Malakoff 7K, Hansons Distance Project and "you got a point there!"

Malakoff 7k, the second race on my "comeback tour". It was not too bad, but I do find myself regretting not going for the longer 17k, I think that is my competitive side though rearing its ugly head. This was a pretty good race, despite the problems i had heard with last year’s contest, this one seemed well run, and well attended, I mean we even had Kenyans (I say we like I am now a Penangite). I started well despite some foot soreness, and some lateral hip pain. I decided to do this race wearing compression shorts instead of my normal Brooks running shorts, mostly to see if it would help with the hamstring cramping I seem to get right around 3 miles. I got a ride to the venue with my friend Sunny Ng. This lady is one heck of a runner. Let me for a moment pontificate on Mrs. Sunny. Ok so she is a sub 7:00 miler easy, with the heart of a lion. She demonstrated both her running ability and her courage in this race particularly. I watched her cross the finish and as usual, 2nd woman finisher in the 17k overall and 1st in her age group, a much younger Kenyan woman came in ahead of her. She collapsed on the pavement, quickly removing her shoes, it was then that I saw her heel/ankle on both feet was ripped up and bloody...I have seen male and female runners bow out for less. Even experienced runners can make poor equipment choices and I think Sunny would be the first to say that she wore the wrong shoes. Anyway to be in as much pain as i am sure she was and run the kind of race she did...BRAVO Mrs. Sunny you are a credit to the sport (thanks for the ride too!)! So back to my race which I am sorry pales in comparison but is something for me to build on certainly. I was able to pace with my friends Chun How and  Kho Ko King which is a total bonus for me because they are both fast, Kho has those long legs and is just a really good natural runner and Chun How is just a freak (in a good way). The guy is a 1/2 ironman finisher, 100K runner, ultra runner in perhaps the best physical condition of any human being I know and these guys hooked me up with a great pace through more than half the race. I was doing well, feeling great and then with about .20 miles to go my right hamstring just seized up. so I stopped (dumb) and lost about 30 - 40 seconds...That is what lost me my goal time of 35:00....I ended up at 36:00 flat. Not bad for only two months of running. Ended up seeing most of the I-run folks at the race, and had a great time as usual. The fellowship of running is so much like the locker room for a hockey team that it’s a very comfortable place to be!

So my Hanson's Distance Project training began today with a quick 2 miles. The start you off slow, but only two days a week off, and then incrementally increase mileage, throw in some speed and strength work and hopefully I can hit 1:35:00 in the Half Marathon in July, maybe even 1:30:00 which would be a real step up for me.

I saw a comment by a running acquaintance on a social networking site. He was responding to some complaining that local runners had been doing following the Malakoff race this weekend. Now the first 4 male placing in the open 17k division were taken by Kenyan runners, (who in turn won most of the prize money) by a significant time difference. The 4th place Kenyan runner did the 17k in 56:56, the 5th place Malaysian runner did it in 1:02:55...that’s a 6 min cushion...that’s a significant margin. Now I gotta say I could not come close to touching those times in my lifetime, with that being said, my acquaintances problem was that people were complaining rather than using it as a motivation to train harder. I agree in principal, however, localism, for anyone who ever surfed in California and Hawaii sucks. I just think in our technology driven world, is there really any such thing as local anything, anymore. Do I agree that races held in Malaysia especially the smaller ones should have a local division, sure, but why?? If your only reason is to give local runners a better chance to walk away with a check, that defeats the whole purpose of equal competition, doesn’t it?

 I have run in many events in Florida, both big and small, and they are often won by "non-locals". Has any one of those race directors ever decided to have a local only division?? No. I might be comparing apples to oranges, but dig this. I have a friend his name is Marc, he and his wife came to Florida as ex-pats from Belgium, a few years back. Now Marc was a runner his whole life, and for a good majority of races he would win the whole thing. Did I complain that some cat from Belgium was winning everything? No, I wanted to train with him. I even had him pace me to my fastest 10k finish ever (43:00 flat). I could appreciate what it took to make him that good and I wanted to emulate that, not complain about it. I think this area is just not used to this influx of foreigners at their once local races. Others of us have experienced this for years and see it as a fact of life; you either except it or go back to "soul running" and don’t compete. I think the Kenyans have made it clear that they are here to stay and are not going anywhere...can you out-train them?? I don’t think so, I think they were born with loads of natural ability and with training it just gets better. Should you just give up then?? No way!! I mean we once thought a 4 min mile was impossible. i truly think a sub 2 hour marathon time will happen in our lifetime and I feel a Kenyan runner will be the one to break it. This year’s Olympic Games will provide the proof. If the Kenyans walk away with gold, silver and bronze in the marathon, then there you have it. The very best athletes from every other nation, with top notch training and coaching, could not do it. Does that mean the Kenyans are not beatable? NO Way!!....Just remember every sport has had its stereotypes, and every sport has also had people break those stereotypes, and usually it was with a combination of training, heart and desire. So do not give up and do not despair, your local races might be overrun with foreign talent, but homegrown talent is still talent and lets all hope it rises to the challenge.