Monday, 23 October 2017

Notes from MPKj Half Marathon 2017

Date: 22 October 2017

Venue: Taman Tasik Cempaka, Bandar Baru Bangi



Making a comeback to a HM run after the injury. Two months break from HM runs did make me nervous again on how my body will respond to it.


Returned to a special event where I achieved something I thought was impossible in my HM adventure, the sub 2.
However, that is no longer my motivation now and to be here today is already an accomplishment due to the circumstances that I have dealing with for the last two months.
I would be lying if I am telling myself that I don't want to achieve it again but sometime I feel I need to be practical and realistic.
So, with far less than ideal conditions and preparation for MPKj HM 2017, I arrived today with different goals and not with the only the sub 2 goal in 2017.
My first goal is to gauge whether my ankle can take the HM distance or not after I completed the 15km Newton Challenge last weekend.
I have gained over 4kg from the run last year especially from the long rest due to my injury, that made my second goal is to see how much that added weight will affect my HM run performance.
Despite the extra kg is also from the muscles gained from my more frequent upper body workouts at gym since the fasting month this year, I am still keen to gauge the effects to my run.


THE PREPARATION

The build up to this event was just all my recovery runs from my injury from middle September and the longest distance was 16km during my LSD run on 18 Oct.
In all that runs, I was only able to stay at pace 6 average and struggled to stay at pace 5 compare to before I was struck by the injury. Also, due to the added weight to body.
So, I came to this event with a realistic plan which is to run an injury free and cramp free HM with the average pace target at pace 6.
I have also planned to try to push myself to maintain pace 5 for at least 10km and then to try to get the finish under 2 hrs 15 minutes. The sub 2 is totally impossible to achieve this time or anytime soon unless I truly workout on my speed again with this new weight.

I took 2 days break from running and just did 2 gym sessions for strength training and to keep muscles in the active mode.


Learning from the recent 15km and 16km runs, I decided to use two energy gel instead of one for my previous HM runs. I don't want to experience the running out of gas run again after the 10th km.
On Friday and Saturday, took the typical extra carbo in my meals and drank more water than usual. However, I might have more than needed when I attended the wedding reception on Saturday because meals available were so irresistible.


So, in general I was in a fairly good condition to start and finish a HM run again. The only question was how strong I could finish it with my current health, fitness and physical conditions after the injury scare. 
For this year I joined this event with my wife who ran in the 5km fun run with her friends.


We arrived at the venue at about 5.30 a.m. and straight away went to the temporary surau and waited for the Subuh prayer. After the prayer, I left my wife and went to the FO area to perform some warm up workouts. I decided to leave my phone at the luggage storage this time. It was just to reduce additional weight during the run because I have already about 4kg extra compare to the last year I came here.

I arrived at the FO area at about 6.00 a.m. Met my Anonymous Runners friends who arrived earlier Esther, Marzuki and Hakimi.

Then I did about 5 minutes dynamic workouts to warm up. Then I re-joined them waiting for the FO.





The route for this year is quite different than last year. There were no hilly routes to pass the UKM Campus but it was expected some roller coaster uphill and downhill stretches at Sg. Merab after the 3rd km and Section 3 Bandar Baru Bangi towards the last few km to the FL.
Some do complain about elevation at every event but when I signed up for HM and FM runs, that would not be something my concern too much. That is the challenge and just need to deal with it and if possible to enjoy it in the experience in the same time.


MY RUN

I started fairly smooth and easy but forgot to start my watch after few hundred metres.
The first 2km route was the same route as last year but after that we entered the new route towards Sg. Merab. Runners were welcomed with the first uphill and followed with more uphill and downhills after that until the 5th km plus.

Despite that, surprisingly I was still able to maintain at average pace 5 but close to pace 6 and maintained that until the 9th km.
However, my pace dropped to pace 6 after that. I did try to get back to pace 5 but just unable to do it. Then I realized that the energy and strength used to keep pace 5 at the earlier stage has started to give the impact on my run.
This was also the time again, the extra kg I gained need the extra strength and energy too if I truly want to run at the pace 5 that I was hoping to maintain for more km.
Then I just decided to run at the pace that I am comfortable with for the second half of the run. One more factor was about not to push myself too hard that may cause the return of the pain of my left ankle. I can wait for future runs to try to push further if possible.
So, after that I ran comfortably at pace 6 after that at flat stretches and dropped to pace 7 at uphill stretches for the remaining of the route.
With that strategy, I believed that I would be able to achieve my targeted time of sub 2:15.
As expected, the last 5 km of the route to the FL was another roller coaster stretches but with lesser elevation. At this stage I felt more relaxed and just continued with the same pace mix especially when my watch showed that I was pretty much within the targeted time to finish.





Photos by Fiz Zo


Along the last 2 km to the FL, I felt so happy and truly enjoyed my run the whole stretch. At this stage, the traffic has started becoming busy with vehicles. However, safety cones provided with crews and traffic policemen available helped runners to stay safe and guided accordingly.

Compare to last year where I rushed myself to the FL to achieve my sub 2 target, this year I just did my last few hundred metres sprinting just to enjoy crossing the FL again and to mark that with both hands raised in the air.
Also to mark my return to HM run and to make another confirmation that I have fully recovered from the injury.

My watch clocked 2 hrs 12 minutes excluding the few hundred metres that unrecorded after the FO. I achieved my goal of the average pace 6 on the return to HM.


After crossing the FL, I collected my medal and finisher tee. Then I looked for my wife to get my phone from her. In between I bumped into some regular friends at events and some who communicated regularly through the social media.


Then I gathered for a while with my buddies from Anonymous Runners and took group photos. Once I met my wife, we took more photos together and with some more friends before leaving the venue happily.
















THE EVENT

I have don't have much complain about the event because I had a pretty smooth sailing from the start until I left the venue. The traffic control was good, enough WS with needed supplies and the route itself was nice as well to me. Safety cones were provided for almost along the route for motorists to be alerted about runners. 

One more good thing was the interface between 21km and 10km runners was only in less than 2km which gave less disruption in traffic and mentally to a 21km runner like me. Pity to see one 10km male runner wrongly followed the 21km route at the U-turn and later ran back to the right route.
The setup and operations at the FL area was also well organised and managed.


The weather was also more challenging this time with the FO at 6.15 a.m. compare to 6.00 a.m. last year. This time, runners started to deal with hot sunlight earlier as well especially in the second half of the route.

So, MPKj HM will stay as one of my must join event in my running calendar next year.

FINAL NOTES

It is a very satisfying performance to me personally and on top of that, it was another pain free and cramp free run. My ankle did not give me any problem at all from the FO to the FL and until the time this note is being written.
I can conclude that with this HM finish, my left ankle has fully recovered 100%. It means, I can start to have my normal runs and to plan on how to regain the pre-injury performance if I want to. Alternatively, I can continue my running adventure to stay healthy and fit based on what I have comfortably achieved today.
Generally, I did enjoy my run and what made it more exciting and special is when some of FB friends recognised me and gave me some words encouragement while I was running.

Some also asked about the injury at my ankle whether it has fully recovered or not.
Yes...running does connecting us as one big family or community in many ways and I feel blessed to know so many great and nice people so far. 


And not to forget to all running photos captured by all dedicated and great photographers at the run today. You fired us up!



Until we meet again at Allianz Pacer Run on 29 Oct at NU Sentral KL


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