P. J. HALF MARATHON 2006 DETAILED REPORT

Pre-race

My legs were still fresh from my recent ultra marathon in Kedah. I still felt some soreness on my legs due to a hard 6.5 km sprint run on Thursday, 15 June 2006 at KLCC Park. I decided to apply some deep heat rub on my legs in order to prevent muscle cramps when running. This time my target was to clock below 2 hours. My usual running shoes (Adidas Supernova Control) were still in wet condition and I decided to wear my old Adidas running shoes (the shoes I have been using from the third week of July 2004 until early May 2005) and the shoe condition had almost worn out in terms of grip.

Race day

The run started at time 0630. I started with slow and relax pace first and later at a faster pace. In order to save time, I decided to skip water station and sponging station until after 10 km mark. In order to replace the water, I substituted it with plum powder drink (mixture of Taiwan and local plum powder) and I drank it when running i.e. no stopping at the refreshment and sponging station. I felt very comfortable when running at a fast pace passing by the first refreshment station (skipped) and reaching the first sponging station. Upon reaching the first sponging station, my right eye suddenly felt some itchiness due to the sweat and I wiped it with my right hand. Without realising it, I had wiped it with my right hand that still had the smell of the deep heat rub. As a result, my right eyes felt the burning sensation and very uncomfortable. I was forced to stop at the first sponging station and I applied some water from the sponge to cool my right eye. Later, I increased my pace faster in order to cover the lost time.

When running towards the flyover to the old Subang airport road, DK (PM 4) and Tony (Penguin 3) had overtaken me. I told myself that I could not let those two runners to overtake me. I decided to run as fast as I could and this was boosted by the music from the MP3 player. I managed to overtake DK first after the second refreshment station (skipped). Tony’s pace was fast and I decided to use him as my pacer. Later I managed to close up the gap and overtaken him after the second sponging station (skipped). After that my body started to feel the heat as the sun was shinning and I stopped for a drink at the third refreshment station (very thirsty). Later I continued my run passing through the U-turn at Terminal 2. I stopped at the third sponging station to cool my body with water from the sponge.

I continued my run passing to the last refreshment station and I felt extremely thirsty and I decided to drink all my plum powder drink and a cup of water and 100 Plus. Later, I continued my run to the last sponging station with legs still looking strong like never been running at this fast pace before. I stopped o cool my body with water from the sponge. I felt thirsty and I decided to drink the water from the sponge as there is no cup provided and I had earlier on discarded my water bottle. Later, I continued my run until I reach the T-junction and had to turn left.

At that time, my legs felt tired at I started to reduce my pace until I was forced to walk for a while as my toes had some blisters that caused pain to my toes when running. Some runners had overtaken me and I was encouraged to run as the finishing point was quite near. Looking at my time, it was almost close to 2 hours and I felt that my sub-2 target was impossible. Upon reaching the stadium with less than 2 minutes to the 2 hours time, I decided to try my very best to hit the sub-2 timing. I decided to sprint although my legs muscle felt pain and my toes were also pain due to blisters. For the last 200 metres, I had around 1 minute and 20 seconds to go and I sprinted and at my fastest pace. I was screaming while sprinting as my legs muscles were tired, pain and my toes were also very painful due to blisters.

Finally, I managed to cross the finishing line in 1 hr 59 min 40.26 sec (new personal best and first time running below 2 hours in a half marathon) in 150th position for men’s open. It was so close to the 2 hours time. I was glad to achieve my target and my strategy to skip water stations and sponging stations really worked.

Post race

I believe that I could improve better in the future. I’ll continue running the half marathon (in any event) until I managed to achieve what I wanted. My happiness turned into a sad day for me. Stay tune for the next posting.