Zurich Marathon 2009

Ok. I have decided to run this race simply because my business trip to Germany is confirmed, and without even thinking whether I'm fit to run the marathon, I've signed up for this race 3.5 weeks before the exact date. After the credit card transaction is over, I noticed the time limit, 5hrs 30mins. Shoot me!

After SCSM 2008, my right ankle was injured, and I basically rest for 3 months without doing any runs. Then, since last March, I was travelling a lot that I didn't even have time to train for any race. I tried to join the Fatbird runs during the weekend, but I've only managed to join them for 2 weekends before I had to fly to Germany. So, my mileage clocked since SCSM 2008, less than 50miles!

So, I spent about 2 weeks in Germany for company training, and when it comes to the day before the race, I took a 3hours train to Zurich, Switzerland. Zbjernak is working in Switzerland now, so we met at the Zurich train station. Then we proceed to the Saalsporthalle to collect my running bib. The marathon expo is very small and not crowded at all. I went to collect my running bib, and then we proceed to check into the marathon hotel.

On the event day, I woke up around 6am and took a light cold breakfast provided by the hotel and then I went back to my room to dress. Haha. Yeah..this will be my first time running in the cold and I was so nervous. I bought a Skin long tights and an Adidas tight top. Yeah, I think I'll be overdressed but I didn't care. So, I went down to the lobby to board the shuttle bus to the venue and guess what, I met a Singaporean guy who stayed in the same hotel running the same marathon in that morning. Nice to meet you Victor!

We chatted along the way until we reached the marathon site. I lost him after depositing my baggage but bumped into him again at the starting cage. He's targeting for 3:30 timing, and I shyly inform him that I would be happy to hit sub 4, which is quite hard coz I was undertrained. Well, it was freezingly cold and we were flagged off at 0830 hours, towards the tunnel. The previous KPE Tunnel Run nightmare actually made me quite uncomfortable running in the tunnel again this time, especially in a 42km distance run. There were about 5800 runners and guess what, I'm among the last pack of the runners, even though I was doing a sub 1 hr pace for 10km. We had to make a u-turn after 4.5km and again back to the tunnel. Since there's only water station every 4km, I didn't skip the first one. I started to perspire a lot in the tunnel and after 9km, I was relieved we are headin out from the stupid tunnel. There's so many crowds and supporters all along the journey cheering for us which was pleasant. Thanks!

The weather was still cold and it kinda feels good after sweating that much in the tunnel. I ran towards the city and slowly to the lakeside. My first 10km guntime was 57mins 19secs. Not too bad after a almost 3 mins delay at the starting point. I continued running and the weather is getting hotter. The sun shined right at me and I can really feel the heat. Damn, I shouldn't have wore long tights to run. It's like running along the Singapore's East Coast Park, minus the humidity of course. I continued to run until 21km and looked at my watch, 1hr 57mins. Not bad at all, I was actually doing a sub 4 hours pace and I still feel good. The bad thing about this race is the isotonic drinks are served after 18km. And after 26km, I started to feel the heaviness on both my legs. Damn, the cramps are coming.

I dragged my feet towards the 27km u-turning point. Somehow I managed to avoid the cramps with slowing down my pace. I felt much better after the u-turn and continued my run until after 32km. I looked at my watched again and it was 5 minutes pass 3hrs. The chances of clocking sub 4 are still there. So I continued towards the 33rd kilometre. However, just 2 metres before 33km sign, the cramp just struck my right foot and I just lie there for more than 5 minutes motionless. There goes my sub 4 dream. I dunno why my cramps come everytime after 32km.

After 11mins spent to complete the 33km, I felt better and started walking slowly. I tried to run a bit but everytime after 1-2 minutes of running, the cramp comes back. I had to stop again to avoid the cramp from striking. This goes on and the cramps on my left leg follow suit after a couple of kms. I tried to make sure that I don't finish way beyond 4hrs 30mins. Tried to keep my slow walk and jog pace steady and after 1km, I saw everyone around me started running eagerly towards the finishing line. Damn, I wanted to run too, but my cramps were getting a lot worse. But all the supporters are cheering me not to stop, and I know it kinda look stupid to walk when there's 1km left. but well, when you had a series of cramps attacking you, 1km can be very long. But I still drag my feet to run. And finally, I completed the race in 4hrs 21mins 31secs official chip time. Right after I crossed the finishing line, I just stand motionless trying to adjust my cramps. One of the road marshalls actually thought I'm gonna collapse he eventually signal the medics to come to me. Haha..But I stopped him, telling him I'm ok.

Zbjernak met me at the visitors area and we proceed to the baggage collection. This marathon is actually the most painful marathon I've ever participated even though the weather is less humid compare to all my SCSM marathons. I would love to run a marathon during fall next year. Perhaps I will do better. After I got back to my hotel, I noticed 4 smses from the organiser. Everytime after I crossed the timing mat, a sms will be sent to my hp telling me my time. That was so cool! However, I wouldn't prefer to run the route again, it was like running along the KPE tunnel and then east coast park.

End of Year 2008

One more day to Year 2009. Well, Year 2008 is not really that bad for me to endure. I changed my job (yes, again!) but it was a great change or should I say a great return to my current company. I bought a car in Singapore and also a few scary moments (I shall not elaborate those scary moments).

I've set some resolutions earlier this year and well, I did not achieve all of them:

1) Spend more time in swimming. Hopefully can improve my strokes and did many 30 laps swims
- Mission failed! I have only visited swimming pools not more than 3 times this year and my total laps swimmed are less than 10. Sigh....
2) Will still remain my 10 medal target this year. But will try to obtain 15 medals, if possible!
- Managed to obtain 10 race medals and 1 volunteer medal this year.
3) Get rid of my excessive body fats (my love handles) and hopefully a nice lean and toned body with nice abs..(yeah I know, I'm vain and greedy!LOL)
- Mission failed! No abs though, but managed to increase some body mass.
4) Will be doing my first ever 84km ultramarathon (registration confirmed). Hopefully can complete in 1 piece. (suicide...suicide...)
- Completed my first ever 84km ultramarathon run in 12 hours. :)
5) Run a race oversea
- Well, I did run a bit, but I climbed most of it in Bangkok's Banyan Tree Vertical Marathon.
6) Run a sub 4 hour marathon.
- Mission failed! Can only managed to do 4hrs 17mins..Blame it on my laziness.
7) Hope to reduce my weight to an ideal 60kg.
- Mission failed! In fact, I weigh 68kg now.
8) As usual, stay healthy and injury free!
- Did not have any serious injury so far this year.

Right, and now let's see what I have done/endured all year long:
1) Completed four 10k runs, two 15k run, three half marathons, one marathon, one ultramarathon and two vertical marathons.
2) Obtained 11 medals; 10 in competitive races and 1 in friendship relay race as a volunteer.
3) I finally return to my favourite employer.
4) Bought my dream car.
5) Bought a new DSLR camera but it is under utilized.

And my year 2009 resolutions are:

1) Hope to do more swimming stuff instead.
2) Will try to obtain 10 more medals again in year 2009.
3) Build bigger arms and chest as well as stronger legs.
4) Run a marathon oversea.
5) Try to reduce my weight to 65kg.
6) Run a sub 4 hours marathon
7) Stay healthy and injury free!

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2008

My one and only full marathon race every year. Although I have not been training well for this event, I still dream of completing it in a record time of sub 4 hours. However, I finally set my humble target of sub 4:30 finishing time. Woke up at 3am and made my way to nerradhog's place around 3:50am. I planned to drive there early just to avoid traffic jam as there will be at least 15000 runners just for full marathon alone. Reached and parked at Marina Square carpark at 4:15am. Surprisingly, the area was so quiet and not many cars were seen on the road.

We walked to the Esplanade and waited there until 5.00am before we make our way to the starting cage. The crowd was massive but we still managed to stand pretty close to the starting point, squeezing ourselves in the sub 4 hours cage. Both nerradhog and I have the same fear; leg cramps at the later part of the runs and very much afraid that it will greatly slow us down. He brought a counter pain rub along with him and I wore half tights for the first time in my life. Tights is proven to reduce the chances of muscle cramps. However, I do agree with nerradhog that not clocking enough mileage during training may contribute to leg cramps.

We were flagged off at 5:30am sharp. I took only 30 secs to reach the starting mat and started off running in a decent pace. The front crowd wasn't that huge so I had pretty comfortable space to run. nerradhog and I kinda paced each other during the first 3km. We ran in a sub 4 hours pace. Later, I started to feel good and kinda increased my momentum. nerradhog chose not to follow my pace and soon I ran towards the Nicoll highway in a 4:30 min/km pace. My strategy was to run for at least 30km in a sub 4 hours pace coz I know my threshold will be anytime after 30km, regardless how slow or fast I run. Therefore I knew I need to run fast in the first 30km.

They changed the route this year, no more running along the Marina Bay/Park, instead we were heading straight to Nicoll Highway, Fort Road and towards the East Coast Park. They make us run longer at ECP this time. Instead of running just 10km at ECP like previous years, we had to endure 20km there this time, which is kinda boring maybe because I have been running there so often. I was still running comfortably and completed my first 10km in 56mins. I then ran straight towards ECP and reached the u-turn point of 21km in less than 2 hours. When I reached 22km, I suddenly felt so sleepy, maybe due to my lack of sleep for the past 2 nights. Dragged my sleepiness until 24km and took my second energy gel hoping that the caffeine in it helps.

Managed to complete my 30km in 2hours and 50mins. Saw the sgrunners support station. Fida, Sotong and the others were so kind and helpful, offering me food and drinks, but I chose not to stop yet at that time, afraid my cramp will kicked in. So I declined their generous offer and made my way out from the east coast park. Babumouse overtook me later and said he was very much in form and from his pace, he definitely can complete in an impressive sub 4 hours. Soon after that, I was in horror when I saw the marathon route slowly merging with the half marathon route. I was so pissed as this will eventually giving us (the marathoners) hard time running with slower half marathon crowds. Can see most of them are walking. I had to put extra effort to overtake them. My legs were getting heavy and I did a foolish decision to stop at the water station and 32.5km coz I was getting very tired trying to overtake those half marathoners. I drank 2 cups of water and walked for about 200m before continuing my run again.

True enough, after running pass the 33km sign, my left hamstring started pulling. Damn. I had no choice but to quickly stop and hoping it will go away. It kinda developed some minor cramps and I started to adopt the walk/jog strategy. But I couldn't run for long after that as the hamstring muscle keeps pulling. Soon after that, my right hamstring had the same problem, but wasn't as bad as the left one. I got some heat rub from the volunteers and rub some on my left hamstring. Actually it doesn't help much. Soon, we splited our ways from the half marathoners while I was turning to the Kallang Stadium. I was supposed to press the split time on my watch at 34km mark but I foolishly pressed the stop button and only realised it about approx 2 mins later. Damn...my clocked time is not accurate anymore.

I continued my walk jog strategy and they actually make us run towards Geylang area this year and when we were appraoching the Republic Avenue, again I was pissed when they merge us with the 10km runners. It was actually almost 4km left and that means I had to run with such a big crowd but limited space for me to overtake. Thumbs down to the organiser this time! They have a total of 50km runners but instead of making us enjoying our run, they just make our life harder. I'm sure all the experienced runners hate the route plan. I had no more strength to do the overtakings. I slowly walked and jogged until the last 700 meters which then I ran desperately to the finishing line. I finally crossed the line in a 4hours 17mins 22secs guntime. Chip time wise, I think I am about 4 minutes better than my last year's timing.

Still unable to break within 4 hours barrier, but for a guy who did not train hard, I'm satisfied. Marathon is pretty much doable for me now, it's just that I need to train hard to join the sub 4 hours family. Hopefully, I can do much better if I'm running an oversea race next year.

Swissotel Vertical Marathon 2008

I'm excited to run this vertical marathon for the second time but I am also on my lowest form due to lack of training so I do not expect much from myself. In addition, I just did a 28km run at ECP with the fatbirds the day before (my longest run for my marathon training) and my legs are pretty sore.

Woke up at 5.45am and got ready to pick nerradhog and renoh up from their home at 6.40am. I parked my car at the Singapore National Library and met stardust there. After unloading all our bags in the car, we proceed to the event hotel and collected our bibs and chips. It was around 7.30am and our category will only starts at 10am. We met ripley and alphagirl there and had some phototakings before make ways into the hotel to sit and wait.

We were bored and waited until 10am to get our butt up the stairs. The event is packed with more than 1500 participants, compared to mere 600 plus last year. As usual, they flag us off in a group by 6 separated by 30 seconds each. I somehow separated from renoh and the gangs and was pretty much alone in my wave. So, the race has started for my group and I ran towards the stair cases. The first 10 floors were easy. Later, fatigues starts to kick in and I started taking my own sweet time walking upwards after 17 floors. Overtaking became quite a challenge this year and the stair cases were packed with the slower ones from the earlier waves. I try to walk as fast as I could and surprisingly, I completed the first half in 7mins, a minute faster than last year's. The first half will take the longest time to complete as the stairs are spiral-like and are pretty long, unlike those normal type. I took about 4 mins for the second half last year, but somehow this year I was way much slower. nerradhog and stardust began catching up fast although they were 2 waves behind. They so fast and energetic (damn! they are so young and energetic! I must admit I'm getting older)

Getting very tired, my pace were getting slower and slower but finally I pushed myself up to the final floor and quickly rushed to the finishing point. Couldn't rushed much though as the guy in front of me were a bit slow. Afraid he might blocked my photographer's view, I let him finished first and I followed suit. My time was 13mins 21secs, almost one and a half minute slower than my last year's, which is actually quite pathetic. I was so drained I finished the water bottle in seconds. But the experience this year is a lot better coz I was all alone last year and this year I have a bunch of friends with me. Thanks for the company, guys. babumouse came to support us and I was unable to join them for post race brunch as I had to rush home to get ready for work.

Run for Hope 2008

This run is a full charity run so not many runners were interested. I went to this run with renoh. We reached ECP slightly earlier and we did an unsual 4km warm up runs while waiting for the race to start. After we did our warm up, we bumped into nerradhog and stardust.

The race started not long after that and I started off pretty strong. Later I managed to catch up nerradhog (a very fast young runner) but somehow he managed to widen the gap by increasing his running pace. I had to maintain my own pace as I do not want to hit the wall that soon. Nothing special about the ECP common running route. I tried to maintain my pace but I was getting slightly a bit tired after the 5km u-turn. I tried to endure and finally, I completed the run in 52mins 10secs, my worst 10km timing of the year.

I have been putting on weight and been slacking,not to mention the 4km warm up before race, so no surprise of the poor timing though. The race was well organised and I actually treated it as a normal weekend run.

Banyan Tree Vertical Marathon 2008

This race is held in Bangkok, my first oversea race other than Malaysia and Singapore. I was on business trip in Bangkok so I went to Bangkok a day earlier to run this event. The pre race wasn't that well organised. Most of them haven't paid their race fees and I was directed here and there and surprisingly, I was among those few who paid online and it was quite a mess.

They gave out the t-shirt before the race and I wondered if I shall bring it to run along. I ended up leaving the t-shirt behind. The only thing I like about this race was we were all given the chips with the ankle strap each which is pretty cool as we don't have to tie it to our shoe lace. The race starts by flagging off the participants in groups of 10 every 2 minutes. I was impressed as most of the 500 plus participants were foreigners. After long wait, I was finally flagged off. I rushed to the stair cases and quickly make my way up to the 61st floor.

I was very shocked when I started to feel very tired after just 10th floor. This cannot be possible. It was obvious I wasn't in form on that day. I started dragging my feet up step by step and after 10mins 54secs, I finally stepped on the finishing mat. I was so disappointed with my timing considering 61 storey climbs should be much easier the Swissotel's 73 storeys. Well, to make things worse, no one collected the chip from me and I finally made my way down and gave it to one of the organisers who did not even know where is the chip return counter. I finally found out they were supposed to collect from me right after i complete my race at the top, but well...so I handed it to one of the ground staff and headed back to the hotel to join my colleague and his gang.

Swing KPE Tunnel Run 2008

Singapore has built the longest tunnel in Southeast Asia (about 10km long) and the Land Transport Authority planned a Guiness World Record breaking event; a community run/walk along the tunnel with lanterns. The event is free and everyone is entitled a certificate and many goodies. Thank god to those who join the competitive event do not need to carry the lantern along.

Went to that event site with renoh in babumouse's car. babumouse and I pace each other for the first half of the run. We were running very fast inside the tunnel for the first 5km and completed that distance in less than 24mins. I was getting a bit tired after the u-turn point as the tunnel was super humid. I never sweat that much in my life and I was desperately gasping for air all the time. I tried to hold on but after 8km, I couldn't take it anymore. I stopped and apply the walk/jog pace. I completed the race in 51 mins 23 secs..not too bad considering my first time working in a 10km race..Shame on me. :p

Remaining Races in Year 2008

Well, this year has been a slacking one for me. I did not do many races and been skipping a lot of major ones too. Well, what to do, I've to work to feed myself. Here are the remaining races and I hope I can do all of them, or else my 10 medal target will not be achievable.

14/09/2008 Singapore's Swing KPE Tunnel Run - 10km
28/09/2008 Bangkok's Banyan Tree Vertical Marathon (Medal)
05/10/2008 Singapore's Run For Hope - 10km
16/11/2008 Singapore's Swissotel Vertical Marathon (Medal)
07/12/2008 Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon - 42km (Medal)

Nike+ Human Race 2008

This will be my first race which will be held in the afternoon, and also this is also my first race which I wore the event tee to run. Well, it's a charity event and Nike has made a huge effort to print 1 million different numbers on 1 million tees so I guess we shall support them.

Well, not everyone thinks the way I am. I could still notice at least 3 buggers who were not willing to wear the event tee and turn everyone off with their horrendous running vests. I know the tee is not comfortable to wear, but it's a worldwide charity event, why not try fulfill the organiser's request. Even the race winners wore the tees. Well, what I could say is they are hopeless!

We were flagged off around 1620hours. I had to sprint a little as I was not placed in the red cage which was supposed for sub 50min runners. But I think I sprinted too much. I took less than 9mins to complete 2km but I was already start to feel exhausted. Probably running in the late afternoon don't work for me. And also I blamed myself for the KFC I took during lunch. I felt horrible and had stomach muscle cramps. Well, I tried to hold on and start using the double breathing method. My pace were slower and got overtaken by many faster runners. I don't normally stop for water station in all my 10k races, but somehow I had to stop at all water stations coz the humid weather kinda burn me out.

I was very tempted to walk after 5km point but I forced myself to continue coz it will be too embarassing if I were to stop and walk. I struggled but still managed to drag my feet to Boat Quay, then to Clarke Quay and finally made a u-turn and slowly approaching the Padang. As I was too tired so I did not sprinted towards the finishing line. I clocked 49mins 28secs, not that bad actually. However, I later found out that I do not have official chip time. Well, thanks to my stupidness, in order to help Renoh return his chip since he couldn't make it, I foolishly attach both chips on the same ankle strap. I guess that caused conflicts. I should have attach 2 chips at different legs. Well, it doesn't matter that much though. The race was pretty well organised despite the fact that they screwed up at the racepack collection day. I would give them 2 thumbs up for them!

Singapore Bay Run 2008

My race report has getting longer to be completed nowadays... This is my second Army Half Marathon in Singapore. My experience last year was great and I doubt I will have enjoy this run this as I did not train for half marathon run at all and I weigh 69kg now.

I went to the race venue with Renoh this time around. We did a slow jog warm up before gather ourselves at the starting point. Well, this time I was behind the line due to massive crowd. They flagged us off at 0630 hours and I took almost 3 minutes to step on the start mat. As usual, I put extra little effort to overtake all the slow runners and due to the massive crowd this year, I was still dodging the slow crowds after running for more than 5km. I ran real fast for the first 10km. After deducting the time to step on the first mat, it took less than 52 mins to complete the first 10km. However, running without strategy this time kinda cost me a lot. And the shoes I was wearing just make my run even worse.

My Asics racer shoes start giving me problem after 5km. I started to feel major abrasions on my left feet as well as some minor ones on my right. After 10km, I can feel blisters all over my feet. I bet the worst one has already started to bleed (which end up staining my shoe with a big red patch). I started to slow down a lot especially when we were directed to the super demoralized route after the east coast park run. We had to run on an under construction path with many potholes. The path quality wasn't that bad, but it was just very demoralizing and I was about to give when we finally reached the much boasted Marina Barrage. Well, the scene over there is nice but many of us just couldn't care much as I can see everybody is tired from the former challenging route.

We were soon directed back to the city. When I still have 3km to go, I can no longer take it so I started to stop and walk. The blisters were killing me and I walk and jog all the way to the finishing line. The race time is embarassing. One of my worst half marathon so far. I clocked 1hr 57min 24secs for gun time and 1hr 54min 27secs for chip time. A few of them had commented my "bigger" size and I felt so upset with myself. Looks like I need to really work harder to maintain my fitness level and shed a few more pounds of fat off my body.

Adidas King of The Road 2008

I have not gone back to Klang for more than 2 months already. I took the opportunity to drive back to Klang over the weekend and run the Adidas KOTR 22.7km. However, I chickened out last minute and decided to run 10km instead using an unused bib.

The Adidas KOTR this time held at Shah Alam. The 10km route is similar with the Shah Alam 10km Race which I ran in year 2004. I clocked my personal best (46:41) in that run and I was still a beginner at that time. Although I was not well trained and exhausted from the long journey drive, I wanted to clock a better time in this race.

We were flagged off around 0710 hours. The crowd was quite massive, and I was pushed and blocked during the beginning. I had no choice, I stormed myself towards the left and ran along the uneven higher ground. I ran pretty fast in the beginning to cover up my lost time. I think my pace was very fast but I tried not to slow down as I have set my mind to break my own personal best.

I think I ran pretty well, however did not ran fast enough. The route was hilly, as expected and after the final roundabout, I sped towards the finishing line and completed the 10k race in 46mins 44secs, 3 seconds slower than my personal best. I was ranked 42nd. It wasn't a bad time but I was a bit disappointed I couldn't run better than my previous time I set 4 years ago.

Saucony Passion Run 2008

I flew back from Bangkok the day before this run. I did not do any recovery run after Sundown so I'll treat this run as my recovery run. Last year this run was a huge success and this year they have additonal 15k distance category and finisher medals for everyone.

I went to fetch Renoh that morning around 5.30am and I drove to East Coast Park. We reached around 6am. Renoh was manning the SGrunners booth and I slowly make my way to the starting line with Alvo and sywog. They flagged us off sharp at 6.30am. Although it was supposed to be my recovery run, I was sprinting forward to find comfort zone. They splitted us in 3 waves and I was in the first one. I still wanted to run my best, however I knew I won't be able to do my personal best as I can still feel the soreness of my legs.

I ran comfortably in 5:30min/km pace, however suddenly my bladder was super full and I need to empty it. The toilet still pretty far away and I hold until when we were approaching the u-turn point, which was about 5km. While everyone was making a left u-turn, I turn right into the toilet.. Haha.. I took less than a minute to pee then I rushed out to the u-turn point.

The distance markers are not accurate. There are times I did 3mins for a km and almost 7mins for another one. I kept on running. My legs were getting weaker , thanks to the sundown and I really feellike giving up after the 10th km. Was cursing myself for joining 15km instead of 10km. The first 10km seems like 11km. However, the last 5km seems a lot shorter than that. I managed to drag myself until the final 100m before I completed the race in 1hr 17mins 36 secs.

We hang out for awhile and since Renoh had to man the booth until the end of the event, I waited for him and we had lunch with ripley and her god daughter after that. I have made my decision to stop running races and concentrate on my new job instead. I will be working in these coming weekendssssss.... But since my company's paying for my extra job, I guess it's quite ok. I probably could save some overtime income to go for an oversea trip soon. :)

15km time splits
00km - 00' 12" 83
01km - 04' 29" 57 >>> 0h 04' 42" 40
02km - 04' 33" 29 >>> 0h 09' 15" 69
03km - 06' 28" 43 >>> 0h 15' 44" 12
04km - 03' 07" 27 >>> 0h 18' 51" 39
05km - 07' 49" 87 >>> 0h 26' 41" 26
06km - 06' 55" 03 >>> 0h 33' 36" 29
07km - 05' 36" 30 >>> 0h 39' 12" 59
08km - 04' 30" 53 >>> 0h 43' 43" 12
09km - 05' 24" 37 >>> 0h 49' 07" 49
10km - 06' 06" 62 >>> 0h 55' 14" 11
11km - 04' 17" 13 >>> 0h 59' 31" 24
12km - 04' 22" 72 >>> 1h 03' 53" 96
13km - 05' 20" 52 >>> 1h 09' 14" 48
14km - 03' 42" 09 >>> 1h 12' 56" 57
15km - 04' 39" 95 >>> 1h 17' 36" 52

Sundown Marathon 2008

This is the scariest race I've ever participated in my entire life. First, we are talking about 84km here. I've never run such long distance before. Second, my longest distance training to date is 57km. So, I have no idea how long I can last in this race.

Sundown Marathon is also the most anticipated race. Most of us are the first timer running 84km. We gathered and chatted before making our ways to the starting line. I walked together with cfred84 and ripley. We were with the relay runners and at 2030 hours sharp, we were flagged off. We gave way to the 10.5km runners to sprint their heart out while I was running slowly to begin my nightmare run.

My strategy was to run as long as I could during the first half until I hit the wall. This may not be the smartest strategy, but I couldn't use the standard one, which was to run 25mins and walk 5 mins. Knowing well my own capability, I wouldn't last long even with the standard strategy. So I might as well just do the best I could and suffer at the later part. The first 21km was easy, I did it in 2hr 15mins, and when I reached the tiwazz/charlotte support station, I took a short break. Tiwazz was commenting that I was too fast for the first half. I agreed with him. After rested for about 5 minutes, I continued my journey, and fatigue started to kick in.

Maybe I rested too long at the support station, I couldn't get my ryhthm back. And they make us climb countless of pedestrian bridges. For the rest of 15km I was dragging myself. Run and walk. I reached the second Sgrunners support station around 28km. I was so touched of the supports given by the sgrunners. Thanks guys! After the support station I was directed to Bedok Reservoir, running on rocky sand surface. I began to feel very tired and I seriously was thinking to give up after the first lap of 42km. After the Bedok Reservoir, we were running towards Tampines and then Pasir Ris. When I reach Pasir Ris' Downtown East junction, I knew I am near to the pit stop. I continue to run continuously for 6km (surprisingly I can do that) and finally I completed the first lap of 42km in 5hours 2mins 29secs. I was walking to the ultra marathoners' special handling tent, someone called my name. He introduced himself as Victor Loh, a runner from Malaysia.

We chatted for awhile and I changed my old kayano 12 to a brand new kayano 14 shoes. After 23 minutes of rest, I continued my second lap, only to be stopped by the republic poly guys to get my urine and saliva sample (I foolishly participated in their case study). After that, I started running again. I applied 5mins walk and 15 minutes run. I was quite comfortable until when I started to do it the 3rd time around. I had to stop because my heart was beating very fast. I managed to catch up with cfred84 and he looked exhausted too. I kinda followed him from behind walking until the 10th m sign (about 52km) and I started my strategy again. My heartbeat had gone to a normal pace and I did a 5-7minutes walk and 8-9minutes run in every 2km. I did pretty well until the 2oth km sign, at the u-turn point as I seriously feel the marker was too damn inaccurate.

I stopped and started to walk. My calves were aching and I slowly made my way to tiwazz/charlotte's support station again. They were giving me a lot of supportive cheers. I knew I did well for the last 21km, but I am officially hit the wall after 63km. I had no choice but to run and walk slowly. Brokie and her husband were doing great and slowly they ran past me. I try to follow their pace. I bumped into Stardust. He was limping and told me his legs were sore. I guess a bad injury must have hit him.

I managed to tag brokie and vincent all the until we ran past Bedok Reservoir. When there is about 14km to go, the huge blisters at both my feet were so bad I can't even walk properly. This is very much due to the new Kayano 14 I was wearing. Sigh, I should have sticked to my old seasoned kayano 12. I walked all the way for the rest of 12km and a lot of time were wasted. Shine caught up with me when there's about 2km left. He was having knee pain and we walked until the final km. Shine motivated me to run with him until the finishing line. I slowly forced myself to run along with him and finally I crossed the finishing line right behind him at 12 hours sharp.

I never knew I could complete the race without any injuries (aside from the blisters). I think I am very lucky my ITB never flare and I thank all the runners and supporters who had been cheering me all the way until the end. I will not join any race which is more than 42km anymore. LOL

I hang around for awhile and then I took a cab home. I rested for about 2 hours and then I took a cab to the airport for my Bangkok business trip. After the Bangkok trip, I have another 15km Saucony Passion Run.

New Balance Pacesetters 15k Run

I had to skip this race last year due to work, so I actually pushed myself to go back KL for this year's. I drove alone to the event site around 6.30am. To my dismay, the bukit aman carpark was overparked with cars. Looks like there's a huge massive crowd this year. I ended up park my car at the lake garden. I walked to Padang Merbok, only to find out the starting point and the route has changed, again! I really cannot understand why they want to change the route every year. It will be difficult for us to estimate and plan our pace.

They flagged us off at 7.00am and since I was standing quite in front, I ran without any problem or delay. I was doing pretty fast in the beginning and later found out that my nose was partially blocked at that time, which explained my breathing difficulty. Only partial of the inhaled air went to my lung, the rest being rejected out due to blocked nose. That's definitely not good news. For the first 5k, I was desperately gasping for air, unlike previous races I run without any breathing problem. Early part of the race I was already taking lots of deep breaths as well as using my mouth to inhale as much oxygen as I could. However, I did not slow down. Surprisingly, I was consistently doing 5min/km pace.

The double hill part after 5km run was a bit exhausting for me. I managed to turbo up the hills, but my pace wasn't as impressive as my previous runs, thanks to my partially blocked nose. The route during the first 12km was pretty predictable. After the 12th kilometre, they made us run towards the Bank Negara and the commuter station again! That was very demoralizing as they made us run pass the FINISH line and we can only look at it but not able to go through it. There's some tiring slopes after the Bank Negara and I slowed down a little as I wasn't sure where I was heading to. Finally, they directed us to the back of Padang Merbok and I started to have some hopes. Considering my bad nose that morning, I still do a lot better in terms of timing. Normally I would sprint to the finishing line. However, there were at least 5 runners in front of me slowly taking their turns to enter the finishing line so I followed suit.

I completed the race in 1hr 14mins 19secs, my personal best for 15k so far. I'm very satisfied with the result, considering my nose as well as running with a pair of brand new shoes. The medal looks a bit weird and I certainly hope that the organiser stops changing the routes every year.

Time Splits
05km - 25' 12" 94
10km - 24' 31" 32 >> 49' 44" 26
12km - 10' 19" 42 >> 60' 03" 68
15km - 14' 15" 32 >> 74' 19" 00

New Balance Klang Pacers Run 2008

I actually kinda regret registered myself in this 21km event. I should have run 10km instead. This is due to my painful experience in the 57km Dusty Run. My both ITB actually started to flare a little during the Dusty Run. I was very worried that I may get both my knees injured before the 84km Sundown Marathon.

The race was organised in a very professional way, although the aerobic dancers are a bit off. They blocked 2 big roads for flag off point. We were flagged off at 0615 hours, and off we sprinted to the front. I was very surprised to see so many strong Klang Pacers this time. Not many familiar faces there, but a lot of Klang Pacers.

The race route was horrible. We were running along the main road towards Bukit Tinggi and the air was so polluted with diesel dumps. The route was pretty flat except for some minor slopes. My both ITB were a bit tight throughout the race but still bearable. No pain yet. I was running comfortably below 5:30 pace and my pace was getting faster and faster during the second half of the race.

The only off thing is they have no isotonic water stations which is a disadvantage to the runners. Drinking only water while running 21km may not be a wise choice. We need to replenish the lost electrolytes and I am sure many runners suffer cramps in this 21km race. There were 3 of us approaching the finishing line. I was behind Khoo Yi Kiat and another unknown runner, but it was a dramatic finishing. I actually sprinted towards the finishing line, challenging that unknown runner to do the same thing. LOL..I finally overtook him. I completed the race in a satisfying 1hr 47min 56sec.