I was looking forward to this Mizuno Wave Run to mark my first anniversary of road racing. I started running last September in preparation for Mizuno Wave Run. I couldn't remember how I was talked into by William to join this race. But it did get me started running and from then I trained not only to finish my first 10km road race but also went on to complete my maiden full marathon in June 2009. So Mizuno Wave Run was kind of special to me. It had a significant impact to my life.
This year, I got my wife to join me for the run. She is a novice runner, just started running a few months back. This was her maiden road race. My running kakis like BP, William, Janice & James were there also this morning. Also present was Pang Sir and his son. (BP missing from photo below as he was warming up.)
The venue was in Pusat Sukan UPM, very near to the Gate number 8 of UPM. This year the organiser, Pacesetters chose to have the event in a campus to hold more runners, estimated to be around 4000. The route was around the UPM campus with hills as depicted below from Mapmyrun.com.
The run started on time at 7:30am. Runners were flagged off without any prior signs (e.g. announcement etc.). I didn't hear any gun or horn sound. I guessed a lot of runners at the back were caught off guard (still chatting or warming up). Before I started running, I told my wife to take it easy as the course was a hilly one. This year the course length was 11km, slightly more than 10km.
I started at about 30m from the front. I have to run on the grass to overtake slower runners at the beginning. After about 1 km I notice we were going downhill on a steep hill, I told myself, "This will be punishing when we head back to the stadium later."
Well, the crowded running line eventually clear out. I got enough room to run faster from 3km onwards. Eventually I reached the water station at around 5.5km with a split time of 25'15.2" I forgot to bring my GPS with me so I couldn't tell the exact distance at that point. I took two cups of water before continuing on.
The second half of the race was a bit more flat at the beginning. I was tiring fast when I reached 8km mark. But I told myself to hang in there, just a bit more to go. I was saving my energy for the climb at the end.
From 9km to 10.5km it was indeed a punishing climb on the long and steep hill. I felt my legs getting heavy but my motivation was there because I was chasing an elite lady runner. I remembered her because she overtook me at the half-way mark in the adidas King of the Road in August this year. This time I managed to overtake her at the top of the climb and maintained my lead over her until the end.
I was cruising at an easy pace to the finishing line until a runner overtook me. Then I turned on my "turbo" to speed past him and four more runners ahead.
My time at the finish line was 55'13.2" for position 107th in the Men Open category. The full distance according to Mapmyrun was 11.1km. William's GPS showed 11.8km and BP's showed 11.3km. If I take the distance about 11.3km, then my average speed was about 12.3km/h or 4 mins 53 secs per km. This is my best average speed in a race so far.
Anyway, after the race I quickly got some isotonic drinks and iced Milo to quench my thirst. Then I got my DSLR camera out and started shooting just a few metres before the finishing line.
I also waited for my wife to finish. She arrived later after 1 hour 21 minutes (gun time) for position 59th in her category. I congratulated her as she waited in queue to get her goodies bag and medal.
Then I continued to shoot more photos of my friends and other runners. Then William called me and we met up with BP to snap some photos near the podium with the race backdrop. See the photos below.
More photos of the runners can be found in here (http://lifespectrum.multiply.com). Please join as member and add me as contact to view the photo albums. Over 800 photos available. I could only manage to take photos of the runners who finished the race after me. So no photos of elite runners or top 10 finishers.
I also met many runner friends in this event. Too many to name them all, but you know who you are. Until next year, please train hard and stay healthy.
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