SCKLM 2014 - My 6th Full Marathon

When I think back about the day I started doing my 1st full marathon in Singapore, I was afraid to the knees and butterflies because I had: 1. No strategy 2. Unfamiliar with route. This Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2014 is my 6th full marathon, but I am still stuck to ponder points no. 1 and 2 despite all the experiences gained from previous marathons.

SCKLM changed its 42.2km route completely this year. I watched the video recorded by the pacers and to my horror saw two 10 km-stretches along AKLEH and DUKE. That is a total of 20 km of nothing but the highway.

I felt dreadful days leading to SCKLM because the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the race was my Licentiate Chemistry Examination. It was a marathon exam on its own where 6 to 8 hours straight of exams for 3 consecutive days. On the Saturday, there was this practical exam which was itself was an ultra marathon: 3 experiments to be completed in 8 hours including a written report. I did not have lunch because I had no time, hence my carbo-loading was literally - zero.

Well, completing a FM is common, but whether you suffer during the race and post-race, is another question. Completing a FM for 9 hours and suffer? - that is exactly what I am trying to avoid.
My personal best for a FM is during the Borneo Marathon this year of 5 hours 20 minute under the dreaded sun. Read it all about it here.

After Tijani at Bukit Tunku. Thank you Sumer Heh.

I had not much training leading this race, so I did not even set ANY expectations on myself. I want to just complete it below 6 hours without any injury to the finish line. I woke up at 2.30am, took like 4 teaspoons of peanut butter onto 2 pieces of bread, drank like a tonne of water, and drove my hubby and I to the JKR building. Met my bunch of running friends, at the Dataran Merdeka, but got scattered up at the starting line.

At the beginning, the route was rather flat. I ran the first 10 km closely behind my hubby (he didn't know I was stalking him for 10 km). Finished 10 km around 1:05 and felt amazing. After that, I lost my hubby as he sped up totally. He trained like amazing hard for this year's SCKLM.

Then I met AKLEH hiway and the boringness starts. Steels and tar-roads are the only thing that meets your eyes. My hubby was way front, I guess, and I somehow gladly followed the 5:00 pacers (in white balloons) for a around half-hour before I lost them too. ZzzZzZzZzzZzZZzzzz...What kinda rubbish route is this?! At round 17 km, we were led down to MRR2, and then I saw......ta da!....the dreaded and boring DUKE at kilometer-21 for another 10km!. Wah lau, worse than AKLEH. When I arrived at Duke Highway, I saw my clock was 2:19, which is just about my timing for a regular 21 km race.

DUKE highway do sound like royalty, but it's one "pariah" piece of route to run. Yet again, I could only see tar and steel and apartment buildings left and right. No scenes, no trees, just nothingness. I only thanked God for the superb weather (no sunshine), and the slight haze was perhaps, helping. I also felt good leading towards the 30 km mark with zero problems on my legs, as yet. Nevertheless, I felt a sharp pain my neck and shoulders (rarely happens) which could be due to accumulated sleepless nights due to my Chemistry exam and studies.

33 km onwards, I felt a slight pain to my right knee and I had certain pain-indications of a cramp about to come. I lather up a blob of Sloan to my thighs and calf. To tell you the truth, those cream didn't work this time, why lah?! Went down to Tijani at KM 37 and then to the dreaded route near Bank Negara interchange where runners from 10, 21, and 42 km converged. Why dreaded, because that was where a huge crowd of runners and walkers (pasar malam like that) coverged and killed the momentum of "real" runners (i.e. like me who hates crowds). At that route towards Muzium Negara, my right leg was greatly in pain and I piled up on the Sloan cream, but to no avail.

I checked the time when I saw Muzium Negara. 5:05. Damn, I might not be able to finish in my PB, but well, that's not the point, right? When I saw Daya Bumi which was 500 m to the finish line, I ran soo hard, I almost fainted. I could amputate off my right leg that very instance, just that I wasn't given a saw.

200 m to the finish line di. The torture face.

Met Farah at the finish line. Not easy to meet her up!

100 metres to the finish line, I saw Vincent and we had a epic fail hi-five because some runner blocked our hands. Boo. Then, I saw my Hubby! Wee!! That motivates me to sprint albeit frantically to the finish line, and of course, it looks better on the official cameras when you do RUN to end.

So, with not much training, no carbo-loading, no sleep (mere 2 hours), I completed my full marathon in an ugly route in 5:25 gun time. I was so proud and happy because...most importantly...I did not suffer upon completion as much as I would thought (though I had a sadistic thought of purchasing an electric saw to saw off my right leg)

But tell you the truth, I could have done much better with some amount of training. Oh well, there's always another marathon, right?


Ivy-out.

4th Marathon - SCKLM'13

42.195 km was torture last time I did it in Shah Alam. I found out why I was so slow in Malaysia Women's Marathon, Shah Alam back in April. It wasn't that I lacked training because I sure did lots of runs; it was the shoes. Sad to say, Sketchers GoRun2 didn't do it for me for longer than half marathons. No offence, but my Sketchers did help me PB-ed through several half-marathons (e.g. Bidor Marathon 2012). I conquered a hilly route with those shoes, but I felt it was never as comfy as a Adizero Tempo for longer distances. Sketchers was light, but it has too much padding, hence I felt really hot and sweaty in it. Soon after I went through several races with my GoRun, I bought a pair of Adizero. I had once an Adizero before several years back, so I know my feet was very happy to have found its friend again. And this is the first time an Adizero has ever been featured in my Full Marathon.

I fed myself well throughout the week and had many good night's sleep. I surprised myself this year because every time I have a Full Marathon, I suffered insomnia and had jitters at least for 2 days before the race. This year, I slept at 10 pm like a pig, woke up at 2.30 sharp, drove my hubby and myself to JKR building and park (that's the 40 km distance marker!) and walked like a soldier to Dataran Merdeka. I felt normal. I believed the calmness was due to sufficient sleep and no expectations on my performance this year. All I told myself is that I am doing this ALONE this time as my hubby is not pacing with me anymore just like the previous 3 FMs before, and just beat my previous timing of 5hr:47min.

I was taunted by my hubby that I constantly hit the wall after 35 km. People called it 'hitting-the-wall' because you just wanna give up that time and there's like some 'wall' blocking your mind and physical self from pushing any further beyond this point. So, his words became my mantra throughout the race, and I wanted to prove him and myself wrong. I told myself no matter if my leg broke or if my mind went berserk, I need to beat that freaking 35 km. All by myself.

I changed strategy this time. I purposely started in my regular half marathon pace and reach the 10 km mark in 1:05. I also reach the 21 km mark at 2:20 which is also exactly where I would be at a half-marathon race. My strategy was such as I don't care because I knew I am going to hit the wall anyway, but at least I have locked in a quick 21 distance. And also beat the sun.This strategy was rather 'satisfying'. I didn't wanna do a 21 km in 3-hour like previously. I knew I can never run fast after 21km anyway even if I ran a very very slow first half, so my as well do a fast one at the early stage. I learnt a lot about myself after years of running. My limitations and fortes.

21 km mark was about Jalan Raja Chulan. I knew this is it! This is where the real challenge begins for me. The sun has begun to rise and I stopped on every water stations (every 2 km) for a very quick replenishing of my salty systems. I started my runs immediately after each water stations, unlike previous FMs, where I would walk about 500m before starting my pace again. Good strategy this time, it seems.

I reached the 30 km mark on a hot-spot/hot-stretch. Sigh. First, some driver from cars that were caught in the road-blocks were heating up verbally towards the volunteers and traffic police. And this was where the sun was the hottest. It was sooo damn hot that I had a bit of headache creeping up and start topping up on my sunscreen. I need to look pretty, fair, and lovely on my wedding, ok? I had a feeling that this year was hotter than last years. Are you sure this was the same SUN??!?!! Seems just like another solar system's just crashed onto our planet.

30 km was where I told myself: "haiya...just run lahhh". Because at that time my legs still felt great (no pain yet!) and I picked up pace, not bothering of the sun because I believed in my fully-secured white ICI-painted face. Some guy who passed me looked back to note who the hell is this hideous looking running clown. Escaped from a circus ke ape?

35 km: Hey, not too bad. Legs was still fine, but pain starts to creep in on my right thigh (only!) (as usual!). However, I guess the Deep Heat I was carrying was like holy water - soothing the pain. Stride problems, I know. Reached Jalan Duta, turning into our ever familiar Bukit Tunku where we do our weekly LSD/Double hill training. Legs still doing ok. Not bad. Hey, familiarity of the route is an advantage! Guess what, I took a can of Nescafe Ice and I literally fall to my knees and thanked the founder of this wonderful cold drink (Nestle??). Thank you non-official, friendly water-stations. These people are life savers and are wondrous people for standing in the sun serving FOC drinks and fruits. I noticed one of the supporters was my colleague. God bless them all!



Guess what, I didn't hit the wall at 35km. At this point forth, I said: "wow, I felt okay. Let's walk a little at Tijani there and up the 30 degree slope". After the slope, it was 37 km and I was running(!) down towards JKR (saw my car, wishing I could get some aircon from it just for a minute!).


And for the first time ever, I passed the "hitting-the-wall' test.

About the 36th km

40km. I knew Jalan Raja Laut would be a pain in the ass because that's where you see pasar malam 10km, 21km runners (not all, but some berpegangan tangan, berpeluk-pelukan sambil berlengang lenguk). No offense y'all, but sometimes I wanna tell them that the finish line is soooo near di, just put some effort and run there, please. I had to maneuver the last 2.195 km like a freakin' retard to the finished line. Checked my watch: 5hrs:20 min.

Last few metres, I spotted Vincent who already made an agreement with me to take my pics at the finish line. So *snap**snap*. Checked my watched, raised my hands like a champion, no wall in front of me, smiled like a clown, and crossed the finished line in 5hr:25min. Definitely a Personal Best.

Vincent took this. Left 0.195 km to the finish line.

But if you don't know yet, I am-out-of-races (but not runs) for my wedding preparations and a lot of skin-conservation to be done.

3rd Marathon - The Hilly one

I made up my mind to blog all Full Marathons that I've completed.

42.195 ain't a big number for mathematicians, but it's a damn big deal to runners. Of course, there are are 84km, 100km ultra-distances out there, but these are optional kilometres to achieve. To many 'common runners', we just want to finish a 42.195, and cross it out from our buckets list.

Though I've done 2 other full marathons prior to this, I get chills every time I hear the word 'Full Marathon' because every FM is just as tough as the first. This 3rd FM was the inaugural Malaysia Women Marathon, where it is (supposed) to be a all-women marathon event, but you will see the some Martians pacers tagging along. I asked Fong to be my FM pacer for this race as I knew I needed virtual whipping on my butt to keep me going 'til I reach the finish line. It's not easy to run a FM alone, if you're an amateur like me.

Indeed, we have no definitive strategy. The night prior to this FM, we had a pre-talk about the race, and our 'strategy' was to run comfortably at our own pace (slower than 21km pace), and rest at every water-stops after the 10th km. I reminded myself not to curse !*X^#!$&%^ at the 30th km, and enjoy the company of each other.

The route in Shah Alam is super duper hilly. Take for instance the route in front of UiTM is a looooong (feels like neverending) inclination - a steeper version of Penang Bridge (on the bridge going up). If you know Shah Alam, you will know that there are many roundabouts, which I think pose safety issue to runners, especially when most of the cars there are very non-obliging to runners. You can tell that Shah Alam folks ain't used to having runners clogging up their roads. Of course there are Rela/Police trying to stop traffic, but the drivers in Shah Alam are.....hnmmphhhh.....non-accommodating and doesn't bother to stop at all; some cars were spotted to have tailgatted runners. &#&%$@&!

I was happy during the race as I realised all my body parts were fine at 30th km, even though I've been through countless hills. I broke the barrier of not cursing profanities at my pacer and myself (which happened in my previous 2 FMs). Nevertheless, in this race, my legs felt the wrath of FM at the 35th km onward  My right foot (which people has earlier indicated having stride problems) suffered the worst. The sole was giving me pains, but for which you have to ignore...and when the mind comes stronger than you body....you just pushed on, ignoring the pain, just wanting to reach the finish line.

Albeit the hilly route, this race was well organized with water stations/fruits/snacks station every 2 km after the 10th km. Many pro-marathoners turned supporters and came up with their own water/snack booth for the ladies. The supporters were very supportive(?!), and there were drums and positive cheers at selected corners of the race, though I do empathize the residences in Shah Alam having Indian & Chinese drums playing their roads at 5.40am. I felt great with the multitude support that was given to runners before, during and after the race. And at the back of my mind, I was thankful for Miss Kathrine Swtizer, the first women to enter the Boston Marathon, empowering women like I to run a marathon. She was there to flag off the women for this race, and just glad that this race means as much to her as is to me.

Deo's group provided oranges, chocolates and Coke to runners. Thank you. (35km)

I finished the race with a smile, hand-in-hand with my pacer. He was tolerant with me/supportive, and just glad he's not the curse-r like I am. He's still can jump around, did Gangnam and some gymastics after the race. For me, I died-ed upon crossing the finish line. My right foot yearns for some TLC.

This is kilometer no: 42.192

Almost finish. i-City, Shah Alam.

So, there! 3rd marathon pocketed into my history book, and I would like to give some simple simple simple tips to runners who are doing their first FM. (Disclaimer: personal view/notes)

1. Train for long distance. Clock-in the distance, and not how fast you run.
2. Hydrate before the FM race.
3. Eat well (esp. more carbo) a few days before FM.
4. On race day, discard all your gadgets, as they will kill your pace by running too fast. A watch will do. Enjoy the view.
5. Run slower than your half-marathon pace, but not too slow. Keep your energy for the second half of the race. You can feel 'EVERYTHING' at 30km. Beyond 30km (or the last 12km) is where every devil in you arises and your mind starts playing tricks on you (e.g. faking an injury to get to an ambulance, flagging a taxi to the finish line, or fake-hunger pangs, or tendency to go toilet to do No.2, when obviously there's nothing to pass, but air). And of course, the pain. Well, the pain is very real.
6. Bring your running gels...and a tube of Deep Heat.


My next FM is SCKLM. And I will be running this 42.195 all by myself :-)


**Photos are courtesy of Facebook friends/MWM.