Registering races beyond 10km is becoming a “long run” commitment whereby I have no excuse but to complete the distance, something, which I am unable to discipline myself in training. Come to think of it, I have not run more than 8 laps in KLCC since Feb 2005.
The day before the run, I did some DIY electrical and water fittings for my brother’s house and mine despite recovering from flu. That night was also the exciting All England Badminton live coverage where 3 Malaysian doubles pair made it to the semi-finals and Chong Wei’s epic battle with Lin Dan, the World No.1. Kenny, my brother rang my house at 11:30 p.m. to inform me of this when I was just about to go into deep sleep.
While Mee Peng was watching the matches past midnight I had a strange dream. I dreamt I did not lube my toes (?), could not find a parking lot and was late for the race.
4:15 a.m.
Woke up by the sound of my handphone alarm, took 2 bananas, PowerBar, oats drink laced with a packet of Nescafe arabica for the caffeine and a few gulps of Gatorade. Mizuno Atlantis just 35kms-old is the race shoe.
Driving at 110-120km/hr, I reached Lake Gardens at 5:40 a.m. As expected, all the car parks were full. The Bird Park and TAR Memorial parking areas were cordoned off with a piece of rope! How selfish! We are not going there to “Pak Doh” (dating/petting) lah. Most drivers had no choice but to park on the road shoulder, some right in front of Bukit Aman HQ.
I remember there was a Butterfly park and luckily, the parking area was open. Phew! Walking towards the lake a large contingent of runners came charging to my direction. Just to be sure my dream was only a dream, I did a check with a veteran Sikh runner who was doing his warm up by the jogging track. He confirmed it’s for the 30km category. 20km starts 30 minutes later.
Once again, I bumped into Kenneth Teh whom I have not seen since PJ Half-Marathon. Looked around for Newton but could not find him.
6:30 a.m.
Started off by pacing with Kenneth and his friend. After the Bank Negara tunnel I slowly drop off. Once again, I looked for similar pace runners to tailgate and as markers. 3 female runners overtook me: Black Cap (BC), Red Cap (RC) and Black Pants (BP). I decided to follow these graceful runners. I will overtake them on the downhill but on the uphill they would overtake me back. There was also a 20+ year-old Black Adidas T-shirt male runner (BAT) who was treading leads with me. Surprisingly, there were already runners walking at km-2, perhaps they are adopting the Galloway technique.
Discovering Hartamas
I reached the Jln Duta crossroad estimated 6.5 kms in 41 mins. From here it is untested territory. The “Hartamas Route” is popular amongst runners who do their early weekends morning long run drills, training and breeding ground of some of the best runners. Though I am completely familiar with this road but I have never run it before, this would be my first.
BP had dropped off. BC was very agile on the uphill and many male runners had to kow tow to her supremacy, as she seems to thrive on hills. RC and I exchanged leads a few times. Orange flavoured Powerbar Endurance drink was served in all drink stations. Thank you to the sponsors and Pacesetters. The Endurance quenched my thirst very effectively.
Finally reached the Petronas station U-turn. Stopwatch clocked 71 mins. Not sure of the distance, probably km-11. Where are the distance markers? I took half of the Raspberry cream PowerGel. From the opposite direction, I could see many familiar faces some from the 30km category: Ronnie/PM1, Rohaizad, Julian, Adidas Man….
No cramps please
At the mosque probably km-13 my right heel developed some tightness, which hadn’t happened before. The fear of an imminent cramp took the pace out of me. On top of that my nose and ear were blocked. By now BC had easily overtaken me. As I was musing on the problem, somebody yelled in a military tone from the other opposite direction “ Cheong! Common RUN don’t @#$%&*….(gibberish) !!!”. It was machine man, Ben doing his 30k. He was probably 4-5kms behind me. Fortunately, as the gradient of the road varied, the heel discomfort alleviated.
Jalan Jalan Jalan
Soon I was back at the Jln Duta crossroad, the 3 policemen decided to ease traffic by letting some cars go! 2 runners and myself had to come to a complete STOP. The runner on my left said “Eh! HOW CAN LIKE THAT!”. I replied “Ya lah” raised my arm to the moving vehicles and cross the busy road without the policemen intervening, the 2 runners follow suit.
Breaking Point
Trouble began from the signage that says 3kms to the finishing line. History repeats itself. Is my right leg good for 17kms only? Based on experience my brain transmitted a report to my heart that says the right leg is going to collapse soon. Mind over matter?
There was another female runner let me codename her Never Give UP (NGU). She was limping and judging from her movement, she also had RIGHT FOOT problems! Her left leg dragged her right leg but her running pace was still steady. I am sure I looked that way too. In fact worse, I was the noisiest runner because my shoes slide with the sound of “cheak cheak cheak” due to feet dragging. The veteran Adidas Man had overtaken me. I notice he always finish strongly with a huffing sound.
At the end of Jalan Tunku, there was a Pacesetter volunteer who was clapping non-stop (he was the only person who clapped in the entire race) for us. Many felt encouraged including myself and increased the pace slightly. 10 meters from the cheering volunteer I had a spasm attack on my right leg. As I limped towards him, he said “Only 2 kms to go. Not very far” and smiled. I replied, “Ok” and continued my walk.
Battle of the Minions
The last 800 meters of this race was the most interesting. Before the start of this race, I thought I could try 2:20 (since its 20k and not 21k) but at this stage it was already 2:21+. Again I retargeted for a sub 2:30 finish! Will I make it? The pacers came into play.
It was the final Jln Parlimen uphill, most walk-run, I was never far away from NGU. Suddenly BP and BAT reappeared!!! I last saw them at km-3 and km-9 respectively. BAT and I struggled between walk and run. NGU and BP were not walking but adopt a steady run.
Veteran Sikh runner emerged from nowhere and overtook all of us. Good going mate!
As I turn right to the Lake Club road, another Pacesetter/FTAA guy said to me “Just down the road is the finishing line…very near”. I replied “Ok”. Before the mini-roundabout, all 3 of them NGU, BP and BAT were ahead of me. BP was leading! The road was descending; I took the advantage to swiftly overtake NGU and BAT. BP was just meters from finishing. I extended the length of my strides. With 8 strides left to the end I overtook BP. At the finishing line, I raised my arms and looked at the tripod Nikon camera. I finished a near identical time of my last half-marathon run 2:29:22.
Pacemakers
Ate tau fu far, watermelon, banana and drank as much as I could. A group of PMs gathered together for photographs. It was good to meet Julian whom I have not seen for awhile, Rohaizad the “Tan Sri”, Draco, Ronnie, Kenneth, Jamie, Ben, CCube and others.
Overview
I enjoyed this run better than Singapore Marathon. The Kenny Hills – Sri Hartamas is a very good route: fresh air (apart from the dusty road works), challenging terrain and low traffic. It is no surprise why many runners choose this route for their training.
The Pacesetters volunteers did a good job. One of these days I would like to contribute what these volunteers had contributed. It would be interesting to experience race marshaling cum photographer.
I did a measurement on a treadmill: 7min/km pace = 160 strides/min. In a half-marathon, I would have done 24,000 strides. The key to improve the long runs now lies with my right leg. It is my weakest point. I usually have problems buying new shoes that fit snugly on my right foot. I am left-handed. Is being left-handed has anything to do with the “rightness” anomaly?
From the last 3 races, it appears I am going downhill with slower timings but then the actual distance and terrain differ for all 3. Recent KLCC lap timing has declined. I am using races as a carrot to run 20k+ distances and by just completing them is sheer satisfaction.
I pray my incurable tinnitus does not deteriorate for I want to live another day to run another race!
