I'm truly humbled.
Yes.....my running ego is a little bruised but like everything else in life it will heal and soon I shall be a stronger and better (hopefully) runner because of today.
And these KRI running uncles weren't joking when they say this is a TRAIL run!!!
Cue the mud...the gravel.....40 degree incline climb.....trashed quads and knee joints......and a great view!!!
* My number. It follows alphabetical order....which was why I ended up with 001.
Today was the annual KRI run and for this year, they had a trail run in Bukit Kinding Resort.
Bukit Kinding is about 5-10 minutes further up from my hospital.
The club had been having trial runs for this route several times prior to the race.
I've been told to go a couple of times but I always managed to come up with some excuse, although at this point in time, I'm not too sure if my excuses were truth based or not.
Short term memory, y'see.
* I LOVE the Brooks shirt that was part of the race kit. The shirt that Wendy collected for me was Women's L size. I like the colour and material so much that on race day, I bought another one, in Men's S size!
The night before the race, I had a locum shift at the casualty clinic from 8pm until 12am.
And before my shift, I met up with Wendy (who collected my race kit...thanks!) and Keon for pseudo-carboloading.
And I had a mocha drink thinking I need something to keep me awake until midnight for work!
Big mistake.
I spent the whole night staring at the ceiling.
Probably only feel into some sort of slumber at 4.30am!!!!
(I'd know...I kept checking the time on my mobile and the last I checked was 4.30am!)
My mind was in full hyperactive mode.....like a Jack Russel Terrier puppy on crack!
I woke up at 6.30am (race being at 7.30am and the race site is 30 minutes from my place)...quickly showered, changed and sensing the time limitation I was facing, I decided to forgo breakfast and took a couple of swigs of isotonic drink and off I went!
* The start. I wonder who I have to suck up to, to get my "running picture" up on NEXT year's club running event's banner!!!
* The turn out wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The crowd was small compared to many of KL's running events......but I like the intimacy of small events like this!!! At least that way you can find your friends easily!
2nd Big Mistake.
Reached race site with 15 minutes to spare! *phew*
Met a couple of the KRI members whom I (sometimes) run Sunday's long run with.....
(Then again this race was full of KRI members......we support our own event!)
Then bump into Terrence and Gary (from Borneo International Marathon) with their mental asylum jokes.
(Outstation running uncles find that a certain young female doctor working in Malaysia's largest mental institution the most hilarious thing known to mankind!)
* Terrence and Gary....(Gary's wearing next week's Penang Bridge Marathon's event vest)
One of the running uncles (cue uncle Philip) said that it would be a flat 2km on road and then we will hit the off-road which is all the way up-hill for the first part and then down-hill subsequently.
Told me to take it easy and to save my energy for the hills.
And when we took off down the road for the first 2km, I went full force.......thinking I'd walk the hills and tried to save time by running faster initially.
* More random pictures taken before the start of race.
3rd Big Mistake.
(yes I know...today's just full of mistakes!)
They weren't joking when they say it's all hills.
IT WAS ALL HILLS!!!
And at such a steep incline!!!!
It was mental torture to see all those upward route winding around the hill right in front of me!
I had to walk.
Unfortunately, the combination of poor sleep, no breakfast and fast running first 2km....I was now struggling to even walk up the hill.
My heart was beating so fast and with such intensity that I could hear it through my chest wall (it felt that way....)
My head started to feel light and for a moment there I thought my vision was gonna go black and my GCS was gonna fall to 3 from a full 15!! (Glasgow Coma Scale....go google it!)
Suddenly I felt like it was difficult to suck in air into my lungs!
Honestly, I was panicking.
More runners are running/walking past me.
I try to keep walking.....
The route was still going uphill.
I try to keep going but the fear that I might black out was persistent.
I was thinking, "Shit....if I faint here...how the hell is the ambulance is ever gonna get to me?! I'm in the middle of NO-freakin-WHERE!!!"
I had to stop.
I stood still, closed my eyes and could hear many more people passing me.
Focus.....breathe......don't think of worst case scenarios....it ain't gonna help now!
I had to keep going.
One more steep hill. One step at a time. Don't faint!
I can't DNF!
I finally reach the top of that stupid hill where the first water station and first-aid station were.
I told the volunteers manning the area that I needed to sit and that I was gonna faint!
They brought me water and some lozenges (that was the only sugar they had)......and the first-aid people gave me some 'minyak-angin'.
Slowly my vision became clearer and the pounding against my chest-wall has resided into a quiet strumming.
I could breathe well.
Then I see Terrence walking up to the water station and I knew I wasn't the last person on the course!
(look....I can't help it.....I'm competitive!)
You have no idea how happy I was to see him!
* Wendy got 4th place!!!!
* Shanaz got 7th in her division. Oh and she's gonna attempt her first 42km in Singapore!
* Yen Erl and buddy!
* Winnie, whom I've met at Dim Sum back in Damansara Uptown
I felt better after that.
(Perhaps because I'm safely assured that I wasn't last and that I wasn't gonna DNF at that point)
I walked with Terrence up more hills and he was telling me his marathon-conquests from previous weeks with Mr. Marathon-maniac and gang!
I don't know how these people do it with their 'a-marathon-a-Sunday' regime......but I told myself I'm so gonna give it a try before I require Total Knee/Hip Replacement!!! (whichever comes first!)
Because of the rain the night before, the route was very muddy and slippery.
But it made the weather so lovely.....the mist hung low on the surrounding hill tops and there was a mild, cool breeze to aid the already depressing situation!
I wish I brought my camera along!
The view at the top was breath-taking!!
The route did flatten out eventually and that was when I started running again.
I ran all the downhills as well and at the remaining 2-3km, it was back on the road and I tried to catch up for lost time by running slightly faster.
I knew I wasn't gonna make it in respectable time but I didn't wanna walk back either.
I made the 11km in 1:43:31.
Yes.....slowest 11km EVER!!!!
And you know what....I'm actually ok with it.
I'm actually good with my timing. I'm not overtly depress like how I usually am after a crap race and I'd be moping around for the remaining of the day.
Yup.....some mental maturation has set in!
The race, however, did force me to to review my weaknesses and my racing state of mind.
I realized that my ego played a huge part in me not wanting to give up.
Sure it's a little affected by today's race but I am glad I didn't throw in the towel.
I also find that hills are a HUGE weakness of mine.
It has always been but today's race made it more apparent that I need to train on more hills.
Perhaps hill repeats.....(yuck!)
Yeah......I should also throw in a hill-hike every few days or so into my training to prevent another "catastrophe" like today.
* Teng and Keon at the finish line. Teng's not running due to knee injury!
So here's my lessons of the day:
1) never NOT sleep well the night before a race.
2) never drink CAFFEINE the night before a race......you're guaranteed insomnia and end up feeling like Tera Moody...except Tera Moody does well in races!! (Runner's World, September 2009)
3) no matter how late you wake up on race day morning.....please PLEASE eat something!!! 2 gulps of isotonic drinks just don't cut it. It may do fine for a daily 8-10km run on flat route but not a hilly race!
4) when running uncle tells you to go for trial run on race route.....JUST GO!!!
5) when running uncle tells you to hold back on the flat road prior to the shit hills......LISTEN TO RUNNING UNCLE!!!
6) get a pair of trail shoes....eventhough you only run trail races once in a blue moon....but there's no other excuse you can come up with to snag yourself a new pair of running shoes!
* This year's medal. Pretty cool huh!
* Only in Ipoh races, you'd get so much food in your goodie bag.
* I don't know who the genius is, but someone manage to get U-Mobile to be a sponsor and they were giving out extra freebies.....I even swag a new prepaid sim-card!!!
* The mud doesn't look very prominent in the picture but I swear, it was soaked with mud!!!!
Alright.....Penang Bridge (half) Marathon next weekend!
That...I'm looking forward to...at least to all the good food that I can get my hands on!!!
Regarding training....I'm not gonna do anything drastic or different until AFTER StandChart Singapore Marathon. So after the 42km in December, I'll really have to buck up and do hill repeats...(eek!)
See you guys in Penang next Sunday!!!
Later!!
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