Sunday, December 25, 2005

My longest run in my life: MR25 12hrs ultramarathon

Note: This is a super long event and I do not have the memory to remember evey single details...below are wat is in my memory at the point of typing It was early morning 610am and was pouring rain and dogs. TheLonelyRunner and his parent came to picked me up in the wet morning. As we travelled along PIE...the rain came heavier and heavier....we was thinking what will happen to the MR25 Ultramarathon which is starting at 7am....we reached MR25 carpark and saw runners pouring carrying umbrella and raincoat...the run will go on...we registered ourself and waiting for the event to start. Meanwhile, run.run.runaway, astrogirl, WS, ultraman, tiwazz, sotong, philips and many other familiar faces came by....at 7am sharp when the sky is still pouring, the run was flagged off.... I was still not ready and started a minute later with run.run.runaway, astrogirl and WS on my Salomon Techamphib. And here, 4 of us started our first ever attempted on ultramarathon. It was an annual finale event organised by MR25 running club which runners was given 12hrs to finish as many rounds as possible. 10 fastest and most number of laps will have prizes and runners completed 5 runs of 52.5km will be given an exclusive event tee. after running about 100m, we were shocked to see a big group of sgrunners doing stretching and warmups...we joined in a while and started off after a few minutes...it was very wet and the ground was water-logged....basically, we were all wet and soaked in the morning rain. after a few minutes of running as a group, we started to break off slowly and each of us went at our own pace. As usual, I will adopted my run/walk strategy. The slopes was a killer to my strategy as i have to adjust accordingly. After my first round, not feeling so good as the body was still unadapted to the wet terrain and weather...but the cool environment did help to keep the body cool. lucky i was wearing my Amphib shoes, my socks and shoes was dry when i reached the end point. After finishing first round, i decided to take a banana and hold a powergel eat at the waterpoint about 3.5km away. I did not rest more than 3 min before i take off again. The second round was still a wet run but the weather started to calm down. I ended strong after 21km. This time, I took 2 bananas at the start/end point for my 3rd round and held on to a powergel for the waterpoint and went comfortably away. I met quite a few familiar runners at my third round...but but i have forgotten what has happened. So not going to elaborate more...remember meeting gentle and also YankeeII who complaint to me after run.ruin.runaway running too fast and he has to give up. Finished my 3rd round strongly and i believe i might be able to go beyond 5 rounds. taking 2 bananas and holding on to the powergel, i did not rest more than 5min before i went off again. I feeling great during this round mainly becos my body has warmed up. i even felt second wind during the last 3km part but i decided to hold my ground for more rounds later. The ground is till wet and muddy. Luckily, I wore my Techamphib, my socks and shoes was able to dry by the time i reached back the start/end point. I decided to change my shoes after my 5th round if i was OK to carry on,...I finished the 4th round which is a full marathon distance at a decent time of 5hrs 30min which my fastest lap time. still feeling good, i only stopped for less than 5min after eating all the necessary food and drinks. The 5th round was quite a torture as my legs started to feel the strain, i decided to take more walk breaks....still feeling good and push on, i slowed down my pace so that i still feel comfortable..in less than 1km after start, run.run.runaway suddenyl came by with choonwei and dasher who were accompany her....as usual, she was going with a fast speed...cannot see her minutes after she past me. I pressed on and on and finished the 5th round feeling strong. Decided to push on for 6th round, i changed my Techamphib to my salomon XA pro 2 which has more support and fresh cushioning. I took a longer break of about 10min. Took the necessary food and drink, pushed on for my 6th. the legs started to get heavy for a start but after the midpoint, my legs were able to flow smoothly..finsihed my round feeling a bit lousy but with 3.5hrs more to cut-off time, i decided to go for the last 7th round...maybe i will walked for the whole 10.5km which will take about 2hrs. I started for a while before i met gentle. He finished his 3 rounds in the morning, went home for christmas lunch before coming back in the afternoon to finish the remaining 2 rounds. he was walking and he said he just take stroll...but he decided to follow me and we can keep each other company....he told me that astrogirl was in front and he wanted to overtake her. As my previous 5 rounds, i continue to do run/walk and gentle try to follow....i slowed my runs and actually we walked a lot chatting all the way...very comfortable and interesting last lap for me....saw astrogirl at the golf course and we decided to catchup up slowly...finally, we past her at the last 2.5km from the end. Gentle and myself was doing a very good pace and we finished strongly with astrogirl finishing behind us. I managed to finished 7laps of 73.5km in 10hrs 12min. having my alst 7th lap as my slowest lap of 10min slower than the average of my first 5 laps....a great achievement for my 1st time doing distance longer than marathon with no special training for it...just a light maintainance run and tapering after my Singapore Marathon. After reporting, i was told that I was within the top 10!!! a big big surprise for christmas this year!!! my 1st marathon finish is a great accomplishment...but this is even a greated achievement than that..... I must really thanks all the sgrunners who supported me during my 10 hrs run. Without them, i doubt i was able to complete 7 laps comfortable. below is my 10.5km lap timing for every run including rest time: lap 1: 1hr 24min lap 2: 1hr 19min lap 3: 1hr 21min lap 4: 1hr 21min lap 5: 1hr 27min lap 6: 1hr 38min <- 10min rest lap 7: 1hr 39min total time: 10hrs 12min total distance: 73.5km position: 8th for my 8th position, i got the following prizes: 1) extra MR25 Ultramarathon 2005 polo tee 2) a NIKE backpack 3) a NIKE waistpouch 4) a pair of NIKE socks 5) a pair of NIKE Free shoes (got both right side of the shoes 8-( ) Photos: I've fall in love with ultramarathon. I can't run fast, but i can run long. Cheers.....................

Friday, December 23, 2005

2 days to Ultra-Marathon and Christmas

just 2 days more to Christmas...and my first ultra marathon My last run is on monday...tuesday played badminton....no exercise at all till now and also even to sunday....hope i can survive the 5 rounds after this long rest have been eating a lot for these 2 days mainly due to free buffet and also food from christmas celebration..... Cheers....and Merry Christmas to everyone on planet earth!!!

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Makan Cycling!!!

This is Out-Of-topic entry …One of the interesting Post-marathon event that I was jio to take part with SK, JM and WS. The date was 17 Dec 2005 6pm (actually is yesterday). It was pouring heavily….I just woke up from my sleep waiting for the time to past…..confirmed that the event will go on due to the rain, I decided to go to the meeting point at ECP MacD early. The rain started to get lighter…I reached MacD and found the participants and organizers for the event. So I waited patiently for my teammates to arrive and the briefing for the event to start…….All my 3 other teammates have their own bikes except for me…so I got to make do with the rented bike…. JM arrived at about 8.30pm but SK and WS were still on the road peddling their way to meet us. At 9pm, the finally arrived…we waited shortly and organizer started to get thigns going…..I collected the bike and briefing was done… This is a cycling cum eating event called Makan Cycling organized by NUS ODAC and cycling club. All teams will be escorted by a safety official cyclist and we are supposed to go to 7 checkpoints to eat the designated food within a budget of $6. The team that comes in first will get a $50 Royal Sporting House voucher….But overall, it is just a fun cycling cum eating session. We took off at 9.30pm at East coast park Kit runners bike rental…just after 10min of cycling, JM’s rear tyre gave way, we heard a loud hissing sound and he stopped his bike immediately for a check….we found a teared at the side of the tyre….we took 15 min to mend the tyre while we watched the rest of the teams cycling past us….. Took off at about 10pm…..we are supposed to go to ADAM ROAD MARKET to eat SATAY!!!….i lead the way and got my teams detoured by a easier to cycle road until bukit timah road where we just follow the road ahead….reached our destination and took 10 satays…..next point is Johnson Lock Duck rice at Upper Bukit Timah Road… After fighting with the traffic for a while, we finally reached the location but found the shop to be closed……in the end, we brought 2 plates of duck rice from the store nearby…found that we are number 4th team to arrived…next destination is behind NUS for Nasi Lemak. Quite near to our Checkpoint 2 but the up slopes are a killer and the downslopes is fantastic!!! We shared a plate of nasi lemak and the next checkpoint is at the other side of the island: Joo Chiat Fei Fei wanton Mee….. The journey to the east is the longest between 2 checkpoints….2 of us knew the location so we had no difficulty finding the place after a long boring ride…..to our surprised, we caught up with the 3 teams in front of us!!! 2 of the teams took quite a while to find the place which slowed them down a lot….took 2 big bowls of the famous wanton mee, we are supposed to head westward to Lavender Mixed Pig organ soup. Went by the dangerous and happening geylang, we had no difficulty getting to the location…Had a bowl of soup and off we go again to our next food: You Tiao & Tou jiang at geylang lorong 9….we had a do a backtrack back and this time, we ordered more food…..trying to stuff them in despite our bloated stomach….The next point is our final checkpoint at simpang bedok for prata….. Not a difficult place to find, we cruise along the road and found the place easily…we were the second team to arrived…ordered mushroom cheese prata, milo dinosaur and bandung, we make our journey back minutes after the first group left. We took a easier road by bedok road and east coast road….we met up with the first team along bedok south road and followed them all the way to the end point….. We arrived and completed at 4am in the morning…….from the estimation, only the first 4 teams can finish by 6am…the rest will have difficulty to finish the route….. This was a fun event for 4 of us as all of us have not been cycling regularly and we managed to cover 70km in 6hrs with 7 makaning place and bloated stomach!!! Well done to my team and hopefully, we will be back again in action for our adventure race next year!!! Cheers………….

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Post Marathon

Life after marathon is aimless and lost for a while before I regained my composure to think about next year goals….going to be busy next year for first half and I guess, I going to miss the fun going KL marathon with Sgrunners. It is now 2 weeks after marathon. Legs and body was recovering well….at least I felt much better compared to my after 30km training run. I started running 6 days after at Macritchie with my usual gang to get our legs to familiar the ground again. This year, some of us are ambitious enough to go for the MR25 Ultramarathon on Christmas day. After this run, I took a easy tempo run on Wed for 2 rounds around Bedok Reservoir to see how my legs are. The next day, Thurs nite was the first time I joined the 3rd Running Labs Run. A group of us from Sgrunners also joined in…We went for an any how run at Fort Canning for half an hour which we agreed that this is not a suitable place to run in future. This morning, I went Macritchie again..but this time with Sgrunners as my gang have went oversea for holiday for this weekend. We had a good one round to check out the timing for the Ultramarathon round…we took a decent 1hr 11min which I think we can slow down more during the actual day. woodstock and blur sotong: carine, tiwazz, bug and jennifery warming up:

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

My Running Life 2005

Decided to do a summary of my running life for this year as Standard Chartered Marathon is supposed to be the finale of my Run life this year. Life after the Marathon will be recovery and also a final long run at MR25’s 12hrs MacRitchie ultramarathon. This run will be the final celebration run for the year before we start a brand new running year. This year is my second year of “serious” long distance running and the goal/objective is to complete my first marathon. A year full of ups and downs, of the 5 races completed, Only my first MILK run and final marathon are done to my ability. The rest of the 3 are not completed properly due to my bronchitis relapses. However, this is considered a very fruitful year as the main goal/objective to complete a marathon was met!!! Here the summary of highlights by month: Jan: My bronchitis relapsed 1 week before SCM 2004 and lasted until this mid-month. Started to do light running round bedok reservoir to get my engine going. Feb: Consistent running has boosted my fitness to recover this month. Started to go macritchie reservoir run during my last weekend. Mar: Increased regular run at bedok reservoir to 2 rounds of 8.6km. Did legs and paddles with WS and finished my 5km run for 25min 25sec after kayaking. Apr: Went to ECP for my first long run. Did 11km for 1hr 8min on the first weekend. Continued to go macritchie run. Final weekend did a longest run of 18km, finishing in 1hr 52min. One of the longest mileage for the month in the early months. May: Macritchie Run became more regular. If I not wrong, this is the first time I met runX3 during a macritchie trek. 2 weeks before her KK trek with astrogal. I did one run trek with my runX3 and frens after I completed running one round earlier in the morning. June: Regular macritchie run during weekends and ECP long run for the last weekend. Preparing for MILK Run in early July. started jioing more and more frens to join in my regular sat macritchie run. July: Finished MILK 10km in my PB of 48min 39sec. Met Sgrunners for the first time during NB REAL Run trial run at sentosa. Completed 10km for the first time in exactly 1hr. Regular runs increased to 10.3km. Did my first half marathon run at ECP with Sgrunners in a time of 2hrs 12min. Aug: Down with Bronchitis again. Not much running for the whole month. Got better towards the end of the month when I did New Balance Real Run 10km in a time of 1hr 6min. Sept: A busy month but my bronchitis still hanging and my health is not 100%. Die Die got to do IPPT and finished my 2.4km in 11min 07sec and still managed to get $200 outof it. Did Mizuno Wave Run 10km in a time of 59min 7sec. One week later, did Sheares Bridge Run & Army Half Marathon in 2hrs 29min 17 sec. My health started to recover during the mid-month. Oct: Pickup my fitness quite fast and tried a 21km for 2hrs 11min in the early month. Increased my mileage quite fast and completed 25km in mid-month for 2hrs 51min. Nov: Panic button pressed. One month to Marathon and mileage still not enough. Tried Galloway’s run/walk strategy on my 24.3km run and did well in 2hrs 31min. using run/walk, managed a comfortable 30km in 3hrs 15min. Confidence rose. Tapering starts as we did a half marathon run/walk in 2hrs 10min. Dec: Completed my virgin marathon in 4hrs 45min57sec!!! Life still goes on and on ...............

Marathon statistics analysis

Result Analysis is out. This is one of the most interesting feature of this race. To have the analysis of your race statistics. Gun Time: 4hr 50min 48s Net Time: 4hr 45min 57s Average pace (km): 6min 47sec/km Average pace (Mile): 10min 54sec/mile Average Speed: 8.9 kph/5.5mph Positions: 1199th of the overall finisher 25% of the finisher ahead 1067th of all the male finisher 25% of the male finisher ahead 678th of all Singapore Male finisher 20% of the Singapore male finisher ahead Ahead of 78% female finisher 4808 finisher of which 12% are female and 88% male

Sunday, December 04, 2005

VIRGIN MARATHON COMPLETED!

It was 3am in the morning when my alarm sounded. Started to try and get my bowel moving so that I can run lighter later.....finally finished all the prep and catched a cab at 4am....met up with the rest of the gang at capitol centre carpark before we proceed to esplanade to get ready.....keep drinking water to keep myself hydrated sicne i woke up...went to pee for a couple of times until we finally got ourself into the pen...we were light couple of hundred metres away from the startline....J and I went at our usual pace while we lost the rest of the gang. We decided to walk for 2min at every 2km mark. the music rocks and the race finally started at 6am sharp..the moment we have waiting for the past 6 months.the group of us walked for 5min before we reached the starting line and started squeezing among the crowd...as expected, the route to marina south was squeezing due to the small 2 lane road....as we pass the 4km mark, the elite kenyans started to fly pass us at the opposite direction and everyone started to cheer for them. we met a lot of familiar faces and started greeting each others...at about 10km, we had our first packet of powergel. The sky started to bighten up and the sun was out shining with intensed heat....the 2nd part of the route was from shenton way to east coast park...we started to feel the strain from the heat and i started pouring water on my head....cool finally reach east coast park at abt 19km....at 20km, i took my powergel. J was feeling bloated and decided to take later. most part of east coast park was shady so the run was very comfortable..in fact, we went faster without realising..J was hyper and wanted to surge ahead and i got to pulled her back...met a lot of familiar faces as the front runners came back at the other direction. As we reached the lagoon, the sun was right in front of us and the heat was really unbearable. we U-turned after bedok Jetty at about 26km and free powergel was given out....J took 2 packs and I took 1 from the volunteer ad squeezed them into my little pouch. as we pass 27km..I started to feel the strain of the run....went slower and push on...we reached the sgrunners support table at 30km. I took J's gatorade mixed while J took a packet of powergel...slowly, I started to feel bloated and started to feel my stitches coming...shit...i must have drank too much isotonic drinks....the heat continue to strain the body and my heart started to feel the strain. At 33km, I told J to go ahead as I struggled with my bloated stomach and stitches...I decided to walk for 3min at every km mark...it was here that the strong separated from the weak...as we see more and more walkers....my strategy works well as I still can maintain within 15min for every 2km mark...poured water over my head at every waterpoint, I started to feel my bloated stomach went away...but my heart started to strain after about 3min of run...i started to take more walk before run at 39km mark, J gave a pat on my arms and i was shocked!! how can she be behind me? she said she hit the wall at 37km and finally got over it...she went ahead again and slowly disappeared away from my sight as i continue my struggle...at the esplanade, a familiar face appeared and gave me a big shock!! is Alvo...one of those Sgrunners confidence of a sub-4 marathon....he hit the wall badly and was walking to the end...down the esplanade bridge, i took a whole bottle of ice mountain and pour over my head before i surge forward and open up my strides....it did not last long as my heart feels pressured...not taking any chance, i walk again until the last 200m before i speed up for the last time... crossed the finishing line at a gun time of 4hrs 50min...my watched stopped at 4hrs 46min...whatever the timing, I managed to complete my first ever marathon within 5hrs ALIVE!!! linked up with J and WS...collected our medal and tee, we went for a good massage...met up with the sgrunners for a while before we went to look for the rest...12noon has passed and we went back to J's car and everyone was there...found out that SK did not finished his run due to over-exhaustion...he must be disappointed..hope he will be back next year, stronger and fitter...S came back in a strong time of 5hrs 18min and JM came back 6hrs 01min cos he did not train at all....well done everyone...we washed up and went funan foodcourt for a good lunch, linked up with the sgrunners before we head home for a good rest...Overall, it was a very good run for me...i guess the last 9km strain is due to the lack of mileage which i try my best to improve next year. But the run-walk strategy works well and wonders...had a good first half marathon within targeted time.....not able to do negative splits but the second half timing was not too far away from the first....biggest mistake was I did not train for isotonic drinks for a hot day and I took too much to replenish my salt loss..lesson learn and hope to improve next year.... Date: 4 Dec 2005 Time 6.00am Shoes: Mizuno Wave Rider 8 Lap: 2km for 14:13min@7:07min/km 4km for 27:53min@6:58min/km 2km for 13:35min@6:48min/km 2km for 12:52min@6:26min/km 2km for 13:08min@6:34min/km 4km for 25:01min@6:15min/km 2km for 14:50min@7:25min/km 4km for 23:10min@5:48min/km 2km for 12:51min@6:26min/km 2km for 12:45min@6:23min/km 2km for 13:15min@6:38min/km 2km for 13:25min@6:43min/km 2km for 14:05min@7:03min/km 2km for 14:34min@7:17min/km 2km for 13:58min@6:59min/km 2km for 14:41min@7:21min/km 1km for 07:10min@7:10min/km 1km for 07:20min@7:20min/km 1km for 07:39min@07:39min/km 1.195km for 08:06min@6:47min/km Split: 02km@0h14:13min 06km@0h42:07min 08km@0h55:43min 10km@1h08:36min 12km@1h21:44min 16km@1h47:09min 18km@2h02:16min 20km@2h13:12min 21km@2h20min 22km@2h26:06min 24km@2h38:58min 26km@2h51:43min 28km@3h04:59min 30km@3h18:24min 32km@3h32:29min 34km@3h47:04min 36km@4h01:02min 38km@4h15:43min 39km@4h22:54min 40km@4h30:14min 41km@4h37:54min 42.195km@4h46:00min Average pace: 6:52min/km Cheers........................... running a marathon is a journey of life, it has up and downs, good and bad, and you get to meet new faces.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

10 hrs to marathon

As I was writing this....it is 10hrs away from the start of my first ever arathon of my life..... had a great gathering with the sgrunners at suntec swensens this afternoon....cheers each others and exchanging plans and tips....cyberkinetics also brought his fren from US down to meet us...one of the runners from HKrunners also joined in.....and first time met several sgrunners like lyn & siong, pre & cheery runners.....run.run.runaway and astrogirl also made special appearance....... cheers to all runners and all the best to your run.......

Thursday, December 01, 2005

2Days 7hrs to marathon

it is now 2Days and 7 hrs more to marathon when i typing this entry........... The day has come...the key to the journey....the collection of the race pack.... This year race expo was held in conjunction with Sports & Fitness Expo at Suntec convention centre. I reach at about 6.30pm and the queue was cleared.....only took less than 3 min to get my stuff....this year race pack comes with a shoe bag (not again) which is smaller size than last year...A very very nice and comfy climacool event singlet from adidas with StandChart company colours.....very nice piece of event tee which is the best looking and best material so far.....On top of that, 4 Vitmin pills from Berroca, a free packet of pasta from flitz, a one for one swimming pool entry voucher and race information booklet...And last but not least, my championship chip and number tag with a 4D of 4283.....basically as shown in the photo below After collecting my race pack, I met up with the usual gang: dasher, astrogirl, astrogirl's sister, run.run.runaway and x20a.freedom...I also linked up with 136f????(sorry fren, dunnoe how to spell) from sgrunners....we had a small walked around the expo...interestingly, found the dive shop which i took my OWD was in charge of the diving booth....said hi to the gang there and just beside it, Adrian Mok is conducting his marathon talk....we "sneak" in to listen to some tips before we carry on....found the chiropratic booth havinf free sphine check and my result is below on the left 2 diagrams: I was basically having muscle stress on the left at the neck area and my right side at my lower back....not too bad....but maybe if i got $$$, I might use the $80 voucher given for a thorough test and treatment... across the booth, found L2S foot sports injuries specialist Dr Leong's booth having free foot analysis...i have never done one before so I had a try at it.....result was interesting: I have medium arch on my left and high arch on my right..which is exactly the same feel when i run which my left is neutral and my right supinates I am bowed legged which might be the result for the irregularities when checking my achilies tendon from the back when i bended my knees, it actually bends outwards which is the indication of pronation..hmm..might try stability shoe next time.... but so far I hvae no feet or knee injuries or issues....so Dr Leong said, my posture is actually balanced..the irregularities are ok for me.....heng heng man.....hahaaa we ended our walk and went for dinner together at suntec food court....decided where to meet this sunday and went home for a good rest...... Hope everything goes smoothly this sunday...... cheers.................

2 days and 14hrs to marathon

just 2 days...tonite will be the start of the race pack collection and I should be down with my usual gang...might meet up with one or 2 Sgrunners too.... Did a comfortable tempo run last nite.....weather is cool and good... %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Date: 11/30/2005 Time: 7:30 AM Shoes: ASICS GEL CUMULUS VI Route: Bedok Reservoir (1 round) Total distance: 4.3 Kilometers Total time: 22:38 Average Pace: 5:16 / Kilometer

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