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
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