My MAN UNITED CYCLORUN AND BEESTORM TRAIL RUN 2016

19-20 Nov 2016

Notes from the weekend...Completed short distance back to back runs over the weekend.

11+km morning run on Saturday at Putrajaya and followed by a 6km My Man United Cyclorun at Cyberjaya.Joined this event simply because I am the MUFC fan. Continued with the Beestorm Trail Run at Kepong Botanical Garden on Sunday morning.Registered for 9km but no explanation given by the organiser on why the actual distance was only 7+km.On Saturday night I attempted to run at pace 4 but only able to keep it for only 2km.Then I stayed the pace 5 for for the remaining 4+km to the FL.

Since it was merely a fun run, I thought trying to put up some speed would be a good opportunity to test myself a little bit.It was a very relax run and I finished the about 6.3km distance within about 34 mins according to my NRC.No placing for the run but important to mention here that the traffic control was very poor to me.I ran in the dark for about 2+km along the route and at one traffic light junction, I have to scream to the crew that I have passed to ask for the direction.There were 2 WS but a bottle of mineral water handed over to runners.How can I finish two bottles of mineral water in 6km run?Why not in a cup?Then there was totally no traffic control for the last 1.5km to the FL.I was running alone with moving cars on my side until I reached the entrance of Cyberjaya Lake Garden.

Iqbal and Shahrim

Ruzeian

Bumped into bro Ruziean, Mohamad Shahrim Ibrahim and Khairil Iqbal Mohd Noor just after I finished my run before leaving the event for the something urgent need to be attended.Whooaah!!! What a night run! I thought I can continue the momentum for Sunday morning although I went to sleep fairly late after the MU vs Arsenal and MC vs CP games.
However, the trail route gave me the true test of my knee and lower body strength starting from the first km.It came with the elevation after elevation until reaching the 4th km.Then I knew that I have no more extra energy to push myself harder and decided just to relax and enjoy the scenery along the route since that was my first time running there.

At the flag off

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Then, I continued with a fairly slower pace and thought of pushing a little bit with my regular sprint towards the finish line.Then when I was reaching the FL area,I thought runners will have to run another at least 2-3km loop to complete the 9km. I was pretty shocked when I reached there, the crew ticked my bib and asked me to collect the medal and drink and meal pack...what can I say then? I finished the 7+km run in about 43 minutes.

Met new running friends...Abang Mat at his 50s who came all the from Terengganu and was runningfairly fast too.Could not catch up with him after the 4th km.Then I had some chat with Cikgu Ikmal who I met at My10k@UPM early of the month but did not able to introduce each other and bro Tajul Ariffin Abdul Ghani who is also an ultrarunner wearing his vibram five fingers.

Not to forget my regular running friends bro Alzmers Khadre and Yusmadi who I could not catch up with them too this time around.Also bumped again into bro Ven Goh and Shiou Hwa Cho at the FL area.

Abang Mat from Terengganu

Yusmadi

Cikgu Ikmal

Shiou Hwa Cho

Ven Goh

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Interesting

Alzmer

New friends.Ikmal and Tajul

Congratulation to all runners in both events!Despite those hiccups, I believe the weekend was still productive for my health and fitness.

Lessons learned

1. Do not underestimate challenges in shorter distance runs.They can come from anything!
2. Must have enough sleep and rest for any future back to back attempt.
3. I need to have more workouts to strengthen my knee if I really want to improve my performance in trail runs.
After all I hope my runs over the weekend should be enough for my preparation of another HM run at Penang Bridge Int. Marathon on the next Sunday.

PUTTRAJAYA NIGHT MARATHON 2016

16 NOVEMBER 2016

My #putrajayanightmarathon2016 notes

Before the start

Forecasted some rain at the early part of the race with the FM FO at 8pm. Arrived early at about 5.45pm with my wife.

Anonymous Runners group arranged a pre race pot luck meals at Putrajaya Square next to Maybank.We enjoyed some light meals together while waiting for other friends to come.

Also bumped in a regular running friend at Putrajaya Pak Engku Raja there. Took some photos before the rain started slowly falling close to 7pm.

The flag off...

After the FM FO at about 8pm,I took some time waiting at our pot luck spot.Just did not want to get wet before the FO at 8.20pm.It was not a good decision because when I reached the FO area later,it was already crowded and I was sandwiched between thousands of runners about in the middle with my pacer friend Fyrus Azim.By this time the rain was getting lesser.

The run...

It took my about 1km to be able to break away from the packed crowd from the FO to get my normal rythm.Felt good when I still recorded pace 5 for the first 1km before I passed Razman Shah.My plan was to maintain the pace 5 at the longest distance possible and trying to beat the 2 hour again if possible.

It was a little bit unfortunate that my pacer suddenly had a stomach problem at about the 3-4km and I had to be on my own after than.The good thing was the route was getting dried again after 6-7km when no more rainwater falling.With my first night HM in July,experience did help me to feel more relax after that.Bumped into Mohd Azmi after who was on the mission to finish B2B FM from Jitra Marathon early in the morning. It was a little bit funny to too when I saw a runner with abib number A0001 but I said to him "Come on 1110!" when I was passing him.After few km I left my pacer,I knew I need to create my own motivation from within me to stay relax and to finish strong. Then I started to say something to other runners when they were passing me and vice versa.

"Come on brother! We can do this!"

"We have done half of it guys! Only half to go! Come on guys!"

Whenever I saw any runner started to walk or became slower, I gave a pat at their shoulders with few words to encourage them to keep up running.

Towards the last few km I screamed few times to encourage everyone to keep it up to stay strong.

"Come on guys! Let's finish strong!"

Yes! This time I was able to make my last 500m sprint and reached the finish line with both hands in the air to mark the finish of my 7th HM run! Thanks again for Vivian Wong for capturing that sprinting moments.

The performance...

Overall it was a satisfying run to me despite I have failed to beat the sub 2.Maintained the average pace 5 until the end with pace 5 for 16km and pace 6 for the rest.

2hr 3 minutes recorded by my NRC.Reduced by about 5 minutes from my first night HM run about 3 months ago.The elevation challenge for this route really gave different kind of tests this time.The preparation was not that ideal because I could only managed to run once within the week before due to busy working commitment but I could not ask for better result.

The best part of this run, I did not feel any discomfort at my lower mucles to my leg towards the end of the run as I have been feeling it in my previous HM runs.

Now I know that I need to work more on my speed in training runs if I really want to run in sub 2 consistently for HM distance.For the next PNM in 2017...I am thinking of taking a shot a FM...In sha Allah.

The route...

I was guilty of underestimating the challenges awaited me.It mainly due to I was expecting about the same thing due to my first night HM run there and my familiarity of Putrajaya area.

I knew I was wrong when we started to deal with one elevation after another throughout the route.Lesson learned in a hard way...Never expect the same challenge for every run althhough it is at the same place. However I felt pretty much allright when I was still capable of maintaining the average pace 5. Enough WS and crew to show the direction at each point and junction.Only for safety...some areas are pretty dark with no light at all where anything can strike runners or some other bad things can happen too.Definitely this need major improvement for the future.

For my running friends at PNM2016...

Congrats to all finishers...a finish is already a win for all of us.To my wife Wahyu Akmal Hussein...congrats for another 5km fun run finish with your running buddy at events now Raihana Habib. Thanks for patiently being there till the finish.

Well done to my pacer Fyrus! Despite the stomach problem, he also stopped to help a runner who had a problem and needed an attention somewhere along route.He continued his run after the medic team took over and finished the run fairly strong too.

Special congratulation to KU Wong and Syahmi Haziq for finishing your first ever HM strongly.Fadzil Yusoff...you are now a marathoner la bro! Salute!

To all AR members... Mohd Habib Fadhullah...well done for a new PB for FM.Mohd Yusnisan...still with sub 2 for your HM. Other strong finishers... Hussien Mullar Roszalee Othman Mohd Irwan Bin Ismail Tharmendren Mahadevan Mohd Rizwan Jamal HazraniHanafiah YanAleim Abdul Halim Ahmad Alif James Ijam, Aznizan Mohd Ali and others...

Till we meet again....next weekend...MU Cyclorun at Cyberjaya on Saturday nite and Beestorm trail at FRIM Kepong on Sunday morning....

Cheers!