PJ Half Marathon 2011 - My 6th half marathon

Thanks to Tey EngTiong for this photo.

Thanks to Chuah Sakura for this photo.

Thanks to Yap Eng Hui for this photo.

This was my only sixth half marathon since I started racing. Yes, only the sixth in my relatively young racing " career".

This was my tune-up race to Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SCMS). I have been training for the full marathon for SCMS. So I thought I would use this race as part of my training or tune up.

The day before the race, I was training in the Bukit Jalil park. I ran for 16km. So on race day, I didn't expect to do very well.

The starting venue was in Stadium Petaling Jaya in Kelana Jaya. On race day morning, I saw my good friend, BP whom I started running with, 3 years ago. He was with his wife who was running in 10km race.

The race started on time at 6:30am for the 21km category. The race route sent the runners to Federal Highway, U-turn below the cable bridge near Freescale Electronics. Then the runners would run to Subang Airport Terminal 2 and U-turn back to the Stadium.

I started off pacing at about 4:30/km. Fellow barefooter Rich Chai was pacing near me. We overtook Paul Liong, another barefooter before the cable bridge U-turn. After the U-turn, I was pacing on my own. After turning into the airport road, I was slowing down because of the rough road surface. Then some runners overtook me. The road condition was getting worse nearer to the airport. I had to run on the white line on the road as much as I could.

After the U-turn at the Terminal 2, I picked up my pace slowly and by km 17, I overtook back some runners who passed me earlier. The sun was up and shinning brightly by then. It was my motivation to finish the race faster.

In the end, I reached the stadium and the finish line at 1:39:23. It was a personal best for me. It was a pleasant surprise as I had only expected a time around 1:45:00.

I stayed for a while and met up with some regular runners. By then the sun was getting hotter. It was a very warm and humid race.

I felt that the organiser didn't do a good job in traffic control and water stations. The traffic police at major junctions were not properly planned. Some busier junctions should had more people present to control the fast moving traffic. Also the Federal Highway and the road to airport were not closed for this event. Runners were running at the same direction as the fast-moving vehicles. At some busy stretches, there were no traffic marshals/cones at all. I felt really unsafe running in these conditions.

Water stations could have been in better locations. E.g. the first water station was at less than 4km away from the start. Perhaps the spacings between water stations could be more accurate.

Another comment is that the entry fee was expensive. The were some sponsored items in the goodie bag and there were lucky draws, but please don't tell me the entry fees went to those items.

Until the next race, do train hard and stay healthy.

An interview with a beginner barefoot runner

When did you start running barefoot?

I started running barefoot in Sep-Oct 2010. At first, I walked in the park that I trained initially. After walking barefoot for a few weeks, then I jogged slowly and increased my mileage and speed.

Why do you run barefoot?

I started having this heel pain on my right foot around mid-2010. I ran Borneo International Marathon and SCKLM 2010 with this pain. It got worse, and I took a rest from racing. I thought the root cause was my running shoes. So I decided to stop wearing the cushioning shoes I had been wearing then. I was also guessing my running gait could be the root cause. I was hoping by running barefoot, it would improve my gait. Other reasons were to avoid more blackened toenails and to strengthen my leg muscles. So, I started trying out barefoot running.

Did barefoot running help to heal your heel injury?

I recovered from my heel injury fully after some time. But I cannot say it was solely because of barefoot running. I rested more and did a lot of other things like stretching, massage to improve my condition then. However, since I started running barefoot, I have not experienced the same heel pain anymore after my recovery.

What is your first impression of running barefoot?

Running barefoot requires both mental and physical conditioning. It may not be suitable for all runners, but I believe it could work fine for most people, if done slowly and properly. First experience of running barefoot was fear of the unknown and the painful sensation. The fear of the unknown was the fact that I didn't know where barefoot running would take me. And the painful sensation was due to direct contact of the soles with the rough asphalt/road surface. The sensation of stepping on small pebbles/stones, let's just say, is not what runners are looking for. Imagine, walking barefoot on the foot reflexology path in the park. That's why the mental part is needed. Barefoot runners need to prepare to experience some level of pain and risk of injury due to stepping on sharp objects. Otherwise on smoother surface, running barefoot would not cause much pain on the soles. Also, when running barefoot, there is more work for the Achilles tendon and calf muscles. I experienced sore Achilles tendon and sore calf muscles when I first started running barefoot.

How did you train in transition from shoes running to barefoot running?

As I said, I started to walk barefoot in the park for a few weeks first. Then, only I started to jog and increased my mileage slowly. Occasionally, I trained with lightweight shoes, and alternating with barefoot running. Mileage on barefoot was much less than with shoes initially. I increased the mileage on barefoot slowly. I also did some calf muscles strengthening exercises. I only started racing barefoot in June 2011 (about 9 months after I first started running barefoot), the event was Pacesetters 15km. I still train with shoes even now. For example, early morning in the park when it is still very dark and on the treadmill because it is the safety rule of the gym. I will also run with minimalist shoes on unfamiliar or rough route, if needed.

So you are not a full time barefoot runner now?

I run or train barefoot most of the the time, but not 100% of the time.

Will you be a full time barefoot runner in the future?

Maybe. If I run on shoes, it will be lightweight or minimalist shoes. It would be likely to protect my soles against harsh terrain or unknown surfaces or route.

What are the challenges you face as a barefoot runner?

Going to barefoot running, it was a re-learning process for me. I was willing to "un-learn" what I know before about running and start all over again. I had to give up my speed and pace (and I didn't even know if I would run with my race pace anymore). The biggest challenge I guess is being patient, persistent and persevere. On rough surface, I have to be more careful and endure some pain. At end of the run or race, there could be blisters on the soles. But our body is a wonderful thing, it will adapt and get stronger.

Of course, there will be risk to get injured because of sharp objects on the road. When you start running barefoot, you will be more alert and mindful on your every step. I would say, although barefoot runners look more vulnerable, but I think the risk of getting hurt because of sharp objects for shoes runners is not a lot lesser.

Other challenges include facing the stare and comments by some people. Some people will give insensitive remarks, but I will not let those remarks bother me.

What is your advice to barefoot-aspiring runners?

If you want to try out barefoot running, do it slowly. Start by walking barefoot on a route familiar to you. Increase mileage slowly and listen to your body. There are some reference materials on the Internet that can help too. Also, runners can get in touch with those who are more experienced in barefoot running to get more tips.

Barefoot running is not about "right" or "wrong" way of running. The more important point is to run with good form or gait to avoid/minimise running injury. It is perfectly fine to stay with shoes if that is working fine for you. The most important thing is, you'll find joy in running.

(If you have any question, please feel free to drop a line here.)

Terry Fox Run KL 2011 - Update 4 (T-shirt sale locations)

I collected my T-shirts order today.

Please take note of the locations and the start date of sale at each location.

These are the confirmed places so far for the sale of TFR KL 2011 T-shirts : (Updated as of 24 Oct 2011)

1) Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF), 2nd Floor, Outpatient Centre, Sime Darby Medical Centre, Subang Jaya
(Mon to Fri, 9.00am to 5.00pm)
Contact person : Wong Siak Chung / Herda Abdullah
Tel: 03-56391874

2) Canadian High Commission, 17th floor Menara Tan & Tan, Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur
(Mon to Thurs, 9am to 12.00pm, 2.00pm to 4.00pm; Friday 9am to 12.00pm)

3) Clark Hatch Fitness Centres, 6th Floor, Sooka Sentral, Kuala Lumpur
(Mon-Fri, 12pm to 8.00pm, Sat-Sun 12pm-5pm)
CLOSED on Deepavali
Contact Sara: 03-27851963

4) Clark Hatch Fitness Centres, Capital Square , Kuala Lumpur
(Mon-Fri, 12pm to 8.00pm, Sat-Sun 12pm-5pm)
CLOSED on Deepavali
Contact Elaine: 03-26986080

5) Clark Hatch Fitness Centres, PJ Hilton
(Mon-Fri, 12pm to 8.00pm, Sat-Sun 12pm-5pm)
OPEN on Deepavali 9am-3pm
Contact Logesh: 03-79572939

6) Running Lab, Gnd Floor, Tropicana City Mall, PJ
Open 19-28 Oct, 31 Oct-4 Nov (1:00pm-8:00pm)
Closed 29-30 Oct, 5-6 Nov
Contact Frank: 03-77278555

7) Bangsar Village 1, Nearby Information Counter
29th & 30th Oct 2011 (Sat & Sun)
5 & 6 Nov 2011 (Sat & Sun)
10am to 6pm

8) 1 Utama Shopping Complex, Community Corner @ Oval
29th & 30th Oct 2011 (Sat & Sun)
10am to 10pm

9) Menara Citibank Lobby, Jalan Ampang, KL
31 Oct - 4 Nov
LUNCH TIME 12-2pm only

10) Padang Merbuk, KL
13 Nov 2011 (Event day)
(Please get your T-shirt early to avoid disappointment)

Please note each T-shirt is priced at RM30. Proceed will go to CARIF.

The T-shirt sizes again for your reference. Please note there is only one cutting.

SIZE	Chest (inch)	Length (inch)
2 (child)	22	16
4 (child)	24	17
3XS (child)	28	20
2XS	32	21
XS	34	22
S	36	25
M	40	26
L	42	27
XL	44	~30
2XL	46	~31
3XL	48	~32

Please come back later for more updates!

Thank you for your support for TFR KL 2011.

I'm King of the Road - adidas King of the Road 2011

Thanks Tey for this photo and the support.

How often a toll highway closed for a running event? It happens once every year (for about 9 hours) at the Penang Bridge for Penang Bridge International Marathon. Apart from that, I cannot name any other annual run event that will require a toll highway to be closed for it.

adidas King of the Road 2011 is one road race event that was held on a section of New Pantai Expressway (NPE), a toll highway. This event was missing from the race calendar last year (2010). I took part in 2009, but it was held in Shah Alam. In 2007 & 2008, I heard it was held in NPE. On Sunday 2 Oct 2011, about 8000 colourfully-clad runners took part in this event in Sunway Pyramid, running on a closed section of the highway.

My wife and I took part in this road race. Not often that we could join a run event together. It was just one week after my maiden barefoot marathon. My calf muscles were still sore. I thought I would recover fully after one week. So I joined my wife for this run. She would take part in 10km and I would run longer 16.8km race.

When the race started, I paced at about 4:30 min/km. But then I felt the strain on my calf muscles and had to adjust my pace a bit. Only towards the end, I picked up the pace a bit and finished at 1:20:14 gun time. My wife finished her 10km in 1:09:53. We couldn't stay long after the run to catch up with other runner friends.

In this run, I noticed many barefoot runners. When I said "many" here, I meant in a relative sense. Relative to other run events, this event saw more barefoot runners in it. However, it was still a very small population compare to the total number of runners. Good to know that there were some barefoot runners did their maiden barefoot race in this event. For a run that was sponsored and organised by a popular sport/shoe brand, this (barefoot) trend seemed not according to the script.

During my run, I got some insensitive remarks such as "hey, adidas sells shoes you know?", "eh, mana kasut?", "you forgot your shoes?" and some stares. Anyway, it didn't bother me at all. At the same time, I got some support from other fellow runners that know me. Also, some claps and cheers from some 10km runners waiting to start, when I ran past the starting point from the opposite direction.

Overall, the run was well-organised. Although it was a big event, crowd control was good. Runners had space to mingle around after their run. Volunteers were in good number and did their job well.

Until the next race, do train hard and stay healthy.

My maiden barefoot Full Marathon - River Jungle Marathon 2011

Thanks to SoonChung Lim for this photo. This was around 29km mark.

I never thought that I would run a full marathon barefoot when I started running 3 years ago. Well, I did it, and it was one of the best FM that I had run.

I registered late for this River Jungle Marathon 2011 because I wasn't sure I would have time to train for it. The organiser informed me that they would accept my late registration but I would not be guaranteed a finisher medal and T-shirt. It didn't bother me at all even if I come back empty-handed. I already set out to treat this as my training run for SCMS 2011. After all, I read about the good reviews about this run before and I thought it would be an experience for me.

The course was situated near Pekan Batu 18, Hulu Langat, about 30km from KL. Unlike the name suggests, it was not a trail or off-road run. In fact it is a road race on asphalt surface. But the route would take you to beautiful scenery of villages, jungle, hill, river, lake etc. It was unlike any FM that I ran before. All of them were in background of concrete jungle and busy roads.

Magnificent view of the Semenyih Dam Reservoir.

I did a survey of the route one week earlier. In this course, there is this grueling 5%-gradient 3.5km uphill climb that has a nickname of "Spirit Breaker". I just had to see it myself. Boy, after I saw it, I knew I was up against the most challenging FM course (but also the most beautiful course for the scenery it offers). For many days to come, the uphill climb route was etched in my mind and I was trying to figure out how to tackle it.

Fast forward to the race day, I arrived early about 3:40am in the morning. The race director, James Wong was briefing his 60-person-strong volunteers. He gave clear instructions to the volunteers on what to do. From observing at the sideline, in my view, he has the leadership quality and the know-how to organise a run event.

I met some familiar faces (and many more unknown faces) in the race. I saw June (of Full Marathon Virgin fame) and Elaine Pan. Both were part of the volunteers or crew members. Thanks for the support. I also catched up with Karim who would run his 4th FM this year. Thanks for the cookies. [Smile]

It was announced that about 370 runners registered and there were many foreign runners, most of them were from Singapore. There were also maybe a dozen first-timers in the crowd.

Thanks to Tey for this photo before the race. This was during the briefing.

With barefooter Rich Chai and new friend Teoh (photo from Teoh).

The race started at 5:00am sharp. I paced with Rich Chai early (as discussed with him before) and we were pacing about 5mins/km. Thanks Rich Chai for willing to pace with me. We both aimed to finish this course in sub-4 hour time. My strategy was to run about 51 minutes for first 10km and save some minutes for the hills. My estimate was that we would easily lose 2 minutes from the sub-4 hour average pace (~5:41 mins/km) in the climb. Actually that was an optimistic assumption. I trained on the treadmill for 5% gradient with the pace of 6:00min/km, and I found it very very difficult to maintain that kind of pace.

Anyway, at the foot of the climb, I emptied a pack of GU gel and put it in my mouth. But I didn't swallow it immediately. I just put it in my mouth and take it in bit by bit, little by little. Why? I figured this action would help me to control my heart rate and prevent it (heart rate) to skyrocket. Thus, I would not huff and puff. The result? I could maintain a pace between 6:30min/km to 7:30min/km all the way without stopping or walking. The feel good factor came when I overtook a runner and then a cyclist who was off his bike and pushing it. From then on, I knew I had a good chance to dip below 4 hours.

Another tip that I can share here was that instead of let the hill broke my spirit, I "broke" the hill. By that, I meant that I ran the grueling 3.5km uphill as smaller sections. For example, if I could only see the road until the winding turn, then I would just focus to run to that. Then I would target the next section of uphill, and the next. Before long, I reached the top of the climb.

At top of the hill, there was a water station and this was the shot by Mahizzan. It was breaking dawn then, and not breaking spirit.

Thanks to Mahizzan for this shot.

Going downhill was actually not good section for me because of the rough road surface and the impact to the barefoot soles and knees. I didn't gain back much time in the downhill section. In fact, I was overtaken by a runner, who called out at me as "barefoot runner".

At end of the downhill section, the road condition became even worse. I had to slow down to minimise the pain. Yes, the pain. It was painful when I stepped on sharp pebble stones and rough road surfaces. A foreign runner, (by the name of Scott) overtook me before the U-turn at km 24.3 mark and asked me how I, my feet rather, were doing. (Scott, if you are reading this, please drop a comment here to keep in touch). This section of the course was the most beautiful with the scenery of the Semenyih Dam Reservoir with the backdrop of green mountains and blue sky.

After the U-turn, I saw Rich Chai on the opposite direction, perhaps 1 km behind. I could sense that he was also facing the wrath of the rough road and sharp stones. Then Daniel Tan (Raja Bukit, or King of Mountain, aka PM3) gained on me and slowly overtook me by km 29. I knew he gained a lot of time on the hill as he is a damn good hill runner.

The road surface was becoming worse and worse. I could match Daniel's pace only for a couple of kms and then just had to run my own pace. The last 12 km I stopped a few times, because of small sharp pebble stones kind of stucked in my soles. I just had to stop to remove the stones.

By now, I saw many cyclists riding from opposite direction. Apparently, this route is also popular among cyclists. Most cyclists waved at me and a large group of riders cheered me on. Thanks!

In the last few kms, I managed to pick up my pace a little bit and overtook the runner who overtook me earlier at the downhill section.

At the finish, I was overwhelmed by emotion. It was a painful, painful run. But I had done it! My maiden barefoot FM. All the way, 42km, without anything between my soles and the road. I stopped my timer at 3:57:18. Some technical data from my Garmin shown below.

The chart at the centre is the elevation chart of the route. You can see that the gain of elevation and the gradient of the uphill climb. Crazy.

I had a couple of bananas and some isotonic drinks, then some stretching . I chatted with the some volunteers, and Daniel (who finished about 2 minutes ahead of me) and also Andrew Loh, the first to finish in 3:40:xx. Scott finished third, I was forth. (There were no official results as this was not a competitive run.) Some of them were amazed and jokingly asked if I had a iron plate under my soles. [Laugh]

After that, I quickly took out my camera and started shooting photos for the runners maybe about 50-100m from the finish. I had promised that I would support the runners for this event. I believed I took photos for all the runners (published on my Facebook RJM 2011 photo album) who finished the race except those finished earlier than 4:13:xx.

During my photo-shooting, I noticed some runners struggling to finish the race. Some were walking very slowly, and a few were limping. I recalled there were many first-timers in this FM (declared during briefing before the race). I really hoped no one was seriously injured because of the grueling route. And you will run your second, third and subsequent FMs in the future, with more training hopefully.

I snapped photos for runners even during the 1 hour downpour and waited until the last runner in. Uncle Sonny Ng was the "sweeper" runner and ensure last runner came in.

Overall, the organiser had done very well in this event. Bravos to all the volunteers for the support. Thank you to the sponsors. This was an event by the runners, for the runners. And if you love running, you would love to run the River Jungle Marathon.

Until the next race, do train hard and stay healthy.

Terry Fox Run KL 2011 - Update 3 (Route Map)

Route Map as above. Please click for larger image.

Terry Fox Run KL 2011 - Update 2 (General)

We are marking the 31st anniversary of the Terry Fox Run this year on 13 November 2011, in Padang Merbok KL. A milestone unimaginable without the support of so many people, there is much to be done yet, we must always celebrate our victories - of which there have been many.

The beneficiary this year as in previous years, will be the Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF). CARIF is the first independent, non-profit cancer research organization in Malaysia.

Please see the following information.

Rules and Regulations:

• All participants must run on designated route.
• For wheelchair bound, and physically challenged participants, please note that there are slopes along the run route.
• Participants are to be at the assembly area by 8:45am.

Parking:

Limited parking is available on site, and public transport is recommended.

Notice:

The organisers, their agents, representatives, successors and assigns, are not liable for any injuries suffered, damage and lost of properties by the participants at this event.

If you like to volunteer or need more information

Please contact:

Ms Yoon/Mr Peter Kang/Ms Katrina Low/Mr Wong Siak Chung
CARIF, 2nd floor OPC, Sime Darby Medical Centre,
Tel: 03-56391874

or email: organizer@terryfoxrunkl.org