This race was going to be a training run for the Singapore half marathon next Sunday. So I had a modest plan to run the 10.7 km distance in 1 hrs 05 minutes.
I arrived at Dataran Merdeka at 7.00 am. Immediately saw Jamie standing around looking quite bored. He came early to be able to park behind the High Court. I told him where the place I usually park is empty even at 7.15 am. Suggested for him to park there but the place will remain a secret to avoid future congestion.
Soon we were joined by John Tan, Jason and Lonerunner. Glad to see John was back to running races. This was his first race this year. Probably it will the the last as well - there were no more races in KL this year. A few bald mat salleh also showed up; figured out they were from Siemens. A few more familiar faces turned up; Ronnie, Justin Newton and MJ. Newton as looking for a pacer as his target was to run in less than 1 hr. Too bad, neither Jamie and I were suited for this task as we will be just taking it easy for this run.
A drizzle started at 7.00 am but fortunately it stopped before the race started at 7.30 am with the 10 km runners. I started running alongside Jamie and Casey (Penguin-x) at the back of the pack. We chatted along past the traffic light and tunnel. Along Bukit Tunku, I even had time to observe the surroundings and other runners.
There were distance markers every 1 km for the first 5 km. I reached the 5 km mark at 33 min. 10 seconds. Next was three uphill sections on the the Jln Duta. I put my head down, leaned forward to press onwards up the three hilly sections, After this I decided to increase my pace as an experiment for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I slowed down to conserve energy for the last hill at the flyover.
Here I was running alongside a Malay guy (Kohar) . Chatted for a while. Found out he was a running enthusiast as he knew about the charity race at Cyberjaya in January 2005. I ran quite slowly up the flyover. After the flyover, I decided to step up the pace with Koha pacing beside me. I overtook about a dozen tired runners in the final stretch.
Reached the finishing line in 1 hr 07 min. 20 seconds . Saw Newton nearby. He had done a PR but missed dipping below 1 hr by 0.02 seconds; @^*(**!
Meet with the other runners for a group photo near the clock tower. Left Dataran Merdeka at 9.20 am.
Overall , it was a satisfying run as it was intended as preparation for the 21 km race next Sunday. I was able to gauge my current state of fitness (not very good). I should aim for a time of 2 hrs 15 minutes for the 21 km run next Sunday. It is doubtful if I would be able to run below 2 hrs next week.
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