Doris' Full Marathon Records

01. 07/12/08 Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 5:52:59
02. 28/06/09 Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon 5:58:30
03. 11/10/09 Borneo International Marathon 5:15:24
04. 28/03/10 Energizer Night Race 5:16:19 (under distance)
05. 15/08/10 River Jungle Marathon 5:46:46
06. 24/10/10 Venice Marathon 4:42:16
07. 31/10/10 Frankfurt Marathon 4:37:16
08. 16/04/11 Energizer Night Race 4:33:23 (39.6K)
09. 01/05/11 Borneo International Marathon 4:45:10
10. 29/05/11 Hatyai Marathon 4:44:11 (41.9K)
11. 26/06/11 Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon 4:51:11
12. 25/09/11 River Jungle Marathon 5:16:53
13. 02/10/11 Jelapang Padi Super Marathon 55km 7:26:29
14. 15/10/11 Putrajaya Night Marathon 5:18:54

专注

好像很多东西很烦。对别人来说可能很琐碎、很无聊，可是我就是觉得烦。

烦什么？烦体重。烦火爆的脾气。烦不够健康的lifestyle。烦淡薄的人缘。烦工作的出路。也烦跑步、骑脚车不够别人快。

可能因为从小就肥胖，对自己的外表与身体皆无信心，总觉得全部问题的根源就在体重。

当然明白减轻体重后，其他问题不见得就可以解决。可是一直烦这、烦那的，终究没有一个问题获得解决。

既然如此，就专注处理其中一样吧。既然觉得体重是罪魁祸首，就先处理体重吧。

不要太贪心，multi-tasking可能弄到两头（或三、四、五头）不到岸。欲速则不达。

希望两脚伸直前，至少解决掉一个烦恼吧。

20110314 - 中国报 - 读编交流 - 我的跑步生涯

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

When would I be able to transform into an acceptable runner's body?

 

Photo by Leong Ann Lok

The Plate Replaces the Pyramid

http://www.ChooseMyPlate.gov

PB in Hartamas route training!

I always wonder why I could run much faster and sustain longer in the race, but always do badly in LSD training. Even with much slower pace in LSD, I always struggle in last few kms.

Is it because I eat PowerBar before race so I have more energy?
Is it because I usually wake up early for a race so I am totally awaken?
Is it because I wear my "pia" shoes in the race?
Is it because of consistent water stations during the race?
Is it because of the race atmosphere?

Ming "forced" me to have a faster LSD training. So I decided to run Hartamas route this morning (without Petronas loop) and tried to make it under 2 hours (without rest time).

I woke up 10min earlier to eat half piece of PowerBar (urggg... it is a very expensive food, gotta save the other half for next run). I wore my favourite Salomon T-shirt. This time I wore Brooks Glycerin 8 instead of NB860 which is my usual training shoes (not wearing adiZero Tempo... this pair is strictly for race and speed training).

I was already in 'pia' mode when starting. I didn't quite believe I reached double hill entrance at 29:40! For a second I had a thought to change to run double hill and try to make sub-1 LOL! To save a mere few seconds, everything was in fast motion, including crossing Jalan Duta LOL! Finally I reached Petronas in about 58:25... huhh... made it into an hour.

Drown myself with Tropicana Twister orange juice... it was so sweet and gave me the quick energy that I needed for the rest of the distance. Took the rest for about 5min and then headed off again.

Even though there is more downhill in the returning route, but I knew I was not as fast as the first part anymore. There was an accident near Duta Nusantara, a Kelisa had overturned. Slowed down few seconds to watch, since there were quite some people were helping already, and I had to catch up my work too, so I just resumed running. Later I heard the driver was asleep hence the accident, and fortunately he was ok and no one else was hurt, especially runners.

Even though I knew I was getting slower, but I couldn't abort the mission. Just kept running, running, and running. Finally completed the run in 2:03:26.... if excluded the rest time, it was 1:58:14... mission accomplished!

Thanks very much the running buddies who were running and pacing me today!

With rest:
18.94KM - 2:03:26 - 6:32

Without rest:
18.81KM - 1:58:14 - 6:18

9.39KM - 58:25 - 6:14
0.13KM - 05:12 - Rest
9.42KM - 59:49 - 6:21

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/91482832