Reward after a good race

The is the famous Bidor duck noodle. Our reward after a good race. The shop is called 珍品, just a few hundreds meters away from start/finish line of Bidor Half Marathon.

We were pleasantly surprised that not many runners were around when we reached there. Perhaps most of them were still at the gathering area waiting for prize giving ceremony.

The duck noodle here is served with wantan noodle. The soup is mixed with some chinese traditional herbs. Very aromatic and tasty. Think I will stop by again in my next trip up north.

Bidor Half Marathon

I must say this is the best medal in my collection so far.

For people who don't know where is Bidor, it's a small town 130km away from KL city. Travel there takes about 1.5 hours.

Technically this is my first half marathon race even though I have completed several 21km trainings and a couple of 28km and 30km training.

CP and me reached Bidor at about 7.30pm last night. After taking the bibs, we proceed to survey the race route. It involves two 10km routes. One towards the south and one to the north. We have to u-turn back after hitting the 5km point in each of these routes.

Since we stay overnight in Slim River, we had to wake up at 5.15am and start the journey to Bidor at 5.45am. We reached Bidor town slightly earlier than expected at 6.10am. There are already a lot of runners ahead of us.

Before the start of the race, CP asked whether we should set a target for this race. I told him we should just treat this as a training run and go with the comfortable pace.

All these were forgotten the moment the race starts. We were pacing close to 5.5mins for the first km. I told CP we were going too quick and need to slow down. The 2nd km is relatively slower but still it's at 6mins pace. The funny thing is I felt comfortable with this pace. So instead of trying to control and slow down, I just continue with the pace as long as my body feels comfortable with it.

I reached 10km marker in 56mins. This is my personal best for 10k.

In the 2nd half of the race, we have to go through some hilly terrain, also some gravel road towards the end of 15km. Another factor is the scorching heat when we reached 17km mark. I can barely keep the running pace after that.

At 2km from the finishing line, I abandon the run all the way to the finish plan. I started to walk and run. I realised this method didn't really slow me down. When I run, I can run faster after the walking break. In fact, I have the reserve energy to out sprint a few runners to the finishing line:)

Last 100 meters dash

My timing: 2:03:10

Rumah Tumpangan Weng Hong

This is the best "Hotel" in Slim River according to Mr Wong senior.

We have to travel 30km from Bidor town to Slim River because all the "5 stars" hotels such as Hotel See Foo and Hotel Ah Moi in Bidor is fully booked.

We were late because Will has to stay home last minutes due to his wife's exam.

I think we should try Hotel See Foo next year. It's located only about 100 meters from the race starting point and the most important thing, this hotel has "air cond" :)

Tukang Jahit Mexico

We need to collect our Bidor Half Marathon bibs from this place. It's small tailor shop in Bidor town. Less than 200 meters away from Dewan Muhibbah where the race will start and finish.

I heard the owner is one of the Bidor Runners.

I suspect the bibs are all tailored by him.

I'm quite impressed that Bidor Runners is able to host such a big event. The turn up is more than 1600 runners according to the announcer.

29.2k - Pushing the limit

Another new personal record for me.

29.2km is the longest I have done todate. Some of you may ask, why stop at 29.2k and not 30k? I will tell that story some other time:)

Basically I would have done 30k if I knew it's only another 800m to go. I haven't reached the stage where another step is not possible.

Only myself, CP and Lam participated in this run. It was a fast (I mean for our standard) first 10km, I believe averaging below 7 minutes. The next 10k is still relatively fast. The suffering point started at about 24k. From that point onwards, we are mixing run and walk for the rest of the distance.

I managed to find a good rhythm between run and walk to continue the rest of the journey. My legs were not as sore as last week after the run. I think part of the reason is the better muscles management after the 1st experience last week:)

Next week I'll be at Bidor for the half marathon. Going to take it easy and as part of weekly long run. The road to 42km is still a long way to go...

Zero cost teambuilding

It was my first trip to Bukit Gasing trek. The idea was to have a zero cost teambuilding session with my new team. Even though we emphasized to everyone this is a compulsory session, only 20 out of 39 turned up. Nevermind a heavy penalty is installed for those who skipped this;-)

Turned out this is quite a challenging trek for some of the guys. We have 3 early drop-outs due to wrong attires and home emergency. Then 4 more decided they can't take it anymore and went out at the half way point. The remaining 13 of us stayed together until the end.

After the trekking, we went to the famous Raju restaurant for a drink. What caught me by surprise is their canggih pa system. Business must be very good during the peak hours until they need such a hi-tech system.

It was quite a fun outing for me. I hope everyone enjoyed this as well..

I'm in..

Ready or not... time to step up the training to the next level.

Hardest run yet - 28km

Woke up at 4.30am to prepare for this run. Reached Bukit Aman Carpark, the meeting place slightly earlier at 5.15am. So I decided to take a nap in the car while waiting for the rest.

4 persons including myself turned up for today's run. Ravin, KW and CP. CP brought his new Suunto GPS pod.

We started the run by making a loop around bird park and Jalan Lembah before heading out to Jalan Parlimen and proceed to Bukit Tunku.

First part of the route is similar to GE30k. We cut through Bukit Tunku to Jalan Duta, then to Matrade building and followed Jalan Khidmat Usaha to Sri Hartamas. 3 of us, CP, KW and myself made an extra big loop around Petronas station before making a water stop. I bought a Gatorade from the Petronas shop to refill since the drink I brought along finished at this point.

So far so good at the distance of 19km. I started to struggle on the way back at roughly around 25km. The good thing is it was a long downhill stretch at Jalan Tun Ismail. I managed to keep the run going until we reach Jalan Sultan Salahuddin. At that point my calf muscles just felt too painful to continue. I was afraid they may start to cramp if I push further. So I suggested to KW to stop and wait for CP and take a rest at the same time.

CP walked down about 10 mins later. He is suffering from heel pain as well. So all 3 of us decided we'll walk back from this point. The distance run is around 27km at that point. 1km cool down walk isn't that bad as an option anyway.

This is the longest running distance I have done so far. Feeling and pain is more or less similar to when I did my first 20km.

Next week's plan is to do a 30km..

To run a good race..

This is my new motto...

Corinthians 9:24-27—"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

By the way I'm not a Christian. Good philosophy existing in all religions. We just need to keep an open mind... I may not believe in God by I believe in Good..

21k training

Yesterday was the 2nd time I did a 21k distance. The first time was 2 weeks ago with Lam KW around Bukit Jalil area. This time either because the leg muscles have adapted to it or because we didn't go that fast, I felt great after the run. It was a very different experience from the 1st time. My guess is the terrain also play a part in this.

The route from Lake Garden to Sri Hartamas is a lot more hilly than the route around Taman Bukit Jalil. The benefit of a hilly route is the group of muscles used is different going up and down the hills. Whereas in a relatively flat route, one has to keep using the same muscle group through out.

5 of us took the challenge yesterday. CP and his brother CK, Kok Leong, Will and myself. The first 6km gone smoothly with everyone able to keep up relatively well. CK decided to stop at this distance and wait for our return at a bus stop.

4 of us proceed to cross the busy Jalan Duta over to Income Tax building and continue the run towards the Sri Hartamas Petronas Station.

It was a bit more eventful during the return run. Both Will and KL slowed down and got lost at Hockey Stadium but luckily they were saved by Garmin. CP and CK took off earlier from the bus stop leaving me behind to wait for Will and KL. I decided to continue the run on my own after waited for more than 10 minutes without any sign that both of them will show up soon. I was thinking maybe both of them have given up and decided to take a taxi:) Only later, I found out they were lost for more than 10 minutes.

Running alone for the last 6km is quite challenging. It was difficult to decide what pace to run. I was surprised to find out CP and CK has not returned to the starting point when I reached. So I walked around the car park to cool down and later I saw CP ran back without his brother. CK was having a cramp at the killer hill and he came back to bring his car to fetch him. I extend my cool down to jog towards Jalan Parlimen and met up with Will and KL there..

Surprise surprise

It was a complete surprise to me when this flowers is delivered to me yesterday.

Thank you TY, FW, WQ and Kiang.

Nice birthday cake

Nice home made birthday cake from Mohana. She said she had to bake one because I'm like a little child keep asking for it.. Haha..

I must say the taste is better than those we get from cake shop or even secret recipe.

A little incident happened after that. One of my blur sotong colleague threw away Mohana's plastic plate after she ate the cake...

My birthday present

This is the latest Asics Gel Kayano 15. My birthday present from good friends CT, Mohana, Will and CP. It has been a tradition among 4 of us (CT, Mohana and Will) that we will buy present for each other's birthday. CP has joined the club since last year.

It's quite a tough job to decide what to buy after a while. Some time silly decisions were made and ... I guess we'll all have good memories and laugh about what happened many years later.

I'm very thankful for this thoughtful present and I have promised them that this will be the shoes I wear when I across the finishing line of my first marathon.

Thank you my friends:)