Energizer half marthon race Report

I completed my first half marathon of the year at the weekend and it was, well, shocking. It was without a doubt, the worst organised race i have ever been to. The race was held at night on the formula 1 circuit in Malaysia, Sepang. We got there early, parked and made our way towards the start line. There were no direction signs anywhere and we wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go.

When evenutally  i found a single-wide door leading to a tunnel under the track, I realised that this was the only way to the paddock. Terrible! We filtered through slowly, only to find that there was no water or drinks available, no toilet facilities on that side and the headlamps for participants had run out. All i hoped was that the course was not too dark!

For some reason that organisers kept us corralled away from the start line and off the track. I couldnt figure out why, until i realised that they wanted the band to lead the runners on to the start line. Very ceremonial, but a pain in the a**. All we wanted to do was line up and run. It caused a lot of confusion and everytime someone went on the course to line up, the security guards shouted at them to go back.

When the race started, the route wasnt too bad. There was not a lot of water available on the route and i got quite dehydrated on the course. This meant that my quads and calfs were really cramping by the 18k mark and slowing me down. The last ten km were run on the F1 track which was very cool. It is really impressive when you see it up close. It has the huge sweeping bends that stretch out and give you a great sense of the size of the place. I can see why they run races there at night. It has no shade and would be a nighmare in the heat.

I crossed the line in 2:01 which was fine, given that i am still building base and did not expect anything better than that. I have a lot of work to do to improve my times over the next few months; especially if i am hoping to shave 15mins off my marathon time.

The race organisation got even worse when i crossed the line. There was no water. Only some warm gatorade. The line for the race packs was so bad that people started to riot (literally) and the police closed the area. I was beat and just wanted to go home. My gorgeous wife who was not running that day had come to watch and was happy to hot-foot it out of there and drive me home. I had a stretch, thought about my race and was generally happy. As it was an evening race, i got my hydration and nutrition quite badly wrong, so this is something that i will need to think about for the next couple of races. 18k was really my limit, so i have to start to up my miles in the coming weeks.

Energizer (batteries) have issued a very nice, exceedingly embarrassed apology over the last couple of days and a promise to refund us the entry fee and send out our race packs and medals in the mail. well done them for turning this around. Shame on the events company for putting them in the situation in the first place.

2011 Race Schedule

Every man needs a goal. Or several. My race schedule for the rest of the year looks like this...

Energizer half marathon (night) Malaysia 16th April
New Balance Pacesetters 15km Malaysia 5th June
Standard Chartered KL half marathon Malaysia 26th June
Siemens KL 10k Malaysia 10th July
Marina Bay half marathon Singapore 23rd July
Shape Run 12.5km Malaysia 30th July
Nike 10k Malaysia tbd August
Freemantle half marathon Australia 25th September
Addidas King of the Road 16.8km Malasysia 2nd October
North Face 100 25km Singapore 15th October
New York marathon USA 6th November
Singapore marathon Singapore 4th December

as you can see, this year, I am focussed on the running and have not been able to find any triathlons or duathlons that fit with my schedule. Pretty full year though!

Powerman Malaysia race report

My friend Dave and I recently entered the Powerman Malaysia Duathlon in Lumut in Perak. In a word, it was Awesome.

From what I understand from others, we were lucky with the weather as it had rained in the night and it kept the temperature down, meaning the whole course was cool with a light breeze.

We got down the night before, and thanks to Lauren thinking that we would be in the boonies, we had enough water, 100 plus and snacks to feed the entire field. We checked into our (fairly gross) hotel, assembled and checked our bikes and then headed out to drive the bike course and find some dinner. We drove most of the route and realized it was basically completely flat, with a couple of small bridges and good road surface. Feeling happy with the outlook we went off, found a local restaurant for some food and then went home early to bed.

The next morning, having eaten PBJ's from the picnic box, we went to the transition. It was still drizzling a little and transition was a bit muddy, with quite a lot of confusion as to who was to be where, but it turned out really just to be some last minute reorganisation to try to move things like body marking under cover.

We racked our bikes, found the loo for a last minute leak and then it was time to line up. For some reason, Dave and I had decided only to do the sprint so we had a 5.5km run followed by a 30km ride followed by a 5km run. My overall level of fitness doesn't seem to be what it was, so i had no real expectation of time.

At the starting horn, i set off, middle of the pack and settled into a fairly steady, but not particularly fast pace. It was a very flat, open, one loop run around a big neighbourhood. It was perfect conditions. I did 30 minutes flat which is about a 27 minutes 5k. Not my fastest, but still happy enough with that.

The bike loop was one out and back, fifteen km out, easy turn and 15 km back. The road was excellent, the marshaling was great and the pace seemed... a bit sloweer than I would have expected, but it was not something i dwelt on too much as i picked off riders one by one. I was trundling along feeling pretty good, thinking that I was glad I didn't go all out on the run and kept lots in the tank. We passed the area where I made the u-turn in the car the evening before and then came around a bend and saw a bridge. Not just another little bridge, but a big bridge, over a big wide river. A bridge that I was not expecting; a bridge that just enough incline required me to get up out of my saddle! Nice.

It turned out to be ok in the end, although 2km later when I went over it again, it was a little harder on the quads. Bike was 59 minutes.

The second run started well. Like all of my races, it seemed to take my legs a little longer to warm up to a run after the bike, (which I put down to not enough bric training) but I got a steady pace within about a km and a half. Looking at the results, this is where I lost the most places in the race. On a race this short, you don't have the time or the luxury of giving your legs that long to warm up. It is definitely where Dave excelled and picked up minutes on me. We were pretty even until the start of the second run. His run was 60-90 seconds faster than me, he transition was just a pip faster and his bike was about even, but his second run was awesome and he annihilated me. I finally settled into a run pace that was not too shoddy and finished my second run in just shy of 30 minutes.

All in all, this race was very very well organized, it was a good course and it was in a great location. The Roti Canai (local Malaysian breakfast) across the street afterwards was a double bonus. Will I do it again? Absolutely. Do I reccomend it to others? Definetly. Do the organisers deserve a round of applause? Here Here. Was I happy with my time, not really, but not every race is about time. Some are just meant to be enjoyed!

London be-damned

I am very sad to report that I recieved an email this morning to say that my ballot entry for the London Marathon 2011 was not successful! I am keenly watching the calendar for the Chicago and New York entries to open so as to get my space on the ballot and hopefully get one profile marathon next year.

Upcoming Events

The last few months have been great for me. We have travelled loads, we got married!, we drove from LA to San Fransisco in a Mustang, and I have been running again!

In fact, my legs are so strong that I have started to up-the-training and again and have no fear of a reoccurance of my shin splints/stress fracture. I am still taking it easy, but it feels really good to be able to go out and run 10k without any pain.

To celebrate, I have signed up for a couple of races here in Malaysia. The first is the 12k Mizuno road race on Sunday 17th October and the other is the sprint Duathlon at Powerman Malaysia which is a 5k-32k-5k run-bike-run on the 14th November.

It feels good to have some good goals again!

City to Surf in Sydney

We recently came back from our trip down under to visit our friends Tim, Jude and Scarlet. When planning it, it worked out that it was going to be the same weekend as the Sydney City to Surf, 14km road race. I persuaded Lauren that we should sign up and so we did. The race, which starts up in the city above the harbour bridge and ends at the famous Bondi Beach was filled with 75,000 men, women and children. What a great site.

This run was never going to be any more than a fun run and that it was. For several miles, I pushed the stroller, albeit without Scarlet inside. At one point, I get sperated from Tim and Lauren and I ended up looking like a weirdo, running along with a full size pram, complete with [almost] life size scary looking doll. Weird.

Nice to run on another continent and in fantastic warm and dry conditions. I will put this down as a race to do a little more competitively again in the future. Hilly though - will need some serious mountain training.

thanks to the Jarvises for their great hospitatilty.

Balancing Act

It has been some time since I posted. And it has been some time since I ran anywhere.

I have had to work hard to rest my shins and resist the temptation to go running, but I have managed it. Not a day goes by without me longing to hit the roads. I am so focussed on running at least three halfs and three full marathons in the next 18 months, that I know that this is the right thing for me to do. And it seems to be working. There were occassions over the last couple of months that i would feel my left shin twinge as i walked across the office. But (and I am touching wood) i have not noticed it for quite a while.

My enforced break was made a little easier with a weeks holiday to the UK in the middle for a wedding. I just need to remember to stop eating like I am still burning all of those calories every day.

I have two weeks to go until my first gentle jog... that is two weeks of less food and less booze. Wish me luck.