the most pressure run that I had so far!

2015 APBIM HM Race Report

Finally, after weeks and weeks of training, I have completed the race.  Well, I just managed to clock 2-hr (well, 2 hours and 9 seconds to be exact) for this HM.  Not as good as I'd like to be, but I have tried  my very best this time AND I think I have identified my weakness so that I can train well in next HM!

For this time, since I was expecting a narrow road at the beginning of the race, I squeezed myself a bit in front than before.  I was just more than 10 rows in front of the starting line.  This helps as I didn't feel like being blocked by anyone at the beginning of the race.  In fact, after analyzing the running split, I found that I actually saved more than 1 minute for the 1st km as compare to last year HM (my fastest HM before this one!).

I found myself running at slightly less than 6 mins pace for the 1st km, which was good.  I have then decided to slightly increase my pace to hopefully at 5:40min pace to meet my sub-2 goal.  However, I didn't want to increase too much of my pace until I was too tired.  I was just running by feel without constantly checking my pace.  At every km, which my watch alert me, I checked my pace and my pace was around 5:50min, which I thought was good enough for the 1st half of the race.

After the 1st water station, around 7km, I decided to increase my pace to be less than 5:40min to make up for the slower pace earlier on.  I then ran with the pace of 5:30min.  I felt a tired with that pace but I knew that I would stop for water at around 10km and thus I just pushed myself a little bit.

At 10km, I stopped for water and I checked out my watch that my elapsed time was 57mins, 1 min slower than what I planned.  So, I cut down the walking time and started to run again just after ~30 steps of walking.  I just ran at controlled pace (comfortably hard, maybe) after the drink.  I didn't check my pace because I knew that I couldn't go faster than this pace and shouldn't go slower than this pace either.  I just want to hold on to this pace as much as I could to go for my best HM time.

I wasn't been able to hold this pace for long.  I knew that if I were to meet the sub-2 goal, I would have to reach the 3rd U-turn before 1:30hr.  Again, I pushed myself hard for not slow down until I reached the 3rd U-turn.  Finally, when I reached the 3rd U-turn, and I checked my watch, it was 1:32hr, 2 mins slower than what I'd like to be.

I was a bit disappointed.  However, I knew that I had really tried my best.  I knew my problem was not trained long distant enough at target pace.  I then realized that I had to train at target pace of 5:30mins instead of 5:40mins due to slightly longer distance in actual route than the calculated HM distance.  Also, I have to at least run a few times at target pace for more than 15km during training.

Instead of giving up altogether, I was thinking that if I didn't try harder this time, it would be much harder next year due to my age.  So, I pushed myself hard again!  Until I had to stop for another time at around 17km!  With the help of negative slope at 18km, I managed to picked up the pace a little bit.  During that time, I just wished to improve from my last year timing instead of hitting the sub-2 goal!

After 18km, I was just running as hard as I could without thinking too much.  I knew I wasn't been able to hit sub-2.  Finally, at the last km, I was running the same pace as a lady runner.  As woman HM started 15 mins later than man, I knew that she was running at faster than sub-2 pace to be able to catch up with me.  The pacing worked as it turned out that I was running slightly faster than earlier!

Finally, I saw the finish line.  To my surprise, the clock was showing 2:00:0x.  I didn't expect to finish at 2 hours.  So, I tried to speed up and it turned out that I was running at less than 5 mins pace for the last 500 m!

Overall, I am quite happy with the outcome, although I'd like it to be sub-2!  My fueling strategy is right as I don't feel hungry and thirsty during the run, and didn't go to toilet too!

As I mentioned, I'd need to train harder at HM pace for longer distance.  I just happened to talk to a 7th placing HM lady and she was logging 90km per week to be able to complete HM in 1:41hours!  So, I have a long way to go.

Here's my results (top 2.4%):-

Fuel:-
1.  1 pack of instant noodle 2 hours before the race.
2.  ~500ml of water 2 hours before the race.
3.  Another ~100ml of water 1 hour before the race.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (9 wk to go)

The week before was one of the highest mileage so far, 28.7 km to be exact.  I didn't push myself further as I wanted to maintain around 30 km to let me body adopt to this mileage.

This week (the week that just passed) was supposed to be recovery week, sort of, with lower mileage.  However, I joined a training group which organized a group training at hilly route of Lintang Bukit Jambul.  I wanted to just run 5~6 km initially.  But due to training group and most of the people still running, I ended up running close to 10 km.  Since my pace was slow, I didn't feel that tired even after hiking up the Bukit Jambul Hill after the 10 km run.

I concluded the week with another 10 km race.  As expected, the race was not well organized and very crowded after the merging of 5 km runners together with 10 km running at the final 2+ km.  Anyway, I logged another good 10 km timing of 49:26" (5:14"/km pace) due to flat route!

I kind of able to know how to fuel myself this time as I had ~500ml of water before the run and 1 cup of Yogult.  I was OK throughout the race.

I think I am in a very good condition now, ie. feel no pain even running at this pace.  If I can keep to this performance and with my training plan until the APBIM, I think I can run my best HM this year.

Fuel:
1.  1 cup of Yogult with 75 kcal each 2 hours before the race.
2.  2 glasses of water 2 hours before the race with 500 ml of water mixed with 100+ carried with me until the race started.

2015 APBIM HM Training Journal (15 wk to go)

Since I participated in the race on Sunday, I had a bit of reserved in my weekday training, not doing as high mileage as I could.  This is because I was hoping that the Sunday 10km race could make up the mileage.  As most of the races that I joined before, the actual race distance for this one is slightly shorter than the intended.

Hence, my total mileage this week was around 1 km shorter than what I put in the training plan.  But with the faster speed during the race, ie. higher intensity, the actual training effort is higher than last week.

As for the 10 km race, BM Run, this is the fastest 10 km time that I had.  I completed the 10 km run (9.9 km recorded by my Garmin) in 51:33 mins, which is 5:14 min/km.  Before this, the fastest 10 km run was with pace of 5:18 mins/km, which I recorded in Nov 2014 during the Tanjung 10 km Run.  With this results, I turned out to be in 20th placing in my category, Veteran!  This is possible due to no cash prize given to the top winners and thus not able to attract a lot of fast runners to join this race!  Good for me but unfortunately, the prizes are only given from 1st to 15th placing!

Fuel:
1.  2 bottles of Yogurt that has 105kcal each.
2.  1 little of water but feel like need to go to toilet after around 6km!  So, need to reduce.

4th HM (lack of training)

As expected, this is really a struggling HM run for me.

For all the three HM that I ran before, I have at least one run more than 2 hours or more than 16km during training.  But for this time, the longest run I had since early of the year was 14km (around 1hr 23 mins).  So, I really struggle at the end of the run.

The first 10km in the run had no surprises.  I ran with the pace of 5:30~5:40min/km after 4km.  I was thinking that if I could keep to this pace until the end of the race, I could really target for sub-2.  I knew I was a bit optimistic because I felt that my breathing was harder than I'd like to be.  With that kind of breathing, I knew I couldn't keep too long.

So, at km 10 (or 11), after I stopped for drink, I felt too tired to start running again.  I forced myself to start running after walking for more than 1 min.  For all the previous 3 HMs, I just walked for 1 min and felt so energetic to start running again.  Slowly, I increased the pace to 5:20min/km, targeting to finish sub-2.  However, the 5:20min/km pace didn't last long.  Only for 2~3km with that pace.  I was then pacing with a fellow runner with around 5:40~5:50min/km.  I had hard time keeping up with that pace but I tried hard.  I had pain at my side that I just had to slow down a bit.

Just before the last incline of the bridge, that runner increased his pace.  I just couldn't keep up and just stick to my own pace, which I looked at my watch, was slightly slower than 5:50min/km.

The last part of the run was a real struggle for me.  At the peak of incline, my pace was dropped down to 7:00min/km.  At decline, I was hoping I could increased my pace to 5:20min/km but I failed.  My legs were so heavy that I could only run with around 6min/km pace at sloping down.

Lastly, I managed to struggle through the last 500m flat surface with 5:30min/km pace to complete the HM with 2:06 finishing time.  I was so exhausted at finish line.  For all the previous HM, I felt exited and felt like I can still jog slowly for a few km.  Not for this time.

My conclusion is, either the age has catch up with me or it is the lack of training that causing all these struggling.  I believe lack of training is the key for this struggling, couple with the fact that I didn't had a good sleep a few nights before the run!

Here's my results...

So, I will to come up with good training plan for the next HM in Nov...

 

Taiping Run 2014

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!

Sub-2 in HM??!! Maybe...

1:57:18 was the time I read from my Garmin watch when I reached the HM finish line of 2014 APBIM.  This is an amazing time to me.  My target for this year APBIM HM was 2:06.  However, when I checked the distant from the watch, it only showed 20.06km!  More than 1km short from standard HM distant of 21.095km.  Yes, that's more likely the case from how I feel during the run.

My friend's Garmin also showed 20.06km on his watch.  Other HM runners also commented on this distant of slightly more than 20km only.

However, I stopped several times during this run.  I woke up 12:30am and started my hydration plan of drinking 1.5L of water before the run.  My last drink was at 1:40am and I went to toilet at 2:30am.  After 5~6km of run, I felt like I need to go to toilet again.  I hold on to it until I reached the toilet with no queue, which was around 11km.

Another 2 stops was at the beginning due to large group of runners.  The stop-walk-run situation continued for around 0.5km.  At around 15km, a runner (full marathon I guess) felt in front of me due to muscle clamp.  I stopped and stood by him for a couple of seconds until another runner stop to help him.

So, here's how I can do the math.  If I continue my last km with the pace of 5:51km, I would have finished the 21.095km in 2:03::21.  Minus out all the 3 stoppages which total up to 2:54 mins and I should be less than 30 seconds to achieve the sub-2 in HM.  If I improve the walk-run pace from 8min/km to at least 6min/km, I can take, maybe, a minute from there and really meet the sub-2 in my HM time!

After all, I shouldn't just do the math as above because I might have too tired and run with slower pace without all the stoppages!

Anyway, quite a good run and I shall wait to see how the organizer respond to the shorter HM distant!

Tanjung 10km Run 2014

This is the 2nd year I joined this run.  It is so far the cheapest run that I joined, ie. RM20 for 10km.  For last year, the race kit was just a normal T-shirt and BIB.  For this year, I was hoping the same but I was surprise when what I got inside the race kit.

The race kit collection was very smooth.  Not much waiting.  What more is the content of the race kit.  With RM20 in 2014, this is what you get:

You get a dry fit T-shirt as well.

Comparing to last year where I noticed a few buses carrying runners to the starting line, the participants for this year is relatively fewer.  I still remember seeing a few groups of foreign workers joining the race last year.  But not this year.  It could be because the registration was done online and the short duration between the registration to the actual race day.

Anyway, the main reason for me to join the race is to be able to gauge if there's any improvement in my running speed since a year before after putting so much hard work and time for training.  The target that I set to myself is to be able to finish faster than last year finishing time of 57mins.  The route is relatively flat which I can also use this race result to predict my APBIM half marathon time in the coming 2 weeks.

There's no surprises before and during the run.  The route is the same as last year but with less runners.  As usual, I started in the middle of the pack.  Only after 2km I started to feel like pulling myself away from the crowd.

I tried to control myself for not checking my Garmin watch for the speed.  Instead, I wanted to train myself to run by feel.  So, the 1st time I looked at my watch for speed was after 5km.  I was running at 5:10min/km, which is a bit faster than I wanted to.  However, since I thought I could keep this pace moving forward, I just kept running at the same speed.  Unfortunately, I started to feel tired around 7km.  I actually needed to push myself for the last 3km.

In order to push myself forward, I was checking at my watch quite often and try to keep to at least 5:30min/km pace until the end of the race.

With the help of my Garmin watch for checking my pace, I eventually finished the race at 52mins (for 9.8km according to my watch) .  I was very please with the finishing time and most importantly, I don't feel too exhausted with this finishing time.  My legs feel good as well with the Brooks PureFlow 2.  I think I really like this low drop shoes.

I still think I need to improve my control over my pace.  I was actually wanted to be slightly slower at the beginning of the race.  To run slower at the beginning of the race is especially important for the half marathon race.

A pretty satisfying race after all...

My First Race

This is certainly not my first race, instead, this is my first race for others.  A friend of mine was not able to participate in this Rock to Rock Run that he signed up awhile ago.  However, he really likes the finishing medal.  Thus, I was asked to run for the medal for him!

After reviewing my training plan, I changed my weekend long run of 18km to one easy run on Saturday and then the 10km race on Sunday.  This could make up to the total weekly mileage that I planned for.  So, I agreed to do that for him.

The arrangement was to have another friend to pass me the BIB on the race day.  As usual, I reached the race venue around 1 hour before the race started.  After warm up and a few rounds of slow run, the friend had not shown up.

It was 6:52am (race start at 7am) and I still didn't had my BIB yet.  I was struggling to myself if I should run without BIB or go home.  I was biased towards the 2nd options.  After walking the last round at hotel lobby (where I planned to meet up with my friend for the BIB), I decided to go home.  As I walked outside the lobby, I met a few other friends.  So, we just talked had a quick talk.  Just after a few sentences, the friend just brought the BIB in.

We quickly registered ourselves (to get the coloured rubber band) and went to the starting line.  I stopped beside the road to pin my BIB on.  Since the race had not started and I didn't want to run with my handphone on my hand, I decided to jog to my car around 500m away to put my handphone in my car.

While half way jogging back to the starting line, I heard the starting whistle.  Trying to control my pace, I just kept to jog at slower pace until I reach the starting line.  Before reaching the starting line, I had to make my way through the fun run crowd in which their run was to start at 7:15am.

Finally, I reached the starting line and started my Garmin watch for the run.  I could be the last runner to cross the starting line.  It took me some efforts to run pass slower runner at the start.  This disturb my tempo and breathing a bit.  However, I managed to keep my breathing back in a short while.

For last year, I participated in this run a few days after I recovered from my back pain.  So, I was running very slow and careful last year.  This time though, I was able to run at my regular pace on this route.

As what I intended before the run, I finished the race with slightly less than 1 hour time.  I was then waited for the friend to pass the medal and just leave for subsequent event.

This is my first time running for others.  With this experience, I will not allow myself to collect my race BIB on the race day!

NTCRC Run 2014

This is my first run out of the island.  Before joining this run, I have read quite a lot of good comments on the run especially the food provided after the run.  It is true.

In this year, when all the registration fees for joining a race are all increasing, I really feel that I should be paying more for the run.  For a RM20 run, we were given a dry fit singlet.  The singlet distribution is so well prepared that it had the BIB and singlet put inside the same packing bag with your name written outside the bag.  Despite good food provided after the run, there are 3 drum teams close to the end of the finish line to cheer you up.  This is the first run that I experience something like that.  Would that make any different?  I guess so, I was kind of tired at the end of 1~2km but the running spirit kicked when I heard the drum beat from the 1st drum group.  That kept me moving on with steady pace until the end of the run.  Although the finishing medal size is slightly small, but it is gold platted.  Without a detail look to those never join this kind of race, it looks like a gold medal of the champion!

A very fulfilling run that I would certainly join next year if the timing is right.

Newton Challenge Penag 2014 (7km)

It seems like less and less bloggers are publishing race report.  However, reading race reports from others helps me to prepare for the race that I am unfamiliar with,or to decide if I want to join that particular race.

Newton Challenge Penang 2014 is the first race that I joined this year.  To me, this is a badly organized race with respect to the fees paid.

First of all, when the 7km race starting time had pull in from 6:45am to 6:00am, the information wasn't updated in web-site or having a note in racing kit.  The information was only made available in their facebook page.  I understand that quite a few runners missed out the information and were only arrived after the race started.

Secondly, the turning junction for 7km race wasn't clearly labeled.  No sign board or any physical indication of turning junction.  The "volunteers" at the junction instructed the front runners to go further straight up to the hill before another "volunteer" on bicycle coming from behind asking them to turn back.

Moreover, it was really a mess at the finish line that quite a lot of runners doesn't know where to get the medal.

For the 17km race, I heard that the race started ~10 mins late due to runners crowded after the starting line.  Upon finishing 17km, the runners was given just a bottle of 500ml drinking water without any food.

Lastly, no one controlled the traffic after the event finished.  People experienced stuck in the traffic jam for ~2 hours.  Luckily, since I left earlier, I was only stuck in the jam for half an hour.

However, the plus points for the event is to have a pair of socks as well as timing chip was used (although I read comments that the time was not recorded for some runners at the front).

Overall, this race is worse than the RM20 10km race that I participated last year, while I have to pay RM58 just to have a pair of socks and timing chip.

RHB Centennial Run 2013

I didn't plan to take part in the run initially but after a few urge from my friend, I gave in and joined the run.  After all, this is not a bad run anyway.

As I was kind of tired in previous Tanjung 10km run, I decided to run a bit slow this time.  However, to break away from the crowd, I ended up with a bit faster pace than I wanted.  I kind of felt that I was a bit fast and I confirmed it with my Garmin watch showing 5:xx min/km.

Again, I wanted to slow down but I just felt like going with that pace to see how it turned out at the end of the race.  At 8km, I tried to pick up the pace.  However, not much faster that I could run as I had been running faster than I used to for quite long distant.

I completed the race with 55:49 min, which is my best 10k so far.

Tanjung 10km Run 2013

It is a bit surprise that I can complete this run with less than 1 hour.  I was targeting to finish the race between 70 to 80 minutes.  This target is based on my recent pace at training.  Thus, I was a bit surprise with the results.

As I have been running for 10km or slightly more these few weeks, I have no doubt that I can complete the race with no trouble.  For this time, I planned my toilet time correctly, ie. to queue up for the toilet about 30 minutes before the start.  So, I was pretty much ready at the starting line 5 minutes before the race.

I was targeting to start with the pace between 7min/km or 8min/km and picked up the pace after 3km or so.  I started off with slightly faster than I wanted to be.  I guess it was due to less participants that I was just following the crowd (I didn't want to be left too much behind).  I wanted slow down after initial run but I didn't eventually.  Since I was still able to keep up with the pace without much problem, I just continued with the pace ~6min/km.  With this slightly faster pace, I was then planned to run faster after 5km.

At around 5km, after the only drink station, I ran slightly faster.  I was tired hard but I keep to my pace as much as I can.  Struggling slightly as I move further.  However, I knew I could finish the run with this pace.  I didn't really able to enjoy the run at this stage but still be able to run at steady pace.

As I still have around 2km to go, I was kind of challenged by a few runners.  I thought I was running at constant pace but these three runners picked up their pace after I passed them.  We by-passing each other several times until the finish line.  This friendly competition forced me to really pick up my pace.  I can feel that my breathing was fast.  I have been able keep 2-3 kind of breathing throughout the run until now.  For this last 2km, I was using 2-2 breathing tempo.

I really feel like racing this time when I crossed the finish line.  For all the previous runs (except the half marathon), I should be able to continue running for 1km with the same pace after crossing the finish line.  But for this, I really felt thankful that the race is over.

That's how I achieved this 10k run with ~57minutes.  A fulfilling but tiring race after all.