My Race Routine

I am documenting this now, for friend's references and my own future reference how much I would change from this routine once I'm more experienced in Full Marathons. For now, this is my race routine since I started my half marathon until my 5th marathon which didn't change. Those that change I will note in the blog.


One Week Prior to Run
If I am running a 10km race, I will go on my usual weekly routine, which is to run on a Tuesday, optional Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. If I am running a 21km race, it is still the same except that my Saturday run will just be a 3km to get my engines moving.

Hydration will be important, to keep hydrated throughout the week and on Saturday is heavier hydration especially for 21km.


A Day Prior to Run
Early in the morning, will do a treadmill of 3km at a pace I would want to use in the 21km. For a 10km race, I will still do my usual Saturday run of between 6km-8km.

Zero changes to diet, except for 21km I'd go on a pasta lunch and down a bottle of 100 Plus.

At night, the following routine: -

1. Pin my bib on my race attire, place the timing chip on my shoes (if needed)
2. Place my running clothes, shorts on a hanger outside my cupboard
3. Place my heart-rate monitor and SPI Belt containing one Energy Gel (for 10km) or three Energy Gels (for 21km)
   
   SPI Belt
   
   
   
   Polar Heart-Rate Monitor
   
   
4. Sleep as early as I can

Morning of Run
For both 10km and 21km, my morning routine is same. I will wake up and have myself breakfast shake of a meal replacement (for me is Nutrilite Positrim) and two scoops of protein (Nutrilite All Plant protein powder).

First meal of the day

Then will make my Milo 3-in-1 in the same shaker bottle and have a bath.

My energy for the first few km

I will wear ALL my runnings clothes except for running shoes and head out the door. My target will always to reach the starting line half hour or more from race time. Will take my ablution if the race starts prior to Subuh.

Arrival at the parking, I will down my Milo. Change to my running shoes. Head to the starting line and start warm-ups and stretching. Since I'm not heading for top ten position, I will be one of the last in the crowd during start off. Once I am crossing the start line, my endomondo (gps tracking of my run) gets switched on and my heart-rate switched on.


First 2km of Run
I go into "pilot in a mech" mode. I will do a slow jog until my heart rate reaches 120bpm and then will push to my usual pace. I will check on the following in these exact order: -

1. Running Form Check - Landing on mid-foot, proper lean and posture, bent knees.
2. Cadence Check - Count every right-foot steps for a minute and double it. Should be between 170-190 steps per minute.
3. Tension Check - Shoulders relaxed, fist not clenching too hard (I recheck after every water stop)
4. Breathing Check - For now it's three steps of breath-in and two steps of breath-out (I re-check after every water stop)
5. Heart Rate Check - I try to maintain a heart-rate of 162-168bpm throughout my run, which is 85% to 90% of my maximum heart rate.

Throughout the Run

My first energy gel is usually consumed at the second water station (6th km) whereby the energy should kick in by the 8th km onwards.

The earlier km energies are all supplied from the Milo I drank earlier. If I'm running a 10km, I would decide whether I really need the energy or not. Usually I don't take any energy gel for a 10km nowadays. My second energy gel is consumed at the fifth water station for 21km, which is usually on the 15th km.

For 10km, I double check on my time every 5th km to decide if I should increase my pace or not. For 21km, I will double check on my time every 7th km to ensure that I'm still on a correct pace. So there are 3 sets of 7km to finish a 21km. For now the 3rd set of a 21km is always a lot slower than the first two sets.

I will usually pick a pacer early in the run. If a pacer is too fast that makes me want to go for a walk break, I will slow down and find another pacer. If a pacer is too slow, I will know it myself because I will actually have to slow down my pace and my heart-rate goes below 162bpm. I will sometimes walk at the water station and wait for the pacer to start running again before following him/her again.

If I'm on a run-walk strategy, then I will not pick a pacer and instead run according to heart-rate.

For now, I stop at every water station.


Ending the Run
I will always try to finish the race strong, that is, on a sprint with head held high. Once I cross the finish line, I will switch off my endomondo and heart-rate monitor, then proceed to get my drink and breakfast and head to some location where I will place all my items on the ground/seat and do my stretching.

I don't end my runs with hands up since I won't hit a ribbon. :D

After the stretching, I will sit down and have my breakfast. Within half an hour, if I'm not waiting for runner friends, I will drive off to go home.

New Balance HM - My Race Report

 

Back when I registered for this race, it was just another 'feather in the cap' for a 21km race for 2013. However, as the time nears, I was certain that I was under-prepared. This is because my last "above 10km" run was the Penang Series #2 on 7th July, and only have had one 10km run and four 5km runs since then.

Therefore, I gave myself a modest target of 2hrs 45mins to complete the race, but what turned out was a great run. The only sad thing is that it's short of the complete HM distance by 500metres, therefore I cannot claim a new PB.

In short, I completed 20.62km in 2hrs 27mins 13 secs. Which in terms of pace, it's a 7.08min/km compared to my 7.30min/km and above pace for my other four HMs. Nevertheless, I will still maintain my old PB for now.

The Start

I arrived Setia Alam Convention Centre at 5:45am to have the race commence at 6:15am. First place to head to is the surau for Subuh prayers. Had to wait for the first batch to complete their prayers as the surau was full. Made it to the starting line at 6:10am.

There were about 1,700 runners for the HM. As usual, I decided to start somewhere at the back of the pack. I was so sure that my body is not ready for the HM that I walked, skipped (if I had a basket of flower petals, I'd be tossing them to my sides) and jogged as if I was trying to keep my feet dry from a wet floor.

I kept my heart rate between 158-162bpm during my first 5km on purpose to save energy. I took my first energy gel, a Chocolate x1 PowerGel after the 2nd water station. I always seem to favor the thickness of this

flavor for my first energy consumption.

The Middle

In my previous HMs, I've came to a conclusion that to do a sub 2:30, all I needed to do was to maintain a 7km every 50mins. As I knew that my km's have been above 7km, I didn't care much for this until my endomondo told me that my time was 49mins at 7th km. Hey, that's not so much of a speed being under prepared. I was on track. So, I decided to find a pacer to follow.

I found an uncle in yellow, he was too fast that I felt I wanted to do a walk break quite early. In short, I settled for a friends couple. They were doing a steady 7min/km and chit-chatting. So, from 7th km till 12thkm, I didn't stop (except for water) and I was quite pleased at that. I would have gone for walk-run tactic after the 6th km if it was any other race (even the 16km Mizuno Wave!). At the 3rd water station, I downed a x2 caffeine PowerGel. That's it. Two gels for 21km. I wonder how many I would need for an FM.

After the 12th km, the guy of the couple went ahead, and the lady of the couple started to slow down. I took a photo of her right before I passed her by. Incidentally, the other lady at the front ended up being another pacer in the near future. We'll call her "pink right-leg girl".

After I passed the lady on the right (in the photo), I followed two dudes in blue but soon enough they slowed down. Then I followed another uncle, and he too started to slow down. I saw a guy ran in the opposite directly to have the pink right-leg girl hold his hands and they sped off. I continued another 2km following a bald older man till the man slowed down and I arrived at the couple of the pink right-leg girl and her bf. 

At 14th km, the time was 1hr 39mins. That's keeping to my 7km/50mins which translate to 21km = 2:30 so I saw that suddenly I was on target to complete a sub 2:30. But easier said than done since I always faced cramps at my 18th km onwards.

The Finishing

At about the 18th km, my pacer broke off, with the guy going in front and the girl got left behind and I ran passed her trying to follow in the steps of the guy. By the 19th km, he turned back, I guess to get back to his girlfriend and lo and behold, in front of me I saw the one-armed guy who I was running alongside throughout most of my Mizuno Wave. While I passed him during the last 200m of the Mizuno Wave, I lost sight of him in the last km when he sped off.

The route turned into the park of Setia Alam mall and the finishing was on the grassy path. The time on the clock stated 1:29:?? when I crossed and I was elated! Except, I knew, it wasn't 21km yet. It's ok.

Every improvement, no matter how slight, is still an improvement.

Summary

I didn't arrive at any cramping symptom until I finished the race. Previous attack and a full cramp hit me at 18th or 19th km. So I guess I did something right. The only NEW THING I introduced to myself in this race is the breathing technique I started to use during Ramadhan. To take three steps to inhale, and two steps to exhale. Previously, it was two steps inhale and a looong continuous exhale in a few steps. I guess the higher intake of oxygen helped the muscles. I don't know. I'm just guessing.

This is the first time that: -

1. I did not fall into a walk-run routine until the 19th km when I really started to tire. It was a nice 3-4km non-stop run before every water stop.
2. None of my pace was above 8min/km. The last time I achieved this was 26th January for 13km.

Complete Runs for 2013

Back in 1992 and in 1994 (Form 2 and Form 4), I ran for Merdeka Run. Then in 2002 I ran for a Subang Jaya 10km which I finished last after I decided just to walk it from 3rd km onwards. I have always been a sprinter 100m and 200m back in school days, but running a mere 400m makes me vomit afterwards.

Fast forward to 2012, as I started losing weight from 93.6kg to 73.6kg from April 2012 to August 2012, I took up a "Couch to 5km" which I completed in September 2012, and started to try registering for a run. My first run ended up being the Desa Parkcity Run 2012. Logically, I should be doing this as an annual run for a "check-up on my performance", but seeing that it's one week AFTER the Penang Bridge Run, I'd decided to skip it. I was too late to register for any other races in 2012 at that time.

Now in 2013, I joined nearly all the races I can. Yeah, a new runner's fallacy. Too caught up in the excitement of running. However, I made sure of the following.... priority is injury-free first and foremost, and proper running form and economics second, personal bests can come later. That's why my target has been a slight improvement every time.

Few more things I need to achieve before I can put all out on improvement. I'm very very scientific in my approach. I'm like those people... heck, it even shows in my cooking. I prefer to prepare ALL the necessary ingredients in respective bowls before I start to light the fire. In running it seems to be the same. Few other areas I need to improve is my breathing (I'm going for 3-steps of breath-in and 2-steps of breath-out) and finding a speed that will enable me to run non-stop 10km on road. I have done it on treadmill, but still can't find the proper pace on road.

Anyway, here are my races for 2013.

I decided to run with someone else's bib for Standard Chartered KL Marathon. I consider it a 42km LSD. I don't consider this my maiden Full Marathon.

Here's to a crazy time after my Hari Raya. 2014 I will try my best to only go for those above 10km only, with maybe one or two 10km just to see if I can go sub-60.


Summary of Things to Improve:
1. Breathing while running (taking a 3-steps breath-in and 2-steps breath-out)
2. Constant forefoot strike or mid-strike even when tired, since I always go heelstrike when tired.
3. Slow-down on pace for a 10km. I will still keep to my run-walk-run for 21km.

Penang Run 2013 - 2014 Series #2/#4 (Teluk Kumbar - Balik Pulau) Race Report

There will be no photos in this report as compared to the first serie. The night before I drove through the first 10km of the race and found that from 3rd to 5th km, it is a slow incline up to 180meters, and it does look as if we're going to start running up Cameron Highlands.

The Start
At first I wanted to get to the finishing line by 4:00pm to utilize their shuttle bus back to the start line, however when I woke up at 3:30am, I had a massive headache. I didn't sleep though, just rested, took a bath and then by 4:30am I'm out of the homestay at Kampung Titi Teras, Balik Pulau.

Arrived at 5:00am, I waited a bit before walking to the start line. Met an old friend there, I had already taken my ablution but I shook her hand anyway. The start was quiet. No shouting of rules and regulation, no music, just a countdown and we're off.

I ran on the average of below 6min/km till the hill started, and I decided to do something I've never done in a race before. Walk for 3km. And so I did. Runners ran passed me, but I still maintain the walk and ended up having about 8++min/km on that 3kms. As it turns to downhill, I sped up and had about 5:30min/km on the next two kms after that.


The Middle
The route is, how I would say, boring. The scenic part is only at the first 6km but at 5:30am to 6:00am, there's hardly any view to enjoy. I had a stop to pray Subuh at a mosque, then I had my first energy gel at km6 and another one at km15. I was not really ready for this distance this time because it's been two weeks since I did any LSD due to the haze, so at that km15 water-stop, I requested for muscle spray but all the guy had was just Yoko-Yoko. I had that applied and continued on the race, but it didn't help.

In terms of my "similar time mates", I was running with a group of two guys and three girls who kept cutting each other over the kms. What I noticed is that while the two guys were like me, whereby we take walk breaks, two of the girls didn't seem to stop except at the water station.


The Finishing
Right after I crossed the 20km mark, I had my cramps. Had to hobble all the way to finish the 22km race, however I still manage to create a new PB of 2hours 35mins and 21secs, beating about 2 minutes from my previous Half Marathon PB. However, due to the walk, it actually took me more than 9 mins to finish km22.

I walked passed the finish line, took my medal, nasi lemak, bread, drink and placed them on the field while I stretched to cool down. Then I sat and ate, and later.... as expected, there were no taxi. Ended up walking about 2km towards Balik Pulau town and luckily a good samaritan sent me to my car and I insisted on paying him a token of a sum of money.


Summary
This race has nothing to shout about. Finished the race at 50% bottom percentile again. I hope to buck up as I do more half marathons.

Mizuno Wave Run 2013

Warning: No photos in this post. This post is NOT a race report, but a personal report of my race.

Target time: sub-1hr 52mins for 16km (first time below 7min/km pace).
Achieved: 6:43min/km pace!

I signed up for this run the moment I found out that Larian Untukmu Gaza was postponed to 3rd November 2013, because previously the dates clashed. This race is 16km.

Though I've done three half marathons by now, they were not really good runs that I finished strong. All three half marathons led me to walk in the last three kms. Prior to this, the furthest I went was 14km on my birthday which was 7:10min/km pace. During a training, I hit 13km at 6:52min/km and both of these were in January. As the months go by, my mileage starts to get less, and my pace started to be "as long as it's still below 7:40min/km". It's not really about work commitment, but I'm trying to find a way to minimize training time but to improve as fast as before. So the previous "5 runs per week" has gotten down to about "3 runs per week". This will start to build up again after Hari Raya to prepare for my first Full Marathon in Penang Bridge International Marathon.

I decided to do a 16km time trial a week before this race, running KLCC Park. I completed it just shy of 2 hours with a pace of 7:28min/km. My goal, was to do a sub 7:00min/km. To do that, I need to complete it below 1hr 52mins.

Four weeks prior to this race, I started to do heavier intervals during my speedwork days. This was purely with the intention to start increasing my pace which I feel have been stagnant about 7:20 - 7:40min/km. I started doing 11.3kmh (5:11min/km) for 1.6km x 3 sets. Just needed to build the mechanics of my legs moving that fast.


Race Day
I woke up at 4:15am, when the alarm was actually set for 4:30am. Had my daily Yakult, prepared my protein + positrim shake. Then made my Milo in a enclosed shaker, and took my bath. Packed my usual,.. 2 energy gels, my heartrate monitor and for the first time, I decided to experiment running without holding my Gatorade and decided to stop at every water stop. Yes, previously the only reason that I brought water is not throw away running time by clambering with other runners getting water. So now I'm trying for a sub-7min but actually will stop at water stations. My idea... is to treat each water station as my walk break. Yup, even if I have to start a walk break at my third km.

Reached Dataran Putrajaya at 6:00am, drank my milo and went for my Subuh prayers and head to the starting line. As usual, I only started joining the crowd about 2mins after the start at 6:30am. First two km was averages about 6:30min/km. Then the first water station, I walked till I saw a colleague. I ran alongside her a while then continued on my way. At the second water station (6km), I took my x1 caffeine energy gel and drank up the water given. At this point, I decided to conserve energy by deploying a weird walk break strategy... which is running about 3mins hard, and walk for 2mins. Believe me, 2mins was a LONG TIME to wait before starting to run again that at one point I got bored so I whistled songs to myself. Amazingly, the break allowed for a speed up and it made me maintain sub-7min pace. By the 9th km, I found that I could go for my 10km personal best. And so I sped up to complete my 10th km at 5:51km/min.

Had another energy gel at 12km's water stop, and that was it. I skipped the 15km water station just to finish the race. For the first time in any race, I let go my joy the moment I crossed the finish line by shouting "Woo!" because I know I did my sub-7min/km. Along the way, I started to realise that I have been following the pace of a one-arm chinese dude. We were passing each other a lot, and he became somewhat of a 'pacer' for me to follow coz he also goes for his walk breaks.

Conclusion of the race, is that I completed it in 6:43min/km pace and I'm very happy with that.


The Circuit
The track is what I would considered flat. With maybe 4 uphills that were really short, and one longer but low-incline hill. The weather made it a perfect condition for running.

Organisation was good. Twice police made me stop running to allow cars to pass but everything else was ok. Kudos to PaceSetters.


Summary
Though this race is a milestone attack, I was still experimenting. First time not carrying water. First time allowing a walk break for as long as 2 mins. What went right from previous runs that I take along with me still is the taper (I stopped running 3 days prior to race), my double-breakfast of firstly protein shake and then milo drink at venue, and mental attitude with a goal in mind.

I seriously think that my new running pace plays a role and that the four weeks of speedworks, well, works. I used to run at 7min/km but my runs this time was at 6:10min/km and due to the walk breaks, it averages just between 6:50 to 7:10 except when I really take a super long breaks due to ending the 2-mins breaks just before an uphill. While I can tackle uphill, I don't have the intention of getting exhausted once I conquered it. Might as well save the energy for the time I want to hit.

Next race,.... Standard Chartered Half Marathon. If everything goes right, I logically should hit my modest target of sub 2hours 35mins. But my real target is 2hours 30mins.

Penang Run 2013 - 2014 Series #1/#4 (Esplanade - Teluk Kumbar) Race Report

When I first read about this run, what interested me the most of the finishers medal. It will be a four piece puzzle, because for each serie you will get one piece of the puzzle. Once completed, you will be given the map of Penang to add to the centre of the puzzle. On another hand, would I want to go back to Penang for four times just to run a 21k race?!?

Weighing several factors, I decided to go for the run anyway. Yes, it will be a heavy "Saturday drive up, Sunday run, then bathe and then drive back to KL", but the i) point-to-point run and ii) circling Penang island got the better of me. 

This time, I didn't set myself a target time. I will treat it as a forced LDS (Long Slow Distance) and as long as I go below 3:30 qualifying time, I'm fine. One dilemma was where to park my car. If I park at the start, I will need to find transport from the finish. If I park at the finish, and take the shuttle bus to the start (provided by organisers), I must arrive before 4:00am. The run is at 5:30am.

I decided to park at the start, I wanted more beauty sleep at least. So there, I drove to the starting line at Esplanade, Padang Kota Lama and reached at 5:20am, just 10 mins shy of the start.

Starting Line at 5:25am

I stretched (something I usually don't do but I felt I had to), I jumped around, and made sure my heart rate was above 110bpm right before start. One uncle was having two helium balloon with the writing "3:00 pacer". I guess anyone who wants to run at his pace can follow him, but the organizers confiscated the balloon saying it was hazardous. Hmmm....

Then the gun went off, I started my run, at an easy pace (so it seemed to me), but after 4km and passing two mosque but it wasn't time for Subuh prayers yet, I noticed I've been doing sub 7mins/km which to me is not an easy pace. Then I saw one girl detour out of the road to a mosque, I followed suit.

Mosque at 6:10am

I joined the jemaah on the last rakaat after the rukuk, so I had two more rakaat before I am done. Two other malay runners was with me at this time. We had our "hello, how are you, where you from" session as we're putting our shoes back on and then off we went. 

The runners were spread nicely, no traffic to run past each other. Though the organisers didn't have motorcycles following runners to ensure everything is fine, or any medics along the way, I have to say that they did a great job that at every junction there's someone to control traffic.

Scenery at 6:37am, about 7km in. Runners are sparsed.

The entire journey was not really eventful. It's more of a run to spend time with yourself, in a way. I didn't do any contemplation. I took this event purely to test out a "walk-run" style and see how well it works. Then we started to approach the junction for people heading to Bayan Lepas or to the bridge. No one took care of traffic here. We're at the mercy of the traffic, making sure we can cut to the divider as soon as there were no cars.

Penang Bridge / Bayan Lepas divider at 6:42am

The sun is up at 7:04am, people around my pace level are walking. :D

PSDC Building at 7:18am

Not only did I take walk breaks. I even had several "stop and shoot" breaks, where I totally stop to get a photo that's not shaky. This building brings back memories of my 2008-2010 job, a building that I frequently have my meetings. What's nice about this is that, back then I used to stay where the starting line starts, and always drive to my meeting. Today, I arrive the building in nearly 2 hours of running.

Final water station at 7:52am

Another thing I really liked is the water stations along the way. Though it's quite far apart, usually one per 3km, this run had water stations after 4km during the first three stations, and then they started to come closer. In all I think there was 6 water stations in total, or maybe 5, I didn't really count. What I liked about the water station is that they provide you with a glass-covered mineral water instead of those water poured in cups. Eventhough I carried my own water bottle, I grabbed both the mineral water and the cupped isotonic drink. The mineral water I use to fill up my own water bottle and drink up the isotonic drink.

Road to Teluk Kumbar at 8:12am

Way before this photo was taken, I was already at "cramping" state. That is, if I tried to jog, the muscles will start pulling heading for a cramp. So yes, I did the entire 20th and 21st km walking. No medics to spray my legs like I had in Bidor Half Marathon. After passing Bayan Lepas, it's actually about 2-3km of empty roads until we arrive at the finishing point, Sekolah Menengah Teluk Kumbar.

After crossing Finish Line at 8:18am

The moment I crossed the finish line, you are automatically in a queue where they will give you your bread and mineral water, and your finisher's medal and then you're brought into the open area. I kinda like this, but for a smaller running crowd like this event of course. At least you don't have to start looking around for your breakfast and your finishers medal. 

The First Medal Puzzle, and my shoes. I took it off to treat my blister.

I was genuinely surprised that despite taking my sweet time running this time, I was slow by less than a minute and a half compared to Bidor (Half Marathon timing). However, this run ended up being 22.1km which is 1km extra of a Half Marathon. For the first time, I developed blister on my left foot's small toe. Maybe I didn't wear my socks and shoes on tight enough. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the run.

It's not easy to take care of a full 21km length, so kudos to the organisers. I ended up walking nearly 2km back towards Bayan Lepas as there were no taxis in Teluk Kumbar. So, next serie, I will park at the Finish Line and take the shuttle bus to Start Line eventhough I have to be there at 4:00am. At the start line would probably sleep and set alarm to wake up at 5:15am. :P

Finished the race at the bottom 50% percentile. Sigh....

Shoes Mileage as at 8 May 2013

I have two running shoes right now, and just bought a third shoes, the Sketcher Gorun 2. My current shoes are both Adidas, one is a blue 'something' and another is a yellow Adizero Feather 2.

Blue Adidas
Indoor Mileage - 199.11km
Outdoor Mileage - 102.49km

Yellow Adidas Adizero Feather 2
Indoor Mileage - None
Outdoor Mileage - 310.24km

Usually shoes are retired after 565km to 885km mileage depending on running style and roughness on the shoes.

From Beginning of Running till now...

I was a couch potato. I began running with the first workout from the Couch-to-5K (C25K) programme from www.coolrunning.com introduced by a friend. What started as a difficult 1 minute run / 2 minute walk in April 2012, has turned into what it is today.

I document the below so that in the future I can refer to how much I have improved.

5km - I am able to easily do a 5km below 33minutes, however only twice I have done it below 30minutes. This is the distance I will run non-stop before taking my walk-break in races.

10km - My best 10km is below 1hour 10minutes, and usually for an easy run it will be about 1hr 13mins to 1hr 20mins.

21km - I have only done this thrice, once in practise, then in Brooks Half Marathon at 2:43:44 and another at Bidor Half Maraton at 2:38:43.

Endurance - The longest I have run non-stop is for 8km which took an exact 60 minutes.

Pace - My average pace for races is about 7:30mins/km, and in shorter training session below 8km is just about 7:00mins/km.

Bidor Half Marathon Race Report

I signed up for Bidor Half Marathon before I even ran my first half marathon. However, only days prior to Bidor HM I realised that there is a qualifying time of 2 hours 45 minutes to be eligible to collect the finisher's medal. Having done my own 21km training that exceeded that time, and my first HM at 2:43:44, I was having some jitters.

Drove to Bidor on Sunday afternoon with family, got our race kit (family running the 3km race) and then I noticed that the 'running vest' is not a dri-fit running vest. No way am I going to run a full 21km wearing a cotton-based t-shirt and weigh myself down with undried sweat. Lucky I brought my Newton dri-fit that was given for the Newton 12km I entered late last year. Drove another 40 mins to Kampar where I will be staying for the night, at Grand Kampar Hotel. Since I'm not doing a hotel review here, let me just summarize that Grand Kampar Hotel is a recommended, albeit being about RM211nett for one king size and one single bed. There is Tesco nearby, McDonalds, Old Town White Coffee, but if you're looking for 'kampar' food, I didn't find anything interesting that's halal.

One of my greatest worry is that the race starts at 7:00am. My strategy is to build a good distance and time first before the sun gets hot, which is not the best way since you'll be pooped later to maintain a good pace. Having run a 5km Rat Race that started at 9:30am suggested to me that I better run far first then build enough leftover for a 9min/km walk-run to complete the 2hrs 45mins qualifying time.

Photo taken from "Best of Running" fb

The first two km was interesting. I was inside a kopitiam session, only that people are running. Friends meeting friends, politic news, running news, keeping up with gossips, family life, etc all happening within that two km. Then the news died down as people start to pay attention to their own pacing. 

First 10km was rather flat, very nice view, very cool and calm surrounding, and I find that I like this kind of crowd. There's only about 617 runners for Half Marathon and we WILL NOT MEET the other 10km and 3km runners at all, except the laggards of 10km. This is in comparison to the 4512 runners at Brooks Half Marathon which joins up with another 3900+ runners of the 10km creating massive traffic! Back to Bidor HM, the traffic was non-existing. You only need to cut one person at a time, except for those running in a group as there were the Ubah Group, the Sri Aman Group. The sparcity was a welcome.

The whole route is like the letter Y. You run one route, u-turn and then another route and u-turn. By the time I finished my first 10km, I was at 1hr 9mins which was a pleasant surprise since in the KL 10km Road Race recently I did it in 1hr 10mins. 

I started going into the loooong walk break starting from the 13th km which was a long uphill, and then by the 16th km, this happened...

The 9:00am sun! Taken via my blackberry.

I find myself just calculating the time left, and am just happy to maintain below 9mins/km to meet the qualifying time. By the 18th km, it hits me. The Runner's High. Ended up running near 5 mins non-stop from the new surge of energy before it died down. By that time, I decided that it was possible to go below 2hrs 40mins and so I did. Pushed myself enough until I was sure that I can simply walk to the finish line under that time. And so I did. The moment I crossed the finish line, I made a run-around to snap a photo of the timer (which at that time is already passed the 2hrs 40mins).

2.40.27. This is after a casual walk passed the finish line.

I was happy. I did a sub 2:40. This is an nice improvement. I have another Half Marathon before the one I targetted sub 2:30 for which is the Standard Chartered end of June. Let's see if it's possible.

There's a few firsts in this race: -

1. First outstation race.

2. First time crossing the finish line walking.
3. First time not wearing the official t-shirt given for a race.

4. First time losing to so many uncles and aunties! I was placed 467/617 runners overall my goodness. Putting myself in the bottom 25%. 

Photo taken from "Best of Running" fb 

I hope to be back next year.

Post-race: I fell asleep about an hour back in the hotel, then it's back to KL. Woke up Monday with sore calf, hamstring and gluteus but very manageable.