"OR KAI TAN- Lay Chicken Egg" Ekiden Relay

Date : 4 Oct 2009
Time : 0800
Place : Putrajaya
Distance : 3km x 5
Weather : Pleasant

I hooked up with the KK pacers at the Kota Kemuning McD at 5.30am. As there were some logistics required to drop off the runners, they had to start moving people about 1 hour earlier.

We arrived there at about 6.30am and there was time to spare. I was there on the previous Sunday and it was a big contrast, crowd wise. With 400 teams expected to participate, the atmosphere was a bit of a carnival, compared with the previous Sunday, when you could here a fly land...

I was taking up the first leg as I was hoping to run the whole course. Cheuo was on 2nd, Nicholas third, Kang fourth and Fan on the last leg.

Putrajaya being what it is, was pretty flat, except for a few hills and bridges. As the start was staggered, with 10minutes between each category, we expected the race to end pretty late, and it was a smart to park further away from the event area, so that you can make a quick getaway.

I decided to start off easy, with no particular target time in mind. This time, I started right at the back of the pack.

Although the plan was to run a progressive race, I finished the first km in 4:13 (14.2km/hr pace). I was much slower on the 2nd km, completing it in 4:40 (12.8km/hr). I could feel my right heel stretching quite a bit at this pace.

It was quite fun as I slowly passed the others one by one. By the time I reached the 3rd km, I was more or less "in equilibrium", with as many runners overtaking as I was overtaking others.

Coming down the last 500m, I put on some speed for a strong finish. I finished the last km in 4:36 (13.0km/hr). I finished the leg in 13:53 for 3.08km. I guessed I was in the 20s out of the 93 teams that participated.

After collecting my drink and food, I stuck around to catch my breath and chit chat. I decided to try continue with the run, although my hamstring and groin muscles were starting to ache a bit.

I only managed to get another 3k in and decided to hang around until all 3 KK pacer teams were back.

The KK Pacers V finished the race in 44th position out of 93 teams. Quite a good result, given the circumstances.

Looking forward the the Centro 6k next week. Hopefully, I won't be in too bad a shape as I am planning to do a 25k the day before.

With only 8 weeks to go, I need to put in a few 30k runs and at least 1 35k 2 weeks before the big day in Singapore.