PJ Half Marathon Race Report
I signed up this race as it has been my bread and butter race since 2011. They stopped organizing in year 2013 and resumed last year so this time was my 4th time joining it. The reason I like it isn't because the race itself is good. In fact, they still have a lot of works to make it better. The reason I like is because it's always held near the months that I prepare for my goal race which I've reach or almost reach my top form. I can achieve a decent result and take it as the benchmark for my subsequent races. These are my result in the past:
30/10/11, 20.7km, 1:34:28 (1:36:31), Men Open 24th
30/09/12, 20.7km, 1:32:58 (1:35:09), Men Open 10th
07/12/14, 21.0km, 1:33:31 (1:33:59), Men Open 13th
And this year:
06/09/15, 21.3km, 1:32:36 (1:31:34), Men Open 7th
Yes, I'm improving and what makes me happy is this year I got a #7 in Men Open which was rather unexpected! This race is well known for its unique route and cash prize and it's open for international runners. Even without international runners it should be filled with other local elites. I've no idea where those elites went this year. I'd never thought I could win the cash prize and some more with a not so bad ranking #7. I actually still planned to run another 9k after the race so that I could complete my scheduled 30km run but the plan was screwed after I won. LOL! This happens when satisfaction kicked in.
Sunday morning
Like the other race days, it was quite a typical morning with a slightly different schedule. Yea, slightly! I had to fetch Adele. She joined 10km, her flag off time was 5:30am and mine was 5am. I usually reach 1 hour before the flag off but this time to accommodate her, didn't want her to wait so long I decided to reach a bit late so I picked her up at 4:15am and I counted I should be able to reach in 15 minutes and another 10 minutes plus minus for the other stuffs so I still have 20 minutes to warm up so it should be alright.
After picking her up, we headed to Stadium MBPJ! Yes, we went to STADIUM MBPJ! OMFG! I didn't check the starting venue the night before as I always thought the race was at stadium! Before reaching there, we received the messages from Mike saying that he had reach stadium already but no one was there and we still laughed at him and talked nonsense in the chat group. Karsten was still joking that PJ stands for Putrajaya. None of us thought that the race had changed place!
The moment we realized we fucked up
When we about to reach the stadium like 200m left I started to feel something very wrong because it was so quiet! I asked Adele why there was nobody. No surprise, she gave me a "how the hell I know" look. We reach there and Mike stood right in front of us, we looked at each other for a while then only we realized we fucked up. It was too early that our brain was still not functioning well so it was a bit unresponsive. That was not the race venue! OMFG!
I googled and it said Laman MBPJ which was another 15 minutes drive and that time was already 4:30am. LOL. Mike took the cab and the cab had left so I picked him up immediately and drove like a mad man to Laman MBPJ. We reach at about 4:50am! 3 minutes to change and piss. 7 minutes left for us to run as the warm up from car park to the starting line! 3 minutes before the flag off we entered the pen. Luckily everything was under control. It was so funny and how coincident 3 of us in the #tracktuesday group fucked up. If Mike didn't meet us he would have DNS already. LOL! Damn I shouldn't have picked him up so that I could win a better ranking! :P
Flag off!
I stood beside Chris. Race started at 5am. I started relatively slow as usual and this time Chris did the same too. We were behind William and Angel. At 500m, we ran passed Angel and cheered for each other then sped off and closed the gap with William. 3 of us then ran side by side until about 2.5km we saw Teck Wai and slowly closed the gap with him and then 4 of us ran neck and neck. There was an unusual vibes surrounding us when racing with each others which caused runners high effect. It's very rare that we can find 4 runners who are about the same standard coming from the same clubs (Wind Runner and Puma), joining the same race same category, willing to pace together, train together, race neck to neck and most importantly, share the same handsomeness! :P It was so much energy and that distinctive atmosphere created so much spirit and positive energy. I felt so honored!
When we came to about 6.3km, it was supposed to turn left but the marshal was blocked by the car, we couldn't see the direction and ran passed the left turn and had to do a sharp turn further a bit at the traffic light. At this point, Chris and I started to speed off. I didn't look back. William and TW were actually still quite near but I was not sure how near, at least it was not side by side like the first 6km.
My pacer
At about km-8, we saw Lionel doing his LSD in the race, an unexpected runner showed up at this point, LOL! That 4:15 pace was not his pace! He was supposed to run sub-4 min pace. Thanks for taking it easy, we ran passed him and locked our position at 6th and 7th. After running passed the veteran runner Teck Yong, no other runners within sight. Not sure who was behind though the entire 2nd half was just Chris and I. The 2nd half was quite hilly, a few up and down, they were not very steep but a lot of them. I didn't bother to check the watch at all but I knew I was not maxed out. I just stayed tight with Chris and let him do the lead and he was not at his max too. In my mind I was satisfied with 7th. I couldn't see anyone within the 500m so it's quite impossible for us to overtake others. What I needed to do was just maintain, LOL! Don't get me wrong, didn't max out doesn't mean not suffering, it was actually still close to max and I was gasping for air.
Finishing
We crossed the line together and I was 1 sec behind Chris, clocked 1:32:37, GPS distance 21.32km, we ranked #6 and #7! So unexpected! LOL!
Slowly, everyone came back, William #8, Lionel #9, Angel #2, Voon Ying #3 but still no sign of TW. While we were still wondering where TW went, he walked into the resting pen and told us he came back for a while already but he didn't know about his ranking. We guessed his might have dropped out of top 10 already with a little hope of #10 but we were not sure, not #11 again?! I would be quite disappointed if he didn't make it. Luckily the doubt didn't stay for long! The result finally came out and TW successfully made it to top 10! I was so happy that 4 of us that paced together at the beginning podium together! Come to think of it, the probability of making this happened is very low and we achieved it! How amazing that we won the same amount of cash prizes! The excitement was higher than winning the race alone!
Later we met up with others and happy to see so many friends podium! Sabrina #5, Mike #2, Teck Yong #3, Hyurga #5 and in 10km we have Jessica #8, Adele #9, Mei Wee #10, Mark #1, Casey #2 and Daniel #10. LOL!
Conclusion
It's a good day! Hard work paid off! Everyone happy! I'm sure next year it won't be so easy anymore. I bet a lot of runners even the Kenyan actually regret they didn't join the HM. The 10km was way much tougher than the HM! Next year everyone will have the same mindset that think no one sign up the race and all sign up together like the Seremban HM this year so it won't be so easy! It was my lucky day!
Ok, it's time to back to my Marathon training!
30/10/11, 20.7km, 1:34:28 (1:36:31), Men Open 24th
30/09/12, 20.7km, 1:32:58 (1:35:09), Men Open 10th
07/12/14, 21.0km, 1:33:31 (1:33:59), Men Open 13th
And this year:
06/09/15, 21.3km, 1:32:36 (1:31:34), Men Open 7th
 |
| Haha! Men Open 7th! |
Yes, I'm improving and what makes me happy is this year I got a #7 in Men Open which was rather unexpected! This race is well known for its unique route and cash prize and it's open for international runners. Even without international runners it should be filled with other local elites. I've no idea where those elites went this year. I'd never thought I could win the cash prize and some more with a not so bad ranking #7. I actually still planned to run another 9k after the race so that I could complete my scheduled 30km run but the plan was screwed after I won. LOL! This happens when satisfaction kicked in.
Sunday morning
Like the other race days, it was quite a typical morning with a slightly different schedule. Yea, slightly! I had to fetch Adele. She joined 10km, her flag off time was 5:30am and mine was 5am. I usually reach 1 hour before the flag off but this time to accommodate her, didn't want her to wait so long I decided to reach a bit late so I picked her up at 4:15am and I counted I should be able to reach in 15 minutes and another 10 minutes plus minus for the other stuffs so I still have 20 minutes to warm up so it should be alright.
After picking her up, we headed to Stadium MBPJ! Yes, we went to STADIUM MBPJ! OMFG! I didn't check the starting venue the night before as I always thought the race was at stadium! Before reaching there, we received the messages from Mike saying that he had reach stadium already but no one was there and we still laughed at him and talked nonsense in the chat group. Karsten was still joking that PJ stands for Putrajaya. None of us thought that the race had changed place!
The moment we realized we fucked up
When we about to reach the stadium like 200m left I started to feel something very wrong because it was so quiet! I asked Adele why there was nobody. No surprise, she gave me a "how the hell I know" look. We reach there and Mike stood right in front of us, we looked at each other for a while then only we realized we fucked up. It was too early that our brain was still not functioning well so it was a bit unresponsive. That was not the race venue! OMFG!
I googled and it said Laman MBPJ which was another 15 minutes drive and that time was already 4:30am. LOL. Mike took the cab and the cab had left so I picked him up immediately and drove like a mad man to Laman MBPJ. We reach at about 4:50am! 3 minutes to change and piss. 7 minutes left for us to run as the warm up from car park to the starting line! 3 minutes before the flag off we entered the pen. Luckily everything was under control. It was so funny and how coincident 3 of us in the #tracktuesday group fucked up. If Mike didn't meet us he would have DNS already. LOL! Damn I shouldn't have picked him up so that I could win a better ranking! :P
 |
| 3 #tracktuesday idiots that didn't bother to check the race venue! |
Flag off!
I stood beside Chris. Race started at 5am. I started relatively slow as usual and this time Chris did the same too. We were behind William and Angel. At 500m, we ran passed Angel and cheered for each other then sped off and closed the gap with William. 3 of us then ran side by side until about 2.5km we saw Teck Wai and slowly closed the gap with him and then 4 of us ran neck and neck. There was an unusual vibes surrounding us when racing with each others which caused runners high effect. It's very rare that we can find 4 runners who are about the same standard coming from the same clubs (Wind Runner and Puma), joining the same race same category, willing to pace together, train together, race neck to neck and most importantly, share the same handsomeness! :P It was so much energy and that distinctive atmosphere created so much spirit and positive energy. I felt so honored!
When we came to about 6.3km, it was supposed to turn left but the marshal was blocked by the car, we couldn't see the direction and ran passed the left turn and had to do a sharp turn further a bit at the traffic light. At this point, Chris and I started to speed off. I didn't look back. William and TW were actually still quite near but I was not sure how near, at least it was not side by side like the first 6km.
 |
| The "F4". LOL! |
My pacer
At about km-8, we saw Lionel doing his LSD in the race, an unexpected runner showed up at this point, LOL! That 4:15 pace was not his pace! He was supposed to run sub-4 min pace. Thanks for taking it easy, we ran passed him and locked our position at 6th and 7th. After running passed the veteran runner Teck Yong, no other runners within sight. Not sure who was behind though the entire 2nd half was just Chris and I. The 2nd half was quite hilly, a few up and down, they were not very steep but a lot of them. I didn't bother to check the watch at all but I knew I was not maxed out. I just stayed tight with Chris and let him do the lead and he was not at his max too. In my mind I was satisfied with 7th. I couldn't see anyone within the 500m so it's quite impossible for us to overtake others. What I needed to do was just maintain, LOL! Don't get me wrong, didn't max out doesn't mean not suffering, it was actually still close to max and I was gasping for air.
 |
| Approaching finishing line! |
Finishing
We crossed the line together and I was 1 sec behind Chris, clocked 1:32:37, GPS distance 21.32km, we ranked #6 and #7! So unexpected! LOL!
Slowly, everyone came back, William #8, Lionel #9, Angel #2, Voon Ying #3 but still no sign of TW. While we were still wondering where TW went, he walked into the resting pen and told us he came back for a while already but he didn't know about his ranking. We guessed his might have dropped out of top 10 already with a little hope of #10 but we were not sure, not #11 again?! I would be quite disappointed if he didn't make it. Luckily the doubt didn't stay for long! The result finally came out and TW successfully made it to top 10! I was so happy that 4 of us that paced together at the beginning podium together! Come to think of it, the probability of making this happened is very low and we achieved it! How amazing that we won the same amount of cash prizes! The excitement was higher than winning the race alone!
Later we met up with others and happy to see so many friends podium! Sabrina #5, Mike #2, Teck Yong #3, Hyurga #5 and in 10km we have Jessica #8, Adele #9, Mei Wee #10, Mark #1, Casey #2 and Daniel #10. LOL!
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| Awww! They were waiting for me to podium and I finally did it! Out first podium picture together! :) |
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| Wind Runners! |
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| Wind Runners and friends! |
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| LOL! Can you believe that?! OK, next year it won't be so easy anymore! Haha! |
Conclusion
It's a good day! Hard work paid off! Everyone happy! I'm sure next year it won't be so easy anymore. I bet a lot of runners even the Kenyan actually regret they didn't join the HM. The 10km was way much tougher than the HM! Next year everyone will have the same mindset that think no one sign up the race and all sign up together like the Seremban HM this year so it won't be so easy! It was my lucky day!
Ok, it's time to back to my Marathon training!
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