This was my third half marathon after Nike We Run KL on February. Signed up for this race on November, and managed to get a MAS promo flight ticket. I reached KK on Friday alone, checked in Gaya Lodge. Did a warm from Lodge to Likas Stadium and back on Saturday morning, took me around 42 minutes, it was around 5km to from my lodge to Likas Stadium.
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| After the race pack collection, had lunch with this view |
Me and few runner that I met at lodge took a cab on race day morning to the race venue, I thought getting out an hour before the flag off was a good timing. Oh boy I was wrong, we stucked at the roundabout near Sabah Trade Center due to road closure for FM, so we decided to walk from the roundabout to Likas Stadium which was about 1km+.
Didn’t have adequate warm up, ate my first power gel and went to the starting line. Not many familiar face, and there wasn’t any Kenyan. Flagged off and first packed formed with 5 runners led by a Kenyan who came from behind. While reaching the the roundabout near Sabah Trade Center a Caucasian Veteran came and gone with a very high cadence, I don’t think I could follow him so I stick to my pace. The pack didn’t last long as the Kenyan blazed off followed by a Sabahan runner and the Caucasian.
I overtook two runners at the 5km+ mark and tried to catch up with the Caucasian runner and the sabahan runner ahead, they Kenyan was not visible anymore. Reaching 8km was the climax, the hill was long and dark. I was very slow at the hill, I thought my LSD at Bukit Cinta would have prepared for this, but I was wrong. While I was coming down from the hill, the Caucasian and the sabahan runner is not visible anymore, and there comes another hill. I was afraid of taking the wrong route since I cant see them anymore, but the roads are marked well by the organizer.
Running back to the stadium was a bit windy, so I put shades on. I was very thirsty , but the water station was placed on the right hand side of the road, where so I have to interfere with the runners coming from opposite direction. In the 17km I can feel my side stitch, but I just keep on going hoping this race will finish fast. Managed to took over few FM runners, and there was a cyclist paced me to the Sabah Trade Center roundabout.
Crossed finished line with a timing of 1:22:40 and said to myself, I’m gonna go back and take nap (went to Sapi Island instead) 😛
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| Stats from Garmin Connect |
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| Me and Maz |
I wasn’t really satisfied with myself, I ran pretty bad and didn’t challenge anyone. I was suffering throughout the run due to lack of mileage. This will be my last HM for this year, I’ll be focusing more on short distance ranging from 5km to 15km to sharpen my speed.
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| Me and Firdaus at Sapi Island |
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| Captured while waiting for zip line. |
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| Me at Likas Stadium |
Thanks to Van_Romario for sharing his previous BIM HM gps data with me do some “home work”, Coach Din for the guidance and all my friends for the support and encouragement.
well done bro 🙂