MGPA Race Report
I didn't know it was that hilly! It was one of the hardest I had ever raced. DPC hill was no stranger to most of the runners here so I tend to use that hill for comparison. This route was as hilly as if not more hilly than the DPC water tank stretch and it was longer! Way longer! The hardest climb was the 300m stretch where 10km route merged with 5km route and there were few climbs like that. Tough until most of us had to walk!
This race had no cash prize and it awarded trophy for top 10 finishers. That was the reason I signed up for, without knowing Taman Botani Shah Alam was that far and without knowing the route was that hilly. I kind of regretted when I looked up the Google Map for the location of the race pack collection and it told me 1 hour to drive. Luckily Don Koh offered himself to collect the kits for us and thanks Jing Jing for passing the kit for me! Million thanks!
As usual, I reach 1 hour before the flag off. Met the familiar faces and saw some unexpected runners like Murali, Saddam and Asdi. I had no idea why they would come for a race that gave no cash prize. There were many other races on that day that gave better prizes. They could just win easily without having to fight so hard. OK, this one was not hard for them too but this race gave nothing. Maybe they enjoyed the feeling of bullying the slow runners like me. LOL. JK.
The race started at 7:15am which was a 15 minutes delay due to they thought it was. The website clearly stated that the 10km flag off time was 7am and they denied it. Well, you couldn’t expect much from a small race like this. Apart from this, other things were fine. At least I didn’t encounter other problems so still not too bad organised.
So 7:15 flagged off and I didn’t know what was waiting. The race began with an uphill. I left all my big pacing theory behind and just glued myself to the lead pack. I was trying to follow them as much as possible. Lewis, Osman and Naresh were together with me. We were on 3:50~4:00 pace for the first 3km. I counted our position and we were right at 6th to 9th in Men Open right behind Zuezie, Chee Koon, Saddam, Ching Keong and Asdi. At about km-5, I started to pay for the cost of going out too fast at the beginning. I figured I still had 5km to go no way I could hold up until the end so I slow down and Lewis overtook me at this point.
At km-6, we came to merge with 5km runners and came to the hill I mentioned above and I started to walk, my HR shot up to 182 and I knew I couldn’t hold it anymore. Osman overtook me at this point and my position dropped to 8th. We kept overtaking each others on this stretch. I saw him walking then I walked too, he speed up I speed up too. LOL! There were a few up and down here, I walked almost all of them but luckily I was able to maintain the 7~8th until the last uphill which was about 1.5km left, I heard footsteps approaching and I looked back, OMG, it was David and Naresh. They were just like 20 to 30m behind me. OK, speed up! I had been cruising on moderate effort for the last 3~4km, I should push for the last stretch so I ran as hard as possible. Naresh pushed too, I could hear his footsteps and breathing. Right 100m before the finishing line, we overtook Lewis which had already slow down and walked due to the discomfort. It was not his day but luckily he still made it to the top 10! I got 6th, Naresh 7th, David 8th and Osman 9th.
It was under distance and the timing was not really good but it was too hilly that I'm very satisfied with winning the top 6. But seriously, I had just blacklisted this route. First thing in my mind after the run was luckily I didn't sign up for the CICM which is a HM that will be running in this same park! I was so tempted to sign up due to it was the race that I made my HM PB twice in the past.
OK, now I just need more hill training!
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| Hard earn podium! |
This race had no cash prize and it awarded trophy for top 10 finishers. That was the reason I signed up for, without knowing Taman Botani Shah Alam was that far and without knowing the route was that hilly. I kind of regretted when I looked up the Google Map for the location of the race pack collection and it told me 1 hour to drive. Luckily Don Koh offered himself to collect the kits for us and thanks Jing Jing for passing the kit for me! Million thanks!
As usual, I reach 1 hour before the flag off. Met the familiar faces and saw some unexpected runners like Murali, Saddam and Asdi. I had no idea why they would come for a race that gave no cash prize. There were many other races on that day that gave better prizes. They could just win easily without having to fight so hard. OK, this one was not hard for them too but this race gave nothing. Maybe they enjoyed the feeling of bullying the slow runners like me. LOL. JK.
The race started at 7:15am which was a 15 minutes delay due to they thought it was. The website clearly stated that the 10km flag off time was 7am and they denied it. Well, you couldn’t expect much from a small race like this. Apart from this, other things were fine. At least I didn’t encounter other problems so still not too bad organised.
So 7:15 flagged off and I didn’t know what was waiting. The race began with an uphill. I left all my big pacing theory behind and just glued myself to the lead pack. I was trying to follow them as much as possible. Lewis, Osman and Naresh were together with me. We were on 3:50~4:00 pace for the first 3km. I counted our position and we were right at 6th to 9th in Men Open right behind Zuezie, Chee Koon, Saddam, Ching Keong and Asdi. At about km-5, I started to pay for the cost of going out too fast at the beginning. I figured I still had 5km to go no way I could hold up until the end so I slow down and Lewis overtook me at this point.
At km-6, we came to merge with 5km runners and came to the hill I mentioned above and I started to walk, my HR shot up to 182 and I knew I couldn’t hold it anymore. Osman overtook me at this point and my position dropped to 8th. We kept overtaking each others on this stretch. I saw him walking then I walked too, he speed up I speed up too. LOL! There were a few up and down here, I walked almost all of them but luckily I was able to maintain the 7~8th until the last uphill which was about 1.5km left, I heard footsteps approaching and I looked back, OMG, it was David and Naresh. They were just like 20 to 30m behind me. OK, speed up! I had been cruising on moderate effort for the last 3~4km, I should push for the last stretch so I ran as hard as possible. Naresh pushed too, I could hear his footsteps and breathing. Right 100m before the finishing line, we overtook Lewis which had already slow down and walked due to the discomfort. It was not his day but luckily he still made it to the top 10! I got 6th, Naresh 7th, David 8th and Osman 9th.
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| 10km Men Open Top 10 finishers. Behind: Ching Keong (2nd), Chee Koon (4th), Me, Naresh (7th), David (8th) Front: Saddam (3rd), Zuezie (5th), Asdi (1st), Lewis (10th), Osman (9th) |
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| With friends |
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| Congrats Jun Wen on winning 2nd and Chris 3rd in 5km. Lewis got the 10th in 10km! |
It was under distance and the timing was not really good but it was too hilly that I'm very satisfied with winning the top 6. But seriously, I had just blacklisted this route. First thing in my mind after the run was luckily I didn't sign up for the CICM which is a HM that will be running in this same park! I was so tempted to sign up due to it was the race that I made my HM PB twice in the past.
OK, now I just need more hill training!
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