Aftermath of a race

Sundays after learning how to run road races has never been the same for me again.

It is always Saturday to anticipate, and trying to sleep early, and always failing to do so, and then waking up in an ungodly hour on Sunday to go for the race. Normally, after the race we would always go for breakfast or I will go home for breakfast, and then followed by my "recovery nap". My recovery nap is usually 2-3 hrs in the afternoon, and I only need this if I have to catch up with work later at night to keep myself fresh.

When I ran my first 10km race many many years ago, my whole day was white-washed as I was so tired, and I needed to hydrate ever so often even after the race. Then when my body got used to it, it was gradually reduced to a day to recover for a half marathon, and then later, I even went shopping or the whole day out after a half marathon. I reckon it is the body which needs to adjust, and I also believe that walking after a race keeps the blood flowing and an easier recovery for the muscles the next day.

I have once tried a foot massage after a race - it was SO painful - some believe this will help ease the muscle recovery, if you ask me, I would say, don't do it!!!!

And during the day when I am not out, I will always be surfing for the next race!!!

PJ Half Marathon

My target of 5 half marathons this year is almost achieved! However, my running performance has not improved!

This was my first PJ Half Marathon. When I started competitive running almost two years ago from today (scroll back in blog, too lazy to link..) I did the 10km at the PJ Half after the Rat Race. It was a great run - I remembered I was placed 55th and I recorded I think 1hr+ - it was one of the fastest race I ever ran (heheh, got worse since then with more runs!) !!!

It was indeed a good 2 years "on occasion" celebration - this race was not difficult, but middle of the years always caught me as being terribly unfit! We lamented whether with our jobs we could ever run a marathon, however, I wish to announce, my target is KLIM 2008. I will make it!

Every run, we always question ourselves why we do it. In fact, my other friend, Ai Leen who ran her first 10km today with another friend Suzannah asked me the other day - have you always loved running? And my response was - no ... but the feeling when you finish the race is so good you would want to do it again!

I did not have good sleep the night before. This is almost getting to be quite a regular thing - I almost cannot sleep well before a run. This time, I had the pleasure again of our regular co-workers - Kell Jay, Lian Tiong, Tee Yau, and new comer Su Ann, who is running her first 21km. We were slightly late, and rushed to the starting line. We saw Keat Seong at the starting line - he was also one of our colleagues and an amazing back to back 21km from Adidas KOTR and Rat Race in between. In between the race, I met another lady whom I met in the KLIM - she apparently was also one of my colleagues - she was pushing me along at around the 10km mark, but I was a bit flat by then.

The turnout was quite poor this year. There seems to be a shortage of runners for this race. I had a general good pace all the way up to the 4km first drinks station mark, I was not sure whether I was running too fast, but I felt a bit keen to slow down from then up the bridge and over the other side of the Federal Highway. Before the 4km mark, my watch marked 16-17mins, and I saw one Kenyan pass me for the 10km race... oh gosh, this was going to be a long race, I thought.

Over the other side, the race was a long and lonely stretch all the way up the flyover and then straight all to Subang airport! Yes, I ran to Subang Airport - and I mean at Terminal 2 carpark and then back...

Along the way, I lacked the focus and stamina to do a good continuous run. There seemed to be a lack of people pacing along around the same pace. The one guy I was trying to followed actually slowed down and walk! And I said I will follow you (Digi style, he was wearing yellow!!) and he said, I pancit!!! So I had some good stretches and some lousy walking stretches between 12-16km. Then I think I walked almost 50% of the last 5 km.

My most amusing moment was that when I was bored running alone especially last 5km, I created my own diversions because I was afraid I may not make it if I drained myself out. One incident, the ambulance travelled for about 50 meters by my side whilst I shuffled, and the lady looked at me concerned (the ambulance door was open). I asked her to go ahead, and when it went ahead slightly I paced up and "pretended" to chase after it with my hand stretched out - there were a couple of cops there at that intersection - they laughed at me!!! The ambulance stopped about 100m in front later, the guys took a smoke break, and when I passed them, I told them "Merokok merbahayakan kesihatan!" and they laughed at me and asked me whether I wanted to have a seat and rest since the vehicle has stopped!!!!

Other than that, it was also good to see people on the other side of the road, it gives each a bit of motivation to go on, and also to wave to those you know.

I finished around my KLIM time, around 2:51 - its a terrible time, but not bad for someone who walked almost half the second half of the race. My best time was still Penang Bridge Half Marathon, which I did slightly less than that for 1.5km more. I did not have enough training, and I did not want to feel the drained feeling again - that feeling comes from pushing yourself and suddenly slowing down.

What was disappointing was that despite finishing within 3hrs (which was my target), the entire stadium was almost half empty, they were giving away prices, no more finishers lane, and worse - no more Milo or 100plus!!! This is such an anticlimax - this was why I felt this years PJ Half was not well organised.

Anyhow, I will rest, for Subang Jaya run, I've signed up but will likely pass it up for another different challenge - a treasure hunt. The body is bashed up, but the mind needs some exercise now.

My target 5 half marathons this year :
-Pacesetters GE20km Race
-KLIM Half Marathon
-Penang Bridge Run Half Marathon
-PJ Half Marathon
-Singapore Half Marathon

Hookers and Rats

Pic - Hooker's Cup team 2006

No, there is no correlation of these two terms. They are perhaps a "side" distraction to me in the forthcoming weeks. That is if I decide to go ahead and participate in the two events.

The first is Hooker's Cup. This year, it will be held together with a company wide gathering in Rompin next week. My lady colleague referred it wrongly as Hooker's Club, and my response was, no, I do not belong to a hooker's club, do you? :-)

Well, Hooker's Cup is the annual internal company golf tourament - it is a friendly tournament and over the last three years, I have taken the ladies champion trophy. Let me first explain a few key points for inference of my skills :

1) The first year there was only one lady participant - that was the first time I had played in a tournament, it was almost like 1 year after I picked up golf and my score was a bit pathetic

2) The second year there were three lady participant and one of them was the ex-champion. I beat the ex-champion!!!!

3) Last year, there was only one lady participant again and I won a Michelle Wie book - haha!

Why Hookers? Well, in golf, you either hook or slice and since golf is such a man's game and the people in my company are so creative with names the hooker's name was coined many years back when the tournament started, and it stuck! Except that it does not sound good for females to be in this tournament....

Pic - Rat Race Team 2006 - will I be doing 2007? Can you see we were so game for the fun we did the t-shirts and poses during one of the "practice runs"

Rats is for the Edge Bursa KL Rat Race 2007, to be held on August 7th this year. This is my most enjoyable race (Read September posting last year) - I have taken part in the Rat Race for nearly 3 years in a row. This year, since KC (RHB, the champ!) is injured and won't be taking part, there is hardly anyone I know who runs and enjoys this race as much as I do, so maybe I will give up the slot for other colleagues.

Except that no one really pushes the race preparation and marketing like I do!!! The team needs my goading...!!! So far I've been successful to persuade my MD to go for the CEO race.... Sigh, where are all the young enthusiastic exuberant people who pushes the extreme in ridicule and props carrying when I need them.....

21km vs 22.3km

According to my Nike+ running connector who took the trip to the bridge with me on sunday, I only ran 21km approximately.

I had set the "online" device to 22km for this "workout" and it was annoying to hear the machine count 1-11km (halfway point) and then reverse count-down the remaining. I guess it is not inspiring in a race to be reminded every km how much more you have to go!! I wrote some notes on the screen capture of the race as an analysis of the pace I took for this half-marathon.

Yes, I am looking for a new stop-watch too ....

Penang Bridge Run - 24th June 2007

What a great and tiring weekend it was!



Driving There
My friend (who was not running) and I started off with a 3.5 hr drive down to Penang after a sumptious breakfast early Saturday morning, and had lunch at a great seafood village at noon just before crossing the bridge to Penang island. The same bridge which I would run over the next day (Sunday 24th June!) for the Penang Bridge run half marathon category.



Collection of Bibs
The first job on arrival was the collection of numbers and bibs at Queensbay Mall. I was the driver for Saturday, I was a bit tired when we got there, but was I surprised - Queensbay Mall was just like 1 Utama here - after parking the car, we were directed to the front of the mall where the collection counters were doing roaring business. The best thing about runs was that there was always so much atmosphere before and after a run - I could see people doing brisk sales of powergels and powerbars and there were also all sorts of promotions of other "state" runs - ie. Kuantan and Langkawi was doing their own runs albeit smaller scale.



What equally surprised me was the many people from all walks of life who turned up to collect their t-shirt, though not knowing what category they are running in, most did not even look like runners - thus looks can be so deceiving! Not forgetting there were tons of school children signed up for the race, probably in the 10k, category. And there were buses ferrying the out of towners in - I gathered the pacesetters team was probably one of the buses, bringing in a strong team from KL/Selangor, hurrah for the spirit !!



Carbo Loading and Reconnaisance
Deciding that I am staying in a hotel out of town and to my surprise the early start time (Marathon - 2am registration, 3am start, Half Marathon (Ladies) - 4am registration, 5am start), I bought my bananas, Milo and powergel/bar for a good start before doing the unusual "reconnaisance" of the route, as we were still wondering how I was going to get to the starting line since there was limited parking and my car was too new to be parked on the side of nowhere! By the time we checked in, it was almost 430pm, and just timely for a good shower, short rest and then we headed out for a foot massage at 6pm (heheh) and then to MacAlister St for the sumptious hawker fare (my fake carbo loading!!!). Next table, I spotted these bunch of singaporeans (I think), chiselled frame, proudly wearing tshirts proclaiming conquering the singapore marathon and the bintan triathlon. (So, I did not fake the carbo loading - the pros are gorging hawker fare too!!!)



Early AM
My friend drove my car and dropped me off the furthest point I could imagine at RECSAM - a teacher's trainning college (which was supposed to be the spot we had surveyed) as roads heading close to the Penang Bridge was blocked. In enthusiasm, I did not realised that this was almost a good 2km+ to the starting point. So, I jogged, walked and made my way there in enthusiam, only to be kept in a pen area within Sekolah Gelugor before the flag-off - once we were released from the pen, the flag off was like 1 minute the moment the "women" were released from the pen! (The men half marathons were flagged off 15 mins earlier!). I spotted Yufang, our national walker warming up in the pen.



The bridge in the early morning
I was a bit dizzy at the start as there were too many people. But eventually when we got onto the bridge it was a good smooth run. The initial uphill was a small challenge but I was actually my fastest during that period. The first 5km was just after the second arch of the bridge. Then it was a good downhill, so it was a pleasant run. This was where it was weird- the distance to Perai was much further, it was a good 5km all the way to the other end (the toll - so I did run the WHOLE distance of the bridge - it is not 13km one way as claimed!). By the time we made the turn at Perai toll, it was still dark (Thank god for the early start), and the small path where the turn was made was really bad and everybody walked! By then, I realised my watch had stopped, so I relied totally on my ipod for the distance info.



Coming back, I started to get tired just before the slope up, because of the longer Perai distance. By the time we were back on the arch, I was a bit worried as my watch showed I may be late. The concern I had was that this half marathon was 22.3 km, I had set my ipod to 22km, but my watch showed I did not have enough time.



Finally I saw the 1km to go sign, and believe it or not, I was so relieved I actually almost sprinted the remaining 1km to the finishing line just under the qualifying time. When I checked my ipod, I actually probably did my best 22.3km distance, better than my KLIM time. Maybe the malfunction watch helped to scare me!



Postscript
It was a good run - I enjoyed the bridge, the flats and the slopes and I think maybe next year I can attempt the marathon here. I am still in need of more practice to get my timing better even for the half, but I am glad I made it, it was a fun run all in!



For the organisers, I would definitely wish they were more organised in the drinks - the poor marathoners and half-marathoners are dying of a drink at the finishing line - but there was no free mineral water, and the lines for milo was so long and across the field at the fun-run finishing. Come on, give me a break, I was struggling in daze looking a good 15 mins for the drinks station, and I saw many people similarly NOT holding onto a drink after the race.



Thanks to my support crew, my friend who did the long drive back - my foot was sore after the race, but we did have our last look at Gurney Drive (after my 1.5hr nap) and had lunch before we headed back to KL.



See you next year, hopefully I could train for the marathon then!

All Set to Conquer the Bridge

Photo excerpt from someone's website.

Can't believe I am actually both excited and nervous. Running my 5th 20km and above race - the first two was last year Pacesetters 20km, KLIM 2006, then this year, the same Pacesetters 20km, KLIM 2007.

I just wanted to be different this year. This is why we always believe that living in the fast lane, you push the adrenaline level up one level each day we feel the need to challenge ourself. So I am driving to Penang tomorrow for the Penang Bridge Marathon on Sunday 24th June. Ever since the Penang Bridge Marathon came back a couple of years back, I've always wanted to run the bridge - it was a novelty. It was also a good test of the "jaguh kampung" concept - that I could only run in KL. It will be a pleasant and refreshing change indeed.

(Aiyo, I am reminded of the uphill now by looking at the picture...)

KLIM Circuit Run 3 - Lake Gardens 4 March 2007

Photo courtesy of tey

I tried a new technique last weekend in participating in the circuit run at Lake Gardens organised by Ambank in preparation for the KLIM. It was quite a fun event :

1) It had a slow slacker attitude to starting times (it started around 715am instead of 7am)

2) There was a leisure approach in signing up on the spot, and for FREE too

3) Unlike warning from a friend that previous circuit run in Taman Titiwangsa was crowded and disorgnised, this was fairly crowd free - I guess there must have been two reasons - it was Cap Goh Mei (15th day of Chinese New Year), and also it was a longer run - it was 2hrs for half-marathoners and 3hrs for full marathoners. Apparently this was more than the race distance for some of the folks!

Whilst the course was scenic, the slippery tracks left a little to be desired. We ran slowly the first round and came immediately upon a casualty who had tripped and hit the rocky pavement near the children's playground. Apparently later read that this turned out to be one of KC's friend. Hope he is ok - it is indeed unfortunate that some of the folks really race each other, the slippery track on downhill parts and also the criss-crossing through various areas can be really treacherous.

I employed a new technique in this "training" run - chit-chatting with others. For the first two rounds it was with my fellow colleagues, then we tried to pose for photos during strategic spots for photographers, and then I slowed down and an retiree came ambling by with steady pace - and I ended up chatting with two different persons on two rounds - taking away some of the boredom of just plodding along!

The other technique which is more fun during races is to focus on reading people's shirt backs - some of the newer vests have no logo or slogans at the back, but the traditional t-shirt fellas always have some cool phrase -

"Smell Victory" - Mr Yellow Shirt plodded coolly by, and I was thinking, smell sweat ....

"If you can hear voices at the back, this means you are not last" - My colleagues' baby blue Nike teased us, and made us quiet when we were following her ....

"Ngombe" - Mr Kenya number 1 - who swept past us 2 rounds = my 1 round - everytime he swept past, there followed a Japanese and a couple more guys further back, only in the 2:20 mins + do I see he was slightly out of breath but the legs were still steady like a rock

Then there were the characters -

"Mr Heavy Footsteps" - Stomping through steadily was a man with very heavy footsteps but steady and fast - it sure is killing his knee, I was thinking

"Mr Photographer" - Whom I learnt later is Tey, who gamely took photos of nearly everyone he knew and did not know

"Mr Sponge Squeezer" - The guy handing out sponge squeezes every round (hopefully they were clean) - he did not have much business however... these participants must be really kiasu to not slow down!

The post-mortem of this really fun outing to exercise was unfortunately a robber broke into my friend's car during the run and stole one of the guy's bag - causing a big havoc to the owner having to report losses, all over a good morning's run. What a spoiler....

KLIM here we come...

As part of the ongoing running SIG we just recently formed at the office, Kell Jay (our coordinator) and I have succesfully convinced the company marketing team to sponsor our vests for the KLIM - this year we are both racing in the half marathon category - it is ok for me and I need to improve on my timing but a waste for Kell Jay who had in the last year posted great timings for the marathon but this year is also lamenting a lack of practice!

Nevertheless, it is with great pleasure for us to have successfully convinced 42 runners from our company to participate in the various categories in KLIM 2007 - 10km, 21km and 42km. Together with one resident photographer - we will attempt to storm the race in our bright orange vests - I have told some of the younger guys that if they do not meet the qualifying time, to please take off the vest before the finishing line!!!

It would be a good race to watch, as some of my colleagues have never raced before - but because of the ideal kiasu-ness and this "I can do anything" type of attitude, most of them have gamely signed-up.

To my colleagues - welcome to the racing world! But, please respect the distance.

See you at the starting line on 18th March 2007. (I have been starting my runs back during mxchinese new year, hurrah!)

Great Eastern Pacesetters 20/30km Race 21 Jan 2007

Photo courtesy of KC

I enjoyed the race last week. Though as I crossed the line, I asked myself why do I do this to myself each time - challenge myself to do this when I am not fit?

And always the answers comes back that it is most enjoyable to feel fit - running keeps me excited to being healthy and alive!

(We decided to sign up for KLIM half marathon even whilst resting after the race... barely 10 minutes after I felt almost ready to fall over the finishing line)

New Beginnings
The GE 20km race was my first race of the year. I knew I could finish the race, but I did not have confidence it would be in good timing due to long period of lack of regular exercise and running.

The last run I did was the previous Sunday - KLCC park for 8 rounds, making it 10.4km - I enjoyed that due to the camaraderie of the new running SIG we had formed in the company providing a mixture of people and different running levels to go with.

New Company
This time for the GE 20km race, it was not just myself as I did last year, whilst Kell Jay ran the 30km. Due to similar reasons of level of fitness, Kell Jay ran the 20km together with us, the others being debutants to 20km - Kok Meng and Joyce. We all ran our own race, and it was a good debut for both of them.

New Strategy
Due to my own concerns of my fitness level, I took a new strategy to this run - I took a more balanced meal before the race, and actually ate TWO bananas in addition to a good dose of coffee and a light breakfast. My concern was actually the withdrawal of energy which I had felt in some of the races, the most memorable one was the KLIM 2006 when the "feeling faint" spells happened almost at the end especially when I pushed myself and suddenly slowed down.

New Resolution
How did I do? Not good, it was way off the mark I first set in my first GE race last year. The flaw was my own fitness level, and the lack of practice also nearly paid the price when I felt the "fainting spell" almost in the last 2 km when I slowed down in the flatter stretch, after I pushed the entire downhill stretch of the coming back route.

My new resolution for the year was to resumed practice for the next race - KLIM 2007 - and my calendar for this year will be all the longer races and a handful of 10km races.

A few areas to improve upon, is obvious - going back to the gym regularly 3 times a week, running a few 10kms in practice regularly at least oncce a week, losing some weight and improving my fitness level.

See you at the next race.