Malaysia Women Marathon 2016
I can't really remember how I promised to pace Fujii. I think we talked over it in a dinner. We were actually quite ambitious, aiming for sub-4 and even came out with a series of plans but ended up both injured and didn't get the chances to execute it. I got injured when I trained for Macau last year and after Macau I stopped training. I planned to pick up again few weeks before the MWM but somehow motivation was not there. Fujii too, she had a prolonged injury that she had to fix. Fortunately just right before the MWM, she recovered but same as me, you can't expect anything from a weekly mileage of less than 10km. So in the end, we didn't really take this MWM seriously. It was just like another typical LSD but wasn't a fun one! Alright, it's not true, it was actually quite fun as it was a whole new experience of "being tortured" for me! It was the kind that you can't get if you always run fast! :P
Early In The Morning
She told me in the car that we were going to run 6:30 pace but then I didn't quite believe the fact that we couldn't handle 6:00 pace. "What is 6:00 pace? My first marathon 6 years ago was already 5:35 pace and she did 5:30 pace for 30km before. Now it is merely 6:00 pace. Pfftt!" so I told her to try 6:00 pace first and if couldn't then we faded slowly. It was gonna be a fast LSD! Then you know what?
At 4am sharp, the race flagged off. I was trying to set the pace but I saw her running ahead of me so I ran faster to close the gap. After closing the gap, I tried to slow down a little but then whenever I slow down a little she would just run pass me and I had to run faster to stay ahead of her. That was the sign of "I don't care! I want sub-4" so 1st km 5:35 pace. I thought OK, let's slow down a bit after 1st km but then 2nd KM 5:21! Pfftt! "It's time to slow down" I thought but then 3rd KM 5:40! We ran neck and neck with the 4:00 pacer Karsten and Yew Khuay. I had a feeling of "up car jor". 6:30 pace my foot!
I tried very hard to follow her, I was quite confident with 6:00 pace but not 5:40 so the first few KM I was actually led by her. She has no sign of slowing down. After like 5km only she said "I think we should slow down". YAYYYYY! What a relief! I was worried that I would have to up ambulance at one point! LOL!
When Things Going Down Hill
We did super positive pace, from 5:30 pace, slowly faded to 6:00 pace. By the time we reach the toll at 10km, we were already at 6:15 pace. It was not about her, I couldn't believe it was not as easy as I thought, I had problem running 6:15 pace! WTF is this?! I felt like my calves were going to cramp at any time. I had to keep changing the gait for them to stretch a bit.
At about 15km, you know what, I was thinking to walk! LOL. I'm not exaggerating. I really really wanted to walk. Then Fujii asked me to run 100m in front so that she could follow. Surprisingly that worked! She had a target to aim and I had to keep leading her so I couldn't slow down. You would probably argue it was the same as running side by side but it wasn't! It was a bit of different from running side by side. Something simple that distracted my mind away from all the dullness. LOL! We kept a distance of about 50 to 100m. Whenever she closed the gap I sped up a little. I slow down at all the water stations to see if she was alright. Not bad, I could use this strategy again next time if I paced someone again.
At about 18km, we saw William and Voon Ying at the opposite road. They were on sub-4 pace! Not many in front, definitely podium for Voon Ying if she could keep up! After that Yew Khuay and Karsten passed by. No one was following them as expected! So easy job for them! Jealous! :P We also saw quite a lot of familiar faces like Khoo Kay Hao and his pacee, Crystal and her pacer, Sharon and Kevin, Kartini, etc.
When You Thought 6:30 Is Slow
Things became even worse after the 20km u-turn. The pace dropped to 6:30. My legs felt like going to cramp anytime soon. Luckily we gave ourselves some allowance to walk at every water stations. I was so hungry that I regretted that I only took 2 bananas at the 30km station, I should have returned to take more! The 30km pace itself was 8:22. LOL! Anyhow, that 2 bananas were the best bananas ever! I felt better after the banana feast! We were still holding on to the "100m in front" strategy. At this point, we had already merged with HM runners so sometime Fujii would just disappear from my sight because of blocking by other runners. We had a lot of walking break especially at water station we walked longer!
The last 4km was the worst. At first we thought it was the signboard mistake then after a while only we realized we had to run 2 big loops. It was quite torture that we had to give ourselves some small target so that we won't walk too long. Last km seemed taking forever to finish and she decided to speed up a bit and whoa we did 5:23 pace for the last km!
Conclusion
LOL! Very fun man! Very fun! I didn't know it can be so tough to run a sub-5 FM! I'm glad that we finished in one piece and we crossed the line together! Luckily that I didn't slow her down. I'm not kidding, you guys have to trust me. It wasn't her slowing me down, we both were the same. I couldn't run any faster if you asked me to, LOL! I think because of my unhealthy lifestyle my fitness has just dropped to the history low! Let's see how well (or how bad) I can perform in the SCKLM which is my next goal race. Good luck to me! :D
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| With the host Karen! |
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| With all the "famous" people! :D |
Early In The Morning
She told me in the car that we were going to run 6:30 pace but then I didn't quite believe the fact that we couldn't handle 6:00 pace. "What is 6:00 pace? My first marathon 6 years ago was already 5:35 pace and she did 5:30 pace for 30km before. Now it is merely 6:00 pace. Pfftt!" so I told her to try 6:00 pace first and if couldn't then we faded slowly. It was gonna be a fast LSD! Then you know what?
At 4am sharp, the race flagged off. I was trying to set the pace but I saw her running ahead of me so I ran faster to close the gap. After closing the gap, I tried to slow down a little but then whenever I slow down a little she would just run pass me and I had to run faster to stay ahead of her. That was the sign of "I don't care! I want sub-4" so 1st km 5:35 pace. I thought OK, let's slow down a bit after 1st km but then 2nd KM 5:21! Pfftt! "It's time to slow down" I thought but then 3rd KM 5:40! We ran neck and neck with the 4:00 pacer Karsten and Yew Khuay. I had a feeling of "up car jor". 6:30 pace my foot!
I tried very hard to follow her, I was quite confident with 6:00 pace but not 5:40 so the first few KM I was actually led by her. She has no sign of slowing down. After like 5km only she said "I think we should slow down". YAYYYYY! What a relief! I was worried that I would have to up ambulance at one point! LOL!
When Things Going Down Hill
We did super positive pace, from 5:30 pace, slowly faded to 6:00 pace. By the time we reach the toll at 10km, we were already at 6:15 pace. It was not about her, I couldn't believe it was not as easy as I thought, I had problem running 6:15 pace! WTF is this?! I felt like my calves were going to cramp at any time. I had to keep changing the gait for them to stretch a bit.
At about 15km, you know what, I was thinking to walk! LOL. I'm not exaggerating. I really really wanted to walk. Then Fujii asked me to run 100m in front so that she could follow. Surprisingly that worked! She had a target to aim and I had to keep leading her so I couldn't slow down. You would probably argue it was the same as running side by side but it wasn't! It was a bit of different from running side by side. Something simple that distracted my mind away from all the dullness. LOL! We kept a distance of about 50 to 100m. Whenever she closed the gap I sped up a little. I slow down at all the water stations to see if she was alright. Not bad, I could use this strategy again next time if I paced someone again.
At about 18km, we saw William and Voon Ying at the opposite road. They were on sub-4 pace! Not many in front, definitely podium for Voon Ying if she could keep up! After that Yew Khuay and Karsten passed by. No one was following them as expected! So easy job for them! Jealous! :P We also saw quite a lot of familiar faces like Khoo Kay Hao and his pacee, Crystal and her pacer, Sharon and Kevin, Kartini, etc.
When You Thought 6:30 Is Slow
Things became even worse after the 20km u-turn. The pace dropped to 6:30. My legs felt like going to cramp anytime soon. Luckily we gave ourselves some allowance to walk at every water stations. I was so hungry that I regretted that I only took 2 bananas at the 30km station, I should have returned to take more! The 30km pace itself was 8:22. LOL! Anyhow, that 2 bananas were the best bananas ever! I felt better after the banana feast! We were still holding on to the "100m in front" strategy. At this point, we had already merged with HM runners so sometime Fujii would just disappear from my sight because of blocking by other runners. We had a lot of walking break especially at water station we walked longer!
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| The only running photo that I could find. |
The last 4km was the worst. At first we thought it was the signboard mistake then after a while only we realized we had to run 2 big loops. It was quite torture that we had to give ourselves some small target so that we won't walk too long. Last km seemed taking forever to finish and she decided to speed up a bit and whoa we did 5:23 pace for the last km!
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| Our result |
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| Ofcourse, good thing must end with a selfie. :P |
Conclusion
LOL! Very fun man! Very fun! I didn't know it can be so tough to run a sub-5 FM! I'm glad that we finished in one piece and we crossed the line together! Luckily that I didn't slow her down. I'm not kidding, you guys have to trust me. It wasn't her slowing me down, we both were the same. I couldn't run any faster if you asked me to, LOL! I think because of my unhealthy lifestyle my fitness has just dropped to the history low! Let's see how well (or how bad) I can perform in the SCKLM which is my next goal race. Good luck to me! :D
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