10 July 2005 Seremban Half Marathon

After suffering in the Ipoh Run (21 km) last Sunday, this morning I was running the Seremban half marathon. Last year the organiser had advisertised the new race route as challenging. I think many who ran this route for the first time found it this to be true.

My aim for the Seremban half marathon is simply not suffer as much as I did during the Ipoh race. My race plan was to run the first 10 km in about 1 hour (not 55 min like the Ipoh run) and then try to maintain the same pace for next 11 km. Getting a medal should not pose too much problem as there were 150 medals available for the Men's Junior Veteran category.

The trip
I started my trip to Seremban, the capital of Negeri Sembilan state at 10.30 am Saturday morning. An hour later, I arrived at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia to collect the my bib from CM. Thanks, CM! The goodie bag was sparse of items; It contained only a packet of laundry powder and hair shampoo.

I arrived at the hotel, Angsana Inn at 12.15 pm. Immediately checked in , dropped my bags off and walked to the sports complex to collect my bibs and bibs for 2 more runners; Yong and Liaw. Only a handful of runners were there to collect their bibs.

After that it was lunch at the A&W fast food restaurant. I had a terrible fish burger which consisted of dry fish patty and few small pieces of iceberg lettuce. The root beer which is A&W's trademark drink was too sweet for my taste. Somehow I remembered it used to taste a lot better when I drank it during my school days. What has happened since then? After the meal, I made a resolution to avoid eating fast food ever again.

I will skip what I did on Saturday and write about the race itself.

Sunday
I woke up at 5.15 am, did the usual things to get ready and went down to the hotel lobby at 5.40 am. Yong and Liaw was to meet me at the hotel for their bibs. I decided to wait on the road so they can see me and a short while I saw two guys jogging towards me. It was them.

Since we had plenty of time , I offered the use of the hotel room facilities to them. So we went back up to the room. At 6.15 am, we left the hotel for the 300 m walk to the race reporting area.

The place was packed with runners, the majority of whom were school students. After entering the gate, I came across CM who looked a bit harried. He had volunteered to register and hand out the bibs and now was busy running around looking for the runners.

I was regsistered for the Junior Veteran category(150 medals) but since Petaling runner did not make it to Seremban, I took his race bibs from CM. While waiting for the race start, chatted with Kevin who told me he was still suffering from poisoning.

Race start and first 10 km
Near 6.30 am, the runners gathered on the road for the 6.45 am 21 km flag-off. I estimated there was about 600 runners. Met Kong from Klang who was running a half marathon in ten years.

Without too much ceremony or ad thankfully without any shows, the race started at 6.45 am with the firing of the starter gun. I tried to maintain my speed at the planned pace (10 km - 60 minutes) and resisted the temptation to run faster.

The first 3 km was on the roads leaving Seremban town towards Kuala Klawang. The first 3 km was not pleasant as we ran with the other vehicles. It got better as we moved on the trunk roads running among the villages. When I passed the 5 km mark, my time was 31 min 15 seconds. The pace was just about right for me.
I ran with Yong and Liaw for the first 5 km. There was another guy (tall wearing Nike T-shirt) whom I met at the Nilai race who also paced with us. I forgot his name.

At the 8 km , the first hill sections appeared. This section is a about 1 km long along a winding hill up a incline about 5-10 degree grade. I enjoyed running along this section as it was quite cool due to the trees and plants on the hill slopes.

At the 10 km mark, my time was 1 hr 2 min. 31 seconds , some 2 minutes behind my target pace. But I was not too worried as I was still feeling OK.

10 km to 16 km
At the 12 km , I approached a second hilly section. It was much steeper than the previous hill section and about 1 km long. Last year I had to walked about 200 m here and it was no different this year. I walked again this year but being less fit this year, I walked for a longer distance ,maybe 500 m. However Yong keep going and after some time, he had dissapeared ahead of me.

Last year after walking , I recovered and managed to run faster. But this year , regretfully I could not do the same. I started to run again at the downhill section but at a slower pace.

I struggled to keep running between 12 to 16 km. It was obvious that my lack of training during the weekday had resulted in decreased endurance after 12 km or so.

16 to 21 km
In the last 5 km, the student runners (11 km) rejoined the 21 k m. Half the of the 2 lane road was clogged up the students walking leisurely on the road. Some even sat down at the bus stops or by the road to wait for their friends. As for the 21 km runners, we had bypass them and end up squeezed between them and the cars,. It was damm irritating and dangerous for the serious runners.

I had to walk most of the 5 km distance. The route was even steeper than the last hilly sections. When I tried to sustain a run, invariably there was 5 km traffic a.k.a. students blocking me my path. I decided not to bother running as I estimated my finishing time would be 2 hrs 15 minutes. My right knee had been sore since 16 km and I did not want to worsenthe injury. I estimated my finishing time would be about 2 hrs 15 minutes and it would be good enough to get a medal.

During he last 1 km, I managed to get clear of the students and ran again. I was a bit worried that the runners from the same category woould overtake me, so I ran fast enough to make sure not many did.

I finally crossed the finishing line in 2 hrs 17 min. 16 seconds in 163 position.

My time was way off last years time of 1 hr 58 min but I stil regard it as OK due to lack of consistent training over the last 2 months.