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.
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.
