Went bed at 12.00 a.m. & woke up at 2.30 a.m. Didn't really sleep but was not too worried about it because I slept well the 2 nights b4. Had usual breakfast of toasted pita bread with garlic spread, ham (2 slices) & lettuce. Left home at 3.30 a.m. Got to Bkt Aman car park at around 4 a.m.
This is my 2nd marathon after PutraJ Nite in Jan 2010. Wasn't sure of target time to aim for but decided to be ambitious & followed the 4hr Pacers. Started to rain quite heavily b4 start of race.
Ran in the rain during 1st 10km. Followed pacer Hin Tong in 1st 10km. Then, another 4 hr pacer by the name Lau ran pass & I decided to follow him & ditched Hin Tong.
Then, found Lau a little too fast & was dropped. For almost 5-7k (i think), without a pacer & didn't fall back to Hin Tong. Then, found myself closing the gap with pacer Lau. Caught him at around the B. Bintang area (I think) and ran with him for at least 15km. Was comfortable with his pace & felt strong.
Also, bumped into Azwar in front of Pavillion (21km mark - 1:56:something). He wasn't in the run. Heard him shouting out my name from fall. Was very happy to see him. High fived & I think he was happy to see me too.
Was confident at that point to dip below 4hr when I got to the 30km mark (split 2:45:02). Still with Lau & were like pacing each other.
But things fell apart at 32km when my left calf started to pull. Had to let Lau go, cramps got worse & both calves were pulling. Dug deep & kept telling myself that I been thru' worse. My experience in running with cramps from races like Powerman & Desaru half IM was most helpful. The knowledge that if I kept going, the cramps would subside. The weather condition was also great - cool morning after an early shower, so unlike the hot sun at Putrajaya/ Lumut Powerman or Desaru.
The cramps subsided but I lost my running form and last 10km split was reduced to 1:02:03. At the 40km mark, my split was 3:47:05.
Was required to run at least 6 mins pace for a very tight sub-4 finishing. Pushed hard but couldn't really move any faster. The big crowd in last 1.5m (Jln R Laut/ Jln TAR) didn't help.
Didn't look at my watch in the last 2km & only realised I was to miss the sub-4 mark by mere seconds when I approached the finishing line. With about 50meters to go, I saw the timer at the finishing line ticked away (fast) at 3:59:40 something.
Crossed the line at 4:00:19 feeling dizzy (official time 4:00:10).
I gave everything I had in the last 10km & was near bonking. Felt better after drinking some 100Plus. Am happy with run - shaved 30 minutes off PutaJ Nite marathon (when I had better mileage while training for IM2010). With a little more experience & mileage in training, I am quite sure I am a sub-4 material.
1 comment:
very inspiring race report, sure will do sub4 next time :)
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