So this was to be my grand and glorious follow-up to my Hunter Valley NSW Australia triumph. I was excited for this race for many reasons. 1.) a good friend Andrew Loh was one of the organizers and many other running friends would be bike marshalls and volunteers, so there were alot of people I knew and respected who were involved in the race, 2.) it was my first good opportunity to run with my I-run friends at this distance, and i wanted to have a good race, especially after the SCKL (Standard Chartered KL 1/2) disaster. 3.)Confidence was high after OZ, and this was a loop course that was very flat, so a good time was more than possible. Then, we went to Singapore for 5 days, and my training fell off the cliff, I got very little sleep, and picked up a horrible sinus infection. I figured that despite that I would still be ok, i had trained well up until the fall off, and usually in the past when I am not feeling well, i can do very well in an athletic endeavour. Running a 1/2 marathon, and playing hockey are two very different animals I would soon find out.
So i felt good at the race start, and decided to pull the best time i could for the first 6 miles, That was the last of my positive accomplishments in this race. the first 6 miles was in 49:32...I did not feel to bad as I passed 7 miles still keeping an 8:30 pace...passed 8 miles, starting to struggle now...yes some cramping in my hamstring but mostly it was my head...i felt feverish, and felt like my head was going to explode, I decided to push to 9 miles, before I would really stop, but It was not happening, once i lost it, it was gone.
then it was the mental game of fighting my pain threshold, and my discomfort. If it was just the hammy I would have been find, but with the hammy and the head...not happening, so the last 3-4 miles were a process of run a 1/2 mile walk a1/4 mile, run a 1/2 miles walk a 1/4 mile. thanks to Hoay Jen, Khoo Siew Swan, Kelvin Cupido, Eric Lim,Karen Geh who gave me encouragement along the way, it helped, finally with about 700 meters to go I was caught by Lim Ping Wooi, and we finished together.
I think it was a 2:14:00 finish which is tough to take, especially after the Hunter Valley, NSW finish. Its a finish though, and I say to others all the time, crossing the finish line is all that matters. Rather than look at the negative of a disappointing finish time there are many lessons to be learned...as this is only the second 1/2 marathon I have done in this climate...I.) i have found that I cannot run it the same way i would run in cooler conditions, i need to monitor my pace better and look for negative splits next time, perhaps that conserving at the start will give me more at the end. II.) Running a half marathon sick and playing Ice Hockey sick are two totally different things, and I will not do that again. the expectation of "sweating out" a fever in a competitive running event is just plain stupid. III.) Training is vitally important. Next time I will not plan 2 half marathons so close together, my recovery time is different from when I was younger, a 10K or less during that recovery time would have been better. IV.) I am still very competitive, and the sad thing is that i will never be as good a runner as I was a hockey player (some would say I was never good at that either) I have many trophies and won many championships on the ice...I think i need to have more fun with the running and realize my days of being on the podium are over, my competitive self does not like this one bit, but he needs to shut it and deal. So next is the ECO night run on Thursday, a nice 8K, tough hilly course...should be fun
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