BP, Lam and I waited for Will to arrive at the finish line. After waiting for about 5 minutes, we saw Will running with confidence to the finish line. He finished in exactly 2 hours. We quickly met up with him and took a photo together. He needed to go immediately after the run to go to Melaka. Personally, I was really glad he could make it for this run. He said he had cramp earlier near the 2nd water station , and rested a while there before continued on.
I met Lam about 10 minutes after I finished the race. He finished the race in 1 hour 33 minutes, 2 minutes ahead of BP. I managed to locate BP also among the crowd. We tried to look for Will but couldn't find him.
After I finished the race, I quickly returned the timing chip and collected my goodies bag with the finisher medal. Then I went straight to the water/food station to rehydrate myself. I also ate some light snacks, e.g. Tau Fu Fa, banana and water melon.
The unique design of the finisher medal.I stopped my heart rate monitor at 1 hour 24 minutes 53 seconds. The GPS reading was at 15.56km, which meant my average pace was 5 minutes 27 seconds per km. In other words, my average speed for the race was 11.00km/h. This was my fastest average pace in a road race. This time, I was able to control my pace better and my average heart rate was 155 bpm compared to Bidor run when I averaged 162 bpm. My new shoes were not giving me any problem too.
I sprinted as fast as I could to overtake 3 runners at the last 200m. At the last 30m, I was chasing a runner in front of me, but he also reacted by sprinting towards the finish line. In the end, we were neck-to-neck, too close to call at the line. I guessed only a photo finish would determine who won the sprint. Then again, let's wait for the official result.
The last 1 km was around the lake in Lake Garden. I was pacing moderately to reserve some energy for my final dash. Earlier I was passed by 4 or 5 runners, including another foreign lady runner, coming to 13km mark. But I resisted the temptation to speed or overtake them again.
My split time at 10 km mark was 54'44". I arrived at the second water station (11km mark) and took 2 cups of water before started running again. Here was where I was overtook by a foreign lady runner. I guessed she was the race leader for the women race, that was started 15 minutes later than the men. I continued on to climb a small hill to arrive to the turning that would lead me to the Tugu Negara. After another 800m, I arrived at the Tugu and it was all downhill from there back to Lake Garden.
The 8km mark was a killer long stretch of uphill. It was at Laman Tunku. Although I trained there before, but I trained in the opposite (downhill) direction. The climb was a slow one, and I took the chance by refueling with Powergel. The check-point was near the 9km mark. I collected my ribbon and continued my climb. After reaching the top, then it was a small downhill slope that took us to the interchange bridge across Lebuhraya Mahameru. So good seeing the traffic police doing their job to allow me (and the runners) to cross safely.
After I took a sip at the first water station (5km mark; my split time was 27'19"), I climbed up the first of the killer hills. This one was not so bad as I trained here before. Climbing here required a lot of focus and perseverance. Long climb, but I learned not to stop or give up. After reaching the top, from the 6km to 7km, I ran at a blistering 4'43" per km pace. This was near the flat road in Langkak Tunku.
The 3km mark was at Jalan Parlimen, this was where the runners would head towards Bank Negara. We turned left at Bank Negara, then took the first right to climb a small hill near the Bank Negara train station. This was not a difficult climb and the top was the Tunku Abdul Rahman Memorial.
The runners were flagged off at 7:00am, and we immediately took the jogger trail in the Lake Garden. Then we made a loop around Bird Park (our training route) before turning into Jalan Parlimen. I started the race in moderate pace. Lam was slightly behind me at start. During a small climb in the first 300m, I overtook Will and BP. I would only see them later at the finish line.
We waited for the race to start at the Tapak A. This was an open area in Lake Garden. Normally most major events held at the Lake Garden would take this area as main stage. Here, we bumped into Dr. Anders, our Swedish friend and a runner too. Good to see him again, more so outside of work.
BP, Will and I met at the Bukit Aman car park, and we walked to the Lake Garden. It was then 5:30am when we arrived and parking were still aplenty. Lam arrived at 6:10am and met us in starting point.
I woke up early at 4:50am and took my new adidas Supernova Glide for this race. I bought this shoes a week earlier and ran about 20km wearing them. Last Sunday I took a foot scan at adidas store, and the scan revealed that I have a neutral gait and there was sign of slightly high arch. So I decided to get a pair of neutral cushioning shoes.
3 comments:
this is atorytelling in reverse order:)
I wrote this post on the purpose that it can be read from first paragraph to last, and from the last paragraph to first. :-)
no chance to eat tau foo fa because i was late.
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