50k week and New Balance 15k

Photo courtesy of CP.

This could be my last race before the KL Marathon. I'm still thinking about possibility of participating in Klang Pacers' Half Marathon. It's on 7 June.

Overall I'm very happy with the race today. Also happy to see Will managed to make it despite some issues at home.

My main aim today is to complete my 50km target for this week. It has been a very tough week with the injury on my left knee. Running has been very painful but as a stubborn person I continue to log in the mileage.

Good thing is the pain has not come back from yesterday's 10k run and today's 15k. I hope it has gone away for good.

3 of us (will, cp and myself) met up around 5:35am at Bukit Aman carpark. Initially I was thinking about doing an extra 3km lap around Bird Park before the NB 15k run. Somehow I don't feel like doing it at that point so we just continue our walk to Tapak A Lake Garden where the race will start.

The race started at 7am sharp. I started the run with a slow 7 mins pace going up the 1st hill. The pace started to pick up when we reached Jalan Parlimen. It's a slight downhill slope and everyone started to step up their speed. Reached 4km mark just after 24 mins. Then it is a long challenging climb at Langgak Tunku. I reached 6km mark at 36mins. After that I couldn't locate any other distance marker until the finishing line. Not a very good planning in this area.

3rd hill at Laman Tunku is not what I always remember so it was quite a surprise hill to me when I reached there. The climb was tough and at this point some of the top women runners started to overtook me. They've started the race 15mins later than men.

After that we ran across Mahameru and reached the 2nd water station in front of Jabatan Pertanian. I drank a few cups of water there to rehydrate.

Not long after that we reached the 4th and final hill. I have to walk for about 200 meters before picking up my strength and run all the way to the finishing line. I picked up my pace considerably after reaching Lake Garden and overtook quite a number of runners.

CP and Lam has both finished ahead of me. Met uncle Yong (a hardcore runner from Bukit Jalil), and had a chat with him for a while. He volunteered as road Marshall in this event.

After I met up with CP and Lam we walk around searching for Will. I managed to locate him with Maxis Friend Finder. Will came in around 9:00am, exactly 2 hours after the race start. It must have been a grueling run for him. He told us he had cramp at the 2nd water station. Every run is a personal challenge for everyone regardless of timing.

Congratulations to all for running a good race.


My timing: 1:34:59
Average pace: 6:08 mins per km.