Hong Kong Marathon 2014 - PB with injury

Just about a year ago I was told SCHKM has much better temperature and route to do a PB when I was battling single digit temperature in Tokyo marathon. So, I make HK marathon my plan for 2014.

Arriving in HK with cold weather gave me the feeling of Tokyo marathon again, suddenly all the freezing shivering moments in Tokyo haunted my mind, half the battle lost dy coz psychologically already surrender to the weather. Long story cut short, came Sunday morning, woke up 4:30am on race day, made my usual enercal+milo mix drink, wrapped myself in long sleeve long pant 2XU compression plus a light jacket from uniqlo, add on a buff to prevent cold air that may cause running nose and kept light gloves in the pocket. Went down from hotel at 5am and met up with the gang (K1, Jimmy, Wayne) to do baggage deposit then hide at one corner from occasional cold wind.

After some stretches I realized the temperature was bearable compared to 1-2 days ago and definitely can tell I don't need the gloves, possibly can go without d jacket too. the temperature was surprisingly bearable and after dropping baggage and taken some walking, I was confident that I could take out the thin jacket and go ahead with the 2 layers clothes: 2XU long compression top and LYNR 2nd skin shirt. So I went back up to hotel room and leave my jacket behind. Since the Half marathon just flagged off at 5:30am, I decided to take that risk to keep the jacket and gloves in the hotel room, and informed my roommate that she may choose to run without the legging, lol!

Came down and immediately felt the coldness but bearable, occasional wind blow didn't make me shiver, but I have some reservation about the weather as we are running pass and return at bridges, the temperate can go very low when wind is strong, but what the heck, I already aim for a comfortable timing, it can't get any worse than Tokyo where I can't feel my toes for 5KM!

I won't say the temperature is still good, it was still pretty cold than expected but standing in the crowd with less wind, it was bearable. The question I asked myself was: what PB timing should I aim for? From Singapore marathon last year I was pretty sure I can do 3:55 at minimum, considering cold weather that was bearable, a 3:45 should be reasonable, my biggest worry was on the back injury from car accident just 1 month ago, which was d reason I have to forgo most of d training, any effort to push harder will cause pain somewhere below my right shoulder blade and spread over to the center between both left and right shoulder blades, that's 1st adversity. Having clocked 1/4 of targeted mileage with no LSD, my 2nd worry was on the legs may not be able to sustain long distance run without cramp or numb.

After some chit chat, selfie group photo, discovered my Garmin Fenix lost the signal when I went back to hotel room and followed by drama at the starting line, the Full marathon challenge group finally flagged off at around 6:15am. I didn't have a strict target pace to go, just thought as long as I keep K1 in sight until he disappeared will decide from there. 1st few km was not too bad, Garmin Fenix picked up the satellite signal after about 1km, and I know it will adjust the timing to distance by itself. After taking a quick pee at around KM6/7, I thought may be I can try to pick up the pace since there was no pain. Yes there was no pain, but may be due to lack of active training since CNY, I was like stepping on fuel but the car was moving at speed limiter, something wasn't right but I didn't want to attempt to floor the pedal to increase the pace further, just maintain the pace will do, which was around 5min/km+-.

Suddenly K1 caught up with me at KM9 before entering 1st tunnel (his peeing pit stop slower than me I guess), and at 10KM we were doing around 51mins, already off pace for 3:30 target, together we ran into the tunnel and felt the 1st wave of chill coming out from it at around 11/12KM. I started to feel my pace can't increase any further like any race, K1 seem to have warmed up enough to increase his pace. After seeing Michael Wong already at return route at the bridge (KM16+-) while we were at KM14, K1 slowly pulling away from me and disappeared in the sea of runners, ya that's about time to pick up pace to be on track for 3:30 target. My back started to feel some signals of aching right below the right shoulder blade, the 1st worry came true, I check my watch, I accidentally push beyond 5mins pace and force hard on the body, needed to keep the pace slower again. U-turning at KM15, K1 was about 150m ahead of me and here I started to get busy because this was when I get to kill time and shift focus from running to checking out how were the rest of the Malaysian runners doing.

Saw CK Chong just a few hundred meters behind, he should be able to catch up with me if my pace need to drop, then saw Zhen Qi Loy about 8mins behind. After crossing KM17 before the sharp turning to the left, I saw Tea Chua, his category flagged off at 6:40am, seeing him at the opposite means he was doing quite a good pace, possibly a 50mins 10KM.

After turning left and crossing KM18 mark, I saw Michael Wong again on return route, he had passed the half way mark, meaning to say he was doing a 1:30+- half marathon, which was very good pace. At this point, I did a rough calculation, I probably would have PB my FM half way point at around 1:45, not bad given my worsening condition. Soon enough, I made a U-turn after KM20 and K1 was just a few hundred meters ahead of me, can tell that he would be pulling away from me further and faster coz I was already slowing down, my target time for 21KM adjusted to be at 1:47, still PB for a FM half way mark, :)

Crossing the 21KM at 1:46, I was happy with this timing dy, although this is on track for a 3:35 finishing, but I can tell the back ache will start disturbing me soon. Hitting another tunnel around 24KM, I took sometime to rest and had a drink at the water station, a shadow came from behind and joined me for my tunnel run, it was K1, he suffered cramp after halfway mark and rested awhile. 

Tiredness started to kick in just before leaving the tunnel and my backache hit me, I decided to take a walk from here and only resume running exiting the tunnel around KM25/26, cruise for another few KM, at the bridge someone overtook me, he was wearing Permaisuri green vest, going at very steady pace, looks like he will be able to do at least a 3:35 FM with this condition, after 3-4KM, he disappeared from my sight. There came another tunnel around KM33, took another walk in the tunnel to rest my back, seemed to be the longest walk ever, probably about 6-7mins including some stretching to relax the muscles to prevent cramp (since already walking, might as well do all d stretching I needed, lol!).

Exiting the final tunnel, I remember there should be another small hill before entering the city for final stretch, saw K1 walking again around KM36/37, but I didn't feel tired anymore (rest too much perhaps), continue to maintain my pace around 5:30min/KM and head towards the city. Looking at the clock, it was already a PB no matter how I run, so I decided to cruise the way towards finishing, probably clocking a 3:45 hr PB, but some voice came to me at final KM, it was CK Chong, he caught up to me and shouted some sub 3:45 finishing time, I was not keen about any timing he mentioned, I just don't like to finish with someone who is making noise, so I decided to give a dash for the final KM and cross the finishing line at 3:43.

Tired ? definitely. Very tired? not quite, except the backache.

Scared of feeling cold soon, I was off to collect my baggage and quickly change into warmer jacket, LOL!
It didn't take long for K1 to cross finishing line and join me at the finishers' zone. Then the Sub 3 achiever Lionel too arrived, he started about an hour behind us!!! 

What did I learn from my run in HK this time? I know I can do a sub 3:45 FM, possibly a 3:35 if without back injury. lol! This is probably a FM that I didn't suffer alot, looks like if I don't push hard, 5:30/km pace can last quite long, that makes pacing for 4:00 FM possible...

Std Chart Marathon Singapore 2013 - Repeat to Defeat

This is my 1^st time repeating a marathon, Borneo was supposed to be a repeat after my FMV there in 2012 but due to work schedule (after their reschedule) I DNS the race. PBIM 2013 was also supposed to be my next repeat after Borneo, again due to work I had to DNS as well. So it was God’s will for me to have my repeat in Singapore Marathon.

Having to repeat same route is OK, but if your previous experience was bad, that experience will come and jinx you whenever you think of that particular stretch, to me, it was the stretch after 33KM. I still remember vividly how both my quads vibrating and standing at the Marina bridge watching the 4:00 hr pacers and the followers pack pass me by, followed by the struggle at 35KM up flyover and the final squeeze through the crowd to the finishing line. The weather was terribly humid, it was horrible. That was my 4^th marathon, from that marathon mark the beginning of series incidences of injuries that continued till August 2013.

So this is not just any marathon, it is THE race to put an end to what happened in the past 12 months. This is the race to get myself back into sub4 marathoner, cramp free, injury free and to conquer that fear of the evil stretch and to brave the final crowd. I am never been more ready than any race.

30 hrs before the race, I bang my right knee to the wall (don’t ask me how it happened, it happened anyway), good news is it wasn’t on the knee cap, bad news is, it was on the quads connecting to the knee cap, essential muscle for impact absorption for landing (to me). It was swollen and bruised almost immediately and the question came on mind was: Sunday how? I leave the question for Sunday and let the body does its best in recovery by going to bed asap.

Another drama happened on Sat before departure, I was at airport but my passport was not with me, lol! Don’t ask why, anyway I managed to get my passport later and took the next available flight to Singapore. Phew!

The Expo this year was nothing great, especially when the 2^nd surge promotion is most anticipated but nowhere to be found, other booths became boring, somehow me and Chua got a free spinal scan to show how tired is our muscles and possible spinal misalignment. LOL! If you think mine is out, u should see Chua’s…

After check in hostel, we proceed for carbo-loading dinner at Orchard. It was rainy day and we only managed to spot the meet up point before race then returned to hostel for early nap.

Woke up at 2:15am to prepare my Enercal drink and check on my right quads, still swollen but lessen, we departed at 3am. 1^st thing 1^st upon arrival at Orchard was to deposit my bag, having experience a suffering finishing last year, I prepared my amino drinks and extra changing clothes and some other stuff like battery pack and cash. Still having last year’s toilet rush in mind, I immediately used the portaloo located next to the baggage booth and proceed to meet up with the gang at coffee club at Wheelock Place (baggage booth is just located behind it).

Taiping mari.

This year we have much fewer runners from Malaysia (those that we know) and since not many ppl then there is not much waiting needed, at 4:15am we proceed to respective starting line. Due to raining in the past 2 days, the temperature is relatively low, it felt like this can be a good race, at least dehydration may not be the biggest concern for the moment. The starting packed as expected, we were relatively quite in front though I expect there were still thousands of people ahead of us despite the starting line is visible.

The race flagged off at 5am sharp, here we go!

I tested my legs for the 1^st few hundred meters at easy pace, no sign of pain although can feel d vibration at the quads, but it didn’t affect my pace as I slowly catch up whenever there is opening to overtake, unlike last year which I did a lot of zigzag to overtake, keeping in mind to reduce the muscles stress. The crowd started to ease after 2-3KM where overtaking become easy without have to change much direction of running course, smooth route is possible after 4KM. I double checked the GPS distance vs distance marker, it was already over-distanced by almost 1KM, I guess the tunnel and the city building has much affected the GPS tracking, but what the heck, 42KM is 42KM, it didn’t matter what the GPS watch said, all I have to do was to minus 1KM from whatever reported distance on the watch.

At 7^th KM I finally caught up with the 3:45 hrs pacers group and due to the narrow route I had to run on the side way pavement to overtake them, good sign, because I plan to maintain last year’s timing for 33KM, that would mean 3:45 hrs pacers would overtake me at around 30KM. Let’s see….

Reaching 8KM I suddenly feel the need to water the plant and passing by the same spot (looks the same to me in the dark), I decided to take things easy by slowly detoured to the bush and release, achieved PB in watering the plant and rejoin the run just before the 3:45 hrs pack, the run continued.

Turning into ECP at around 12KM, almost bang into runner in front of me who dropped his gel and made a sudden stop, at this stretch 2 males and 1 female suddenly appeared next to me, and they were chitchatting at 5min/km pace, LOL! Judging from their running posture and the way they talked, 5min/km was really an easy pace for them, may be not so for the female, but she was consistent and strong, reminded me of Annie.

At 15KM I took my 1^st gel as planned, somehow side stitch attacked and I had to slow down a little to relax the muscles, there goes the 3some pack and never seen them again until 21KM U-turn when they were about 400m ahead of me. In my own tracking, I clocked about 1:49 at 21KM (22KM on watch) and U-turn point at about 1:52, somewhat similar to last year, good sign.

As usual, after U-turn it was time to look out for friends on the opposite side to see how are they doing, only managed to spot Tay Poh Chye, who was about 2.5KM behind and right after him was Dora Yuki who was taking easy walk to drink at water station, LOL! Until the split which made spotting runners on opposite difficult, I couldn’t find anyone else, what happened to Chua, Jason and Gan? May be i missed them.

Reaching 23^rd KM, I felt the need to get ready for cramp prevention, took the gel at water station and swallow the 2 electrolyte capsules prepared, spent some time walk through the water station before I continue the run. 

At 27th KM, the right knee started to give problem with the injured quads started to ache, had to squat down for abit of stretches and relax the legs, that was when the 3:45 hrs pacers (and the followers) zoomed past me !!! They overtook me faster than I estimated (30KM mark), but it was ok bcoz I was still on track for sub4 and target finishing time. Grab the banana from water station to eat later.

The run carried on with the view of watching the 3:45 hrs group further away from my sight until I couldn't see them anymore at the exit of 30KM, this was where the real run starts for SCMS. A quick look at the watch I was at about 2:40 mark, which made me on track for 33KM in 3 hrs and possibly can cover part of the 34th KM.

can see me ?

Upon reaching 32KM mark, the phobia of last year's cramp kicked in, I decided to talk a walk and eat the banana while relax my legs a little, there was no need to rush, making sure that cramp doesn't hit me is the top priority! LOL! Resume running after banana and still managed to cover abit of 34th KM within 3 hrs. Then ahead of me was the Marina bridge where last year I practically had to stop because of both thighs cramp and watched the 4:00 hrs pacers group passed me by with the followers. Trust me, I did watch my back a few times crossing this bridge to see if the 4:00 hrs group was coming, LOL!

After passing the bridge reach 35KM there was another gel station, nice for stock up some energy before the big rush later at 37KM onwards. Organizer offered nice black face towel (which was not cold) but I don't think anyone would carry the towel for another 6-7KM, I dropped it on the floor after a quick wipe on the face.

At 36th KM b4 the u-turn finally seeing the big crowd going up the final bridge at 37KM mark, I still remember seeing alot of runners stopped for stretching at the side due to cramp, and I did walked last year...but not this year, I was able to pick up pace with smaller step, before reaching the final climb of the bridge finally experienced some pull at the left calf, yeah cramp came visit, but it was ok, I can deal better this time.Coming down to 38KM I witnessed the scariest crowd ever in any run, the opposite side with the 10KM and 21KM joggers and walkers was absolutely crazy!!! 

No more unnecessary zigzag and dodging for this year, I decided to run as straight as I could and expect some minor human collisions, at some point between 39-40KM I even had to run out of the route to the opposite traffic and rejoined the crowd later. Just when everyone thought the finishing line is ahead, the organizer gave us a sharp turn to the right before making another turn to the finishing without any proper separation for different distance category, it was total chaos and towards the end of it I needed to cross a barricade because I thought there specially set up barrier was for the FM runners to have a special lane to finish. But too bad the finishing line for FM was right in the middle of the road, how thoughtful....lol!!

The was no final sprint for this run, too risky and my left calf already sending signals many times that the cramp may strike anytime, but I got to cross the finishing line at ease.

Not quite the target PB, but given the traffic conditions and concern for cramp, this is good enough. :)

Unofficial result

Official (hopefully) result, it is funny to see the overall ranking is better than gender ranking...

2013 Running Target Timings

Setting new targets for 2013 will be tough as I did not know how fast I can run when I was setting targets for 2012, it was all targets that better than 2011 will do, thus I over and exceed twice. Now that I know how fast I can run, setting target beyond my comfort zone will be stretchy and challenging. Nevertheless, a target is needed to have myself focused for 2013:

5KM - 4m 30s /km (0:22:30) - 22:11 (5/10/2013 Ammah)
10KM - 4m 36s /km (0:46:00) - 43:46 (6/10/2013 IJM)
12KM - 4m 42s /km (0:56:24) - 54:08 (8/12/2013 KR4I7)
15KM - 4m 45s /km (1:11:25) - 1:08:25 (8/12/2013 KR4I7)
21KM - 4m 50s/km (1:41:30) - 1:37:07 (8/12/2013 KR4I7)
25KM - 5m 00s /km (2:05:00) - pacer
30KM - 5m 06s /km (2:33:00) - no race
42KM - 5m 33s /km (3:54:21) - 3:54:01 (1/12/2013 SCMS)
50KM - 6m 00s/km (5:00:00) - no race

To be achieved by end of 2013.

Malakoff Powerman Asian Duathlon Championships 2013 - My Half Powered Race

I have always wanted to join the Powerman, trust me, u can find me my name in the participant list of 2011 and 2012 and yet you won't find my name in the result sheet. I missed both years somehow, Sprint event.

For 2013 I got so fed up that I never get to race and always waste the registration, I decided to just register for long and block the calender, nothing is going to stop me this time.

As I had months of injury, just to get back to running has taken my time for training, I totally neglected the bike training, I look back the history of my cycling, I only did 10 times of cycling on my bike since 2011, and the longest distance covered were both the OCBC cycling in 2012 and 2013, both less than 50 KM. So now, 11 km run, 64 km cycling and another 11 km run, can I survive?

Before the race, I just want to complete the race safe and injury free, within the 5:30 hrs cut off time. After 2 times of recent cycling practice, I did some forecast calculations and adjust my plan to:

Run 1 - 1:00, T1 - 0:04, Bike - 2:35, T2 - 0:06, Run 2 - 1:15, total 5:00 hrs, should be good enough for a virgin duathlon long distance.

Come the race day, met many strong runners, cyclists, ironman and triathletes, I felt motivated abit, in my mind I was thinking: I am going to suffer anyway, why not just give my best for the 1st leg and rest enough for the rest of the cycling and run 2?

Weather was good in the morning, I gave my best for the 11 km in run 1 and completed in 48 mins+ entering the bike zone. I saved the run time and only re-start the watch upon exiting the bike zone, not sure how much time was spent in transition, I am pretty I took my time to change and had a 2nd surge to prepare for cycling, I know I probably can't drink much during cycling (not trained for that yet!). 

So off I went from the bike zone and started my longest ride ever in my life. It wasn't so bad in the 1st 20 km as I still have some energy left, typically I can last 1.5-2 hrs in race without any refueling depending on the effort put in, I gave alot in Run 1 but the 2nd surge and some drinks at transition should replenish some. After 20km I practically start feeling the soreness kick in but still managed to maintain the pace on flat, uphill become slower and slower, but the timing still good, I was on track for 30 km/hr and completed 1st loop of 32 km in about 1:03 hrs.

Turning into 2nd loop, my shoulders start to complain and I started to jealous those cyclists with aero-bar to rest their body weight and go smooth on downhills. More and more people overtook me (it wasn't so bad in 1st loop coz I still get to overtake Sprint event's cyclists...), and it was like every km I will be overtaken by 3-4 cyclists... It was really demotivating, and going uphill has become extremely hard, I had to use the smallest gear to struggle up, almost wanted to came down from the bike and run instead.

As I was losing pace and losing time, I was still glad that I was still on track for 2:30 hrs, thanks to 1st loop time saved and I started to adjust myself to slow down for water station, took my time to finish at least half bottle of the isotonic before I pedal again. I consumed both packs of the 2nd surge on bike to make sure I at least have some energy restored, not much but hope the caffeine can help a little too. Prevention of soreness and cramp became priority, I do not want to suffer cramp on the bike or in Run 2.

Eventually I came back to end the 2nd loop at the total time of 2:12 hrs crossing the timing mat, I had to slow down very carefully and gently came down from the bike, I was worried that the legs can't take it and jelly feet will make me fall from the bike. All was good and no cramp, I took my time to walk the bike back to my lot. I told myself, so far so good, so far so good, but that was already more than 3 hrs into a race, I had not taken anything solid so far apart from the 3 gels and some isotonic. As I was trying to park the bike back into rak, I felt abit wobbling and legs shaking. I told myself to calm down, sat down to change into running shoes and slowly put my running gears on, drank as much electrolytes drink as I can from the bottle on my bike, stretch awhile before I started my slow jog out of the bike zone.

I rejoined the Run , but missed the banana station on my way out (what was I thinking at that time?). Saw K1 on the road side and he came to join me to pace me. I told him (what did I tell him exactly?) I am hitting wall (something like this), the legs can't take big strike, I decided to just maintain the strike and pace until I am used to my condition, may be another 2-3 km down the road.

I can see all the runners in front of me not that fast as well, at least they were not pulling away from me but just at the constant distance. I told myself, pay back time my friend, pay back time, I will keep up later, just need to let the legs recover from the cycling session. After the uphill beyond 3 km, I started to regain some running form and push on a little to complete the 1st loop in 33 mins, distance was 5.9 km coz I started my watch at bike zone exit.

2nd loop of running had become much easier, though going up on elevation, I got to overtake more and more people. Right knee gave problem at final 2 km that I had to stop to rub it for awhile before strive on to continue to overtake more people and speed to finish the race. Total run time for this leg: 1:03 hrs.

Total race time excluding transitions time = 4:03 hrs+, based on preliminary result, my T1 and T2 total at about 6 mins, that made my total race time at 4:09. On target ? yes. Ranking #43, quite a surprise for rookie. :) http://www.powerman.com.my/v14/results/2013/Pman13_prelim_winnners.htm