Malaysia Women Marathon 2014 - haze report

The FM gold finisher dog tag is damn nice! Next year FM it is! Any takers? =P 

Malaysia Women Marathon was the first run that I registered this year. It's a women only running event with exception if male runners wanted to join they can only joined as pacers for half and full marathon categories. With that said, my first problem was that I did not know any female friends that run half or full marathon distances. Rather than looking for one, I had to persuade runners and non runners alike to run their first HM. Most of my female friend runners were not ready to take on such distance, and for my non female friend runners, they just gave me the Death Stare. I never ask again...

Preparation

Luckily, Rayhan hit me back and was interested to run the HM category and wanted me to become her pacer. Her longest distance that she'd run was 8km but she was up the challenge. Gotta love that kind of spirit! My game plan in order to get her ready for the big day was to get as many mileage as possible from December till March and at the same time instilling proper running techniques during runs. We even put our pacer pacee partnership to the test at a 8km Milo Run held at Padang Merbok back in January. 

Race day

The weather for the pass month had been so dry with no rain resulting in peat fires throughout the country. With that said the infamous haze came and suffocated every outdoor lovers. Good news; the day before race day it rained heavily and rarely seen blue sky were visible. Bad news; unfortunately, the morning of race day the situation turned for the worst. I believed that the heavy rain from the day before had brought up all the smoke from peat fires. Although the air pollution index that morning stated that it was below 100 but that burning smell were very strong and can be clearly seen.   

As safety of runners are top priority, the organizers decided to changed the event into a non-competitive run where the cash prizes were donated to charities and the sponsorship prizes were converted into lucky draws. They still flagged off runners in their respective categories. Most that were there at the race venue went on and run, there were some who decided to go back to their cars, while others collected their finisher goodies and chilled at the race venue. I followed the latter. Rayhan wasn't into the idea of running in the hazy condition. I tried talking her into running the 10km category. She wasn't down either. Finally, she said yes to the 5km category and I'm back on my feet.     

5km category had the most joyful crowd. Everybody was smiling and enjoying each others company. Nobody took the distance seriously neither do I. Before we could reach the half way mark they already told us to cut across the route and turned back as the run has been cancelled. Apparently every categories were cut short. FM to 35km, HM to 18km, 10km to ??, and 5km to 4km (information based on runners I had asked in their respective categories).

Oh yeah, I ran in my mom's jammies or baju kelawar in support of event being a women marathon. Always love when runners are not wearing their usual running clothes and I decided to join in the fun. I got my critics but damn I think I pulled off. Till next time. Keep running =)

With Rayhan running towards the finishing line =)

[photos by Enaikay]

No haze can stop us from turning up =)

KLMBH #233 Kuang

Date: 23 February 2014

Distance: 26km (long ride)

Hares: Ying How, Mike Kwan, Rebecca Thomason, Ai Ling Kevin Vincent Phang, Albert Chua and Mark Lim

For this trip, I was joined by my friend, first timer hasher Zahid along with veteran hashers Johan and Jazlan. As we were cycling towards the bash tent for registration, everybody was already cycling the other way. ON ON!

As I brought someone new to the bash, I felt that it was my duty to make sure he survive the torture that bash ride could bring. I strongly advised him to bring two bottles of 1.5 liters drinking water and snacks for the ride which he reluctantly obliged. First, we were riding on tarmacs through industrial factories before we got into super dried palm oil estate. 30 minutes into the ride, we reached a crossroad where the long and short ride parted ways. By this time I already lost sight of Johan and Jazlan. 

After passing the first tunnel, we enjoyed a long downhill only to realized that there were no papers the entire way. We stopped after reaching the very bottom and made the cycled back up. Went back to the tunnel where 3 other riders were looking for paper trail. We looked everywhere but couldn't find it. Finally one of the rider decided to call the number behind the KLMBH tag. Someone picked up, got directions, and off we go. End up the paper trail continued before the tunnel and on towards the highway.

The Newbie

When I'm not riding, pushing, crossing rivers, peeing, vomiting, or dying...
I sit

After another hour of smooth rolling ride in the palm oil estate, we reached another crossroad whereby Reza was stationed to cut off any riders who would want to opt the chicken loop rather than towards the only major climb that the ride had to offer. After the ride I heard there was another cut off to another major climb where Ying How was stationed. So, we rode our bicycle up and pushed when our legs gave up. Then, we did some hiking down on the other side of the hill. After that, we reached a rubber estate area which I failed to conquer. So more hiking for me -_-"

Found out who had been holding the traffic up... MR. KELOLO 

How riders read this - "Danger to walk, safe to ride"

Reached back at the car after 3 hours of riding. Collected last year's KLMBH "Spiderman" jersey. Great job hares! It was a really enjoyable route. Good way to attract and motivate riders into riding bashes early in the year before the tough ones comes later.  

Newton Challenge 2013 - race report

So just like that 2013 came to an end. Newton Challenge had been my year end run for the past 3 years. It was held at Bandar Kinrara, Puchong. The weather that morning was perfect. It didn't rain the night before and it was a cool and dry morning. Left the house around 4.30 am. Arrived at the race venue with couple of minutes to spare before the flag off. Park my car inside the mosque parking area which is beside the race venue and quickly hustled my way towards the starting line. I was joined by Faiz who was doing his first 25km run cum half marathon distance. 

I thought I was still in bed dreaming when I saw a unicorn.
A girl in a unicorn suit and she did 25km. Kudos!

The 25km run was flagged off at 5.30 am. The route was the same as last year's. Bumped into a fellow triathlon friend Amir who is planning to join next year's Malaysia half and full Ironman. Chatted with him until we reach a surau at a nearby apartment complex around KM4 for our subuh prayer. After done with prayer, I continued running and there were only several runners spotted in sight. I liked it for change as it was way quieter and more peaceful compared to being in the middle of the pack with thousands of runners where it is hard to get a clear run ahead.

The 3:00 hour pacer

The climbs that this place is famous (that's why they called it Newton Challenge and not Newton Run) for has now turned into a joyful ride for me. The climbs uphill were not so bad now compared to what I had described 2 years back when I first started here. I'm still slow on the ascends but man do I love the descends that comes afterwards. Thank you strong knees!

Spotted several familiar faces along the way. There was Izzati who was also doing her first 25km run cum half marathon distance. Only drinking water was provided at all water stations. At about KM21 the 15km runners converged with the rest of the 25km runners to run the final stretch back towards the finish line. Crossed the finish line at 2:49'38"(official) and 2:35'17"(stopwatch: excluding prayer break). Collected my finisher medal. There was queue building up for at the watermelon booth, so I skipped that and went straight for the 100 plus booth. Chilled out at the finish line to cheer runners on and snapped few photos. Later I had breakfast at a Terengganu restaurant located inside the mosque premise where the rice for the nasi lemak was in green in color.

With Nasrul, Rifdi, Amir and Faiz after our run.
Thanks Amir and Faiz for bending down. Now I'm the tallest!

That is all from me for 2013. It's been an incredible ride. Alhamdullilah for the good health and friends I've made during the year. My highlight of the year got to be the Seremban Half Marathon where I clocked my first sub-2 hour half marathon. Plus that was the only run I ran outside of Selangor this year. I got one DNS which was the Penang Bridge Marathon. Last but not least, thank you all that have taken their time to read my blog. I appreciate it greatly. May 2014 be another great running adventure for all of us. Happy new year everybody  (=

Bash#231 Taman Wetland, Putrajaya

Date: 15 December 2013
Distance: 16km (short ride)
Hares: Geoff Foote, Mike Grover, Riza Shaharudin



My last bash was back in June and finally got the chance to ride the last bash of the year. I didn't have any time on my bike between that period. With that said, I was not "bash-fit". I always thought that it's going to be easy and relaxing. But the reality was, it's always hard. Even waking up on a Sunday morning was already a challenge for me.

This time around the bash was held at Taman Wetland, Putrajaya. Riding with Johan and took the truck out for the first time to carry our bikes. We got lost to find the place. We circled Persiaran Sultan Sallahudin Abdul Aziz Shah like three times. As we arrived at the bash site the ride had already started. We registered quickly and off we went.

At first, we were riding on pavement in Taman Wetland. It's good to get the legs warmed up when you got no time to do pre-stretching which nobody in the bash does anyway. Then we got onto the tracks in the area. Then there was a nice detour to Taman Saujana Hijau which is a well managed public park. Here I took lots of photos of the park when all of the sudden mother nature called, and that's the last thing you want when you're out riding. Good thing there was a public toilet on top of the hill. If it was one of the other bash rides, I would most probably gone Tarzan.

Scenic view at Taman Saujana Hijau

One of the many hurdles that day

So I was among the last riders if not the last one that made it out of the park. There was like no way I could catch up with the FRBs now. So I was riding alone until I reached a ditch. Here I managed to catch up with several riders and some riders caught up with me too. Then continued riding through a palm oil plantation. After all that, I thought the ride was about to end much to my delight. But then when I was riding into the MARDI gate entrance I saw Riza was waiting. He told me that I had just completed the short ride route and I still have half way to go to finish the long ride. It took me 2 hours to complete a simple 16KM short ride and I got another 16KM MARDI tracks which will just get harder from there on. So I decided to chicken out and returned back to the car knowing that I was already a bit worn out and my upset tummy wasn't helping at all.

Riza laying out what's to be expected ahead

Only managed to join 4 bash rides this year where I did only 2 long rides. Hopefully next year would be a better cycling year for me. Till then happy new year everybody!

2XU Compression Run - race report

I really like the 2xu race vest because it's in black(predominantly)! Rarely will you see running organizer donning the color black as their race vest. Last time was last year's Nike Run, and the design was ugly and the material was horrible. I like the 2xu vest so much that I wore it straight away after collecting it and put my Man Utd jersey away. Went about my day and had a quick workout session at Taman Tasik Shah Alam donning the new vest with pride. 

The run was held at Padang Merbok, and the flag off for the 15km category was at 6 a.m. It's been raining every evening since the monsoon season arrived. We were welcomed with more rain in the morning of the run. There was a slight delay on the flag off. At first, I thought the starting line was going to be along Jalan Parlimen where most 10k runs that I had joined always held at. However, for this run it was held behind Padang Merbok along a much narrowed Jalan Berjasa. 

THE CHALLENGE

One thing I know from running 10k runs that starts from Padang Merbok that there is going to be a lot of hills. There were two notable hills that stand out and makes you want to stop and walk. I would totally do exactly that if its a really long run to conserve energy, but given that this is a 15k short run, so I took up the challenge. I just slowly paced myself up those hills. Well most would struggled on the ascends, I on the other hand, struggled on the descends. Those steep downhills can really put your calf to work. As my footwear of choice for this run was Vibram FiveFingers, I could not descend as fast as I wanted to.

THE IDIOTS

As bad as the hills and the weather were, what ticked me off the most was irresponsible runners throwing cups and energy gels into the greens. Why the hell did you do that!! Bad enough that we are littering at every water stations(at least volunteers going to pick those empty cups up), and now you have to throw yours at the forest. Who's going to pick your shit up?? The monkeys!?!? STUPID!!! 

THE VIEW

With every climb, we were rewarded with awesome views of the KL skyline especially at the top of Bukit Tunku. Found out later that this hill is HAUNTED!!! This was where runners had to make a U-turn and run down the same road they ran up. I like the scene where descending runners gave words of encouragement and high fives to runners ascending. This was where I saw most of my friends.

Petronas Twin Towers on the horizon

The view of KL skyline from the top of Bukit Tunku 

Crossed the finish line at 1:36'43". I was surprised that it was a small scale event given that the brand sponsor was big. There were no other sponsors, so the likes of milo and other additional refreshments were not provided. Thus, leaving me to make an early exit as I was starting to get hungry.

BSN Putrajaya Night Marathon 2013 - half marathon race report

Since I started joining running events, I always envy runners who wear costumes or any sort of party props. It takes the mind off the distance that one must cover and put a smile on others. Besides that, it sends a message to others especially non runners, that running is fun. Since it was a night run, so I figured to get in the act, I bought a pack of glow sticks. Simple and nothing too dramatic, but just enough to join the party. This was my second time running in the half marathon category in the BSN Putrajaya Night Marathon. I didn't have a good outing last time around. Ended up in the medical tent after crossing the finish line. Thankfully this year I ended up at Dutch Lady chocolate milk booth. 

The venue of the race was at Precint 3, Putrajaya, where Istana Kehakiman being the backdrop of the start and finish line. Arrived at the venue a couple of minutes before 7 p.m and parked my car near Masjid Besi. The full marathon category was flagged off at 8 p.m and the half marathon category was flagged off at 8.20 p.m. Once I'm satisfied with the amount of glow sticks on me, I gave some to my friends and few that left to other runners at the starting line. 

The first 5KM was hard to run because you got too little space between you and the person running in front of you. It was a cool and breezy night due to heavy rain earlier in the evening. Plus, there was a short drizzle during the run. The route was the same as last year's. I stopped at the water station at around KM12 for a banana and another water station at KM16 for a refill in my water bottle. 

Crossed the finish line at 2:10'04". Again the elusive sub 2-hour eluded me. But this time around I was not so bumped out about it because I came into the run with the mindset to have fun. Sometimes you are so hooked on to the figures such as the pace you're at, distance covered, distance to go, personal best etc. You forgot the real reason why you run at the first place. You should just let it sink, from the pain and suffering to the freedom and joy that running gives you. People should take it easy and have fun. I suggest that everyone should try at least once to wear a costume or a party prop, because it's ten times more fun! 

Collected the finisher medal, refreshments, and finisher tee. I really like the color of the finisher tee for half marathon category. It's like this green slight blueish color. Can't say the same for the full marathon category finisher tee which is in pink. Guys, I feel your pain. It hurts more to wear pink than running 42KM right?! LOL Let's look at it in a different perspective where you guys are supporting Breast Cancer Awareness month.  

Finally, quick shout out to Mira and Haqim for completing their first 10k run. Always love to see new faces in the running scene. The excitement on their faces talking about their runs, reminds me of my first time running in a big running event. Great jobs guys and keep running!

Remember to have fun with your run =)