wil runs

I run because I have nbtd.

[wilruns]

Klang Bak Kut Teh Charity Run 2017 10km (11/6/17), PB

An unexpected PB, didn’t expect it given the 24km hill attack long run I did the day before plus the lack of sleep (total about 7 hours in the 2 nights before), in a race which I forgot I’ve signed up for.

Thanks to my girlfriend who registered me for this and encouraging me to go for it when I wasn’t feeling up for it, was feeling really tired from the lack of sleep plus long run the day before; fortunately didn’t feel too bad after 4 hours of sleep in the morning itself.

Glad to know my fitness is maintaining when my 10km PB pace improved from 4:08min/km to 4:06min/km. Garmin Fenix 5S recorded 9.83km in 40:20min, mapped it out myself to about 9.85km so I’ll take the distance as accurate. Race took place at Klang, apart from a slope in the 2nd km the route is generally flat.

Race

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1789746996

KM Splits: 3:51, 4:12, 4:04, 4:09, 4:12, 4:01, 4:14, 4:14, 4:12, 3:11 (830m, 3:50 pace)

During the race I didn’t think I would get a PB especially during 7-9km when I was clocking around 4:14min pace, but thanks to a fast 1st and final km when I caught up to Kenny Wong I managed to improve it by 20s. It was definitely a very hard effort and I’m happy to finish no.8 in men open and win a cute and unique claypot trophy.

Extrapolated my 10km time would be 41:00min, getting closer to the sub40 milestone, hopefully one day...

with the cute unique claypot trophy and the girlfriend 😊

[wilruns]

SCKLM 2017 (21/5/17)

Finally a sub3:30h done in Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon and an official sub3:30 in Malaysia, so considered a local PB for me.

SCKLM 2017 done in 3:29:28h in comparison to 3:30:58h in SCKLM 2016 and the haze cancellation in 2015.

While happy to have finally done it, I wasn’t pleased with my performance, was in no better form than last year’s SCKLM 2016, time was actually slower in the first half and comparable until 35km, the only crucial difference is CrampFix, a liquid drink that helped prevent cramp this round. I chanced upon it at SCKLM expo, it works the same way as Hotshot, where it gives a strong potent taste that stimulates the nervous system which supposedly stops or prevents cramp.

It is an expensive and awful-tasting solution (in both senses of the word). Got it at RM35 per bottle which only has 50ml, supposedly a small mouthful and swirling it should be enough to work, but what I did was I drank at 22km, 32km, 35km, and also the final 1km where I finished the bottle, I drank whenever I felt any sign of muscle weakness or cramp. It did work, I didn’t cramp, however I feel that it could only last for a while in preventing cramp from occurring, I could still feel my muscle giving the pre-cramping sensation after a while. Expensive but it’d be worth it if you’re pushing hard for your PB and cramp must be prevented at all cost, so I don’t see myself using it very much.

Otherwise this marathon has been a very routine affair, in fact it felt like a run-of-the-mill event in terms of anticipation and excitement for me, partly because I arrived pretty late and left very early after finishing, but mainly because I knew I couldn’t have done a very fast time, didn’t feel great in the two weeks leading up to this even though I just did a 10k PB not too long ago. As usual it is the most premier running event in Malaysia and the abundance of water stations is great.

Race

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1745051072

Splits:

10km - 47:36 20km - 1:35:45 (48:09) 30km - 2:25:23 (49:38) 40km - 3:18:12 (52:49) 42.2km - 3:29:28 (11:16)

First half was 1:41:24 and second half took 1:48:04. My run got progressively slower and faded majorly after 30km. The last few km was another battle of fighting for seconds and luckily I managed to speed up in the final km.

In comparison, my splits in SCKLM 2016 were faster in the first half and similar until 35km before the cramp:

10km - 46:45 20km - 1:34:19 (47:34) 30km - 2:25:30 (51:11) 40km - 3:19:23 (53:53) 42.2km - 3:30:58 (11:35)

This picture is so good that I bought it haha.

[wilruns]

Borneo International Marathon 2017 (7/5/17)

Another very last minute decision to run this and a very short touch and go trip, took the last MAS flight at 10pm+ with Angel after leaving a friend’s wedding halfway for the airport, arrived at Kota Kinabalu at 1am, took a cab to Pan’s place and straightaway prepared myself for the marathon which was starting at 3am.

Coming from Perlis Marathon a week ago I knew I shouldn’t aim anything high, not to mention not having any sleep before the marathon, even then I decided to run around 5min pace for as long as possible. Rested for two days after Perlis, then ran 13-15km from Wednesday to Friday just to stay on track for the 2k challenge.

Course was changed this year, instead of having the hilly UMS section at 18km it’s now moved to 29km.

Race

Like Perlis, without much surprise, died badly in this race. Maintained 5min pace only until 13km and slowed to 5-5:25 until 24km, blew up after the hilly section and was running 6:30-7min pace the last 6km.

Splits: 10km - 50:08 20km - 1:41:25 (51:17) 30km - 2:37:01 (55:36) 40km - 3:39:13 (1:02:12) 41.93km - 3:49:27 (10:14)

https://www.strava.com/activities/974151419

Tak laju tak apa, gaya mesti ada 😆. #UnderArmourMy

[wilruns]

Perlis Marathon 2017 (30/4/17)

https://www.strava.com/activities/963392683

Splits:

10km - 47:27 20km - 1:35:44 (48:17) 21.1km - 1:41:01 30km - 2:29:50 (54:06) 40km - 3:35:53 (1:06:03) 42.44km - 3:49:36 (13:43)

Second attempt on the flattest marathon course in Malaysia and I actually fared worse. Set out to run at 4:45-4:50min pace and felt super hard even in the first 5km, the very humid and warm weather definitely didn’t help, and the lesser water stations this round also didn’t (last year was every 2km, this time it seemed to be every 3km or so), in hindsight I should’ve obviously slowed down to a more comfortable pace but I didn’t, I wanted to push it through and see what happens, after 2 years I’m a little sick of no improvement, and also because there were so many people ahead at the start I thought there was no way a 3:30 finish could get no.15 the last podium position so I wanted to risk going fast at the start; turned out 3:30 was good enough to get no.15 😑😕, a lot of people blew up also it seems.

So I blew up badly, hung onto 4:50 pace until 21.1km and slowed down when I caught up to Tahira at 22km as I couldn’t sustain anymore and ran with her at 5-5:30min pace, and then blew up badly at 28km after stopping at a water station. First half took 1:41 and second half 2:08, finished together with Melissa who also had a bad race.

Pretty unhappy that I’m still not good enough for a sub3:30 in Malaysia, oh well, another day perhaps.

Wrote a long ass rambling joking km by km story on Facebook to vent and for fun: https://www.facebook.com/wilruns/posts/10100174456182392.

Running the first half together with Jensen Lee, a strong veteran runner who went on to finish in 3:29h.

[wilruns]

Route 68 Challenge (16/4/17)

What may seem crazy to some may just be normal to others, like deciding to join a 50km ultramarathon 2 days before the race, even a seasoned runner would tell you that’s kinda crazy, but that was what I did over the weekend of 16th April 2017. Granted one should only do this if one’s body is strong enough, and I’m glad my body held up ok for it.

Originally it was supposed to be Putrajaya HM Challenge on 16th April, but a last minute postponement by the organiser (reeks of CCC event) meant that Sunday was freed up, and being someone who needs external motivation to do long runs, and that Kartini was also joining the 50km last minute after the postponement which got me looking for a bib, and that organiser allowed name change, and that I got a bib last minute, meant running Route 68 Challenge 50km 😁😅. Also I was looking to break my highest ever weekly mileage, with 80km coming into this race, running it would make the week 130km.

I ran it last year after winning a free bib, and got 2nd place finishing in 4:49h (logged 49.3km) (report here), this round was more of a test on how my legs would hold up on this hilly 50km course compared to last year, where I had the cramping feeling the last 8km and had to slow down to avoid it. A recap on the course: 15km up and 10km down, then u-turn back 10km up and 15km down, making 50km, total elevation gain according to the more accurate Garmin Fenix watch is about 800m (unlike some maps or watches that show 1600m or more). 

I had more mileage and better training coming to this race compared to last year, so I thought sub-5hrs should be doable even if I took it as a long training run, the plan was to take it easy and not push hard from the start, and hoped that this would be enough to get me a podium 😁.

Race

Started with Angel who was gonna run 10km with me then u-turn back for a 20km LSD, we ran at 5:50-6:10min pace, I really took it easy and slowed down a couple of times to run with her. Quite a fair number of people ran ahead of us but I didn’t pay much attention, though I did wonder where Mark Williams and Karsten were since I didn’t see them at the start.

Wasn’t until 5km when Mark Williams overtook us, though still no sign of Karsten (turned out he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t start). Vincent, BJ, and Rooney were around and ran ahead. I started feeling like pooping...

Ran with Angel until the second water station at 10km and proceeded to use the mobile toilet, spent a good 4min there to do my business. Bid farewell to Angel who would run back and continued my journey alone.

Felt a little crappy about wasting 4min in the toilet and ran the 11th km faster. To my surprise at about 13-14km I caught up to BJ and Rooney, they must have taken it really easy. Started running together with them and the pace started to ramp up.

Hit the peak at 15km in 1:33:23h and started the 10km downhill portion. We stuck together and ran around 4:50-5:10min pace. Along the way met Tea Chua and Allan who were having their stroll back to the finish line in 84km category and they told us we were no.8, 9, and 10. I thought to myself there’s still a slight chance for top 5.

As we were running towards the u-turn point, saw the front guys running back and they were quite far ahead, however no.5 and no.6 weren’t too far ahead. I missed no.7 who turned out to be Vincent who was actually taking a break at the u-turn checkpoint. Reached there at 24.5km in around 2:21h, took a short break and took off before BJ and Rooney.

The return 10km uphill portion was run between 5:45-6:15 pace, where I passed no.6 and no.5, with the final 2km with the water station and the steepest part done in 8:41 and 7:30min, I don’t know if I was just mentally taking it easy or my body was that tired, but I couldn’t push myself to jog up.

Once past the peak, I started running down the final 15km. I felt ok and my legs felt ok, told myself it’d be good if I could run 5min pace the whole way back. 35-43km was done in 4:45-5:20min pace, and along the way I must’ve passed the no.5 runner without realising as there were other 84km runners. Faded after 43km and ran slower back to the finish line.

In the end I crossed the finish line at 48.3km in 4:37:49, average pace of 5:45min/km, and got a no.4 tag to my pleasant surprise. For some reason I logged 1km less than last year on the same course.

Postmortem

Looking back at last year’s log, I finished 12mins faster this year despite having a 4min toilet break, the primary difference being I had to slow down significantly last year in the final 10km to avoid cramping.

Peak (same point on map) 2016 - 15.45km: 1:29h 2017 - 15.23km: 1:34h U-turn point 2016 - 24.81km: 2:15h (2nd segment: 46min) 2017 - 24.48km: 2:21h (2nd segment: 47min) back to Peak 2016 - 34.02km: 3:17h (3rd segment: 62min) 2017 - 33.40km: 3:19h (3rd segment: 58min) Finish 2016 - 49.29km: 4:49:39h (4th segment: 1:32h) 2017 - 48.30km: 4:37:49h (4th segment: 1:18h)

https://www.strava.com/activities/540868933 (2016) https://www.strava.com/activities/944107969 (2017)

Comparing the two years above, my first halves were similar if I take away the 4min toilet break, but the second half really shows the difference, this year my legs were stronger and weren’t cramping, hence I was able to run 14mins faster in the final 15km downhill segment, I’m pretty pleased with that. Extrapolated this would be a 50km PB of 4:47:30 at 5:45min/km pace.

Thanks dear for accompanying me and waiting 😊.

[wilruns]

Serintin Charity Run 10km (22/4/17), PB

A happy day after a pleasant Route 68 Challenge 50km the previous week (which I haven’t finished writing about but couldn’t wait to write this first in excitement haha).

My previous 10km PB was 4:14min pace done 2 years ago, the closest one after that was a similar pace last year, after that no 10km race was done but I hadn’t improved anyway. This race was registered mainly to accompany my girlfriend and to try to get a top 10 trophy since there was no cash. Turned out there was cash prizes in the end and we got lucky heh.

After my Kyoto Marathon PB I knew I was at least back to the same fitness level as 2 years ago, thereafter the high mileage training at mostly easy pace (though not very consistent), coupled with b5b marathons, along with an extra 50km done, made me feel that my 10km time would at least match or beat my PB, even if no speed training was done.

So that was the plan coming to this race, to run at 4:12min pace throughout, and hopefully one day be able to run that pace for a FM.

Fell sick the day after Route 68 50k and did very little running up to this race (which meant I have a tough time catching up on the 2k challenge 😢) but probably helped prepare my legs better for this 10km. 

Race 

An out-and-back course, a little hilly but generally flat, 4.8km out and then a u-turn and 4.8km back (confirmed this by mapping out on top of GPS watch, ya I’m that kiasu lol), which meant you’d know exactly who's ahead of you.

A countdown followed by fireworks and off we went. It was the usual dash at the start and many people rushed ahead including Angel. I never like dashing off at the start and always try to settle into my target pace as soon as possible. I prefer to reel people in than be reeled in 😆.

After a while I passed Angel, looked at my watch and saw that we were going at below 4min pace. Told her the usual "need to be so fast at the start or not" remark before going ahead.

1st km done in 4:03min, felt ok and decided to maintain this pace, told myself it’s probably good to bank in some time for the 4:12min target pace. Ticked off each km one by one, 2nd km in 4:07, 3rd in 4:12 and 4th in 4:08. Along the way slowly overtook runners ahead of me.

One major problem of this race was there was no marshal or police at all the junctions and we had to fend for ourselves 😒, at least in the first half of the race.

As I was approaching the U-turn point, I could see the front runners coming back, quite a number of men in front of me but I counted that I was no.10 in men open. As I still felt strong I was optimistic that I could at least maintain this last podium position.

U-turned at 4.8km and maintained the pace back. On the way back I managed to overtake another 2 runners in the men open category. At 8km fatigue started to set in and I felt quite hard, slowed down and ran the 9th km in 4:17. As I ran towards the finish line I decided not to push all out and leave some room for improvement the next time 😁.

Crossed the finish line and stopped my watch at 9.59km and got a no.8 tag, I resumed my watch and walked to 9.60km just to make the figure look nicer lol, so all in all I completed 9.60km in 39:39min, an average pace of 4:08min/km (though Strava took the total elapsed time of 39:46min and screwed up the stats zz) and got an equivalent 10km personal best.

https://www.strava.com/activities/952255516 https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1690906392 (more accurate stats)

KM splits: 4:03, 4:07, 4:12, 4:08, 4:06, 4:01, 4:08, 4:08, 4:17, 2:30 (600m, 4:10 pace)

Postmortem

Quite happy that I managed to do a 10km PB (equivalent of 41:20min for 10km), though technically I should’ve done this 2 years ago based on McMillan, oh well hopefully I improve further.

Whereas for my girl Angel she injured her leg halfway but still managed to drag herself back as champion, proud of how tough she is but hope she recovers soon 😢.

With the podium running Tang sisters 😁.

[wilruns]

Iskandar Puteri Night Marathon 2017 ( 1 /4/17), super lucky again.

I did not expect to be lucky again so soon after Pahang Marathon (12/3/17), but the combination of having only one category that combines both men open and veteran, and having no separate Malaysian category means not a single local elite turned up for the full marathon, and I was lucky enough to finish no.6 in men open and won RM700. Prizes were for top 10 and somehow only 7 Kenyan men appeared and 2 were DQed, I was actually the first Malaysian finisher after the 5 Kenyans lol.

It was a super lucky day for my girlfriend Angel too, not a single Kenyan woman turned up and no other local elite too, and so she emerged as the champion in the full marathon women open category winning a nice trophy and cash, fulfilling her final running dream, woohoo happy for her! Especially after the bitter disappointment in Pahang and Sundown the week before which made this extra sweet, and gotta salute her for enduring her plantar injury and pain to finish this.

Prelude

The 5th and final marathon in my #projectb5b (5 FM in 5 weeks), did Sundown Marathon the previous week pacing Angel, it was a relatively slow pace finishing at 4:20h. I continued with my high mileage in the week leading to this IPNM2017, with most of it being at an easy pace, again the plan was to take these few weeks as high mileage base building training incorporating all the marathons. Learning from my MWM fiasco I took most of my miles easy and rested the day before the marathon, however I still targeted a sub3:30 taking it as a fast training long run.

Like Pahang I did not think about podiuming at all thinking all the Kenyans and local elites would sweep top 10. The thought changed as the race progressed.

Like its namesake, this marathon was held at Iskandar Puteri, a newly developed area beside Johor Bahru, wide open roads with little population make for a good marathon venue. The starting point Dataran Mahkota at Kota Iskandar, an equivalent of Putrajaya in Johor, is a nice public square with wide open space and scenic architectural landscape. A 8:50pm flag-off time means no issue with sleep either.

Race

The plan was to run at 4:55-4:58min pace throughout and hope not to cramp in the later stage, knowing from Miri that if I run faster the first half I would most probably cramp in the last 10km. So that’s how I started.

Plenty of U-turns in this route and it’s kinda undulating but not too bad. Shortly after race started I knew there wasn’t any local elite and only a few Asians in front of me plus a bunch of Kenyans.

At the first U-turn at 7km, I counted that I was no.16 with 7 Kenyans way ahead followed by no.8, 9 and 10 being quite far in front too. After the U-turn I slowly started overtaking runners but stuck to my target pace. By the second U-turn at 18km, I became no.11 but saw that the no.10 runner was about 800m ahead of me and thought to myself it was probably too far a gap to catch.

I ran on and reached the 21km mark in 1:43:14, average 4:55min pace which was dead on target. At this point a cyclist started following me, I wondered why but thought it was good to have some company. Didn’t think too much and continued running and started running into the half marathon and 10km crowd, as I continued on I heard the cyclist telling people I was no.10, this got me pretty excited. Subsequently a different cyclist started accompanying me and he told me I was no.9, turns out there are bicycle escorts for the top 10 runners. 

Hearing I was no.9 dawned on me this could be another super lucky day for me again, but at the same time my legs started feeling very weak and I knew I would most probably cramp if I continued at the same pace, while disappointed that even at this pace my legs still seemed to be crumbling, the excitement of potentially getting podium kept me going. I told myself it was more important to not cramp than to chase time at this point, and slowed to 5:15min pace from 30km onwards.

27km to 37km is an out and back portion of the route with a U-turn at 32km, a major part of this stretch is shared with the half marathoners too, along this way I counted the runners ahead; and it was easy to spot them among the half marathoners since all of the front runners had bicycle escorts; 6 Kenyans, a huge gap, and then 2 Asians which weren’t too far away from me. Someone must have DNFed and those 2 Asians seemed to be slowing down too. I started feeling very optimistic, while I slowed down I felt I could maintain all the way to the end as long as I didn’t cramp.

Started closing the gap after U-turning at 32km, saw Angel leading with a motorbike escort beside her and far ahead of the second female runner, felt really confident and happy for her that she would become champion.

Eventually overtook the no.8 runner who was walking at 34km, he was no.7 at the beginning and was far ahead of us, guess he bonked badly; and then caught onto the no.7 runner at 36km, he turned out to be Ben Swee, a Singaporean runner who’s also a FB friend, ran with him for a bit before continuing on.

Started feeling quite tired and slowed to 5:40 pace at 38km, but I knew at that point I would definitely be in top 10 because the rest of the runners have slowed down as well. Another U-turn at 39km before the final stretch back to the finish line.

Trod along the final few km and finally finished 42.98km in 3:39:09h with an average pace of 5:06min/km, about 800m over distance but I wouldn’t complain, and got no.6 in men open after another Kenyan was DQed, and I happened to be the first Malaysian. Another super lucky day indeed! 

https://www.strava.com/activities/923570913

10km - 49:21 20km - 1:38:20 (48:59) 30km - 2:28:24 (50:04) 40km - 3:22:37 (54:13) 42.98km - 3:39:09 (16:32)

Postmortem

Amidst the euphoria of getting super lucky again, I must not forget that I had to slow down after 30km even with a slower start, my legs are still too weak. The continued high mileage probably caused this unlike Pahang where I ran much less in the week before, I just hope this high mileage would help make me stronger.

Overall it was a well organised event with plenty of water stations and road signage and distance markers, suitable marathon venue too.

5 weeks gone and 5 FM’s done,  project b5b ended on a high 😄.

[wilruns]

Miri Marathon 2017 (19/3/17)

​The 3rd marathon in #projectb5b, 5th marathon of 2017, and 36th marathon in my lifetime; an inaugural marathon, different from the ATA-organised postponed Miri Marathon last year.

(Speaking of ATA, it’s amazing how the fat ass Kho Sze Min has such thick face and gall to screw up yet another few marathons: the twice-postponed ATA KL Marathon with the whole title sponsor pulling out snafu and the pathetically held ATA Kuching Marathon. Even more pathetic is how he has to repeatedly delete negative comments on his Facebook page and even patted himself on the back by showing “positive testimonials”. This dude is simply hopeless and incorrigible.)

Coming from the high in Pahang Marathon 2017 the week before, it seemed unlikely that my good fortune would continue. So far this year’s marathon performance has been a sinusoidal wave, from the Twincity low to Kyoto high to MWM low to Pahang high, it seemed like the next one would be a low, and low it was lol.

I had less pressure coming to this marathon after the Pahang high the week before, since I don’t particularly mind anymore if I don’t get podium, which to some would mean I’d take it easy and perhaps run easy. Instead, I decided to take the risk and run fast from the start, knowing I may crash and burn or cramp like a bitch in the end. I wanted to push and see what happens, so far running fast from the get go in Malaysia never ended well, and this time would be no different.

Only ran 7.7km in the week before and did PFC workout, gave my legs and body more rest. The route is relatively flat, except for that one steep hill which we have to pass twice at 26km and 34km after u-turning. They had a slogan for this marathon and it was “run like a beast, finish like a beauty”, someone commented “run like a beast, cramp like a bitch” lol, and it turned out to be freaking apt for me.

Race

Started at 4:40min/km pace and maintained it for the first half. First few km had the company of various people including one local woman which surprised me, thinking Angel has some tough competition. After a while people settled into their own paces and I started trailing this guy at a distance and slowly closed the gap.

I trailed and tagged along him the majority of the first half and he kept the pace and didn’t let me pass him. Turned out he was Tan Song Hua, a veteran who’s faster than me and whom I’ve seen at a few marathons. We ran around each other and together until the first half when we got back to the starting point at Miri Stadium before beginning the second half. He dropped back and then disappeared. Found out later on he had stomach trouble and had to find toilet.

Once I started running alone I slowed down slightly, also because I was getting a bit tired. Continued with 4:50-5min pace until the steep hill at 26km. After that the pace dropped further to 5-5:15min and had a U-turn at about 31km. I was in a pretty good position for top 10 Malaysian from what I could see and the runners behind were quite far back.

But disaster struck after the 34km uphill. I walked up to conserve energy and the moment I started running downhill I could feel my quads starting to cramp, “game over” I thought to myself. Had to start shuffling, jogging, mixed with pausing to stave off the cramps. This cramp sensation started spreading to other parts of my legs, my calves, feet etc. 

The rest of the 8km was pretty much just like that. 1 runner overtook me at 36km, then 3 others at around 38km. Tan Song Hua who disappeared reemerged to sayur me at 40km looking very strong. I knew by then my top 10 Malaysian position is out the window and I wouldn’t be lucky this round.

Ended up finishing 42.24km in 3:39:57, last 8.2km took me 54min 😭. Sure enough ended being 12th in men open and 12th in Malaysian men, perhaps if I ran the first half slower I might have gotten top 10 but it’d just be another sob cramp story this round, I just have to be stronger.

https://www.strava.com/activities/905366859

10km - 47:09 20km - 1:34:03 (46:54) 30km - 2:24:20 (50:17) 40km - 3:27:42 (1:03:22) 42.24km - 3:39:57 (12:15)

Postmortem

Legs still too weak, it’s been various times that running a 4:45min pace first half resulted in cramp the latter part of the marathon in warm climate, happened in Perlis, SCKLM. Just have to train harder and become stronger.

Happy for Angel to come in 3rd in Malaysian women and doing another sub4 ☺.

Ran like a beast the first 34km, cramped like a bitch the last 8km 😂😭.

Very nice medal, similar to Tokyo Marathon.

[wilruns]

Pahang International Marathon 2017 (12/3/17), lucky redemption.

What a redemption from the MWM fiasco last week. Run and race long enough and eventually you’ll come into a race where your lucky stars are aligned and this was what happened to me in Pahang International Marathon 2017.

After my botched pacer job where I failed to even do a sub4 the previous week, I came into this marathon just thinking to do a LSD and hoping to do a sub4, didn’t harbour much hope at all of doing a good time, let alone getting podium.

This was the 2nd marathon in my project b5b, with prizes only given to top 5 and only top 3 are given cash (internationals have separate categories), so I wasn’t thinking about winning anything at all and was only planning to push in Miri Marathon the following week where prizes are up to top 10.

But at the start line, after looking around, I didn’t see many local elites at all, so I thought maybe I’d push a little at the start and see how things are before slowing down.

In the week leading up to this marathon, I did one 10km recovery jog (7min) on Tuesday, another 10km easy run (6:30min pace) on Wednesday, had a PFC workout session on Thursday and then rested till race day. 100km plan was out the window and I gave my body more recovery time.

Race

Started the first 2km with 4:37min pace, apart from the front Kenyans, I saw a few locals ahead, maybe about 6-7, so I thought top 3 was out of question and didn’t think much about chasing podium anymore. Maintained 4:40 until 4km and then slowed down slightly. I contemplated slowing down to 5:30 pace but since I didn’t feel too bad decided to maintain between 4:50-5min pace, with the worry at the back of my mind that I might bonk hard later on.

I was disciplined in taking gels this round, took a gel at the start, then every 10km thereafter. Also carried my hydration belt with bottles of water mixed with electrolyte tablets which I won from MWM and drank bits throughout.

I managed to maintain 4:50-5min pace all the way until 32km before slightly slowing to 5:05min pace. Along the way I overtook a few local runners, and another one at 34km, I started wondering about the possibility of actually winning something. I started asking marshals and timekeepers along the way what position I was in, most couldn’t answer but one said I was number three, another said five, and another said seven. I think the number three was for locals, and the other numbers included the Kenyans. I started feeling pretty optimistic and hopeful that this could actually be my really really lucky day.

At the same time I also had a good chance to do a sub3:30h which i’ve never done before in Malaysia; while I slowed to 5:05-5:10 at that point, the buffer I built at the start was enough for sub3:30 provided I could maintain. But also at the same time I could feel my legs getting weak with possibilities of cramping. I looked behind a couple of times in the last 4km, saw no one, and told myself it’s more important to not cramp than to chase time at this point. I trod carefully yet could still maintain at about 5:10 pace. 

In the end it did indeed turn out to be my super lucky day, I got no.3 in Malaysian men open and won a trophy and RM500, I felt slightly embarrassed that my slow time could win no.3 yet super happy at the same time. I did 40.81km (1.4km under distance but I’m not really complaining lol) in 3:22:10h, average pace 4:57min/km, which is also a sub3:30h pace, extrapolated it would be about 3:29:10 for 42.2km, so this can also sorta be considered my Malaysia PB haha, what a double happiness.

https://www.strava.com/activities/896499676

10km - 48:06 20km - 1:37:13 (49:07) 30km - 2:26:57 (49:44) 40km - 3:18:00 (51:03) 40.81km - 3:22:05 (4:05)

Post-Mortem

More rest and recovery in the week before allowed me to perform decently unlike the MWM fiasco. The route was also relatively flat, much better compared to MWM. I’m so happy to have won no.3, a trophy and some cash, and am thankful to be so lucky that not many elites turned up. Now I can really take it easy in the rest of the marathons in my project b5b haha.

Also congrats to my girl Angel in getting no.3 in the half marathon women open category and Teck Wai in getting no.5 the last podium position.

[wilruns]

Malaysia Women Marathon (MWM) 2017 (5/3/17), failed pacer.

5 years out of 5 joining this marathon, where guys can only be pacers to the ladies. I joined this for nostalgic reasons and also for continuity, I think I will keep joining to be a lifetime participant lol.

Another extra incentive for joining this year was that the organiser (Karen) decided to give prizes to the top 5 Malaysian male pacers as well, I immediately thought man this was like designed to give me a prize lol, I’m a Malaysian, I’m a guy, and I’m just fast enough to pace some of the top local ladies but nowhere near fast enough to win among the men, so ini kalilah haha.

Angel was the obvious choice to pace, fast enough to win but not too fast for me to pace. Glad she said yes when I asked her last year, which made it even more special this year since she became my girlfriend 😁. Would’ve made for a nice sweet moment if we crossed the finish line together holding hands, unfortunately I failed ☹😌.

Coming from a Kyoto Marathon PB high 2 weeks ago, I decided to have a project b5b, where I run 5 marathons 5 weeks in a row starting from MWM with high mileage as training. It was gonna be MWM, Pahang, Miri, Sundown, and Iskandar Puteri. The plan was to run 100km per week including the marathon.

So in the week leading up to MWM, I ran an average of 10km per day. On Friday it rained and I felt good and ran a comfortably hard 10km averaging 4:28min pace, I felt very confident coming into MWM, little did I know disaster was waiting.

Race

Wasn’t a great start in the morning, had to use the toilet twice and stomach didn’t feel well, perhaps the food the day before ain’t liking my stomach. But it wasn’t too bad and I hoped it wouldn’t be a problem.

Decided to carry my hydration belt and decided not to take any gel in case it’d upset my stomach further, which probably contributed to my meltdown later on.

The race was at Shah Alam and the route runs through a highway loop twice. It was hilly as hell, 3 flyovers on the high way which you had to repeat 4 times coming back and forth.

We started off at 5:10 pace and maintained between that and 5:20. At 8km there was a mobile toilet, as my stomach didn’t feel well I decided to have a quick relief, luckily that only took me 30s but yet it was very taxing to catch up to Angel as she continued the pace. 

First u-turn at about 12km and we could see the ladies in front of us: some Kenyans and local women. I counted that Angel was about the 6th or 7th Asian so there’s a good chance to get top 5 Malaysian for her.

We maintained the pace until 17km when she started to slow a little and complained that it was her turn to have stomach problem, there was no mobile toilet in sight or nearby. Not long after that the 3:45h pacer together with 2 ladies and another male pacer overtook us. 

Angel couldn’t hold it in anymore and had to take a dump at 20km, we went to the grass area with trees by the roadside. This was when my role of a pacer came into great importance, I had bottles of water with me for her to clean herself 😁😂. Spent 3 minutes there before we continued on. Surprisingly no woman overtook her during this time.

Made a round trip at 21km and it was back to the highway. Our pace slowed to 5:30-5:40 and we maintained that and ran back to the same u-turn at around 30km, this time with the company of the half marathoners along the way. I had to use the toilet again at 34km and had to catch up to her again. I started feeling really tired and was getting worried that I may pancit and just hit the wall. 

Sure enough by the time we reached 36km and took a short break at the water station, I felt so tired that I told Angel to continue on without me. “Only 6km left, 3 loops at DPC, you can do this,” she said. So I tried to hang on, but after a few hundred metres, going up the highway flyover again, my body crumbled, I yelled to her to push on and started walking. 

It was the start of the torture of walking, sitting by the curb and dragging my feet again. Soon enough the 4-hour pacers passed me, including Karsten. I plodded along until about 38-39km and sat by the roadside again, body defeated. To my surprise Karsten appeared from the back again, this time without the pacer balloon. It seemed he’s having trouble too and cut off his 4:00h balloon. He called onto me and asked me to go together with him. I dragged my sorry ass up and started jogging with him.

In the end we finished together and I held his hand crossing the finish line instead of my girlfriend 😂😂😂. Did 42.12km in 4:07:54. Angel managed to hang in and finished in 3:53h and got no.5 in Malaysian, congrats! 😘😘 Sorry I failed my pacer job 😪.

While I failed I was still lucky enough to finish as the 4th fastest male pacer and got a prize lol, thanks Karen! (Apparently pacer didn’t have to finish together with pacee to get prizes haha, lucky me, you just can’t go faster than the pacee.)

https://www.strava.com/activities/887925950

10km - 52:48 20km - 1:48:49 (56:01) 30km - 2:44:12 (55:23) 40km - 3:55:25 (1:11:13) 42.12km - 4:07:54 (12:29)

Post-Mortem

I overestimated my ability, my body hasn’t recovered from Kyoto and the week of high mileage training stressed my body to break down in MWM. I don’t think the stomach problem caused much, but not taking any gel probably contributed to melting down also.

Leo Tan did 2:33h in a marathon and then 2:28h in Tokyo Marathon 2 weeks later breaking the Malaysian national record, I did 3:19h 2 weeks ago and 4:07h 2 weeks after lol 😂.

With the German tank Karsten where we both failed our pacer job 😂.

Sorry dear for failing my pacer job but at least we both got prizes haha.

[wilruns]

Kyoto Marathon 2017 (19/2/17) PB

Prelude

I booked the flights for this almost a year ago encompassing both this and Tokyo Marathon the week after, before either of them even held the lottery (both require lotteries to determine your participation), the flights were cheap then and the thinking was that I should be able to get a slot in at least one of them and in the worst case where I don’t get both, I would register for another marathon in Japan, and take this as a long holiday in Japan at the same time.

In the end I got Kyoto and not Tokyo, and decided to cut short my Japan trip as I couldn’t take too long a leave 😅 (had to buy a new return flight 😭, probably wiser next time to just wait for lottery result before buying flights).

Training

I had a big goal originally when I planned for this, perhaps a sub3:10 or even faster, but 2016 wasn’t good at all in improvement, I remained stagnant and even got slower through the year. Boils down to inconsistent training I guess, coupled with Project FMM2016 where I did like 15 marathons, and the TB which was diagnosed in October 2016 and requires a 6-month medication 😰, resulting in no improvement at all.

No proper training program was followed leading up to this marathon, had spurts of mileage in some weeks with pitifully low mileage in others. In between I did do a fairly decent Shenzhen Marathon (18/12/2016) in 3:28h which gave me a bit of confidence that I wouldn’t at least suck badly in this.

Having said that, I did target a PB even though I thought it would be quite miraculous if I could actually do it. The previous best was 3:19:44 in Melbourne Marathon 2015 (1.5 years ago 😢) with an average pace of 4:44min/km, so I set out to run slightly faster than that and hoped to hang on to it throughout.

Race

One big challenge of this marathon was the cold weather, it was 3°C at the start and would average 5°C throughout. I wore a base layer of the long sleeve Route68 finisher tee with another Nike running tee on top (thanks boss Sim!), normal running shorts, gloves, and the buff given by Kyoto Marathon. Prior to the start I covered myself in a disposable poncho along with heat packs to keep warm, which were discarded once the race began.

Fortunately it wasn’t windy and it was sunny at parts, so the temperature was manageable throughout the whole marathon.

The course was nice, it brought us through Kyoto passing some heritage landmarks and through some scenic views by the river with hills in the distance. The whole course was lined with people cheering for you from the beginning till the end, it was a nice and fun atmosphere to run in.

Elevation wise it was kind of challenging, the first 15km trended upwards with some undulation. My watch recorded a total elevation gain of 188m for the marathon and I thought the course was as hilly as SCHKM.

I started in the second pen after the elites, despite that the first km was still crowded and I could only do a 5:01min. The target pace was 4:40. Things got better after that and I ran faster to cover ground.

First 5km done in 23:25, average pace of 4:41. My GPS watch was slightly off from the 1st km marker onwards but remained consistent throughout. Knowing this is an AIMS certified event and how well organised the Japanese are, I trusted the markers and checkpoints entirely. 

I looked forward to the checkpoint every 5km as I knew Angel would be tracking me and that kept me motivated. 

The first 30km went on fine and I could maintain around the target pace of 4:40min/km. I think I felt slight discomfort in my legs making me worried about cramping but nothing bad happened. I started slowing slightly in 33km as I was feeling tired, but still felt manageable, I knew if I could maintain I could very well hit a PB. 

I felt optimistic right until I hit 34km when the first sign of real trouble came up, I felt a jolt in my leg and I knew I was about to cramp. I immediately slowed down to 5min pace and started praying that I wouldn’t cramp. 34-41km was pretty much prayer and survival mode, praying and adjusting to prevent the cramp sensation from turning into a full-blown cramp, which would turn a personal best race to a pretty bad race. At the same time I felt fatigued. During this 7km the buffer I built in the first 34km started slipping away.

By the time I hit 39km I was sort of giving up on PB, I couldn’t tell how much buffer I had left, I knew it was down to seconds but my watch only showed the hour and minutes and not seconds so I didn’t know exactly how much. At that point I couldn’t go any faster with the cramp monster lurking around. I continued on until I hit the marker that said 1km left, I looked at my watch and that’s exactly when it turned to 3:15 from 3:14, I knew I had under 4:44min left to run the final km to hit my PB. 

I increased my pace and kept praying, hoping that the cramp monster would be kept at bay, I kept running and kept hoping. Thankfully it never flared up. 

In the end I crossed the finish line in a net time of 3:19:35h, a 9s PB. I am happy and grateful 😊.

Postmortem

A well organised marathon as is typical of any Japan marathon I guess, also expensive as is typical too lol. Good experience.

Fitness wise, at least I know now I’m back to where I was 1.5 years ago. Time for some consistent training and hopefully I will improve.

https://www.strava.com/activities/871493250

with FNF kakis

right after crossing finish line with Angel, thanks for waiting for me in the cold, was really happy to see you at the finish line 😊😘. sorry for making you wait further in the cold after 😅

nice instant personalised certificate given together with the exquisite medal

official certificate

[wilruns]

Marathoning in 2016

https://www.facebook.com/notes/william-lim-t-h/marathoning-in-2016/10154038274846109

A recap and highlights of all my marathons in 2016. Altogether 15 of them.

[wilruns]

Perlis Marathon (29/5/2016)

3 months later... and it is here.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/william-lim-t-h/perlis-marathon-2016/10153752360711109

[wilruns]

SCKLM 2016 (7/8/2016)

https://www.facebook.com/notes/william-lim-t-h/scklm-2016/10153747291011109

Wrote this on Facebook as I plan to migrate away from tumblr to wordpress but as usual haven’t found the time to do it.

[wilruns]

Running Kaki Watermelon Relay (22/5/2016)

Pretty much summed up by this Facebook album:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.965610473892.1073741838.218102401&type=1&l=8c9e54e4b2

https://www.strava.com/activities/583718761

It’s amazing how much slower I ran with that watermelon in my hands, 1st km 4min, 2nd 4:36 and 3rd 4:51... average 4:31 which is the same pace as I did for Nilai HM, a 21km race... lol... 

[wilruns]

Nilai HM (15/5/2016) and Miri Marathon postponed…

Signed up for this when Miri Marathon was postponed from 15/5/2016 to 31/7/2016 with the lamest excuses given, I’m very sure the truth is there simply wasn’t enough runners for it and the stupid organiser Kho Sze Min who already has very bad reputation from the Bintulu Marathon fiasco last year has once again shown his incompetence by postponing this last minute, earning the ire of runners who’ve registered and purchased flights / accommodation for it, including me. However I was actually also happy that it’s postponed, as I had an important function to attend on Saturday evening and going for it would make it really rushed.

So Nilai HM it was. Mainly because podium with cash prizes was top 15 and I stood a chance.

It was a rather small crowd, however plenty of fast runners and some Kenyans due to the prizes, fortunately non-Malaysians were in different categories 😆. Started pretty fast together with Chooi Fern, first 4km was between 4:10-4:20 pace before the hilly route started to slow us down.

10km - 43:44min 20km - 1:30:21hrs (2nd 10km - 46:37)

Slowed down significantly in the second half, as slow as 5min at 18th km, pancit basically, plus the route was undulating.

In the end finished 21.31km in 1:36:10hrs, average pace of 4:31min/km, not good but not too shabby either. Managed to clinch no.15, the last podium spot 😅.

https://www.strava.com/activities/576265192

running with Chooi Fern at the beginning as usual

with the funny position papers given after race

men open no.15 woohoo!

[wilruns]

Larian Bersama Bomba (7/5/2016)

Literally signed up for this race last minute, paid and got my bib at 7:29am (thanks Angelane for lending me RM50 😄) and rushed to the start line when the race has begun.

Caught up to Angel shortly and paced her the whole way. We started from Dataran Merdeka, ran through Bukit Tunku and came back through Jalan Duta. Man it was quite hilly. At certain points I wanted to take a break and give up, guess my body was still tired from BIM and the mountain climb the preceding week, but my ego told me to hang on as I could not lose to Angel hahahah.

In the end completed 10.54km in 50:58min with an average pace of 4:50min/km.

https://www.strava.com/activities/567817809