SEREMBAN HALF MARATHON 2005 on 10 July 2005 by LIM FANG HAU (POSTED ON PM 1 BLOG ON 11/7/2005)

This was my toughest half marathon I ever participated and I ran in Seremban for the first time. The race started at approximately 7 am. As usual I ran with my MP3 player and pouch. There were distance markers for every km after the 4 km mark.I started my run at a fast pace aiming to break the sub 2 hr barrier. I knew that this was going to be tough with hills along the way. I just told myself to go all out until the end. After running 4 km my timing split was 21 min +. By 5 km mark, I clocked 26 min +. This was quite encouraging as I need to maintain this pace in order to break the sub 2 hr barrier. At 8 km mark, there was a hill for runners to run and this reduced my pace. By 10 km mark, my timing split was 57 min +, 4 min off my Ipoh 10 km timing split. I knew that this was going to be tough for me to break the sub 2 hr barrier unless I increase my speed and pace. By 11 km mark, my timing spit was 1 hr 2 min +. I tried to increase my pace and I managed to reduce my split time per km slightly but this could not last long as there was another hill somewhere after the 12 km mark. This reduced my speed. After running 15 km, my timing split was 1 hr 28 min. I knew that the sub 2 hr barrier was almost impossible as my legs were beginning to feel tired. I tried to maintain my pace.By 19 km mark, my timing split was 1 hr 52 min. At that time my speed was reduced due to tiredness on my leg muscles. My timing split after 20 km was 1 hr 57 min. At that point of time I was totally dehydrated and there was no water station at 20 km mark. The weather was hot with blazing sun coming out. The sub 2 hr timing was totally impossible for me. My pace was reduced drastically due to tiredness on my legs and dehydration. This forced me to do walk and run technique until the finishing line. Before the finishing line, there was a killer hill of 300 metres. This hill really forced me to walk as I could not run anymore. I did not want to risk myself getting cramp before the finishing line. It was really embarrassing for me as a full marathoner to walk in the half marathon race. With 200 metres before the finishing line, my legs were beginning to cramp. I just did not bother as I want to finish this tough and miserable half marathon quickly. I decided to push myself towards the finishing line. As I was approaching the finishing line I was running like a handicap person with my right legs having a minor cramp.Finally, I crossed the finishing line in 2 hr 7 min 24.64 sec with 125th position. At the finishing line, I was totally dehydrated and I nearly fainted while walking to collect my finishing medal and certificate. I had to be assisted by the St. John Ambulance helpers to be rested at the tent. At that time, while being escorted to the tent I was yelling for water as I could not bear the dehydration and I was given a bottle of mineral water to drink. At the tent, I was still dehydrated after drinking the mineral water. Luckily, Shine (Teh Yee-Chuan), the sub 4 hr marathoner was around at the tent to provide me a can of isotonic I really needed. I rested for approximately 5 minutes.After that, I began to do some warming down exercise but I forgot to do the important stretching on my legs as was I went on to chat with other runners. Unexpectedly, I collapsed in front of C C Hoo, Kenny Choo and his friends (Tey’s friends). I was screaming as I had a cramp on my right leg muscle. I had to be carried on a stretcher to the tent by the St. John Ambulance helpers. My right legs were iced and pain killer was applied to prevent the cramp from getting severe. Later I asked one of the helper to apply the pain killer on my left leg to prevent me from getting muscle cramp as I knew that my left leg was beginning to cramp. I rested for approximately 20 minutes at the tent before moving around the field.Base on my observation, the race was organisation as not up to the reasonable level of expectation. There were insufficient isotonic drink stations. There were 2 water stations, 1 isotonic drink station and 3 sponging station. There was no refreshment station at the 20 km mark. Infect, I survived in the Ipoh International Run 2005 as there was a water station at the 20 km mark. The organiser should emulate the PJ half marathon organiser by providing 3 water station, 3 isotonic drink station and 3 sponging stations. Other categories were flagged off at an inappropriate time. The half marathon runners had to clash with the school children categories. This slowed down the pace of the half marathoners. Perhaps the organiser should plan a different running route to avoid the half marathoners clashing with the school children categories.At the time of writing this report, I had recovered from the muscle cramp on my right calf. I still feel a little soreness on my legs muscles. I would like to thank those who had helped me when I suffered calf muscle cramp on my right leg.