Race Report - Larian MPSJ 10K

Any race that doesn't require me to travel far will always be a go to race for me regardless big or small. Larian MPSJ 10K was exactly that, slotting nicely on my tapering week leading up to Vietnam Mountain Marathon (VMM) next Saturday. Interestingly, I signed up this race rather late, but with the objective of "maintenance", I did not set any goal time and certainly not in the frame of mind to set a personal record.

On the very faithful Sunday morning, I woke up early as usual preparing for the event and heading out with plenty of time to spare. Reaching at the meet up point agreed earlier with Jamie and Nick, I parked my car nicely and planned to catch up with some small nap. Instead of dosing off, I went "OH NOOOOO!!!" I forgot to bring my running shoes!!!! I quickly got off the car and ask Jamie if he has any spare shoes in his car and he said "No"... Dammit, how could the famous jamiepang.com does not have spare shoes in his car. Then I quickly ring up Nick begging for him to bring me any pair of shoes (except sandals) that I can run in, and he was kind enough to bring me 2 pairs for me try on. I decided to settle with the Nike Flyknit Racer.. boy this shoe is hard on the legs by any standard compare to the shoes I ran in but was an absolute fast fast shoes without a doubt.

With the shoes issue settled, all of us including Choo and Zijill head towards the race site and soon we found ourselves waiting at the starting line about 20 mins before race start. None of us was ready to put in a quick time for the race and so we have decided to take things easy and even thought of taking capati at the mamak along the racing route LOL. Without much funfair, the race was flagged of on time by YB Hannah Yeoh and off we go to a slow start in group and at times I think we were blocking some of the faster runner.

1km, 2km grabbing a sip or two at the water station, it was all too familiar as this is the exact training route that we ran in USJ. Nothing exciting to shout about until we hit the 4 km mark where the faster runners were on the returning route, we started counting and realized Zijill was 10th position just slightly behind us. At 5km U-turn point, this was when the race starts to get a little exciting, we have decided to push Zijill for a strong finish. Not that she needs a push from us and without telling her what we were up to, we just ran faster and faster chasing down the ladies in front of us, giving all sorts of hand signal communicating to each other.

Soon enough we managed to catch up with 2 or 3 of the lady runners ahead of us, putting our friend nicely in 7th position before we slowly dropped back our pace at 9km mark, leaving her to run at her own pace to the finishing line. The weather is getting very warm by the time we reached the final straight and I decided  to pick up some pace and catch up with Jamie into the MPSJ track for the finishing.

It was a well organized race, liquid were plenty along the race route, finishing in the MPSJ track was a nice touch. However, they could improve on the start time, 7:30am was a bit late not forgetting the 7 km and 3 km will only start well beyond 8am and will be very hot especially for the kids . The traffic cones were not well placed, leaving runners weaving in and out with full traffic will proves dangerous not just to the runner but for the motorist as well. It wasn't a record breaking run and it was nothing like the 10k fun run I had in GCAM15, but the pacing thing was definitely spicing up the run for me today wrapping up my preparation to VMM. Congrats to Zijill for her top 10 run and Nick for a strong comeback race!!

Photo courtesy of Jamie and Nick

Clash of the Titans?... Hmm maybe

Is been 6 weeks from the Gold Coast Airport Marathon 2015 race, if you have read my race report (here) I have since retired my PR shoes into my walking shoes. With Vietnam Mountain Marathon coming in end of September I should really be focusing on elevation training and doing lots of running in the trail, but instead I have been searching... searching for my next road PR race shoes.. LOL

What's in my arsenal of road shoes right now includes the highly raved about New Balance Zante and the Adidas Adios Boost (Japan version). Both are very fast shoes but unfortunately my legs are not strong enough to carry them to a full Marathon distance.. So what options do I have?

Back in early May, I bought a pair of Nike Lunar Tempo (my guest post on Jamiepang.com) and have since been training on the pair for #GCAM15 until late June when I decided to switch back to Asics. Not that the shoe is not a legit pair for Marathon race just that I have not gain enough confidence in it with slightly over a month plus of running with the pair.

Then came along the Asics Gel Super J-33, this is not a new release from the Japanese shoe maker but one that received some good reviews, one that did not make it to our shore. I bought this pair from Gold Coast during my July Marathon outing in Australia for a very good jaw-dropping price. I will be writing a review on the shoes shortly, but I have not done enough mileage at the moment to write about it, but it gave me a very positive first impression.

It would look like one of this pair will make it to my next Marathon, then again I read some very good reviews on the Saucony Kinvara 6 from 3 of the no names mentioned I have been training with and will be giving it a try once my wife approves my visa to buying more shoes hahah

Faced off between Lunar Tempo and Super J-33

In reality like it or not, there is no such thing as PR shoes. Give me the Zante and Boost which made it to many record books does not automatically make me a fast record breaking runner. That said, PR shoes are made by one self and not by the shoe maker. Yes I agree, a good pair of shoes is important to prevent injury but finding a good pair to suit my training/race demand is not exactly a formula that I can apply to.  To say the least,  training and race preparation are fundamental to a good race time and I will keep trying new things to produce my next pair of PR shoes :). At the moment is between the Nike Lunar Tempo and the Asics Gel Super J-33

Gold Coast Airport Marathon 2015 Race Report

I don't mean to be a chef, but I have been cooking for this year main road race for more than 5 months plus, or was it 6? Anyway.. Back in January I was training for my first major triathlon race in April and running was pretty much in the menu week in week out building up to the race. With the rest of the team starting their training sometime in mid February, it makes perfect sense joining the rest to making the training a lot more interesting, fun with loads of Alibabaing (as a no names mentioned put it to describe our after run breakfast at Ali Baba restaurant/cafe )

With my personal best achieved back in Nara Marathon Dec 2014, I was looking to top my personal best once again. From the start of the training, we have carried out quite a number of base training sessions, progressively we shift into a higher gear picking up the necessary mileage along with tempo, track work, intervals and hill repeats as part for the recipe for the dish. My goal pace was set at somewhere in the region of 4hr 30 mins to 4 hr 40 mins initially, with the 70.3 race completed with a not so good time; somehow I was confidence that I can improve my target time further. After a couple of long run with 6:15min pace, I have decided to revise my target time to between 4hr15mins to 4hr30mins jeng jeng jeng.. LOL 

This was on my mind in my many iteration of goal time

Fast forwarding to Gold Coast.... it was a crazy affair just like last year, I signed up for the Southern Cross University 10 km (Race Report Here) before the main race Sunday, whether it was a mistake or not, I had the best ever 10 km road race to date with the fellers.

On Sunday, Me, Foo and Jeanie leave our apartment to 5:30am catching the tram to race site. This time there is no incident with the tram service and we reached the race site on time and meet up with the rest of the gang who is doing 42km. After a few group photos and catching a Taiwanese celebrity for more photos, everyone is going into the warm-up routine and get ready to hammer down the pedal to the metal. No drama there

Celebrity from Taiwan - GinOy

I have told one or two from the group before the race that I will be taking the risk and ready to screw up the earlier planned goal time in the race, henceforth again I revised my goal time to 4hr to 4hr15min and if I'm in luck maybe a sub4. "Today is the day..."

I was assigned with corral D but I snugged up to corral B along side with Nick along side with the 4hr 15mins pacer. To our disappointment, "Digger" wasn't part of the 4hr15mins pacer group and later we found during the race, he was with 4hr30mins group. Back to the start line, after more warm up, we wished each other good luck and off we go with the group of pacers.

Nick and I started as planned ...slow but steadily picked up the pace after crossing the bridge. Soon after we were both going under 6mins pace moving in front of the pacer group. At 3km mark, Nick shifted into another gear and sped off, I was tempted to follow him but knew his pace would be way faster than what I can handled and decided to stay put running my own race at 5:35min pace. Then on I never spotted Nick until after the race.

5km done soon crossing the 10km  mark at 56mins, fueling was on planned only with a small technical issue with the zipper on the fuel pouch stuck, trying to yank it with no luck grrrr elevating some stress fearing the fueling will be a problem later on. Before reaching the 16km U-turn point, Jamie was on the other side of the road heading back to the start/finish direction fully focus on doing his stuffs, gave him a shout and was given a cold shoulder, he was that focused :P. Soon I find myself reaching the Burleigh Head U-Turn and the feeling was really good and told myself to keep it up as I have a good shot of hitting the revised target time. Then it was my turn to give Nick a cold shoulder. Apparently he called out at me but I was too focus keeping the pace and didn't hear him

18km, there's when nature call. I have to decide which portable loo to go without taking to much time away from what I have gained so far and to missed the coming one I would need to hold until reaching The Esplanade. I needed to crossed the half way mark at slightly under 2hrs  for a 4hr race and I was banged on queue on the timing so I kept going. With the discomfort feeling building up, I've decided to run to the portable toilet about 100m away from the 21km timing mat, after which I crossed the timing mat sharp at 2hrs (net time on the watch, gun time 2hr02min).

Running along The Esplanade

Second half of the race, I tried continued with the same pace stride by stride but I just couldn't hold that pace as consistent as the 1st half anymore. My pace was dropping off the cliff for the next  4Ks, determine to still do a good finishing time I stayed focus but it proves to be disaster. At 25km mark, the drama starts, I hit the wall and for the next 10km (25km-35km) I couldn't chug along and only master an average 8mins15sec pace, stopping at all the water station longer than planned and soon the 4hr15mins pacer and 4hr30mins pacer dropped me at 26km and 28km respectively.

Crossing the 30km mark, things did not improve much and I've gone into run/walk mode and saw Yvonne cheering with her camera. I walked over telling her I'm struggling and she encouraged me to keep going and off I go. The 10km wall was to me huge and I have given back everything I've gained for the 1st half and started running again slowly from 32km mark onward.

Things start to take a turn for the better, soon I was able to run decently and consistently albeit still at a much slow pace of around 7mins pace. Along the way I took up the offer from the little girl giving out to runners watermelon. The 2nd U-Turn at 37km mark proves to be a blardy long journey to reach, with struggling pace up the bridge towards the roundabout, finally made the last U-Turn heading back to the finish line with 5km to go.

Drinks and Melon.. Picnic walk

Shortly before reaching the 38km mark, I bumped into a no names mentioned on the other side of the route looking for something frantically not moving his feet. WTH is he doing? I shouted out to him urging him keep going. Apparently he was looking for his Go Card (Tram&Bus service fare card) and he eventually crossed the finishing line just a mere minute beyond 5hours. Boy that feller could have made it to sub5 if is not for the Go Card and I still don't understand what was he thinking carrying a Go Card with him on the race. Was he thinking to take a tram ride back to race site should he decided to quite LOL

Anyway back to the remaining 4km of my own race, time was really running out as I'm at the edge of not hitting a personal best for the race. It was hell deciding whether to chase down that small PB or just to screw it up and take my time enjoying the rest of the journey back. It may be a small PB but no PB is too small for anyone even if is just by 1 sec so I decided on the former and kept going. At 39km, I bumped into Jeanie who is all smiling and give her a final shout before finishing up my own business.

I struggled and they are all smiling for the camera

Down  to the finishing straight, the best stretch ever. The support from the packed crowd was electrifying, giving every runner a good and loud shout for the last push. I kept looking at my watch telling myself I've already screwed up my goal time and I wasn't going to lose that PB. Picking up my pace for the last 400m or so sprinting down to the finishing chute with more crowd cheering down the finishing line. I have to say the race and support received was really a gold class without a doubt, and I finally crossed the finishing line with 1 min improvement (4hr47min) in the bag over my PB in Nara.

Final sprint

After picking up some food&drinks, my medal and finishing tee, I walked to the place where the rest has agreed to meet up post race. With Yvonne, Jamie, Bin and Nick's wife there, I was surprised that Nick has not come back yet and I kept telling the gang he sped off after 3km and I never spotted him again. After some time, Nick and Foo finally came in and we are all were very happy for Nick finishing the race with a respectable time fighting injury. With Yee Hoo and Jeanie coming back, we celebrated each other achievements and was really really happy for their respective big PB.

Looking back, have I not take the risk (maybe too much risk taken) on the goal time, would I have done better and be happier with a bigger PB? Not really. I guess I would never find out if I didn't push for that early pace would I have achieved the earlier goal time and there is no guarantee if I raced conservatively things will turn out better. It is all about taking the risk sometimes and be happy with the outcome regardless of good, bad or ugly, in the end a minute improvement is still a PB. I'll take it with pride.

Overall, the race was very well organized, water/aid stations were sufficiently spaced out and ahem the portable loo was greatly placed. The crowd and support was second to none or may I say 1st class and thank you to the little girl who offered me with watermelon making my walk like I'm having a picnic walk LOL... Thank You Gold Coast for hosting me and for your hospitality!!!

Some photos are courtesy of Jamie, Nick, Yvonne, Bin and Jeanie
A little about the shoe I ran in. Is an Asics Gel Electro33 pair that I have grown to love. Together, we have made 2 personal best and finishing the Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya 2015. Time to retire the shoe with the best memory

Gold Coast Airport Marathon 2015: Southern Cross University 10KM Race Report #GCAM15

Last year saw me running the same race with my wife who is doing her run for the first time ever and I have promised to run with her throughout the whole distance. As a results me and wifey clocked a very decent 1hr 09mins which was impressive for someone who have never train and running a race for the 1st time. We had so much fun making it one of the best 10k race I have ever run in.

GCAM14 SCU 10KM with wife

Because I had so much fun in the 2014 edition, this year sees me again taking up the Gold Coast Airport Marathon (GCAM15) Southern Cross University 10KM (SCU 10KM) race on the Saturday before the big race on Sunday. I wasn't going to do the race alone this year so I sell the idea to a few usual suspects (Jamie, Nick, Foo and Leong). "What? 10KM race before Marathon? you must be nuts" was the reaction from the group but in the end  who wouldn't want to have a little fun before race day?  I promised them they will have tonnes of fun and lots of photo opportunities LOL!

Before the start of  Photothon

Saying that, the morning didn't really go as plan, I received an early text message from Jamie informing us that the north bound tram to race site had an incident and all services had been halted and would need to take a bus along the Gold Coast Hwy. Foo, Mok and I quickly walked together with a group of runners to the bus station hoping to catch the bus soonest giving us enough time to reach the race site. Two buses passed us by, already packed with runners without stopping and the stress began to build up. Without much luck, we have decided to hail a cab and share the cost along with a couple more runners. We reached the race site without much dramas after that and meet up with the rest of the gang for group photos before race. At about 6:10am, all of us walked the the D corral which was assigned on our bib number.

As the day break, the atmospheres and crowd was already full of excitement, and all of us just can't wait for the race to get going. With a few announcement from the emcee, the race started on time, with all the runners cheering with joy and immediately I knew I'm gonna have a lot more fun than last year with a bunch of jokers running together.

Jamie the legend spotted "Meb" the champ

Jamie with post race commitment, went off almost immediately with Man Hon running along with a much faster pace as time is of essence for him to get back in time. As for the rest of us... it was like mental patient breaking lose from asylum.. chaotic!!! With my limited range of vocabulary, I know words will not do justice to the amount of fun we had so I'll let the photos do the taking for me... LOL!!

Nick chatting up with the locals

Runners from Taiwan.. pretty aren't they? lol

Do you feel it already? Really, there wasn't much running involved in the race, for every 300m-400m we would stop for photos. At times we were shouting out at Foo to slow down so that we can make our monies worth for the race. More fun up ahead

Yee Hoo milking the cow to the max

We stopped at every water station to have a brief chat with the volunteers and making sure we thank everyone of them enough to make the run a wonderful experience. Half way point, a no names mentioned needed to go for a loo at the patrol station, so what to we do instead of waiting? More camwhoring!!!

Soon we reached the 2nd U-turn point heading back to the finishing stretch with about 3km to go, that said it didn't stop us from being a joker with the remaining distance. Enjoying every bit of the cheering from the huge crowd, the sign board that say "Hello, perfect strangers you can do it", the beautiful beach and on top of that all the friendly runners that would willingly jumped into the frame taking photos with us.

Nick enjoying all the high5s

As we chugged along reaching the 8km mark, I told the guys there will be 2 groups of street musician ahead playing they tunes entertaining the crowd. Soon enough we find ourselves back to the main straight before the finishing line but we have not stop fooling around like a bunch of id**t. I sincerely hope that our act did not disturbed or by any way blocking the more serious runner who is chasing for their personal best, because we aren't and just wanted to make our monies worth.

With less than 1KM to go, we were busy coming out with crazy idea for our finishing act. I think it was Foo if I recall correctly suggested that we should try to block each other right before the finishing line with the hope that the event photographer would capture the moment that we share together. As Nick and I ran down the finishing stretch before during our last year race, Foo and Yee Hoo waited for our signal to start pulling a prank on each other making us a complete fool in front of a huge crowd. We pushed and blocked each other, jostling all the way to the finishing chute and the crowd went crazy cheering and laughing at us.

Foo won the race!!

We crossed the line at 1hr 15mins together, it was by no mean our personal best but hey running is not always about chasing that personal best. Sometimes you needed to remind yourself how much you love this sports and you should always enjoy your run and have lots of fun regardless of the time you do.

SCU 10KM race will always be a bitter sweet race for me, year after year I recorded my 10KM personal worse time here. Saying that, it was also the best 10KM race I have ever run in year after year. Would i do it again and record another personal worse? You bet I will!!

Superheroes

A pretty volunteer handling out my well deserved medal

Pre-Race Jitter #GCAM15

About a year ago this time, I was preparing for my first marathon (yes virgin.. mind you, I have not been running that long) in Gold Coast. I must admit, I'm very lucky that my first marathon was an overseas race, with nothing much to expect but to finish my first race; but along the way I brought back a sub 5 hours finishing time in the Gold Coast Airport Marathon 2014. Oh ya, I also ran Southern Cross University 10 km race with my wife on Saturday before the Sunday race proper making it an ultra running weekend. There is so much I can talk about 2014 race in Gold Coast, so much so it deserves a separate post, a throwback post maybe LOL!

Today, with 2 additional major race (a marathon and a triathlon) under my running resume, the emotional side of running the Gold Coast Airport Marathon for me has not changed one bit...Nervous!! With months of training time put in with the usual suspects, we have pretty much throw in everything we know about training from interval, tempo, hill repeats to LSD, but question remain .. is it enough? With tapering week, the feeling is never at peace, should I go out and steal some mileage? should I start doing some strength training or should I just go for a short run? or may be doing a few kilometers of bike would help? What about swimming?  Damit..wake up!! you know very well that none of these last minute training will help in shaping a better race timing. It is what it is; good, bad, ugly you have done (or not done) enough training for the race. But how can you blame me for being nervous? after all I'm revisiting the race where I popped my cherry LOL

That said, since I have tested all my race gears, I better start packing and go though the race gear check list before the dramas start. Here's to wishing my #GCAM15 fellow runners all the very best on their run, bring back that PR that you have been chasing for. To a #nonamesmentioned, I pray and pray and pray that your injury will heal in time not just for the 10k but for the big race too and to the other one, #FTT.