Johor Bahru 10K Run 2013: Chasing Myself
My first challenge was the night before the run took place. Travelling from Pasir Gudang to JB, I was clearly quite shaken up after the accident at Permas Jaya.
The second one came as a prophecy from the witch doctor 'Bobohizan Rosman' when he told me that tomorrow morning we may run in the rain. Gazing to the future from his Android orb, he predicted that it'll be a heavy rain tomorrow morning & it'll continue for the whole day. Rubbish - I told him. Since I had been running mostly in the morning for the past few weeks, I knew that the rains usually took place in the evening.
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| I should listen to Bobohizan Rosman more in the future. |
How wrong I was. The next morning when I woke up at 5.30am to prepare for the run, it was raining heavily. And then the message from the organizer came in:
GE JB10K 2013 URGENT. Weather forecast reports that strong wind and thunderstorms are expected. We will advice all runner by 6.20am on the status of the run.
Bracing for worst that the run will be postponed, I'm quite relived when the subsequent message that came in reads:
GE 10K URGENT: The current weather condition had improved, please be informed that there'll be a slight delay in the start time from 7am to 7.30am. C u soon!
Then came the bombshell of the extend of my mental unpreparedness. I forgot to charge my mp3 player during the night! Worst - I even forgot to bring my running pants with me! Quickly plugging the mp3 player to charge, I borrowed my father in law's running pants. Good thing is our size is the same.
Rosman & myself slept at my in laws home during the night & according to Google Maps, it'll only be a 10 minutes drive to the starting line. Underestimated the traffic, we arrived at the place in the nick of time. They already started counting for the start up!
5.....4.....3....2....1! Start!!!!
Scrambling to wear my mp3 player properly, I was actually the last runner to start. Literally the last. Hahaha. Take that!!! Why does this always happens to me this year?
In my observation, I feels that the participants for this year had grown compared to last year even though the number may be well short below 2000.
Since I didn't have the opportunity to properly warming up, the first 5 minutes of the run I was strolling slowly. It is the same like in my usual runs. After the first song in the track finished, it means that I had run for approximately 500 meters.
After that I was in the serious mode. Zig zagging past other runners, I relieved that I just need to do that until the 2km mark. After that I could run freely with my pace without any interruption.
For this run, I had targeted to beat my last year's timing of 1:09 which is my PR. This proves to be a very hard thing to do when the thing that you want to beat is yourselves.
When I reached the 3km mark, I glanced at my watch & the GPS data. My timing was 19 minutes - shaved 2 minutes from my usual 3km runs. My average pace was 8.8km/h. For me, that was fast.
To maintain the same speed, I didn't even stopped at the first 2 drink stops along the way. By slowing my steps a little bit, I grabbed the paper cup handled by the volunteers, gulped the 100 Plus along the way & quickly free myself from the crowd. It was that intense for me to get the best result at the end.
At 5km, it gets better. My timing was 32 minutes - shaved 6 minutes from my usual 5km runs. I could still maintain my average pace to 8.8km/h. At this point I'm quite surprise with the result from wearing the Ebene Bio Ray knee guard. I actually could run at my fastest pace without feeling any pain to my left knee. I doesn't even feel any restriction - it was as if I didn't wear anything to my knee.
At 6km, I started to feel the struggle. Since my usual runs only limited to 5km, further from that I actually running blind without any comparison. I only have the GPS data of my average pace as reference. And it didn't look good.
My pace dropping slightly to 8.7km/h. Even though the dip is small in number, what my body feels that caused it was actually unbearable. My lungs gasping for more oxygen after the fast run in the early 5km. My body feels burning internally. The last time that I felt like this was during February last year - when my body reacted to a 10km run for the first time. In the other runs I may opted to stop & take a small walk before running again, but this run is the most important run of the year. I didn't stop but instead run faster to maintain my initial average pace of 8.8km/h.
I discover something new during that phase. When I put myself into the 'zone', my legs actually cannot stop running. My body already feels really hot, I can't breath properly but I kept going on. It was just like the cartoon CJ7 when the kid wears the magic running shoes & couldn't stop even when he wants to because the shoes been broken. I keep switching looking down the road & looking forward to continue running by using my mental strength. Ironically, this time my legs didn't falter me. It was really my stamina that failed me.
It was at the 8km mark that I stopped. And that was because there was the last drink stall & used that as an excuse for me to take my breath for a while. I gulped the 100 Plus and walked about 300 meters until the 8km signboard before start to run again. The penalty? My average pace dropped to 8.5km/h.
One of my admiration for the organizer is how they are being able to pull out some surprises in this event. The fee for this event is the lowest that I had ever payed for at RM35. But even with the low numbers of runners - there are 3 drink stops along the way, the biggest number of stops that I had ever seen. A little bit front after the 8km mark, they pull out another surprise. Ice water sponge! The volunteers hands out sponges that had being dipped with ice water. I took 3 & quickly dappled my head with it. It never feels so great with the refreshing cold water goes though my neck.
After that I was just cruising to the finishing line by maintaining the average pace of 8.5km/h. I tried to squeeze every inch of my energy at the end leg of the run but it seems that it was my limit.
By the end, I didn't managed to beat my last year's PR - but actually achieving the same result as last year at dead 1:10 (the last year's timing was at 1:09:48 - so it was technically almost the same).
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| Dead on at 1:10 |
I had long since experienced a very exhausted condition at the finishing line since most of the runs this year I just stop for a rest if I'm tired. Even when the volunteers handing out the foods & drinks at the finisher line, my hand just cannot stop shaking.
But it was worth it. The finisher medal is the best, I repeat - the best finisher medal ever that I had ever got. It's design is a big rectangular frame with the Johor's state shape inside of it. When I wore it on my neck, it felt so heavy. I joked with Rosman that we can even use it as a weapon against thieves or dogs because of the shape & weight.
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| I'm very happy. |
So at the end what did I learned after this run?
1) My last year's timing was not a fluke. Since I'm also surprised with the timing, I'm always have a doubt that there maybe was some mistakes in last year JB 10k Run. Maybe the distance was not actually 10km, maybe I accidentally pushed my stop watch late - I dunno. But this year I had confirmed that the distance is correct - the reading at my GPS showed I ran 9.95km. And I didn't reset my stop watch immediately when I completed the run, so I could confirmed the timing correctly.
2) The fastest pace that I can run is 8.8km/h. I blame it because of my short legs. Ha ha. But with my current stamina condition, I could only maintained it until 6km. My actual pace for a 10km run is 8.5km/h. If I can maintain my run for 8.8km/h throughout the 10km, I would finish it approximately at 1:08.
3) The knee guard that I have been using - Ebene Bio Ray knee guard works perfectly. It exceed all of my expectation. Now I don't have to worry about my knee anymore.
4) If I want to have a partner to run in JB, I can rely to Rosman. He actually had run 5km without stopping for rest during the run. All because the signboard for the 4km mark didn't being placed by the organizer. By his own mistake, he unexpectedly outdone himself.
RUN RATINGS - JOHOR BAHRU 10K RUN 2013
Organizer - 5/5
The organizer pull off one rabbit after another with this event. With the whole pack of goodies, the 3 drink stops & the energy from the volunteers - I'm surprised that the fee was only RM35.
Kit & Goodies - 5/5
The shirt was not the usual sleeveless running shirt so it was quite hot when running. But I'm OK with it because I can use it as an everyday shirt. The medal? The best I have ever got!
Route - 5/5
The route is perfect for me. With flat ground all the way, I could focus to squeeze out the best out of me during this run.
Overall Experience - 6/5
This is the only run that I had given 6 out of 5 star. This is in fact the best run that I had joined this year - and it was really near to home.
To the organizer of the JB 10k Run 2013. If you're reading this, please make sure to do it again next year. Because I'm sure will join!!!!
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