#fmm2016

[wilruns]

Borneo International Marathon (1/5/2016)

Being one week after Langkawi FM, I wasn't thinking too much about setting a target for BIM 2016 FM, even entertained the idea of pacing someone to sub4, though just briefly 😆, not to mention I'd be climbing Mt Kinabalu the next day. But in the end I decided to try to run sub3:40hrs again, the same target as Langkawi.

Sub3:40 doesn't sound as catchy as sub3:30 but that's the achievable timing for me 😂. I do still want to maintain a certain standard for all my marathons, especially knowing that my idol Yuki Kawauchi is able to race week after week and maintain a supremely high standard; as far away as I am from him, I do want to try to emulate that 😆😂.

3:30h seems to be a tough nut to crack locally, the closest I got was 3:32 in Kuching Marathon last August and I fared worse since then. Being 43min 10k level here recently means local sub3:30h should be doable yet it's been beyond reach thus far, including this time. My local FM level seems to be hovering around 3:3x.

Haven't been following my original schedule, just did an easy run on Tuesday and joined Puma staircase training on Wednesday which was tiring as hell, then rested the rest of the week coming into this marathon. Did the usual carbo-loading the days before.

BIM FM route is mostly flat except for the middle part between 18-24km at UMS which has two long and steep inclines. I liked the atmosphere in Likas Stadium before the start, many runners arrived early and the organiser had people leading a warm-up dance, it was electrifying.

Race

3am was the start time. Started together with Alan Tan and Tang Yew Choy but fell back shortly after, I was running 4:40 pace the first 2km yet they went faster, and soon was out of sight. I didn't follow as even at that pace I was feeling quite tired.

I hovered around 4:50-5min pace the first 15km, while it's faster than 3:40h pace I thought I'd just go at that pace and see if I could sustain it later, also partly because Michael Wong and Kai Liang sayured me early on and that was surprising as I didn't expect them to run so fast, so was trying to hang on to them lol.

Hit 21km at 1:42:03 after the first major incline at 19km. Began fading after the second incline at 23km and started stopping at water stations. Reached the U-turn which was supposed to be 30km but was only 29.6km on my watch, hit 30km at 2:30:52. Along the way counted the runners ahead and knew I had no chance of podium. Saw friends including Pan, Jerry and Kartini after the U-turn and cheered each other.

Last 12km was the usual struggle in FM, struggling to maintain pace (was hovering around 5:30-6:10) and watching the average pace on my watch slowly slipping away.

In the end crossed the finish line at 3:36:16 with a GPS distance logged of 41.83km, was surprised at the short distance because this was supposed to be AIMS certified and one would typically run longer than 42.195km. Emailed the organiser and AIMS and they claimed it should be accurate, hmm… I suspect it was indeed under distance because the route was almost exactly the same as last year except for the U-turn point which was about 400m earlier, making it 800m shorter than last year.

My splits as below: 10km - 47:50 20km - 1:37:04 (2nd 10km - 49:14) 30km - 2:30:52 (3rd 10km - 53:48) 40km - 3:26:40 (4th 10km - 55:48) 41.83km - 3:36:16 (1.83km - 9:36)

https://www.strava.com/activities/561441457

Average pace was 5:10min/km so hit below 5:13 (3:40hrs) pace, not bad. Didn't cramp during the marathon but cramped after 😅. Impressed with Alan Tan as he did it in 3:31hrs, he’s faster than me now, man I gotta buck up.

One thing to note was I took two assam with me, following the theory that it’s the nerves that cause cramp and eating assam calms the nerves, however I forgot to bring a plastic bag and dropped one of the assam 😓, so I put the other one in my pocket and halfway through my sweat basically melted the sugar layer, in the end I did eat it I think at the halfway mark, no I don’t know if it mattered in preventing cramp, guess not since I still cramped after 😅.

Pictures

[wilruns]

De’LIMA Langkawi Marathon (23/4/2016)

I have no idea what De’LIMA means, I’m guessing LIMA stands for Langkawi International Maritime & Aerospace Exhibition and De is some form preposition in some foreign language, with LIMA being the main sponsor of this event. But I’m guessing like me, most runners didn’t even pay much attention to the name let alone care about what it means lol.

The website for this event is kinda poor especially the registration portal, giving some problems after sign-up, and their FB page was rather poor in communicating. As a whole the organiser’s marketing / communications needs to improve.

Prize money was good however, with separate categories for internationals, that’s why I roped in Voon Ying and Angel for it, however it was only top 5. Unfortunately VY was injured and couldn’t run it in the end.

I was secretly harbouring hope that I could somehow squeeze into top 5, hoping that being a new event and being far away in Langkawi those elites wouldn’t go for it. It turned out to be very close to being true, however some last minute sign-up by elites quashed my hope in the end 😢.

Pre-Race

I set my target at sub3:40hrs, knowing the last 12km is very hilly. The route is very similar to Island Ocean Marathon of which I have fond memories of (by that I mean walking with my ex holding an umbrella for the last 12km and finishing it in 6:48hrs 😂), so I know it’s gonna be tough, the final 12km. Sub3:40hrs means below 5:13min pace.

Race

There really weren’t many people for this event, it was only a small crowd, even Kenyans were only a handful to my surprise as the prizes were really good.

Race started at 4:30am with everyone seeming pretty casual about it, all the elites seemed to be jogging, I could still see them after 2km which is saying a lot lol.

I started with about 5min pace and pretty much maintained that the whole way until 30km, save for some inclines. Certain parts were really dark with no street light, however the sky was clear and we could see the moon and that was nice. We ran past the airport along the coast. Running in the dark in a serene environment was well... pretty serene.

The small crowd quickly thinned out after a few km, and I was running with a Malay boy in the first quarter before joining Teck Wai, and then catching up to Tahira who always seems to start fast in a marathon. Three of us ran together until about 15km (IIRC) when Tahira went for toilet, then it was me and TW together until the halfway point, when he stopped for gel and I went ahead and stayed ahead.

10km - 50:08min 20km - 1:40:53hrs (second 10km - 50:45min) 30km - 2:32:58hrs (third 10km - 52:05min)

Slowed down a little after 20km as there was an incline and I was a little tired. 30km came, it had become bright, and the hilly section began. As expected my pace dropped facing the seemingly never-ending roller coaster of ups and downs in the last 12km.

Apart from the roller-coaster ride, there was a sign that said 5km left at 35km, it was either wrong or the route was under distance, either way I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad lol; and one sign said 2km left at 38km only to have another 2km to go sign at 40km lol... Another problem was there was a 5km gap between the second and last water station, longer than the usual 3km gaps before, I was cursing during it.

40km - 3:28:01hrs (fourth 10km - 55:03min) 42.14km - 3:39:01hrs (2.14km - 11min)

In the end ran 42.14km (GPS distance) in 3:39:01hrs, average pace of 5:12min/km, just ahead of the 5:13 target.

Post-Race

While the race itself was ok with adequate water stations, the problems began after the finish line, which I ranted on Facebook below.

But otherwise the whole event was ok, but I guess also because it’s a rather small event with little crowd. And in the end the organiser did post the finisher tee to me so that’s good.

However the biggest peeve I have with this event is the result.

Looking at the Men “Elite International” category result makes me feel super bitter, 心裡超不平衡 lol, some Malaysians decided to register in that category and no.3 was 3:58:20... no.4 4:11:42 and no.5 4:26:34... where were the Kenyans??? And I was no.6 at 3:39:00 in Men Malaysian category... 1 minute away from top 5 and RM500...

But not everyone got the prize money, organiser did not have cash on hand and gave the winners post-dated cheques, and only a few managed to clear the cheques with the rest being bounced, with no resolution in sight as they had no money. Apparently it’s not the first time Kedah races had such problems. 

And the turnout was so poor that they had to combine Women Open and Veteran into one as there was like only two runners in the Women Veteran category lol...

For what it’s worth, the organiser is Sk Event Management and supposedly supported by Tourism Kedah.

Some photos during the trip:

with fellow FM finishers, Angel was lucky enough to get her cheque cleared

with Voon Ying also who was still nursing an injury and had to DNS unfortunately

[futuremusicmoguls]

Take a look at our 2016 superdelegates!  Many thanks to all of our guest speakers that gave their time and expertise to support our growth!  

Scored by: Harry Vartorella

[wilruns]

Another month, another FM in Malaysia, this is getting a bit too much lol...

1st Kota Kinabalu City International Marathon 2016 on 4th September 2016.

[fatmaalmulla]

She believes in shoes and cars 🍉🦄👠🚗 #fmmdubai #straightoutofdeira #thecarbonedition #thelinencollection #mydubai #fmmcollection #fmm2016 #love #hallawalla #deira

[wilruns]

FMM 2016 - update

Malaysia is getting crazy and hopping on the marathon bandwagon, suddenly today there are two marathons announced, Perlis Marathon on 29th May and Jitra Marathon at Kedah on 26th November, which is just one day before PBIM on 27th November.

Argh 26th November clashes with Cyril’s wedding!!! If it’s just a normal friend’s wedding I would skip it without hesitation, but I can’t skip Cyril’s... zzz. I’m already planning to take the last possible MAS flight and rush to Penang for PBIM, but Jitra Marathon is simply impossible to run, sigh, 100% local FM plan ruined.

Why the heck would they have a marathon so close to another one that is so nearby??! It’s practically on the same day!

As it is now, the list of local FM stands below:

1. 24/1/16 - Cyberjaya TwinCity Marathon ✓ 2. 6/3/16 - MWM ✓ 3. 23/4/16 - Langkawi Marathon 4. 1/5/16 - BIM 5. 15/5/16 - Miri Marathon 6. 29/5/16 - Perlis Marathon 7. 7/8/16 - SCKLM 8. 14/8/16 - Kuching Marathon 9. 24/9/16 - Terengganu Marathon 10. 20/11/16 - Sarawak Marathon Kuching 11. 26/11/16 - Jitra Marathon (Kedah) 12. 27/11/16 - PBIM

And that’s not including RJM, PNM and Melaka yet, man, that’s a lot of marathons.

[wilruns]

MWM 2016

Joined 4 out of 4 editions of Malaysia Women Marathon (of which guys are only allowed to join as pacers to the ladies) since its inaugural one in 2013, which is where I gave my virgin FM running with my ex-gf then, it was then I learned a full marathon isn’t just twice as long as a half, it’s like triple the effort, and instead of me pacing the lady I had to be dragged and slowed her down lol. The second one in 2014 was cancelled halfway due to haze; in the third one I was the official 5-hour pacer and it was the first time I did an FM without feeling like dying at the end; and in this fourth one I paced Voon Ying.

Needless to say, I seem to be a big fan of MWM 😂.

The initial target was to do 3:50hrs, at first she wanted 3:45 but based on her training, I didn’t think it was feasible, so I planned to do 5:25-5:30 pace throughout instead.

At the same time I took this opportunity to hit 100km/week, the first time breaching 3 digits in my life. Did four 15km runs from Monday to Thursday, was under the weather earlier and these runs certainly didn’t help with recovery, but did get well enough to run the marathon. All the runs were done at long run to easy pace.

Also took it as training for Titi 50km so I carried the hydration bag I borrowed from Wai Hong, which started leaking water after the halfway mark and became empty -_- 😂. Gotta figure out what’s wrong with it.

The marathon took place at Shah Alam again but this round with a different route, started from Dataran Kemerdekaan Shah Alam then went on to the LKSA highway heading towards Rimbayu and back. I always like u-turns as they let you check out and cheer people who’re ahead and behind you 😆. 

The highway portion had a few rolling slopes, but apart from that it’s generally flat and not too bad, except for the final part where we had to loop twice overlapping with other runners which could be a bit confusing. Not much scenery to speak of except for the Shah Alam city centre, however the stretch after the highway towards Rimbayu is rather nice with the trees lined up along the road.

First 10km done in 54:27min, a pace of 5:27min/km which is right on track for 3:50hrs. She felt ok.

U-turned at about 19.5km and 20km reached in 1:49:48, second 10km done in 55:21min, she started slowing down slightly after 18km but things still seemed ok.

Things started going south for her as she slowed down more starting from 22km and started to stop at each water station. Seeing how early she started to fade I knew 3:50hrs was definitely out of question and even a sub4 was questionable. Got her to take a gel despite her not planning to take any at first just to try whatever might work.

At the same time the 4-hour pacers Karsten and YK were catching up and overtook us at 25km. 26km was where we merged with HM runners, saw Sabrina and Sam running past us, followed by Angel and Audrey who were the HM 2-hour pacers, I ran ahead and ran together with them until the 29km water station before stopping to wait for VY.

30km done in 2:51:00, third 10km in 1:01:12, at this point we were running behind 4-hour pace, and I wasn’t harbouring any hope of doing a sub4 anymore, only for her to surprise me in the 32km where she suddenly sped up and ran a 5:15min km, fastest of the whole marathon, at first I wanted to control her pace but I thought it surely wouldn’t last long and wouldn’t have mattered much in the end because she pancit too early, so I just let it be and ran with her.

We managed to run below 6min pace until 37km. 36km was when we came into Pan and Rosaline who were there to cheer and support us, that was really nice. Grabbed a can of Coke from them and continued on. 38-42km were the painful bits for her as she really slowed down and struggled.

In the end we finished 41.71km in 4:02:10hrs, an average pace of 5:48min/km, extrapolated to 42.2km would make it 4:04:46hrs.

She still managed to get 7th in women open and 3rd Malaysian, and gave me one of the trophies as a reward lol. Got a pretty girlish pink finisher cap which is a first.

Picture with women of Malaysia Women Marathon (ignore the wrong date).

Died after a marathon as usual lol.

[thelazyenvironmentalist]

Baby, You Can Have Whatever You Like

... Unless it’s climate justice, or like, a nationwide federal tax on carbon... you can’t have that.  

T.I. would be so disappointed. 

I want you to think about all of the lovely, optimistic rhetoric vomited out by Trudeau and McKenna in December when the Paris Agreement was in development. Remember? all of the promises that our new INDCs were going to be soooooo much better than those published by the Harper principality?  Or that McKenna was going to take the rights of Indigenous peoples into account meaningfully (she has an Indigenous friend, you guys).  We were promised that a good plan was coming, we just had to “be patient”, “simmer down”, “give them time, they’re new!” (as though the Trudeau administration was a gaggle of puppies needing time to stop peeing allover the place). Hell, even Elizabeth May told us to be patient, said that anything was better than Harper, to wait and let Trudeau prove himself.  

Well, we did our waiting. 5 years of it! In Azkaban! 

Kidding, obvi not, but it fucking felt like it.  

To recap and explain, in December, Trudeau and his buds came to Paris and promised that they were going to develop new INDCs for the Paris Agreement, and make a shiny new climate plan for Canada... buuuuuut it wasn’t ready just yet, because they needed to consult with the Premiers.  

My response: Cool, okay... like, I get that... but like, don’t dawdle guys, because this sounds like a lame excuse, and I really expect better from you, okay? 

Trudeau/McKenna: fuck, chill out, we’re only waiting 90 days jeez.  

Keep in mind, the folks at the UN had wanted those new INDCs within 90 days... not anytime after 90 days. So, already, some people were getting skeptical, and a little worried.  The longer the premiers & feds waits to meet, the more distant Paris becomes, the less the general public is focused on climate issues.  

Fast forward back to this week: Wednesday, Trudeau meets with Indigenous leadership ahead of the Premier’s meeting to discuss climate change... and ends up leaving several key groups (ie.  Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, and the Native Women's Association of Canada) out of the room. So like, already, off to a rough start with the whole, reconciliation thing.  “But what about Indigenous representation within the Premiers’ meeting?!” you ask. Well, it should also be noted that although there is Indigenous representation within the Premier’s meeting by two of the Territorial leaders, those leaders seem to be more concerned with perpetuating resource exploitation and extraction in their provinces than anything else... so like... again... not great. 

Anyway, Thursday rolls around and one of the first updates we hear out of the CBC is that Trudeau is “fighting hard” for a federal carbon tax, but the Premiers are having none of it.  Does our white knight Justin stand steadfast and true in the name of Climate Justice? Of course not.  in the words of a CBC source, the federal government eventually decided “to put water in it’s wine” and cave to the provinces, allowing them to develop their own parameters around carbon taxation. I’m sorry- water... in wine?! fuck. that. shit. I don’t know who in the name of Gaia ordered the diluted merlot, but it sure as hell wasn’t me.  

Were there good things that came out of yesterday? Yes.  All of the Premiers met to talk with the Prime Minister for the first time in over a decade, and about Climate Change to boot, so yes, that’s a positive.  Another positive? All of the Premiers agreed that carbon taxes were a thing they would institute (except really Brad Wall, Premier of Saskatchewan but he can suck it because no one likes him anyway).  But I’m sorry, we need more than that at this point in the planetary game.  

We’re being told that working groups have been put in place to develop Canada’s plan for Green Development and Climate Change, and that those folks will report back in October 2016 with their findings, and it is from those findings that a plan will be drafted.  

a bit of simple math: 10 months =/= 90 days.  

So basically, Canada, we get to wait some more.  In this era of global crisis, when every day that we continue to extract and burn fossil fuels is one day closer to 2C, we have to wait for our Premiers and Prime Minister to develop a plan, and agree upon targets that science has already dictated.  We already know what these targets have to be. 

80%. Zero by 2050. 1.5C. These are non-negotiable.  These are not up for argument. We know our planet’s limits, they were some 50ppm ago.  And as for Canada’s INDCs? They remain unchanged- they are still Harper’s numbers, and with them, we are still headed, full-speed for a balmy 3.7C.  

Ain’t in a good day to be Canadian?