(I know,I know, it was a huge training error to start picking up
training right after the marathon. But I didn't race that hard on the
SIM as I was a pacer rather than racer.)
I had developed shin splint and Plantar fasciatis
on the right heel (See, no one can escape a training error,
everybody pays for mistake committed).
Though the mileage wasn't that high, the intensity was definitely two
notch higher than ever.
I took a week of taper for the GE30k.
During that week, I noticed the
usual pattern of fatigue and soreness set in,
follow by process of slowly rebuilding as reported in
earlier post.
Monday and Tuesday was total disaster and I didn't
even want to attempt running. Went out for easy runs
on both Wednesday and Thursday, but was too sluggish and
tire, so I bagged both runs after a lap or so on the lake track.
Friday was party time with the Permaisuri runners and
Saturday, who want to run on Saturday?
But on Saturday, I noticed that the shin splint has been cleared.
The PF was still hanging around but the pain was very much
reduced. I must admit that I didn't quite take care of the
problem as I didn't ice it for the whole week.
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I set three goals for this race. The floor goal was
just finished decently. I would be satisfied even with
a timing of 3:xx. This was my fourth Ge30K, and honestly,
I had never raced well in this race.
My realistic goal based on my current fitness level and
taking into considerations of the notorious hilly course
was to complete in 2:50-2:55.
I would be really happy if I could do a sub 2:45, which
was my ceiling goal.
The race plan was to break the race into 3 10Kers.
I would take it very easy for the 1st 10K and plan to
reached the 10K mark in 58:30-60:00.
I would then speed up a little and settle on
the 5:45-5:50 pace on the 2nd 10Ker, estimating
56:30-58:00 split.
In the last 10Ker, I would gave an all out effort and looking for
a 55:00-57:00 split. That would get me a 2:50-2:55 as planned.
And that would warrant a negative split of 51%:49%.
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Race day came, I had not much to complaint other that a
slightly sore right heel plus a night deprived
of sleep due to power outage.
But all these were minor issues and no show stopper.
I was ready to race and RACE HARD.
I was really happy to meet up with Mr Tan and the Sabak Bernam
Group before the race start. This year there were only 6 of them,
a very small group compare to previous year. Generally,
the participation for the GE30K has shrunk tremendously and
I think it should be alarming to the organizer.
The flag off was delayed 15 minutes (again, pacesetter never
delayed any flag off, not until recently. I didn't take part on
the Penang Malakoff and Mizuno 10K, but the flag off of
the Malakoff 12K was surely delayed. What has been changed???)
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I was really holding myself back for the first 10Ker.
A lot of runners passed me during this stretch especially
for the first few Ks. Among those that I knew and noticed
were Jackson, Cheng, Leong, Wong, etc.
Then, I saw Mr. Yee from Seremban running with Eric. I hastened a
bit and tagged along the duet to make it a trio.
I knew that Yee was a very very WISE runner who always
started slow and finished very STRONG and FAST. I met him
a few times in the middle of marathon and I had very positive
experience running with him. I knew that our
running capability were quite similar, with him being one
notch better than me.
I said that I would like to join the wise men for a while,
and Eric said that it would make three wise men together and
we all laughed.
Yee and Eric were targeting a sub 3 and were going really slow
(still faster than 6:00min/K, but Gee! That really felt sssslow).
I found myself tenth of meters ahead of them a few times
and forced myself to slow down so that I still tagged along.
Yee was constantly talking, even on a steep uphill.
I jokingly said that he really put the "talk test into test"
and Eric laughed.
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The three of us were gliding and very soon reached the 10K
marker in 59:07. We were definitely on pace for a sub 3
but the race was still too early to be conclusive.
I asked the two whether they would want to pick up the
pace a little for the next 10Ker, and they asked me to
go ahead as they would like to stick with 6:00min/K pace
a little longer.
I like the way Yee replied me, "Suit yourself, but we have our
own wisdom too".
So I ditched the two and was gliding in 5:40-5:50min/K pace
as planned.
At about 15K mark or so, an Singaporean runner named James
tagged along. He asked whether it was okay to run with me
for a while as he needed a pacer badly, which I replied "glad to".
In any race that the Pacesetter organized, you can always
count on one thing to be plentiful, that is, hill. I soon lost count
how many uphills that I had to tackle.
I said to James that this race really gave every cents worth
of your money for the having so many hills.
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Soon, we reached the 20K marker. The split was 57:45, slightly
faster but not much deviation from the plan.
The average page for the second 10ker was 5:45min/K.
Now, it was the all-out stage. I had to make sure was
I left everything on the course and finished empty yet
still strong enough for a decent finishing photo.
I settle into 5:30min/K or faster. James soon
wasn't able to keep up and was left behind.
At this stage, I started to catch up on some of the runners
that passed me during the first 10Ker. Among them were Cheng,
Jackson, Kok Wai, etc. I always passed others during the
last stage of the race and rarely being passed by other,
but not this time!
At the 27th K mark, someone zoomed passed me and it was Eric.
He really surprised me as I "ditched" him long long ago.
I asked where was Yee and he replied about
20 seconds split behind and catching up fast.
At about 28th K, Yee caught up with me and
I said he was wiser than me. He laughed and
charged forward to chase Eric. I remembered that they
were the only two who overtook me during
such late stage of the race.
I finished about 50 meters behind Yee and
clocked 2:53 with the last 10K
split of 55:30 (5:33min/K).
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From The Polar log, the 1st 10Ker HR was well below MHI while
the 2nd 10Ker hit the MHI barely. The last 10ker was really
hard and was all above the MHI. I clearly left
everything on the course and given all my best.
Also, I raced wisely and done a negative split of 1:29
for the first half versus 1:24 for the second.
Though I only achieve a VDOT of 36.8,
but it was on a very hilly course and I certainly
think that I had executed the race plan in great precision.
But may be I could have gone a little faster in the
first 10Ker and saved two minutes or so, but definitely
not enough for a sub 2:45.
As about Eric and Yee, I think that they could have gone
faster if they raced a bit more aggressively in the beginning
stage. But as Yee put it, they might have their own wisdom
too.
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While I had a great race, Sam was really into hot water.
She had the worst race and I jokingly said that it wasn't
that bad, just one hour behind me and only 10 minutes slower than
last year and still 5 minutes faster than what I did when
I first ran the GE30k in 2006.
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Crank on.
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