Date : 1 May 2010
Place : Bukit Rimau/Kota Kemuning
Time : 8.00am
Weather: Towards the warmer side
Course : Pretty flat
Running a race in the home ground is great fun!
1. You don't need to spend an hour to and fro to get the venue.
2. You can do your warm up by running to the starting point from your house.
3. You'll have time to go back, take a shower and pop back in to collect your prize!
This is a charity event, which generally caters to the general public and for a good cause.
The entrance fee (or donation) was steep at RM50, but like I said, it was for a good cause.
The race started off in a timely fashion and I went ahead in doing a rookie mistake by going out tooooo fast. I did the first km in 4:32.
Going towards the middle part, my pace dropped off dramatically to 5:45 and it was a very strong reflection of my fitness level now. As the number of participants were quite few, relatively speaking, I was in 3rd place (or so I thot) for my category out of 25, and kept thinking about the time that I would most probably finish in.
By the time I reached the 8km, my pace was about 5:50, but my heart rate was on the very high side. With the last km to go, I picked up the pace a bit, but didn't do an all out as the guy in front of me was about 300m away.
I finished in a time of about 54min, which was pretty slack, but ok given the extremely low mileage that I've been doing for the last few weeks or so.
As I collected my 'winners flag', I actually finished in 4th position. Seemed that Ong Chin was way up in front, and probably finished in less than 40min. No fight lah!
The organization of the race was actually quite good, with clear signs of who supposed to go where, and a staggered release according to category.
Too bad my wife didn't take part, else she would also probably have a top 5 placing for her category.
Anyway, it was a nice, cosy and well organized event and hopefully, they'll have 1 again next year.
Next race..Chicken Roosters run...maybe. Haven't registered yet. But I can't resist I think, as it's;
1. In Sunway! Very close
2. My kids are looking forward to it, as the ticket include entrance into Sunway Lagoon.
3. The event is named Chicken Roosters!
Till next time.
Regards,
Edmund
Showing posts with label race. Show all posts
Showing posts with label race. Show all posts
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
NB 30k Double HIlls x 2
Event : New Balance 30K
Date : 17 Jan 2009
Time : 0530
Place : Padang Merbok, going to Hartamas through double hills
Distance : 29.49k
Terrain : +/- 242.1m. Tough!
Climate : About 20C before 7am, cloudy to 8.30am
Finish Time : 2:45:59
Pace : 10.7kph?
I was on a plane back from Singapore on Friday when I was seriously contemplating whether to go ahead with this run. The last time a distance close to that was at the Singapore Marathon. In between, my longest run was only 16k.
I knew it would not be a walk in the park, as my conditioning has probably deteriorated significantly with less than 40k logged for every week between SG and this race. However, if taking into consideration the elevation change between the 2 courses (This race had almost double the elevation compared to SG), I would say I did pretty OK. I wasn't putting too much hope on achieving a PB so my 3 priorities were to 1. Finish the race 2. Finish by 3:00 or, no 3. if possible, 2:45.
The race was punctual, with no rain and very cool weather. My wife even complained that it was pretty chilly, even when there was no wind.
I did the first km at crawling pace as I decided to start from the back. The narrow road leading out of Padang Merbok didn't help either. By the 2nd km, I was able to reach close to my target pace.
True to form, I had the speed but not the endurance to beat my PB for the equivalent distance. To cut a long story short, the undulation was a big heart stopper for most of the runners, including yours truly.
At KM21, my left calf was beginning to twitch, normally the first signs that lactate build up was beginning. Toward KM 25, My toes on the left foot was spontaneously contracting. Let's say this is the first time I experienced this. It was like my toes was trying to go into a claw form every time I lifted my foot. This abated after a few minutes.
However, after passing Padang Merbuk to do last assault at KM27, it finally caught up to me, causing me to walk run KM27-29. As the last leg of the race approached, I managed to put all these problems aside to do a last 'kopek' sprint.
Post medal collection, I was struck by the cramps on the left calf while walking to the car. Ouch! My wife helped to push my foot and it took a good 2-3 minutes before I could stand.
Guess not warming down didn't help, coupled with the lack of mileage prior to this race.
All in all, it was good fun, full of challenges and organized quite well.
Next race...Putrajaya Half!
Date : 17 Jan 2009
Time : 0530
Place : Padang Merbok, going to Hartamas through double hills
Distance : 29.49k
Terrain : +/- 242.1m. Tough!
Climate : About 20C before 7am, cloudy to 8.30am
Finish Time : 2:45:59
Pace : 10.7kph?
I was on a plane back from Singapore on Friday when I was seriously contemplating whether to go ahead with this run. The last time a distance close to that was at the Singapore Marathon. In between, my longest run was only 16k.
I knew it would not be a walk in the park, as my conditioning has probably deteriorated significantly with less than 40k logged for every week between SG and this race. However, if taking into consideration the elevation change between the 2 courses (This race had almost double the elevation compared to SG), I would say I did pretty OK. I wasn't putting too much hope on achieving a PB so my 3 priorities were to 1. Finish the race 2. Finish by 3:00 or, no 3. if possible, 2:45.
The race was punctual, with no rain and very cool weather. My wife even complained that it was pretty chilly, even when there was no wind.
I did the first km at crawling pace as I decided to start from the back. The narrow road leading out of Padang Merbok didn't help either. By the 2nd km, I was able to reach close to my target pace.
True to form, I had the speed but not the endurance to beat my PB for the equivalent distance. To cut a long story short, the undulation was a big heart stopper for most of the runners, including yours truly.
At KM21, my left calf was beginning to twitch, normally the first signs that lactate build up was beginning. Toward KM 25, My toes on the left foot was spontaneously contracting. Let's say this is the first time I experienced this. It was like my toes was trying to go into a claw form every time I lifted my foot. This abated after a few minutes.
However, after passing Padang Merbuk to do last assault at KM27, it finally caught up to me, causing me to walk run KM27-29. As the last leg of the race approached, I managed to put all these problems aside to do a last 'kopek' sprint.
Post medal collection, I was struck by the cramps on the left calf while walking to the car. Ouch! My wife helped to push my foot and it took a good 2-3 minutes before I could stand.
Guess not warming down didn't help, coupled with the lack of mileage prior to this race.
All in all, it was good fun, full of challenges and organized quite well.
Next race...Putrajaya Half!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Mizuno 10k 2009
Date : 25 Oct 2009
Time : 0730 am
Place : Stadium UPM, Serdang, Lebuh Silikon
Weather : Wonderful!
Slope : Challenging!
Course : Scenic and almost no traffic.
Memorable points : Killer Hill before you can reach the stadium...Made walkers out of runners!
Pros : 1 water stop at mid way point
Good starting point.
Good crowd!
Cons : Narrow route, especially at the starting point
Parking arrangements quite haphazard
For those who depend on public transport, this location is not very accessible.
The day started early at 5am as we were planning to meet the KK pacers at McD. Hung around McDonalds and left 6am, with a big group of cars in tow.
Hooked up with another friend in Shell near the Serdang toll. However, I proceeded first as another fellow runner was there to guide the rest to the stadium.
We arrived there at about 6.30am and the parking area was filling up quickly.
With ample time to do the warm up and and stretching, we could see the masses of people starting to arrive.
By 7.30am, as the horn went off, there were still quite a lot of people making their way to the starting point. I started off about 20 meters from the front row, but it took a good 400meters before the road was clear to actually move into the pace that I wanted to run at.
With a 5 min/km pace in mind and to see whether the 'chi running' approach, the 1st km was understandably slower at 5:12. As we reached the golf course, the crowd began to thin enough to run at my pace.
After running through the undulating terrain, I was still on mark at 7km. At that point, I knew I just needed to focus and push through the last 4k or so. Things was made much more interesting as the last hill had silently sneaked up on most of the runners as most of us didn't notice the severity of the slope when we headed up....
I managed to maintain a good pace up the hill and was able to pass about 30 others on the hill alone.
After that, it was downhill all the way, literally speaking!
I managed to maintain a pretty good sprint for the last 300m to 400m, even hitting 21kph at 1 point. I finished in 54:13 for the total distance of 10.93km and a pace of 12.1kph, about 12 seconds in the black. It was a vast improvement compared my Mizuno run in 2008 at 11.5kph at the reverse double hills loop.So far, only the Siemen's run was better in terms of run time, but of course, the slope challenge was a different story.
In short, nice run, good organizers, great running course.
Time : 0730 am
Place : Stadium UPM, Serdang, Lebuh Silikon
Weather : Wonderful!
Slope : Challenging!
Course : Scenic and almost no traffic.
Memorable points : Killer Hill before you can reach the stadium...Made walkers out of runners!
Pros : 1 water stop at mid way point
Good starting point.
Good crowd!
Cons : Narrow route, especially at the starting point
Parking arrangements quite haphazard
For those who depend on public transport, this location is not very accessible.
The day started early at 5am as we were planning to meet the KK pacers at McD. Hung around McDonalds and left 6am, with a big group of cars in tow.
Hooked up with another friend in Shell near the Serdang toll. However, I proceeded first as another fellow runner was there to guide the rest to the stadium.
We arrived there at about 6.30am and the parking area was filling up quickly.
With ample time to do the warm up and and stretching, we could see the masses of people starting to arrive.
By 7.30am, as the horn went off, there were still quite a lot of people making their way to the starting point. I started off about 20 meters from the front row, but it took a good 400meters before the road was clear to actually move into the pace that I wanted to run at.
With a 5 min/km pace in mind and to see whether the 'chi running' approach, the 1st km was understandably slower at 5:12. As we reached the golf course, the crowd began to thin enough to run at my pace.
After running through the undulating terrain, I was still on mark at 7km. At that point, I knew I just needed to focus and push through the last 4k or so. Things was made much more interesting as the last hill had silently sneaked up on most of the runners as most of us didn't notice the severity of the slope when we headed up....
I managed to maintain a good pace up the hill and was able to pass about 30 others on the hill alone.
After that, it was downhill all the way, literally speaking!
I managed to maintain a pretty good sprint for the last 300m to 400m, even hitting 21kph at 1 point. I finished in 54:13 for the total distance of 10.93km and a pace of 12.1kph, about 12 seconds in the black. It was a vast improvement compared my Mizuno run in 2008 at 11.5kph at the reverse double hills loop.So far, only the Siemen's run was better in terms of run time, but of course, the slope challenge was a different story.
In short, nice run, good organizers, great running course.
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