Running Benchmark 2011

Time :

5-7km - 5:15/km

10-12km - 5:30/km

15km - 6:00/km

21km - 6:30/km

30km - 7:00/km ?

42km - 7:30/km ?

Merida Road Ride 93 Com 18

You are seeing this picture because I am celebrating my birthday this month, a new wish has been made, a new goal has been declared, a new gear is needed. LOL

Damage ? RM4,050, and still counting...

Official Apology Statement is out ....

What even happened has happened, the most important thing is no one was hurt, now we can only wait for the Sponsor and the Organizer to deliver their promise, that's all we want. Whether you want to clean your name by having another fully sponsored run ( that's enough hint I think...) and do it in excellence ( of course that will cost money, but what is few hundred thousand compared to reputation and branding ?), it is totally up to you now.

You can't change the past, but you can always start building a better future, better be early than late ( that's 2nd hint.)

Forerunner 210 or 310XT ?

I haven't decided . . . I am getting the 210 but 310XT fits my wrist better. . .

Epic Failure of 2011 Energizer Night Race at Sepang

I never thought I will ever have to write a blog to complaint but this epic event deserves a post in my blog to let others know how the excited supporters of 2010 ENR were disappointed by this run.

I remember when I registered for this run I highlighted about the goodie bags distribution issue last year where many runners had to queue for long time, NO response from the organizer. Then I suggested to have those reflective strips to be added on the black vest to increase visibility of the runners at night, NO response too. The organizer seems to enjoy what they were doing, they have the impression that this run will SELL anyway !!! It did. But now I wonder they can get 1000 runners for next event, if any.

The list of complaints for this event is so long that I need to keep it short :

1. Selling RM3 for a bottle of mineral water is daylight robbery.

2. RM10 parking fees without informing the runners.

3. Only 1 water station in the whole 5.5 km track.

4. Limited marshals on field.

5. No clear direction of where the starting point is.

6. Starting / Finishing line looks like a 1000 runners event to me.

7. NO WATER at the finishing line.

8. Goodie bags distribution station is refugee camp after tsunami hits Sepang.

9. No distance mark ( OK, I saw the 8.5 km and the "final 2 km" sign...)

10. Headlights distribution is much WORSE than last year, I wonder there was even any staff working.

11. Existing water station was too short/small to handle the crowd, I only took my 1st bottle of water ( yeah, I went straight to the boxes...) at 14th km...

12. Despite the venue is capable of hosting more than 10K ppl, there was no clear separation of 5.5 km / 11 km finisher goodie collection from the 21 km category.

and the list goes on when you read from the facebook pages :

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/BoycottEnergizerNightRace

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/EnergizerNightRaceMalaysia

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/Energizer2011

The damage is done, it is impossible for Energizer to calm everyone down, but an official apology via press and perhaps a refund or in kind will show their effort to rest the case, the longer they take, the worse it gets, people will REMEMBER for years and will NEVER participate any of the event major sponsored by Energizer or organized by Expose.com.my.

I would suggest :

1. Send out the goodie bags as promised, don't take too long.

2. Refund in kind : goods, cash vouchers, I don't care.

3. Have an official announcement to apologize, you already lose face, don't lose dignity.

4. Organize another run FULLY funded by Energizer (get another organizer pls) as an effort to get the runners back, make the run benefits the less fortunate community, you will need to spend a lot of money, but if money can save your ass, do it.

5. Learn from other run events if you ever want to do this again, take advice from runners themselves, we know what we NEED !!!

2XU Compression Run, Singapore

All I can say is : AWESOME RUN , well done 2XU !!! :D

World Kidney Day Run 2011

Bareno Run 2011

It's almost 6 months since my 1st serious practice in Sept 2010, so many runs have passed by with almost 500Km mileage done. Bareno is my 1st official half marathon, eventhough I did the Putrajaya Twilight 22Km but it wasn't an official one for me, it was more a trial run ( ya, end up walked 3km for the final 4km). But Twilight run gave me an idea on how I should pace myself to complete a half marathon, how I run 10-12km will not work for 21km coz I would have drained out all my energy by 17th-18th km.

For Bareno, luckily I managed to get a friend to pace me for the 1st 7km, he was a veteran that has completed full marathon before and he is not a fast runner, just nice for me to pace myself not to run too fast in early part of the run. Well, he is not the guy in this photo, this guy is another run buddy that I look forward to complete the race together but only saw him as the finishing line. :D

I brought 2 energy gel pack for this run, eventhough the advice from runners is not to try new things in any race, but I did it anyway. The 1st pack was an apple flavor gel, started to consume it at 8th km throughout the next 1km and 2nd pack was chocolate flavor which I had tried b4, that was consumed around 11th km. Surprisingly ( or regretfully ?), I skipped the energy gel provided by the organizer around 14th km.

Like Twilight run, my legs started to experience numbness at 18th km but the feeling was not that strong, at 19th km , my right thigh started to feel cramp that I had to give a few punches to keep it relaxed...lol!

I survived through the 19th km up hill and managed to give a push sprint towards the finishing line at 21th km. The result of 2:20 is not too bad eventhough my target for 21km this year is 2:10 or below, hopefully coming Standard Chart KL Marathon I will be able to reach that target. Energizer night race I shall try to push to 2:15.

In conclusion, Bareno is a nice run with plenty of carpark, nice breakfast provided after run and most importantly, a very nice blue finisher t-shirt that can wear for daily run or teh tarik session, :D

Lesson to take home, need to do more 15-18km practice to make sure I am gear up for a nice 21km finishing next time.

What's next ? Kidney Day run 5km which I shall try to attempt for a sprint to win top 5, hopefully no professional runner on this tiny event....lol

Nike+ SportWatch GPS

Finally the Nike Gadget that really fits what I need is been produced by Nike. I never like the Nike+ sensor coz it depends on how u calibrate it, calibration can go wrong as u check distance on google map or any other map tools can give u different distance. The sensor after calibrated sometimes doesn't detect my steps when I change my run steps differently, for example lighter foot step or even walking steps.

This new watch is going to solve my problem ( I know there are many other useful gadgets like Garmin, Sunnto, Polar etc out there.). As much as I can, I want to get rid of foot pod/sensor, GPS could be the best solution ( ya, iphone can solve that too..), you can bet that TomTom will do a good job for this new toy!

Price tag? no idea, it could be starting from RM599 to RM999, any price beyond that it's better to buy those brands mention above...

Launch date ? April 2011 in US and UK, Malaysian have to do the same thing we did with Ipad before it came to Malaysia...swim sea water... LOL!

https://www.nikemedia.com/en/category/nike_plus_sportwatch_gps/feature_archive/2011/1/

My 1st 30KM and a new cap

It's hard to believe that I end my 2010 with a 30KM draggy run with someone who has a goal of running 30KM. I thought I would only do my 1st 30KM sometime in mid of 2011. Anyhow, this 30KM was a tough one as I was not running at my pace but her pace, more strides at slower speed means more energy spent on stopping and launching the steps, I felt that I had completed a full marathon with the number of steps that I had made.

The run started at 530pm and ended at 1030pm, by the time we finished, I was half dead already, ya, 5hrs should be a full marathon running time not 30KM.

At the end, I paid the price of a painful left knee and 1600Kcal which I am not sure when and how much food I need to consume to get back...but I got a Adidas cap as a gift !!! Hahaha! exactly the one that I wanted to buy. :D Looks like my 2011 run will be fun with new shoes, new tight and new cap...

The 30Km was made possible by another 4 angels ( support team) who helped to cheer and most important, bought us the 100plus to drink...:D