TM Fan Run 2015

TM Fan Run 2015 was held to support our Malaysian contingent to 2015 SEA Games in Singapore. Previous years' edition was held to support our athletes too; in 2012 it was for the London Olympic, 2013 edition was for the SEA Games in Myanmar and 2014 edition for the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

I guess thanks to Telekom Malaysia to make the initiative for this run, we runners get to join a race that has one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest registration fee in town.

I mean, you don't really see races with fees of RM28 for 5K, RM38 for 10K and RM48 for 15K that often nowadays (well, you don't see them). The 2015 edition of TM Fan Run is my first time even though the race has been going on for a few years.

The clincher? Cheap fees. Nice event-tee which will be nice to parade around when or if I race overseas again (hahaha) and the fact that I needed to do an easy 16K run this Sunday as part of my 16-week training plan.

So it worked quite well for me.

Come race morning, Hubby just dropped me off at the race site before driving off. Both Hubby and Son didn't wait for me this time as Son had an outing with friends so both of them shot off to Bangsar.

This was the plan I'm supposed to follow and bearing in mind that I entered the 15K category, I promised Hubby that I'd finish within 2-hours, and keeping an easy 8min/km pace plan.

I knew beforehand that the 15K category was going to be over-distanced as it was shown as 15.6K on their route map but I still stuck to the 8min/km pace.

I arrived around 20 minutes before the flag-off at 7.00am for the 15K category and runners were already lining up at the start line.

Despite my promise to Hubby, I started way at the back because well, it's less stressful that way. ^^

Flag-off was at 7.00am sharp and off we went, after being flagged-off by YB Khairy Jamaluddin. And pretty soon, the roads of Putrajaya became a sea of orange.

Approaching KM2, we were greeted by cheering squads which were indeed nice but I wish there were more especially towards the end of the run. But maybe there were, but I was too slow to see them. Hur hur.

I had absent-mindedly use this option, starting my run, instead of the "running" option so after the first KM and looking at watch and getting confused by the speed (as opposed to pace that I'm more used to), I decided to run on "perceived effort" instead of relying on pace. Easy effort.

Worked quite well for me, and tackling the inclines along the route was manageable and felt... quite easy.

I was feeling rather good, just happily plodding along on easy effort but there was a difference at this race. I promised myself that I won't stop to take photos while running. Stopping to pose for photos with others is a different matter though and that I did. Wahaha

It was great as we approached KM6 after our u-turn as it was there I saw the 5K runners as they were running on the other side of the road. I kept myself occupied scanning for familiar faces as I knew that some friends of mine were doing the 5K. It helped tremendously too to keep my mind off being worried about the inclines that we were facing.

Reaching the second last water station at around KM10.5, I drank 2 cups of 100-Plus (the first two served mineral water only) and somehow it was a big mistake for me during this race. Instead of being energized, I felt really heavy and bloated after drinking the isotonic drink. I coaxed myself to run until I got 12K before finally stopping for walk breaks.

It was somewhat a good timing to do it though, as by this time, the single lane road coned-off for runners was congested and many runners were already doing a slow walk breaks. I just felt it was too much effort too zig-zag past them and I didn't really want to run outside the coned area so I chose to speed-walk instead.

Going up the Jambatan Seri Gemilang, I chose to walk instead of running but I took solace in the fact that I was still within the 2-hour mark and that I was actually walking faster than those who were running up the incline. Hihihi

Finally, after 16K of running (yeay I got my 16K without needing to run extra distance after this run), I reached the finishing line and saw Hubby waiting for me there. *hugs*

OK, so I was 5 minutes late from gun time than what I promised to Hubby but I was happy that I still maintained my desired average pace of 8min/km. I did start a few minutes later too, right? *calculative*

Got my medal, snack packs and I went immediately to look for Hubby again.

We later "lepak"ed with friends who had finished their run way earlier than me, chatted and took tons of photos together.

Haven't seen most of the people in the photo much nowadays, more so in a group like this so it was great meeting them and catch up.

As we din't need to rush home (son being out and all), we lingered a bit at the field in front of PoJ where most of the runners were hanging out before making our way home.

All in all it was a great morning.

• The 16K as per my Polar reading was a bonus. Yes, I was happy that it was over-distanced. The route was manageable and didn't feel too hard (probably wouldn't have felt the same if I needed to push hard though).
• The late 7.00am start wasn't that much a problem to me although admittedly I wilted a bit after KM13 due to the heat.
• Water stations were ample and volunteers helpful. Though I find the guy whom I supposed the captain of the last water station really really damn annoying with his incessant instruction to other volunteers to keep filling up the cups quickly and repeating it over and over without he himself doing much other than standing and making useless noise. 
• Meeting friends are always great but pity I didn't get to meet some. We somehow never bumped into each other.

Now, on to next week's 19K run scheduled. Where should I do it? ^^