SCKLM 2009 Final Running Clinic - Countdown to race day

From left: Rodney, Hemant, Edwin, Mark, Kannan, Lim, Shaharuddin.

This morning I woke up for my long run at about 5:30am. I was feeling quite tired these few days. I don't really know why, but I force myself to get up and do my training anyway.

I plan to run in Taman Bukit Jalil and I did. I wanted to complete 5 laps for 20km today. After doing about 3 laps, suddenly I remembered there was a running clinic today in Lake Garden. (Sigh...sign of getting old.) I quickly got into my car and drove to Lake Garden.

When I arrived in Tapak A, there were already many people there. I was already 5 minutes late but the clinic has not started yet. The event finally started about 5 minutes later. There were about 80-100 runners already present


This time, the guests included elite runner Mark (Williams), (Reebok) physical trainer Rodney, dietitian Ms. Lim, MSIG insurance representative Mr. Edwin, "Ultraman" Kannan Muragasan, national runners Yuan Yu Fang and Shaharudin Hashim. As usual, race director Hemant Dua was there to kick things off.

Mr Edwin spoke first and introduced the sport insurance product for everyone. It was not a heavy sale pitch. Being "Gold Sponsor" of the event, I guess they deserve some air time to say a few words.

Rodney got the crowd warming up with some warm-up exercise. Everybody got a good stretch.


Then Ms Lim Ai Ling, dietitian from Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre gave a brief talk on race nutrition. She emphasised on carbo-loading and hydration. Runners need to eat more carbohydrate and less fat. Basically fat is harder to digest and stays longer in the stomach. Carbohydrate is instant source of energy and runners can replenish them during training with sport drinks. Hydration is very important. Runners needs to replenish the liquid in the body during and after training. After the run, runners need to drink 1.5 times the body weight lost during the run. E.g. if you lost 1 kg after the race, you must drink 1.5 litres of fluid within12 hours.

Next up is "Ultraman" Mr Kannan, who basically speak a bit on his experience of preparing for the race. Usually, runners get anxiety on the eve of the race. He said this can be overcome by during mental visualisation to prepare yourself, e.g. imagine every details of the morning before the race, thinking about how you want to finish the race etc. He also mentioned, 2 weeks from the race, runners should taper off and not do long runs until it causes muscle soreness. He said runners should focus on doing more stretching exercise (Yoga included). Kannan also gave a good tip on how to manage the race. He said runners should think about the full marathon as several 10 kms or even 5 kms distance. Then the runners can tackle the shorter distance one by one with a slower pace.

Mark spoke briefly about this time of tapering as well. Yu Fang reminded everyone to be happy and enjoy the run as last preparation for the race. A very important point there. Shaharudin said doing more stretching and have enough rest are some of his ways of tapering.

Then it was another running time. Yu Fang and Shaharudin were supposed to lead everyone for a 20-30 minutes running around the Lake Garden. For some of the runners, they had already completed their morining runs like me. So some stayed around the area and chatted with Ms Lim, Mark, and "Ultraman" Kannan. I also took the chance to have a chat with Milo Ais, Satu!. She is running for her half-marathon in SCKLM 2009. All the best to you, Yin!

Like in the second clinic, runners were provided bananas, apples, water and isotonic drinks after the run.


Then, the Q&A time. Not many questions from the crowd, so one of the members from the organiser posted a question to Shaharudin, after questions earlier were answered by Kannan and Mark. Shaharudin is aiming to better his personal best of 2:34 for the full marathon. Before closing off, Yu Fang also added that massage is a good way to recover from long run.

Race director Hemant reminded everyone to take public transport on race day. There will be buses from Rapid KL shuffling runners from 8 locations around KL to Dataran Merdeka. Please see this link for more information.

I asked Hemant whether there will be pacesetters employed by the organiser. He said there will be pacers for 3, 4 and 5 hours. Just look for the runners with balloon tie to them!