Saucony Run For Good

I've been entering a race every Sunday since the first week of July; with Hulu Langat Marathon on the 7th, followed by NPE Highway Challenge on the 14th, then FMM ActivRun on the 21st, and SCORE Run on the 28th. 

For the month of August I'm starting it with Saucony Run on the 4th.

It's a nice mixture of distance that I ran these past few weeks - as I've joined a full marathon, half marathon, 15K, 10K and even a 5K fun run.

Instead of registering for a 30K at Saucony Run, I entered the 15K instead. I have no more upcoming marathons to train for this year so I don't really need the mileage.

However, coincidentally, the training plan that I purchased from The Running Plan for my 10K at SCKLM 2019 required me to run 16K last Sunday. So the 15K fit just nice.

The run didn't start without drama because I had a tummy issue due to some extra spicy sambal petai that I ate on Saturday.

So it was repeat visits to the toilet until 15 minutes before flag-off time.

Thank goodness my training plan only requires me to run a Gear 2 pace which meant an "easy run" somewhere under 8:20min/km pace.

I took a bottle of Beet It Sports at home before we head out to the race site as my "breakfast" and it did sustain me for the whole duration of the run.

The first 2K was easy on a flat route so I went a bit faster that I should. We encountered a longish hill approaching KM3 where the first water station (WS) was located. I was quite happy to be able to maintain a good running pace uphill.

The plan was to run steadily and at a controlled pace so I didn't employ the run-walk method this time. I did however walk for a 100m or so after taking a drink at each WS though.

There was even a WS serving Red Bull and this is also where a mobile prayer section was located for 30K runners.

I did wasted some time here to take photos. Haha

After KM9, I started to see my friends who were doing the 30K running the same route as I did. I tried to give salam, holler to them or at the very least, wave to them and feeling mighty relieved that I signed up for the 15K! LOL

Cyberjaya route can be rather boring with nothing much to see, so it was nice to have looping route (for me lah) where you can see your friends on the other side of the road.

Another bonus for Cyberjaya route is the minimal traffic runners encounter as we run, unlike in KL.

I was still running at an average 8min/km pace until KM12 when I approached the last WS.

The WS here served bananas for 15K runners and with only 3K to go!

I enjoyed chilled 100-Plus here (the only one I encountered along the route serving chilled isotonic) then decided to linger and ate a banana and take some photos.

I probably wasted 4 minutes here - eating, drinking, chatting with volunteers and taking photos. 

Of course, it was a bit hard to start running again after that lah!

KM13 was where we encountered another hilly section and I decided to walk here. Walk only a bit then I saw a photographer stationed at the top of the hill taking photos.

So, what to do? Run lah. Must get nice photos of me running what! And he did! Thank you.

From there I just plodded slowly, maintaining an 8 something/km pace. There was a downhill section at KM14 so it was nice to pick up pace there. Some photographers were also stationed there and I made sure I ran near them.

There was this final long flat section, about 700m to reach the finish line. I actually started walking here, which I always did in other races too. Dunno why so mental to run this section!

I thought I'd run again after the last bend for the final 150m but then... got photographers leh. So how? Run leh.

After the bend, I saw Hubby taking photos so I ran towards him. But he told me to go back again for him to take my photos again. So pusing balik about 50m for better photos.

Looks rather nice right? So worth the extra distance I did for this photo. Hahaha

As I crossed the finish line, two friends called me and took my photos under the FL arch. Thank you Aiza!

Got my medal, and a bottle of cold mineral water, skipped the refreshments (bihun, cendol, etc) and head straight to Hubby and took over photography duties.

We were there until 9.50am or so, taking photos and lepaking with friends. Thank you Afzal for bringing cups of Milo.

I didn't stay until the 5hours COT for 30K as my stomach had started to rumble again and I needed to find a toilet fast!

I'm happy that I managed to finish the run as per my training plan and doubly happy that I didn't chicken out from running uphill. 

There's no race for us this Sunday as it is Hari Raya Haji Celebration but we'll be doing EE Run and Larian Bersama Bomba next Saturday and the TMMT the Saturday after that.

Photos taken during Saucony Run 2019 can be viewed at our Cik Arnab & Encik Kura-Kura Facebook page.

Do LIKE and FOLLOW us for more race photos, updates and occasionally giveaways.