MY NOTES FROM PAHANG INTERNATIONAL MARATHON 2017

EVENT: PAHANG INTERNATIONAL MARATHON 2017(PIM 2017)

DATE: 12 March 2017

Venue: Taman Gelora Kuantan

Promoted as the biggest marathon event in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

My Preparation

I have been struggled to accommodate between my very occupied week days and preparation for the race.My regular weekly night and morning runs for fitness building have also affected with the unpredictable rainy season.Only able to run about 20+km only after the SAHM on 26 Feb.

The last run in the week just  before the race was a 10km speed run as the fitness building before leaving for Kuantan on Saturday.

However, I have managed to do some HIIT,core and deadlift workouts at gym and home on some days that I could not run in the last 2 weeks.

Overall, my body was free from injury and I felt fairly relax as the event came closer.

The motivation and goals.

Sometime we need to experience the worst performance to bounce back with a proper preparation to regain the desired performance. This is what I have experienced between Shah Alam Half Marathon in the end of   Feb and PIM 2017.

By admitting my mistakes in the preparation for SAHM,personlly I felt more determined to regain my normal HM performance at PIM 2017. However, with the less than satisfied preparation, there were still some doubts in me to achieve my goals.

One thing that made feel a little bit better was about my weight.Managed bring back my weight from almost 70kg to 68kg within two weeks.I felt lighter and that was expected to help me to improve my run at PIM.

With my previous PB for HM is only at 1 hr 57 mins., I did not think to achieve the sub 2 is not truly as realistic target to achieve with the time I need to spend for Subuh prayer along the route as well since the FO was set at 5a.m for HM.When I did the PB, the FO was just after the Subuh prayer.So, I set my Nike+ Run Club(NRC) with the auto-pause setting to get my net time of my run which it will not record the time  when  I stop for my prayer and will resume when I start running again. 

My main goal at PIM was  definitely to have a better performance than at the SAHM and of course to stay injury free.In term of pace, I planned to stay at pace 6 throughout the 21km if possible with an attempt to be at pace 5 for at least the first 5km.

For this event, I decided to use my newly bought Brooks Launch 4 that I have used for the past one week before that.It seems Brooks Launch is the model that suit my foot type and running style the most.In tried to use Brooks Pure Flow 5 for my regular runs and some up to 15km distance since the last few months but it did not give the comfort that I have enjoyed from using Brooks Launch 3 about almost a year before I bought the Pure Flow model.

The trip to PIM.

Agreed with my running buddies from  Anonymous Runners to go together in one car. 5 of us, me Hussien Mullar Marzuki Khalid @ Juki  Mohd Yusnisan @ Isey and Ismail Razali @ Mael travelled together from KL and will be joined by Fad Ali and Amir Syahmi at Kuantan who went separately. 

The slow and steady ride from KL Sentral was filled with ikan patin tempoyak lunch at RnR Temerloh along LPT and then followed by the RPC at Zenith Hotel Kuantan.

The RPC

It was a very smooth since there was fairly little crowd when we arrived.The RPC was for three of us only and two of us have already received our race pack via courier.I used the opportunity to buy my stocks of energy gel and salt stick at the RPC venue.

Then we checked in at  the prebooked guest house and we were pleasantly surprised when saw that the guest house is located exactly at the famous Teluk Chempedak beach. After unloading our stuff from the car to the room, we had some nice evening meals for carboloading at the beach area.Then we went for a sight seeing along the beach and took some photos with the sunset scenery.

Then we decided to go to the event venue for us to confirm its location from the guesthouse. The venue is about 2+km from the house.When we reached there,we saw the the finishing arch was already but and few other runners and working crews were also there.Taman Gelora is basically a residential area an surrounded by a garden like facilities and environment with some eatery stalls.I was told by my friends that reviews by runners for 2016 were not that good about this event such as insuffient WS and etc.

However, all of us could only hope the organiser will make some improvement to make the event better for 2017.Then we returned to the guest house and had our last meal until about 10p.m before we slept at about 11+p.m.

Our final outing of the day before the run to enjoy our last meals or the so-called carbo-loading.

The race day.

We woke up at about 1a.m and left at about 1.40 a.m.

We arrived at  venue at about 2 a.m since two of us joined the FM(FO at 3a.m) and the rest joined the HM(FO at 5a.m).We were lucky to get a parking spot just nearby the FO area.We waited in the car to have some more rest and other two of us went to the FO area.From the car, we heard and saw the fairly lively sound and atmosphere at the FO area. 

While waiting at the car, I  bumped into Azian Baharuddin  and Zulhafizy Ahmad who were on their way to the FO area  to join the FM . I just wished them all good luck.

We saw the FM runners passed us from the car.

The the FM was flagged off sharp at 3a.m all of us waited runners for runners to pass the route in front of our car.I managed to record a short video when Hussien and Isey passed us.Then we had another rest in the car for about 1 hour before leaving for the FO area. There were not that many FM runners that I saw from the FO until they passed us.I estimated there were about few hundreds only.I was hoping to have more runners for the HM to make the run more interesting and lively to finish.

There were not many people when we arrived at the FO area.Here I met another very senior runner from north, brother Shahrizan Haris.We had a chat before  he noticed something was not right when we moved to FO arch to take some photos.He was curious and asked us why the FO off was so late.We told him that the FO would be at 5 a.m and that was still early.Then he realized that me and my friends would run a HM but he registered for a FM.We told him that the FO for FM was at 3 a.m and just happened at about 1 hour ago.He was totally shocked and speechless because he told us that he thought the FO for FM would be at 4a.m as informed by some of his friends too.

All of felt so sorry for him and just advised him to run a HM with us and notify the organiser about the misunderstanding about the FO time but he still wanted to run.Then we left him to calm down for him to make his decision about the run.

Before the HM FO, I was not sure whether he finally ran for FM or HM but I was truly felt pity for him although in the same time he is a very strong mentally.We have been connected through FB since last year and the first time I met him in-person was at the Twincity Marathon in January 2017.

After that we went to the stage area at the back of the FO area. We started to do some stretching to warm up ourselves. I heard a female voice called my name after that and wished me all the best while she passed me to the stage.I could not really  see and recognize her because that area was fairly not fully lighted but I guess could be someone I know from FB or other event that I ran before.(she was Farrh Fadir after she told be at my FB page after the I posted some photos after the event)There was a zumba session led by the organiser from the stage not long after that for HM runners to warm up about half and hour before the FO. 

I joined the zumba for few minutes before rushing back to the toilet to for the nature's call again.This was a typical pre-FO nervous feeling despite so many events that I have participated.

The emcee announced that all runners would have to move to the FO area just after I returned from the toilet. I joined the crowd a the fairly front lane of the area with Juki and Fad.Then I met Adzyan over there too.

Me, Fad,Juki and Adzyan with the crowd at the FO.

The FO was done on the dot at 5p.m. My start was pretty smooth and I have managed to find my way to isolate myself with the crowd after few hundreds meter from the FO.At the first km the NRC notified me that I was at slightly above 5mins/km and I stayed at that pace for the next few km which I thought was pretty fast to me.I tried not to be too overwhelmed by that pace because I need to complete at HM and not a 10km run. However I did feel pretty good and comfortable which I quickly thought it was a very good sign for me to have a good finish this time around.

The first few km was the route that we have to pass mostly housing and small and medium commercial areas. The traffic was fairly empty too and some of the areas were fairly dark for runners too.However, I felt alright because of the traffic which allow us to run quite comfortably without worrying so much about moving vehicles.Only one in a while there were few cars and bikes were passing us along the way and at some junctions and traffic lights.

The most convenient part was, the route was pretty flat at the early or quarter stage of the run  and I could not see any significant elevation that will often test all runners like in SAHM or Bukit Tunku in KL.

When I was still able to maintain my pace 5 until the  10th km at the time of about 54 minutes as notified by my NRC, I started to feel that I could get a good time for this run.I feel pumped by that since it was as good as my PB for 10km and I was doing it in the midst of my HM run!

After that 10th km I heard the Azan subuh after that and I started to figure out about where I should pray. From the route given, there should be a surau about 2-3 km after that.I saw the signage finally and it was not a temporary canopy or surau directed us to the mosque at the other side of the road. I saw it was quite a distance and time consuming for me to go there and return to continue my run and I decided to proceed further to pray at any petrol station as also indicated in the map. It was still early and I still enough time to perform the my Subuh prayer.At this stage my pace started to go down to pace 6  while looking for the stop. Not long after that I saw two petrol stations in front of me. Shell and next to it Petronas. 

I stopped my run at Shell and asked the attendance if they have a surau and the lady said no.Then I quickly run to the Petronas which is about  another 500 meter next door. Alhamdulillah, it has a nice and clean surau. I stopped and performed my prayer and later eased myself at the toilet  before continuing my run.I did not really monitor the total time that I stopped at both petrol stations but I assumed it was less than 10 minutes.

I believe my search and stops for the place to pray was between the 11km to 13km of the route. I felt really refreshed after the prayer and I bumped into Dak Aun just when I left the Petronas station to continue my run.He said he to run together with  me but after about 100-200 metres I started to distance myself in front of him with my pace. 

I was able to regain my pace 5 about 2-3 km after the prayer but I was not able to maintain the momentum beyond that. I thought of pushing it further because I do believe at that stage  a sub 2 still was a possibility.However, my pace just gradually reduced towards the last quarter of the run for no clearly reason.It could be because my mind was just prepared to have a better run than before and at that point I knew I have already done that.

There was at one junction at about 2/3 of the total distance where I saw we interfaced with the FM runners. Saw few of them running slowly and joined by fellow HM runners from that junction.

Not long after that, I passed one runner and he called my name.I looked at him and quickly I notice he was my running friend at FB as well, Kenneth Kuan. He was also running at his relaxed mode as what I saw him from my eyes.I wished him to finish strong and I continued with my run as we went into different route after that.

One of the fortunate part of the route was, HM runners did not have to  run with 10km runners for a long distance.We interfaced for about one plus km and then we were directed to different routes to towards the finish line.

I think I ran at a very relaxed mode at the last 3km of the run.At this point the the traffic started to become a little bit busy towards entering the Taman Gelora area again. From many sign boards that I saw along the route, I knew that we were running across  the Kuantan city but I was not that sure exactly how much of the total distance we were actually in the city. 

One of the key factors that I feel so good about this run was the weather of that day.It was so comfortable and I did not feel too hot and humid as I was expected.This due to the event and the route was not that far from the Teluk Chempedak beach  and the big river of Pahang can be seen clearly at one side of the city.

I entered the Taman Gelora towards the FL with a nice and easy pace because he space for runners started to become more limited on the road surface with vehicles parked at both sides of the fairly small two-way road crossing that area. One thing that I noticed very obviously was there was no sign of muscle cramp at all throughout the 21km since SAHM.It shows me that my body has already get used to the 21km distance after almost two years I have been running regularly.

At the 20th km my NRC notified my that I was still under the two hour mark although I knew it was not actually if I added the time used for my prayer. I just did my final sprint from about 200 metres from the FL to finish another nice and enjoyable HM run with another fairly strong finish.The moments when I raised my hands again when reaching the FL was still exciting as ever before because not all of us as human can run and finish a non-stop 21km distance.

Alhamdulillah. I have achieved my goal to get a better performance than my last run and with no injury or muscle problems at all. Once I passed the FL, I looked at my NRC to end the run.It was less than 21km recorded and my final time recorded was 1 hours 59 minutes.

Then I tried to get my breath to become easy again after that final sprint and then I asked one guy at the area to snap some photos of me to record that moments just after I finished my 8th HM event.

The walk after the FL to collect the medal and finisher tee

My official time is 2 hours 7 minutes including all my stops along the run. I did expect to have a better run from SAHM but did not expect to make it very close to sub 2 if I deducted the time for my stops when I was looking for to pray and performed my prayer itself. For the pace, I failed to maintain at least pace 6 throughout the 21km but I exceeded the total km with pace 5 from the planned at least 5km to 12km according to my NRC.

The official result.

The overall result by ranking for me this time...
Category: 21km (Men Open-44 years old and below)
Overall position: 140 out of 1249 runners.
Category Position: 115
Gender position: 127

It was a very satisfying performance for me with my ability to recover from the worst performance last month to be at my best again at my own definition. What I can learn from all this experience is on how to bounce back by keeping the discipline and commitment to move on although we have failed once or more.

I knew why I failed to get a good performance at SAHM but instead of using all that to justify my disappointing results, I used that as the basis to motivate me to stay focus to do better in the preparation before PIM and also during the run itself. Life is always like that. We can't get what we want all the time despite efforts that we have put in and experiences that we have.It's all about to deal with stuff that could bring us down or to challenge us.
In this case, I might have the perfect preparation before the event but I did better for some stuff that I took lightly before SAHM. I had about one month to prepare for SAHM with no events in the same period and realistically, I was supposed get better result but it did not happen that way. Now I realised that  I learned the lesson although unfortunately  have learned about it in a hard way.

After  the finish line

After I felt a little better upon reaching the FL, I walked to get my medal and the finisher tee from the crew. While I was drinking my water to get my throat wet again after getting my medal and my tee, one runner came to me and introduced himself as my FB  friend. Thanks Khairun Naji for recognising me and congratulation for your strong finish too!

Sharing my joy with the  crew members

With Khairun Naji

Not long after that I saw my friend Ismail Razali arrived from the finish line. I saw him coming towards me when I  called his name with a very happy face. He told me he did a new PB for his HM this time. Congrats Mael! With him, he introduced another runner who claimed has been following me about my running updates online. I was happy to see him finally in-person.

Mael with his medal and a new PB for HM

Then me and Mael went to have some more drinks and meals prepared at kiosks that were provided by the organiser at the finishing areas.After  that we  returned to the FL area to take some more photos while waiting for Juki, Fad, Isey and Hussien to arrive.
At the FL area I met Kar Wah and Kenneth who just finished their FM run. Then I saw another FB friend Ratu Ismail who was passing the area and finally met her in-person for the first time as well.I took a photo with each of them. Then I saw Mohd Natasya and called him to take a photo together as well.

This is another part that I like so much at every running event. It gives us an opportunity to know and get new friends and the best part is to meet some of your running friends who we have known them only from the social media platforms. In the same time we strengthen the friendship with existing friends by exchanging updates and progress of each other about running and other things in life.

With Ratu Ismail

With Mohd Natasya and Mael at the FL area

With the ultraman Kar Wah

With Kenneth Kuan

Abg Talib(my left) with his friend from JB

With Ayzan

With Capt. Nik Shukri

After a while I saw Isey and he was so happy to tell us the he managed to achieve his sub 4 for FM this time.We were happy for him too to hear that. Knowing Isey has been prepared and trained for that, it did come to surprise me at all and I do admire his commitment to achieve that.Congratulation Isey! Proud of your achievement  as a runner and as a good friend.Then we met Hussien who also finished strong with sub 5 performance.One that really inspired me this time was, Hussien's eldest brother  at the age of 60 who  came all the way from Tawau Sabah also ran a FM at PIM 2017 and his sons ran a HM and 10km.All of them also finished very strong.
And then we have to wait for another one runner who came together with us from KL, Juki.We were quite puzzled why he  was still not finished although Fad who had arrived told us that Juki was in front of him at some point.We tried to call him but he did not reply until we received text message from him to tell us that we was lost and already ran more than 21km  according to his GPS watch. Then we waited until he arrived.He told us upon his finish that he tookwro wrongly the route for 42km instead of the 21km route.However, we were glad that we finally finished the run under a "special" category 25km as a winner.Ha! ha! ha!Juki...Juki...without a drama, it is totally not you la! However, he finished the run without any dificulty and no ambulance was involved as well.

When all of us have finished, we took some more time to relax ,taking photos and chat among us and with other running friends in front of the main stage area.Glad to meet familiar faces again such as Abg Talib from JB, Capt Nik Shukri and other again.

After that we changed to wear the Anonymous Runners tee for a photo session before leaving the venue.We were lucky this time because Fad brought his complete photography set to take our photos.

We left the venue about 10 a.m something to return to the guest house to clean up because our trip to PIM still did not end at the FL and the event's venue.
What we brought back home from the venue were our personal running accomplishments and so much sweet memories to be remembered in times to come.

The last group photo at the venue.

The event

I think I am pretty grateful that the event was not organised the way we feared it would based on reviews from the last year's version. The water stations were plenty and I think it was  more than enough along the route.In fact it was provided for almost every 2km after the first one at about the 3rd km if I am not mistaken.

Overall, I would say it was fairly well organised  from the time I arrived at the venue until I left Taman Gelora. There was  sufficient traffic controls by its crews, RELA and traffic policemen along the route.

The common facilities and operations at the FO/FL and at the overall venue area were  fairly smooth and comfortable.

The route for HM is quite good and smooth for runners for runners to have a good run and performance.It is fairly flat surfaces with literally no truly areas that I can call uphill. The only elevations that runners have to deal with  were at overhead bridges or exit roads.

Things that I strongly believe they can  improve: for future events:

i) Mobile toilets

Something that obviously missed too was the unavailability of mobile toilets at the main venue and along the FM and HM routes.Really hope if they can look into this seriously since it is a basic need of runners at any event especially with the title international.At the main venue there was a long Q at the permanent  and limited toilets that already available there and along the routes runners had to look for facilities provided for public such as at petrol stations and mosques/surau.

ii)  To have signages for every km of the distance covered by runners, each WS and facilities provided at each WS/checkpoint.

iii) To have more light at each station/checkpoint because I could see some of them until  I was very  close to reach it during the dark hours in the early morning.There was also no clear signage to indicate the WS along the route.

iv)  To inform all runners and having sufficient signage about the presence of Medic team, their location and how they will be deployed if runners facing any difficulty along the  route. I was told by my friend that we waited for the medic team to treat his  cramped muscle but no one turning up.

v) Personnel/crews who manned the junctions or controlling the traffic at darker areas and spots should be provided with light beam and reflective gears and not just white gloves and shirts.This is to make them more visible to runners and also approaching vehicles.

My verdict?

I would return to PIM 2018 In sha Allah and hopefully I will run a FM.To recommend others to come? Yes, I will because what is interesting about PIM 2017 to me was not just the event itself but also what we can enjoy and experience at nearby areas as well such as Teluk Chempedak beach and Pahang River water front.

I think the event has lived up to my basic expectations for a running event and significantly improved from the last one.I believe with more positive comments for this year, the organiser can expect bigger number of runners for the next year's version.

.................................................................................................

Post-PIM activities

All of us were like hungry horses upon reaching the guesthouse from the PIM venue.It was still early at the beach area and  the only places that already opened were all the fast food outlets such as McD,Starbucks and Subway.Other stalls with Malaysian foods were still closed and we ended up to treat ourselves with fast foods only until our special lunch treatment by one of our good friends who is from Kuantan, brother Habib.

He has already prepared  ikan patin tempoyak at his parent's house for our lunch.

With Habid and his parent after all of us spoiled with patin masak tempoyak

 

Our last stop at Kuantan to end our PIM trip was at the Pahang River water front.
 

 

Thanks to PIM 2017 and also my family for being the strongest supporter of my running adventure so far.Not to forget to all my running friends too for giving more reasons and encouragement for me to continue running for my health and fitness.

Hope to see some of you at Alor Setar Half Marathon on 18 March.