Siemen's 10K - First race after the Marathon

Place : Dataran Merdeka
Date : 19 July 2009
Time : 7.28am
Terrain : Much less undulation then Mizuno 10k route, good to go for PR
Weather : Cloudy, and quite pleasant. Didn't really feel the haze....
Traffic : Well under control, at least for the front.

With this race being my first after the marathon, I was feeling confident that I would able to do well and get a my first sub 50 for 10k+ race.

The number of participants was quite high, with a mix of 10k, 7k and 3.5k races for different levels.

My better half was in the 7k under women vet and my kids were in the dream run. With a staggered start and expected running paces, I was expecting that we would most probably finish within 20 minutes of each other.

I was feeling pretty good, other from my right ankle, which I've been applying ice and massage on the calf. Saw it on you tube. It seemed that massage helps to address the scarred cartilage which infused over time in the achilles and sort out the node that was slowly forming on the back of my heel.

Not sure it is helping, but there was the dull pain after icing and massage.

But....I digress.

My game plan for this race was simple. Build up as much buffer by running below the 5 minute pace for my PR and then push the last 3k. To hope that I could maintain a better than 5 min pace throughout may be a bit difficult due to the undulation.

I went into the corral with ample time to spare and met with my neighbour, who was taking part in his 2nd 10k race. Also met with Cheou, Steven and Ray later. We were joking that we will follow Steven closely, as he was definitely the fastest in our group.

We were busy chit chatting when suddenly the clock tower chimed and the gun went off.

Off we go!

I saw Steven get off to a quick start and thought to catch up with him later... I didn't notice where Cheou and Ray was. I was hoping to get under the 5min/km pace for the first 5k, to have a good buffer for the latter part of the race.

The way forward was pretty tight until about the turn past Bank Negara, where the crowd was beginning to thin. I pick up my pace as we headed uphill.

About 1km into the race, I saw Steven in front of me. Looking at the pace, I was hoping to maintain having him in my sights for as long as possible.

It was going to be difficult to keep up my pace for the first 4 k as it was more or less uphill all the way.

Through out the first half, I resisted looking at my watch too much but every time the chime came on for every km, it showed 4 min + pace, and I was on target. By the end of the 4k, I had about 54 seconds buffer.

However, my pace started to waiver and floated to 5:04. Not sure whether I eased off too much or it was just common sense. I was started to feel the dull pain in my left calf, which actually was from a bee sting I picked up during golf the day before.

My ankle felt ok and no problems from my knee. I could feel a bit of strain on my left hamstring, but it was still within it's "operating limits"...roughly translated..."not much pain".

After the 5k mark, I was really feeling the pace taking a toll on my aerobic side and not so much muscle stress. Although I didn't really look at it, but I could guess that I was averaging above 175 bpm so far.

I kept focusing on my running form to stay loose, although I was getting more fatigued by the minute.

As we came back toward Dataran Merdeka with 3km to go, I knew that I had the PR in the bag. It was now a question of a strong finish.

I tried to pick up the pace but it was only on the final km where I could get a move on. It was a good finish although I was not really pushing for killer finish, literally speaking. I had one of the regulars, Loke, pass me on the last km. That's when I poured it on. With the cheerleaders, band and some guys in red indian costumes, it did provide a lot of encouragement to finish strong.

I finished in about 49 min ++, and was coughing and struggled to catch my breath back for the first minute. My position - 47th out of ?

The only thing I could think of at that time..... PR! Another great time set.

Went off the pick up the medal, drinks and meet up with the kids. Compared to the KL marathon, the organization here was wonderful. My wife had some cramps and it took about a half hour to locate her at the meeting spot.

With 100 medals for the men's open and 75 medals for the men's jr vet, this is a medal that had some prestige.

From what I've read, 100th position in the men's open was 49' 40" and 75th position for men's jr vet, about 54'.

In a way, I would have been a borderline case if I was still in the men's open. What can I say... tough crowd!

We left the event by 9.15am. All in all, this was a pretty well organized race and I'm looking forward to next year. By that time, my son will qualify to do the 7.5k....that will be interesting!

Next race - Adidas King of The Road 21.7km. I'm still guessing that the 21k is my strongest distance, based on my positions in the past 3 races on similar distances. Not sure why... Anyway, I'm looking forward to this. Until next time.

**Note - To further improve my time, I will need to focus on increasing my aerobic threshold....meaning more SPEED WORK. Oooh, more pain....