Running The Furthest Distance Todate

and I did it at Newton Challenge on Sunday, Dec 30th 2012. A 25km run on very HILLY course. It's hill on hill course. You climb one hill, make a turn and then do another climb. Loooong climb. Repeat a few times throughout the course. @.@ *pant pant*

Slept early on Saturday; at 10pm and woke up bright and early at 2am. Had a big mug of coffee and two slices of bread with peanut butter for breakfast and took my time getting ready. We drove to the race site located in Bandar Kinrara at 4.40am and arrived there a few minutes before 5am. Nice...

Despite arriving early, you won't see me lining up at the start line early though! No No No

I had this scribbled on my left hand - my pace chart, in 3K increments. Target completion time : 3hours 10minute. Slow and easy (IF you are running on a flat route lah). 

The straggler. Last woman out, 4minutes after flag-off. But despite taking my time starting, I was still on "blur" mode.

I had switched off the GPS reading on my Timex and only realised it after running about 1km. Didn't want to reset it again so I ran without the distance shown on my watch. Then after 16minutes of running, I realised that I wasn't listening to songs. Dig into my pocket for my earphones and switching on the playlist on my phone. *so blur*

Felt good the first 14K and just ran with whatever pace that feels right. At certain stretches along the route, we were running in pitch-black darkness. Street lights weren't working at certain route.

 

See that red dot. That's the only thing we can see at certain stretches. It's the volunteers waving the red light-saber thingy to show us to route. 

Nothing much to say about race organisation - normal race organisation, nothing special. Though a bit weird that the 5th water station running out of cups and we had to resort to drinking from the 1.5ltr bottle. @.@

That is why folks, I always run holding my own water bottle. 

Anyhoo, THANK YOU to all race volunteers for forsaking their sleep to help us in the run. ^^

See? Bottle in hand. No water in there also I still hold on to it. Take back home, and send to recycling centre later. Hahaha

Anyways, after the 4th water station, I took turn between running and power-walking. Walk uphill and let loose going downhill. Can feel blisters forming from KM17 onwards but it wasn't too painful. Just one small bloody blister this time. Nothing like what I had when I did the CICM Run in November.

Eezard passed me somewhere around KM16 (I think) while I was walking and munching my Hammer chewies. Then, at the 7th water station (lost count lah, and brain was rather fuzzy at KM20 or so) Nannoor's husband Ib passed me. Then, at KM22, Farisha passed me pulak. Huhuhu

Despite getting passed by these people, I was still unwilling to push till it hurts so I just ran, picking up pace downhill and walking uphill. Lazy runner. I fully realised that I am a lazy racer. I am completely unwilling to exhaust myself and go all-out in a race. I need to rectify this. So need to. Hmmm....

To those who can push to the limits - you have my respect. Salute. Tabik. I can never (or won't) do that.

3hours 06min later (or at gun time, 3hours 10min later), I arrived to the finish line. I got to know that the route was under-distanced, instead of 25km, it was just 24K. A 3hour 06minutes for 24km would mean I ran at an average pace of 7:46/minute which is way slower than my intended pace of 7:36/minute. Shoot!

Arrived the finish line, beg for my medal (nobody seems to want to pass me a medal so I actually had to ask one of the volunteers to pass me a medal). Must be the bat ears. Hahaha Then, posing time!

Nick who were awesome with 2:36 despite having an ankle injury. Respect!

With fellow running gals, Nannoor & Farisha. Congrats on superb timing!

With running couple, Nannoor and her husband Ib.

With Eezard and Gus.

With Rashid, whom I first met during the MAKNA Run earlier this month. Congrats on the superb timing you did! :)

All in all, I had fun. Though feeling a bit bitter for not having the chance to eat any watermelon after finishing the run. No more watermelon for us late arrivals. I guess all kena sapu by the 12K runners and those fast 25K runners. Next time, must run faster to eat watermelon! Hahaha No milo van also. No free breakfast so buy own breakfast lor...

Fragrant nasi lemak with cockles. Calories out, calories in. Nyummm...

Next order of business - wash stinky clothes and iron Raimie's school uniform. He doesn't want to volunteer ironing them yet. ;p

Before I forgot - HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! Who's doing LSD this New Year day? I'm planning to do a 21K. Maybe 21K run around the carpark? Imagine round and round the carkpark for 3 hours. kakaka