Race report by the evil Nurotevil
On Saturday, I, Nurotevil, went for an easy 5k instead of the planned 8k. Total mileage for me up to that point- nearing 90k per week.
Anyway I have made fast friends out of the pacemaker gang and their friends. Justin agreed to loan me his car so that I could drive to Nilai. I also arranged to pick Chen up from Subang Parade at 4.45 am, and meet Jamie thereafter at Carrefour Bukit Jalil, around 5.10am. The drive took another 35 minutes or so, with Chen being a very good source of humour throughout. We arrived at our rendezvous point, the Nilai toll, around 5.45am, as planned. I saw that Petalingrunner’s car was already parked there, with the occupants being a mad fella 12_HOUR_RUN_UPDATE and Jason. No longer than 30 seconds elapsed when I looked at my rearview mirror and noticed at least 5 more cars parked behind Jamie’s. Looks like everyone’s pretty punctual! I got out of the car, and Jamie asked me to listen to the music he was playing in his car- it was “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from Guns N Roses. Good stuff! Brings back memories of my school days, especially in 1989 when I was 15 years old, and was head-banging to this song in the school bus.
Who were the occupants of the other cars- the pm gang- Ajeep, cm (the tireless psychotary who collected and was distributing our bibs- kudos to him!), Kelvin Ng, Vincent Wong, a father-son triathlon team (I dunno their names) and so forth. We then proceeded to pin our bibs on our vests, took a group photo (check that out in Jamie’s site), and off we went!
After parking our cars and handing in our cards, most of us were at the starting line. Not many were taking part in the half marathon. After clearing my bladder behind the shoplots I positioned myself with Ronnie near the front. Yuan Yufang was there. She looks so much better in person than in the photos. Maybe she’s just not very photogenic.
Race
The race started late at around 650am. Within a minute or so, we were greeted with a downhill. Pretty steep, I thought. I made a mental note of it because I suspected we would have to use this very slope again, this time in the opposite direction, on our way back. The pace was quite fast from the very beginning. Even in a half marathon, everyone started very quickly. I was with Ronnie somewhere around the upper quarter of the field, but I thought the pace was a little quick in the first 10 minutes because I was already breathing hard. But I settled down after that and was in cruise mode. Together we ran the first few ks of the race. About 2k from the first water station, 2 things happened- 1st being- we heard the huffing and puffing of someone who was rapidly gaining on us. When I turned around, he was running side by side with us. I notice that he was barefooted. Ronnie then greeted him “Uncle Tan, how are you?” 2nd thing that happened- Ronnie had to make a pit stop about 800 meters from the water station so it was me and Uncle Tan the barefoot runner running together. At the water station, I managed to overtake Uncle Tan (who stopped temporarily to take the drinks while I just continued) and made full use of the downward slope by surging, drinking and sponging myself at the same time. When I turned around at the bottom of the slope I was about 60 meters in front, while Ronnie was catching up about 100 meters behind.
The remainder of the undulating course took us through some pretty barren land, half completed houses and industrial areas. I had 3 people in sight ahead of me- a Chinese fella in a red vest, a Malay fella in a blue vest, and a tall Caucasian in a similar blue-yellow vest that I wore in the race. After chasing the Chinese fella for some 10 minutes, I passed him. He tried to counter surge when I passed him, but his resistance lasted 2-3 minutes, and he gave up after. It took me another 5 minutes of chasing the Malay fella and he offered no resistance when I passed him. Ronnie was about 70 meters behind then. I tried to chase down the Caucasian fella and got within 10 feet of him, but for some inexplicable reason, I held back because I was thinking about the finish that lay ahead and I thought that I would be able to catch him later in the race. I still held back when he surged (probably after hearing my footsteps or breathing) That turned out to be a tactical mistake on my part because he was too far ahead of me towards the last 6ks of the race and I could not catch up. Ronnie pulled up right next to me in the last 3ks or so and we were together side by side until the final and dreaded incline (which was a downward slope at the start of the race). I was tiring by then but just pushed myself to run strongly up the slope. I think that was the point when I overtook Ronnie. After the hill it was daylight for me when I saw the shoplots and I realized that we were nearing the end. I then put in a kick that took me past a few of the 10k runners and although I noticed Tey taking my photo, I was too focused on finishing. I completed the race in 1:27.29. I was very surprised by the time, and I concluded (as the rest of the pacemakers, and other runners did) that the course must have been short. I think it was probably 19k instead of 21k.
Ronnie came soon after, and the rest of the gang came in later. Most finished with what was perceived to be good times but we were pretty sure that the course was short.
After cheering on the rest who completed the race, we hung around for a while before heading to Bandar Baru Nilai for breakfast. It was me, Chen, Jamie, Ryan Teoh, Ronnie, Jason, Sim, Ajeep, Rohaizad and Jason who were there. The photos can be seen in Jamie’s website.
Our stomachs full from the breakfast, we went our separate ways. I dropped Chen at Subang Parade, went to Justin’s house which was nearby, and crashed. Even though he kicked me out the other day, I don’t care. I thought no one was at home at the time so I’ll sleep until they all come home and (perhaps) kick me out again.
It didn’t quite turn out that way! When I woke up, Justin’s mother had made some homemade teh tarik and served me some. Delicious! It rained in around 4pm until 6pm and I slept again. Great stuff!
I woke up at 6pm and decided that I needed another run. Why not? I wasn’t feeling sore or tired, so I laced up my shoes and ran around the MPSJ track. I ran at about 5:12 pace in a time of 52:02.
Went home, showered, had dinner and went to bed early. All in all, a satisfying day.
Anyway I have made fast friends out of the pacemaker gang and their friends. Justin agreed to loan me his car so that I could drive to Nilai. I also arranged to pick Chen up from Subang Parade at 4.45 am, and meet Jamie thereafter at Carrefour Bukit Jalil, around 5.10am. The drive took another 35 minutes or so, with Chen being a very good source of humour throughout. We arrived at our rendezvous point, the Nilai toll, around 5.45am, as planned. I saw that Petalingrunner’s car was already parked there, with the occupants being a mad fella 12_HOUR_RUN_UPDATE and Jason. No longer than 30 seconds elapsed when I looked at my rearview mirror and noticed at least 5 more cars parked behind Jamie’s. Looks like everyone’s pretty punctual! I got out of the car, and Jamie asked me to listen to the music he was playing in his car- it was “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from Guns N Roses. Good stuff! Brings back memories of my school days, especially in 1989 when I was 15 years old, and was head-banging to this song in the school bus.
Who were the occupants of the other cars- the pm gang- Ajeep, cm (the tireless psychotary who collected and was distributing our bibs- kudos to him!), Kelvin Ng, Vincent Wong, a father-son triathlon team (I dunno their names) and so forth. We then proceeded to pin our bibs on our vests, took a group photo (check that out in Jamie’s site), and off we went!
After parking our cars and handing in our cards, most of us were at the starting line. Not many were taking part in the half marathon. After clearing my bladder behind the shoplots I positioned myself with Ronnie near the front. Yuan Yufang was there. She looks so much better in person than in the photos. Maybe she’s just not very photogenic.
Race
The race started late at around 650am. Within a minute or so, we were greeted with a downhill. Pretty steep, I thought. I made a mental note of it because I suspected we would have to use this very slope again, this time in the opposite direction, on our way back. The pace was quite fast from the very beginning. Even in a half marathon, everyone started very quickly. I was with Ronnie somewhere around the upper quarter of the field, but I thought the pace was a little quick in the first 10 minutes because I was already breathing hard. But I settled down after that and was in cruise mode. Together we ran the first few ks of the race. About 2k from the first water station, 2 things happened- 1st being- we heard the huffing and puffing of someone who was rapidly gaining on us. When I turned around, he was running side by side with us. I notice that he was barefooted. Ronnie then greeted him “Uncle Tan, how are you?” 2nd thing that happened- Ronnie had to make a pit stop about 800 meters from the water station so it was me and Uncle Tan the barefoot runner running together. At the water station, I managed to overtake Uncle Tan (who stopped temporarily to take the drinks while I just continued) and made full use of the downward slope by surging, drinking and sponging myself at the same time. When I turned around at the bottom of the slope I was about 60 meters in front, while Ronnie was catching up about 100 meters behind.
The remainder of the undulating course took us through some pretty barren land, half completed houses and industrial areas. I had 3 people in sight ahead of me- a Chinese fella in a red vest, a Malay fella in a blue vest, and a tall Caucasian in a similar blue-yellow vest that I wore in the race. After chasing the Chinese fella for some 10 minutes, I passed him. He tried to counter surge when I passed him, but his resistance lasted 2-3 minutes, and he gave up after. It took me another 5 minutes of chasing the Malay fella and he offered no resistance when I passed him. Ronnie was about 70 meters behind then. I tried to chase down the Caucasian fella and got within 10 feet of him, but for some inexplicable reason, I held back because I was thinking about the finish that lay ahead and I thought that I would be able to catch him later in the race. I still held back when he surged (probably after hearing my footsteps or breathing) That turned out to be a tactical mistake on my part because he was too far ahead of me towards the last 6ks of the race and I could not catch up. Ronnie pulled up right next to me in the last 3ks or so and we were together side by side until the final and dreaded incline (which was a downward slope at the start of the race). I was tiring by then but just pushed myself to run strongly up the slope. I think that was the point when I overtook Ronnie. After the hill it was daylight for me when I saw the shoplots and I realized that we were nearing the end. I then put in a kick that took me past a few of the 10k runners and although I noticed Tey taking my photo, I was too focused on finishing. I completed the race in 1:27.29. I was very surprised by the time, and I concluded (as the rest of the pacemakers, and other runners did) that the course must have been short. I think it was probably 19k instead of 21k.
Ronnie came soon after, and the rest of the gang came in later. Most finished with what was perceived to be good times but we were pretty sure that the course was short.
After cheering on the rest who completed the race, we hung around for a while before heading to Bandar Baru Nilai for breakfast. It was me, Chen, Jamie, Ryan Teoh, Ronnie, Jason, Sim, Ajeep, Rohaizad and Jason who were there. The photos can be seen in Jamie’s website.
Our stomachs full from the breakfast, we went our separate ways. I dropped Chen at Subang Parade, went to Justin’s house which was nearby, and crashed. Even though he kicked me out the other day, I don’t care. I thought no one was at home at the time so I’ll sleep until they all come home and (perhaps) kick me out again.
It didn’t quite turn out that way! When I woke up, Justin’s mother had made some homemade teh tarik and served me some. Delicious! It rained in around 4pm until 6pm and I slept again. Great stuff!
I woke up at 6pm and decided that I needed another run. Why not? I wasn’t feeling sore or tired, so I laced up my shoes and ran around the MPSJ track. I ran at about 5:12 pace in a time of 52:02.
Went home, showered, had dinner and went to bed early. All in all, a satisfying day.
posted by pm19 at
1:56 pm
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