Date: Sunday
10 Sep 2006 – D-DAY Putrajaya Half
Target: 21
km race to complete within 2:30 to fulfill 2006 half-marathon time goal. Pessimistic forecast 2:35 to 2:40 (scared of
Shangrila Hill). Optimistic forecast
2:20 to 2:35.
Race strategy: 5:1
Actual: 5:1
1st 10k, 6:1all the rest except last km
Timings: lap
km split km lap time split time lap pace
1 1 6:51 06:51 6:51
1 2 7:21 14:13 7:21
1 3 8:19 22:32 8:19
1 4 6:17 28:49 6:17
1 5 6:52 35:41 6:52
*** 5k
1 6 6:44 42:25 6:44
2 8 14:28 56:53 7:14
1 9 6:20 1:03:14 6:20
1 10 8:37 1:11:50 8:37 *** 10k
1 11 5:50 1:17:40 5:50
1 12 6:36 1:24:16 6:36
2 14 12:42 1:36:59 6:21
1 15 7:46 1:44:45 7:46
*** 15k
2 17 12:07 1:56:52 6:04
1 18 6:38 2:03:31 6:38
1 19 6:27 2:09:57 6:27
2 21 15:14 2:25:11 7:37
*** 21k PR
Pace: 6:55 min/km. Hey, this is the same pace as PBIM2006, but with many hills.
Time
of run: 6:30 am
Route: Complicated. See here. Gmap-pedometer here. Route is slightly changed from last year,
starts at the Dataran.
Weather: Cloudy. Extremely high RH (relative humidity). No winds.
Calburn:
1464
Postrun
Wt: 147
Shoes: Brooks
Vantage 2. Total shoe mileage 345 km.
Mindtune: Shakira (what else?)
General expectations: Run this in
2:30 and I’ve satisfied my 2006 half-marathon goal twice this year. I consider it satisfied in PBIM2006 even if I
finished in 2:31:25, since it was over distance at 22.3 km. Consider conservatively taking off 6 mins to
account for 1.3 km extra, and seems that I should able to finish in 2:25.
The unknown that can cause havoc
to this prediction is how hilly is the route.
One previous race report states “worse than Double Hills”. That is why for this race, I scheduled LSDs
exceeding 21k. Hopefully the Damai
inclines are sufficient training for the hills.
I dunno whether the gmap-pedometer elevation can be trusted, but there
are two major hills, one at the Convention Center, peaking just past 4 km, and
the other one at Shangrila, peaking just before the loop at about 15 km.
Heat was another factor, but
luckily the organizers announced that the half will start 30 mins earlier than
originally planned, ie will start at 6.30 am instead of 7 am. This makes the run start the same as PJHalf
& SerembanHalf, and the training LSDs typically start just 10 mins earlier
at ~6.20 am.
Training wise I think I hv a
solid foundation on this one. For PBIM2006, I had 3 LSDs exceeding 16k, including 1
half-mara (shm2006). For this one, I have 4 LSDs exceeding 16k,
which includes 2 half-maras at Damai.
Speed wise, still cracking PRs up to today, so should be able to push
it. Because of the unknown hills, the
absolute goal remains a sub 2:30 finish.
However, my stretch goal is to
push a 6:50 min/km pace for a sub 2:25 finish.
T minus 3 days: Tired after yesterday’s weak 5k. Gegel
feeling is up. There will be some
logistics problem with getting to Putrajaya.
Wifey is on server duty, so at 2am race day have to send her to work,
(meaning interrupted sleep), then take the car myself to Putrajaya. So it looks like another lonely run (ach!)
with no supporters. No one to take my
pics or anything. Whatever. So, post race, I hv to travel back & pick
up wifey at work again.
T-minus 2 days: Really preoccupied today at
work to think much about the race
T minus 1 day: Went to Wisma OCM to pickup
t-shirt & number. Major
disappointment! No championchip
timing! False advertising!!! Someone sue the organizer quick.
Race Day: 12:30 am had to wake up to send wifey to
office. Then back home to continue the
z’s. 3:30 am startup again. Coffee. Prep.
Etc. 4:20 am out of the house,
drove to Putrajaya. Alone this
time. No carload of supporters. Just followed the signboards. Reaching the race venue, got kinda lost until
noticed some signboards leading to the car park. Parked & surveyed the area. Seems to have a nice layout. The 21 & 42k categories nicely separated
from the lower distance categories.
Scene atmosphere was ok, but
not as electric as PJHalf. The KLIM lady
was one of the announcers again. I
thought the full marathon starts at 5:30.
Nope, it starts at 6:00. By that
time subuh was in, & performed prayers at a designated khemah. Kudos for organizers to have this. So missed the full-marathon start. Then, mein backpack popped a zip and couldn’t
be closed. So didn’t want to risk
luggage check-in. So back to the car to
keep the backpack. Then, search for
toilets. Yeah, they have the usual DBKL
toilets plus some rented ones, but no lights!
Pitch dark in there, cannot see where to shoot (haha!). So aborted the idea. Warmed up jogging up and down the spacious
sidewalks, did some accelerations.
Really humid. Sweating wet in no
time.
Then time to report into the
kandang. Received a pink wristband. The start was kind of lame. Are you ready?
Again stuck to the back of
the pack, maybe in the last 20. But it
was a slow start compared to PJHalf. The
back of the pack didn’t want to run fast.
So I went faster, and start to potong sayur already. After 1 minute, walk break, then they sayured
me back. Saw the 1st km marker,
good! As promised, the whole route had
distance markers. But later the distance
markers kind of confused me. Example,
on marker said 5k, but it was really a signboard for the 5k category. Then, so many water stops. 1st water stop at 4km. Huh?
Then there’s another at 5 km? All
through the route, seem to have an abundance of water stops. I couldn’t readily differentiate between
sponging & water stops, because both had cups of water. I assume the plain water ones were sponging
stations. Anyway, both the km markers
and water stops confused the hex outta me.
It also meant that I lost more time than I expecting stopping at each
water station.
The route was undulating as
promised. The 1st incline was at the 1st
bridge. Then it went down a little, then
went up again circling the convention center.
After that I’m kinda lost, but went to another incline up this majestic
bridge. There’s this chatterbox lady
(“ooh like running inside a whale”) & guy friend also. Then it was running
on the hiway. Sun was rising at this
time, one runner was taking pics. At
this point I was trading leads with this Indian uncle (I think saw him
before). Try to run plus enjoy the
scenery. Later along this stretch I
sayured this Mat Saleh. And sayured this
fancy patriotic auntie. Then sayured
this patriotic pakcik with a Jalur Gemilang on his head. Anyway, the route continued with the peaks
& valleys. Undulating. I tried to maintain same effort on the
uphills but push on the downhills.
After 10k, at a water
station, took mein power bar, then set the timer for 6:1 ratio. Here, the fatigue was beginning to set
in. Then there was this killer incline
on the highway. Another incline on the
ramp connecting to another stretch of highway.
At this point, people were dropping like flies (ie drop to a walk). I also started to feel the dreaded Demonic Side Stitch
coming on my right side, and started to exhale loudly. That with the occasional burps (over-gassed
with 100+) helped to repress it. I
pushed on attacking the hills. Before I
knew it, reached the Shangrila hill. Not
as bad as I read. At this point, sayured
a lot of people. Indian uncle no longer
seen. Several full marathon runners
breezed by. There was also a bomba team
spraying water to cool down the runners, but avoided the water, didn’t want wet
socks. Also, felt like puking because
too much water! Haha! Lesson learned… After the Shangrila hill, route led to the
office area again (PM’s office). Here
felt plenty tired already but pushed on.
There was this brader trading leads with me. This brader was very encouraging lar. At this point, the distance markers confused
me again, as they now put the full marathon numbers. I just took the split time anyway. At 2km away, it was near the bridge. 1km away, the route went sideways, and this
was another uphill. The brader was still
with me. Seems to be the longest last
2km. Going into the last corner,
finishing arch in sight, the brader started to pia. So I started to pia also. I knew that there’s no hope to catch up with
him, so just did the best. Surprisingly,
manage to pia all the way to the finish line.
The
time: 2:25:11 (woohooo!) which meets my goal time, but just 11 seconds off my
stretch goal (and I blame it on too much water, haha!). The
officials gave me a blue card. Hey, I
got position 515 or something.
Everything was too blur because I was totally breathless. Next thing, they took the blue card away, and
gave me mein medal (hooray) and some coupons.
No cert, which is good because looks like the personalized cert is gonna
come true.
After this it was the usual
hunting for water, food, etc. No goody
bag. Breakfast was sausage + cake +
cream bun (kinda lame). Cooled down,
stretched, watched people, etc. Saw the
Indian uncle finishing, & the fancy patriotic auntie who looked like she
was about to collapse. Then at about 10
am decided had enough, so went back to the car.
End of story.
The good: Distance
markers every 1km. Sufficient rewater
stations: RS1 5km, RS2 8km, RS3 12km, RS4 16km, RS19km (or too much of a good
thing?). Customized finisher cert with
mein name & official time (to be seen true or not... did they really take
my timing?). The scenery (nice sunrise)
& venue. Putrajaya looks nice, I
felt like in a foreign country.
The bad: No
Championchip timing. Confusing distance
markers. Water stations & sponging
stations not clearly differentiated.
Lessons learned: Don’t drink
too much!!! Lose time, and also make you
want to puke.
In Summary: Great run!
I have proven myself twice to be capable of running a sub-2:30
half-marathon. Only off by 11 seconds
from meeting a sub 2:25. That is the
goal for the next half marathon (probably KLIM2007). Try to improve by 5 minutes each time. In the mean time, have to think of the best
way to start interval training. Dunno
whether my old legs can stand speedwork, but that’s the only way to improve
lar. Another thing, dunno whether can
use the USM track. Have to ask.
Characters: Didn’t see any elite faces except maybe Al
Haris & ZulAzlan of Putrajaya. Then
of course there’s the fancy auntie (saw her at KLIM2006 too) and the patriotic
pakcik.
Postrun: Tired but functional. Diarrhea.
Maybe due to 100+ overdose (haha!)
Postrun + 1 day: Wow! The whole length of my legs is sore. First time.
Soles, Achilles, calves, quads, hamstrings, hips, you name it, all
sore. Painful to walk. A testimony to the effort put in
yesterday. And from previous experience,
tomorrow should be worse!
A host of race reports came
out today. Based on pm1’s
classification, I’m a submarine (haha!).
Al Haris did sub 2-hours as usual even with injury. ZulAzlan did a 2:06. Respect lar brader. His long rest (injury also) did him good. I will give myself three years more to reach
that level. Slow and steady, avoid
injury, keep losing the flab & keep building mein strength.
Faie also surprisingly did
very well. Went 15k in 1:45 non-stop
(except for rewater, I guess) then panchited.
I must hv overtaken her somewhere near the Shangrila loop.
Next year’s goal is to
qualify for PJHalf’s 2:15 time. I hope
to do KLIM in 2:20 and PJhalf in 2:15.
Can ar? Dunno. At this time, seems to be a dream. A long 10 minutes from what I can do
now. But hey, this year I oredi improved
from a 2:45 half-mara (PBR 2002) to 2:25, not bad what. Anything is possible.
After the Ramadhan break, my
plan is to reduce the walk time. I’m
gonna do LSDs at 6:1 ratio. And race
strategy will also start at 6:1 ratio halfway, 7:1 ratio second-half. Must keep improving.
Next race gonna be Mizuno
wave run, then 5 Nov thinking of running Subang Jaya 10k. Both runs will be done in non-stop mode.
Postrun + 2 days: Morning heart rate
64-65bpm. Recovering. But as expected, them quads are killing me
today. Right quads, hamstring felt worse
than left. Left Achilles felt worse than
right. Oh, did I mention heel pain
too? Anyway, this evening will attempt a
7k recovery run at tortoise pace.
Tomorrow will rest; Thursday will do easy 5k, then Sunday Mizuno Wave
Run. No time goal really, just want to
set a base for future improvement (read afraid of hills – haha!).
