A Happy Bad Race

I didn't achieve my target in SCKLM 2011. In fact, when comparing to previous full marathon races this year,  I did this race pretty badly, not only the worst full marathon timing, but also the way I ran it.

Anything bad that would happen, just happened.
- Starting out too fast
- 'Engine' overheated, heart rate got elevated too much
- Too dependent and long for cold drinks
- Blister at 1xth km (but later pun tak ada feeling liao LOL)
- Started walking in early time
- Cramped - first time ever! (probably due to walking prematurely)
And the biggest problem was, I had too overestimated myself!

Surprisingly I didn't feel disappointed, indeed I am pretty happy now. I have learned so much!

Tell you all one secret. Actually I targeted 4:30 in this race early of this year. How did I come out with this crazy idea? Because I did Frankfurt Marathon in 4:37. Even though I got that PB due to cold weather and flat course, it was the 2nd leg of the back-to-back marathon within a week. Furthermore I thought I could reduce some weight and had 6 months to train.

After the experience in Hatyai Marathon, which was hot but flat and I did 4:44, I knew I couldn't achieve that. So I put my target as 4:40. But you know... I kiasu marrr... I wanted to keep up with the 4:30 pacers... but soon I realized I couldn't catch up. But I think they were still too much faster than 6:25 pace (average pace for 4:30 for 42.195KM), my first 7km never exceeded 6:25 except the crowded first km... ok... stop blaming others! LOL

As I was running the 2nd to 4th km in almost 10K race pace, I could feel my heart rate was beating fast. The consequence was the body was overheating and unfortunately 90%+ of the water stations did not serve cold drinks. I even stopped by petrol stations at 17.5th km and 28th km to wash down icey Tropicana orange 300ml and Ribena 500ml respectively! Actually I could survive with non-cold drinks in Borneo Marathon (which was even hotter!), could I blame SCKLM route offered too much of petrol stations and 7-11? LOL

Not even half of the distance I had already felt exhausted. At 25.5th km or even earlier, I already started walking until the next water station at 26th km. Water station was placed every 2km. At this point, I already changed my strategy to treat every water station as a milestone. Walked and rest at each water station, and then jogged about 2km to the next, similar to what I did in Hatyai. I even changed my GPS watch's viewing mode to just see the current time, I didn't want to worry about the pace anymore.

After getting into Jalan Kuching at 32.5th km, I started walking again. I think because of this walk, I started to feel the cramp was coming. Walked, ran, walked, ran... again I walked a long stretch starting from 34th km. BIG MISTAKE. The cramp really happened now when I started to jog back... so I had to walk again. This was the first time I really got into a cramp during a run. I even almost couldn't survive the walking. I wanna thank one uncle who also suffered cramp like me at the same time, we had a good chat and this let me get over my emotion.

I got some 'pain killer' oil from the medic at 36th km, but it seemed didn't give much effect. As two 5 hour pacers had passed me, I thought I would not achieve sub-5 this time, the guardian angel came into the scene. June Malik who setup a counter to help Full Marathon Virgins (FMW) had the spray!

The 36th km to 40th km was in Bukit Tunku, my training home ground. I knew every road and rock so well. In order to 'repay' my training place, I jogged all the way to 40th km, not even taking rest at water station (and there were 3 hills there u know, hahahaha). Actually I also scared I would get cramp again larrr if I walked again, LOL. I looked at the time, I believed I could do sub-5 even with a bit of walking... but there were only 2km+ left, I told myself I should keep with it. I even ran sub 6 min in last 1.5km! Finally I crossed the finishing line at 4:51:08 (nett time and 42.56km according to my Garmin)!

A very dramatic sub-5 finish for me... but I learned a lot. I do not dare to look at my finishing photo, I knew my condition was pretty bad, LOL. By the way, I like the finishing T printing 'Look for me in 2012'... Yes, I will return and challenge this course again next year!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94858150