I jumped on an Air Asia flight from Penang to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning, took a Taxi to Rumah Putih B&B, about 20 min from the LCCT terminal of the KL airport, Nice place, perfect for an overnight, run by two really nice folks, James and Jo Needham. Got myself settled, got some lunch and took a siesta. Caught a Taxi to the Sepang F1 track for the race and had the opportunity to see friends Bee Hong and her husband. Got to see my friends from Brooks Malaysia also and then found Andrew Loh, Chun How Lee, and later found Lim Guan Choon and Khoo Siew Swan, Most of them did the full marathon, except for Khoo Siew Swan, who i think placed well in the women's division of the 15K. This race made me nervous from the start...usually races don't make me nervous...for years I let people shoot small frozen pieces of galvanized rubber at me at well over 75 miles an hour, and liked it...so running has never made me nervous. I always knew that if I prepared and trained I would be fine...for this...I had not trained properly. Now a bit of back story on this race...last year this race was a disaster, i heard from people who ran it and read on line that there were near riots by competitors who were cheated out of medals, not enough water, staff who seemed to care less for runners...it was just a poorly run affair. With the energizer name in front of it though, the people were heard, changes were made and i have to say with everything i read and heard about last years affair, This one was over the top good!! Excellent staff presence, good crowd control, each race went off on time, numerous watter and cooling stations around the course and lots of people to cheer on the runners.
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| L-R Andrew Loh, Chun How Lee, Aung Moe, Me |
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| Lim Guan Choon and Me. |
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| from R-L Alex Ong, Aung Moe (3rd placing), Chun How Lee, Bee Hong Ewe, Debbie Chinn (1st placing), Andrew Loh, Me. |
My concern was if my leg would hold up over a 9+ mile distance...i had not done a training run of that distance, I have made it through a 6 without a struggle, and an 8 that was a struggle...so this was a concern. I started well and my pace around the F1 track itself was really good. I wanted to hit 4 miles in about 35:00. I was able to do that with my 4 mile at 34:38...then, the hills started, and after that they did not stop, and my leg was screaming. I hate to admit it...I had to walk a few times...I am embarrassed to say that, especially when this was only a 15K. It does give me an idea as to where I am in my recovery though...no where near being prepared for a race of 9+ miles. I was able to make it across the finish line and did cramp badly at the end. I took advantage of some ice at the medical tent. the final mileage was about 9.6 miles and my final time...i hate putting this in print 1:32...I have not run a race that slowly since I started running in 2008...I was not ready and it showed. I finished though and for now, where I am in my recovery, its good enough. I really need to find some pictures of the actual race as i have been looking at my stride on the pictures i have, and its bad...not enough leg swing...I'm shuffling more than running and I wanted to see if the same was true in this race. The Taxi was supposed to pick me up at 11:30pm following the race, but the security was not letting anyone into the venue, only out. So i walked down to the main road at the entrance, hoping that the driver would be waiting there...no such luck, so then phone tag with James from the B&B and the driver started. so there I am standing in the medium of the road waiting for a driver that I don't know will come, wondering what i will do if they don't show up...eventually it got worked out, but 11:30 turned in to almost 1am...that was really the only snafu in what was otherwise an awesome experience. I will run this race again, and hopefully next time I will run it better. Loyal reader, Run Happy!!
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