This was my 1st time racing in Seremban. I wanted to do it last year, but I forgot why I didn't come. Seremban has always been close to my heart, having spent a couple of years there to finish my diploma back in 1997. A lot have changed since then, it's a booming town with highways, etc.
Preparation
As I was still carrying an injury, my preparation was less than ideal to say the least. Nevertheless, I managed to complete one LSD the week before, a crucial element in my preparation. Since I can't really run everyday due to my injury, I had to make every session count. So I upped the intensity of every training. I didn't do any intervals, but focused on tempo training. After my last training on Tuesday (10K), my left foot hurt so bad that I didn't run at all until the event day.
Raceday
I just bought a new cellphone & I dunno why but the alarm didn't ring. I'd earlier set it up to ring at 4am. When I got up it was already 5am. I knew I had to leave by 5.30 or I'll never make it. I got to Seremban at 5 mins to 6am, practicaly flooring the pedal all the way, driving at 180km/h, hitting 200 at times. If there was any speedtrap camera along the way I was sure I got caught in at least a couple of them.
I was lucky I found a parking spot very close to the start. I performed my Subuh prayer next to my car. The start was right in front of the Majlis Perbandaran Seremban building. As I made my way to the start I found Choi. He said that the course is a fast one, he did 1:45 the last time he did it. Well, I wished I could do it too. My primary goal was to do better than SCKLM & to break the 2-hr mark as a secondary target.
The race started at 6:45am, very late by Malaysian standard. As a comparison, SCKLM started at 6. Nevertheless I decided not to wear any headgear, although the weather forecast stated a clear & sunny day.
There was less than a thousand participants for the half marathon category by my count. It's not unusual for a local race. U have to be extra careful with local races like this, traffic control normally is less than adequate. Ipoh International last month was one bad example when runners need to manoeuvre heavy traffic with buses, etc.
About 3km into the race we encountered the 1st major climb of the race. Although it was nothing like the one in Malakoff Penang route, it was pretty long. After that it was pretty much flat throughout. I had set a benchmark of 6:00min/km for the race. My left foot didn't give me much problem thankfully. I hit the 1st 10K at 58mins, the 1st time I did sub-hour for a 10K in a half marathon. It kinda spurred me to go faster.
At KM12 I had side stitches bad enuff to hamper my breathing. Maybe I was going too fast. I tried to shake it off but it stayed there for a good couple of kms. My feeding & hydration plan was on track. So I was quite puzzled by the emergence of the stitches. The water stations was adequate, I guess the low number of races made it easier for us at the water stations. Plus I was among the front pack, so all is well.
The route took me through some familiar places, like Taman Koperasi Guru, where my aunt used to stay. Paroi was of course a familiar place, but once we got into the residential areas and the villages, I was kinda lost there. I never knew some of the places during my time there, but then again, I didn't really explore all of the places in Seremban.
I was kinda stuck in no man's land alone for quite sometime. There was a group in front of me & there was another a few minutes back. But I was alone. Once we hit the road towards Lake Garden there was heavy traffic with all the fun runners. Most of them are schoolkids & they were walking instead of running & they occupied one whole lane sometimes. It was so packed I had to shove a couple of kids outta my way. Unfortunately I hit the 2hr mark at the MPS building, with some 500m to go. Nevertheless I pressed on & hit the line at 2:01, a new PB.
Lotsa firsts
I had broken the 6:00/km average in this race by going 5:59. I also did the 1st 10K in 58 mins, another first. The medal we got was quite nice. Although I didn't break the 2-hour mark in this race, I was pretty darn close & to achieve it running with an injury, breaking the 2-hour is not impossible. I plan to go for the Penang Bridge International Marathon again this year & I hope that's where I'ma do it. I'ma give myself time to recover from this injury during the fasting month & I hope it won't be a long-term injury. Until then.
Livestrong
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
End of the road
The past 2 weeks I went to watch sequels to two of my favorite movies : Transformers & Harry Potter. Those sequels were the last in a very long movie sequence, especially Harry Potter. They've been in the movie since they were kids & now they've all grown up.. must've been difficult ending such a long journey.
We watched both movies in 3D, the 1st time we watched any movie in 3D. But I'd have to say that the Transformers was a better 3D movie, maybe becoz it was shot in 3D. I felt that HP was just a normal movie then converted into 3D, hence the 3D effects wasn't that revealing.
Transformers : Dark of The Moon was a very long movie, 2 hrs 40 mins, & maybe becoz there was so much to tell. There was action from start to finish, typical for a Transformer movie & even with a new babe, well, the babe was in the action as well. & I dunno whether there will be any spin off movies after this, like the X-men movie, there was no rumor about it. The movie was great, story was great albeit very illogical. & the ending was .. well.. the end. That was what I always look for in a movie of this nature. How the director ends the end of the movie. The LOTR trilogy's end was good. This one was good as well.
But the HP's ending was like... well, in the end I was like,"That's it ? That's all ?" After 7 movies altogether, I was expecting a more dramatic ending. But of course, it ended well enuff, all the characters in the movie ended up with their respective love interests & their kids went to Hogwarts, exactly just like them. But really, that's it ?
Visitors from abroad.
The Malaysian football team is having the time of their lives this couple of weeks. 3 EPL teams, Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea are making a visit to the country & play friendly games with the national team. Like what K.Rajagopal said earlier, even Brazil dun get to play 3 EPL teams in 2 weeks like we do. Yeah, but maybe there's a reason for that. Anyway, those players must be living a dream.
I went to watch my favorite team of course, Arsenal. The last time they came it was in 1999 & I didn't have any money to buy the very expensive ticket back then, I was still in university. So when the news got out that they're coming this year, I couldn't let this opportunity pass by. Armed with my new 125th anniversary jersey, I went to the Bukit Jalil stadium for 2 straight nights, to watch them train & play. Sure enuff, the national team was no match for the Arsenal & got thumped 0-4. Nevertheless, we were behind the national team the whole time & I thought we were cheering more for the national team than the Arsenal.
Against Liverpool we managed to score 3 goals, unprecedented for a team of our ranking. Safiq Rahim confirmed himself as Malaysia's dead-ball specialist by scoring from a freekick. Safee Sali scored twice.. the stadium erupted. Good morale-booster for our team ahead of the Singapore tie.
Watching Arsenal in their training session.. they still do a lot of drills.. passing, stopping the ball.. drilled set plays.. Our team dun really do that. Which is why they're so good the Arsenal. Even at that level, they still practice drills religiously.. practiced set plays until it's embedded in their brains & they can do it by memory. Try telling our youngsters, even at state level to do that & U'll be met with a somewhat confused stare from them.
Our athletes, they dun like to do basic, fundamental things. Why ? Becoz they tend to believe they're good enuff already & to progress they need to learn more advanced, difficult moves. But when they fail to do the more difficult moves, they get frustrated & upset & eventually stop playing whatever game they're playing. Seeing Arsenal players, who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars weekly, try to work on their passing, dribbling countless times, to make them perfect... was just an eye-opening experience. I hope those youngsters watching, or even parents of aspiring youngsters will take note of this & keep this in mind. Practice makes perfect & dun get satisfied easily.
Baby coming
My wife's into her 35th week of pregnancy & we're getting pretty much restless waiting for our baby to come into our family. Next week we're gonna have the last check up with our doctor & then it's just a matter of time. I'm on a flexible dateline here at work, I need to get everything settled before I go on leave, so that I can go with a piece of mind.
Seremban Half Marathon
I didn't manage to register for the last race before Ramadhan, the Men's Health Shape Run. My fault really. So to make up for that & for my very poor SCKLM, I decided to go for the Seremban Half Marathon on the 24th. That's gonna be my last race before Ramadhan. I'm not really interested to run phantom at Men's Health. I'm still carrying my plantar fasciitis, but the shin splints seems to be okay for now. I keep telling myself to go all-out for this Seremban, even with my injury, & then I can have a month's rest. I dunno if I can improve on my PB, I dun really know the course. Hopefully I can run a better race than SCKLM. That's all I want.
Livestrong.
We watched both movies in 3D, the 1st time we watched any movie in 3D. But I'd have to say that the Transformers was a better 3D movie, maybe becoz it was shot in 3D. I felt that HP was just a normal movie then converted into 3D, hence the 3D effects wasn't that revealing.
Transformers : Dark of The Moon was a very long movie, 2 hrs 40 mins, & maybe becoz there was so much to tell. There was action from start to finish, typical for a Transformer movie & even with a new babe, well, the babe was in the action as well. & I dunno whether there will be any spin off movies after this, like the X-men movie, there was no rumor about it. The movie was great, story was great albeit very illogical. & the ending was .. well.. the end. That was what I always look for in a movie of this nature. How the director ends the end of the movie. The LOTR trilogy's end was good. This one was good as well.
But the HP's ending was like... well, in the end I was like,"That's it ? That's all ?" After 7 movies altogether, I was expecting a more dramatic ending. But of course, it ended well enuff, all the characters in the movie ended up with their respective love interests & their kids went to Hogwarts, exactly just like them. But really, that's it ?
Visitors from abroad.
The Malaysian football team is having the time of their lives this couple of weeks. 3 EPL teams, Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea are making a visit to the country & play friendly games with the national team. Like what K.Rajagopal said earlier, even Brazil dun get to play 3 EPL teams in 2 weeks like we do. Yeah, but maybe there's a reason for that. Anyway, those players must be living a dream.
I went to watch my favorite team of course, Arsenal. The last time they came it was in 1999 & I didn't have any money to buy the very expensive ticket back then, I was still in university. So when the news got out that they're coming this year, I couldn't let this opportunity pass by. Armed with my new 125th anniversary jersey, I went to the Bukit Jalil stadium for 2 straight nights, to watch them train & play. Sure enuff, the national team was no match for the Arsenal & got thumped 0-4. Nevertheless, we were behind the national team the whole time & I thought we were cheering more for the national team than the Arsenal.
Against Liverpool we managed to score 3 goals, unprecedented for a team of our ranking. Safiq Rahim confirmed himself as Malaysia's dead-ball specialist by scoring from a freekick. Safee Sali scored twice.. the stadium erupted. Good morale-booster for our team ahead of the Singapore tie.
Watching Arsenal in their training session.. they still do a lot of drills.. passing, stopping the ball.. drilled set plays.. Our team dun really do that. Which is why they're so good the Arsenal. Even at that level, they still practice drills religiously.. practiced set plays until it's embedded in their brains & they can do it by memory. Try telling our youngsters, even at state level to do that & U'll be met with a somewhat confused stare from them.
Our athletes, they dun like to do basic, fundamental things. Why ? Becoz they tend to believe they're good enuff already & to progress they need to learn more advanced, difficult moves. But when they fail to do the more difficult moves, they get frustrated & upset & eventually stop playing whatever game they're playing. Seeing Arsenal players, who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars weekly, try to work on their passing, dribbling countless times, to make them perfect... was just an eye-opening experience. I hope those youngsters watching, or even parents of aspiring youngsters will take note of this & keep this in mind. Practice makes perfect & dun get satisfied easily.
Baby coming
My wife's into her 35th week of pregnancy & we're getting pretty much restless waiting for our baby to come into our family. Next week we're gonna have the last check up with our doctor & then it's just a matter of time. I'm on a flexible dateline here at work, I need to get everything settled before I go on leave, so that I can go with a piece of mind.
Seremban Half Marathon
I didn't manage to register for the last race before Ramadhan, the Men's Health Shape Run. My fault really. So to make up for that & for my very poor SCKLM, I decided to go for the Seremban Half Marathon on the 24th. That's gonna be my last race before Ramadhan. I'm not really interested to run phantom at Men's Health. I'm still carrying my plantar fasciitis, but the shin splints seems to be okay for now. I keep telling myself to go all-out for this Seremban, even with my injury, & then I can have a month's rest. I dunno if I can improve on my PB, I dun really know the course. Hopefully I can run a better race than SCKLM. That's all I want.
Livestrong.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Week in, week out
SCKLM 2011
2 weeks ago I ran my 2nd half mara of 2011, despite a less than ideal build up & very minimal training. Reason being, I was still hampered by injury. Plantar fasciitis & also shin splints. The shin splints was showing some signs of recovering though. Despite all that, I chose to go ahead & run SCKLM. I didn't run the race last year & this year I've actually made it my target event.
The day before the race, I went for a picnic with my colleagues to Sg Tekala. It was my 1st time there. Maybe it was a mistake. I took a dip in the very cold river (not ice-cold, but very the cold nonetheless). I felt fine after that, & even slept for almost 2 hours there ! I just tried to rest as much as I can. When I went to bed that nite everything was fine.
But when I woke up at about 4:30 Sunday morning, I felt stiff. I had a slight temperature to add to my list of injury. It didn't feel all that bad before the race, but it got worse as the race progresses.
Overall I felt really bad. I couldn't push the pace. I was scrambling for isotonic drink at every water station, with the hope of getting some sort of relief. But it wasn't to be & I felt really bad. About 30 mins into the race there was drips of rain, but it stopped after that. With my condition that day, rain would've been disastrous.
The route was great. Great for breaking records or doing PBs. It was flat, especially the stretch in Cheras. As with any event of this magnitude, it was well-supported. Water stations was good. There was even a small tunnel with cold drips of water to cool the runners. But I was feeling really, really bad. Just another bad day at the office I guess.
I finished the race in 2:18, my 3rd worse time in half mara. I thought I could emulate Penang, but I just couldn't. As soon as I got home I crashed & slept.. I haven't felt this way for a long time. Hopefully things will get better, soon.
Livestrong.
2 weeks ago I ran my 2nd half mara of 2011, despite a less than ideal build up & very minimal training. Reason being, I was still hampered by injury. Plantar fasciitis & also shin splints. The shin splints was showing some signs of recovering though. Despite all that, I chose to go ahead & run SCKLM. I didn't run the race last year & this year I've actually made it my target event.
The day before the race, I went for a picnic with my colleagues to Sg Tekala. It was my 1st time there. Maybe it was a mistake. I took a dip in the very cold river (not ice-cold, but very the cold nonetheless). I felt fine after that, & even slept for almost 2 hours there ! I just tried to rest as much as I can. When I went to bed that nite everything was fine.
But when I woke up at about 4:30 Sunday morning, I felt stiff. I had a slight temperature to add to my list of injury. It didn't feel all that bad before the race, but it got worse as the race progresses.
Overall I felt really bad. I couldn't push the pace. I was scrambling for isotonic drink at every water station, with the hope of getting some sort of relief. But it wasn't to be & I felt really bad. About 30 mins into the race there was drips of rain, but it stopped after that. With my condition that day, rain would've been disastrous.
The route was great. Great for breaking records or doing PBs. It was flat, especially the stretch in Cheras. As with any event of this magnitude, it was well-supported. Water stations was good. There was even a small tunnel with cold drips of water to cool the runners. But I was feeling really, really bad. Just another bad day at the office I guess.
I finished the race in 2:18, my 3rd worse time in half mara. I thought I could emulate Penang, but I just couldn't. As soon as I got home I crashed & slept.. I haven't felt this way for a long time. Hopefully things will get better, soon.
Livestrong.
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