Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur International Marathon 2009 (SCKLIM 09)- 10k Run (Flash Back 1)

How it Started

It all started one day, sometimes in late may 2009. I was at home, around 6pm something. I went straight home from a mtg with a client. No point going back to my office if I have to spend 1 hr in the KL evening hour rush. Got a call at my mobile. Gosh! i dreaded calls at this hour, hate it when a client wants me to look at some document on an urgent basis and to revert to him/her ASAP as he/she needs to present it to the Board meeting the next day etc..etc. U know at the end of the day, I was just being a victim of somebody's poor time management but i accept it as my job hazard though I will not entertain a "bad pay master". Pls wait for tomorrow ok!

The call was from Fariz, my office mate. "Hey, aku dgn Gies (another office mate) nak register StanChart 10k run. Kau nak join sekali?" "Bila event tu", I asked him. "27 June", he replied, "sebulan lebih lagi, sempat training" he added. Hmm, 10k, that is far, very far i told myself but hantam saja lah, at least its for fun and with that in mind i confirmed my participation "Hmm...ok kot. Orait, i'll join u guys". "I passed u the form later" he said before ended the call.

After that i kept thinking. The longest distance that i'd ever ran for the past 3 years is 3.6 km (9 laps of the 400m running track at padang sultan sulaiman, Klang). That was the best that I could do! infact my most recent run (which was 2 weeks back, i only did 3 km around my neighbourhood and i ran really slow just to get to that distance). How on earth could i run 10k. This is crazy. Its Ok, i consoled myself, Fariz said we got 1 month to train, shud be orait then. At that point, for a totally ignorant ppl like me on the "science of running", the term "training", at least in my mind, is my once a week run (during weekend) where I will try to put whatever xtra km that i could in that run. Hahahaha, what a wishful thinking.

Fast forward, 2 weeks went by and i only did one run for a pathetic 3 km. Seems that I'd perfectly trained my body to run up to that distance only! Up until 2 weeks before the race day, my mind was occupied by all sort of things except running. My schedule was tight and I was bogged down with works and works and works. I told myself that I will tell Fariz and Gies that I would give SCKLIM 2009 a pass, that I am perfectly happy with my once a week/fortnight 3km run until Gies came to my room one evening and asked me, "kau dah training ker?". I answered, nope, not really. I told him that i may not turn up on the race day. He sort of scolded me and said to the effect of just do it. He told me that he did a time trial for 10k at FRIM the recent weekend and managed to finish well within qualifying time. Yes, for your info, our target is just to finish within the qualifying time, of course secretly i suspected my frens were targetting to do better than that. That fired me up a bit and I then told myself that i will make sure that i'll do my run at Kiara Park the coming weekend. Fariz told me the distance of the smaller loop is 1.2km.

Came saturday, i went to Kiara Park in the evening. It was my first time there and saw a crowd of runners doing their chores and i suspected that quite a number of them were preparing for the SCKLIM. After a bit of stretching, I started my run, i think a bit over pace at my then fitness level as I was huffing and puffing by my 2 1/2 loop, i.e. 3km! Stopped and walked and continued my run at the starting point of my third loop and managed to finish the loop but stopped and walked at the ascending part of the subsequent loop and ran at the descending portions until i finished 8 1/2 loops, i.e. 10km around 87 minutes. I wished i could do better and decided that i will run again the next day.

The next day, about same time, i brought along my entire family to Kiara Park. One good thing about Kiara Park is that it has a small stream running through. At least the kids can enjoy themselves playing in the stream whilst i do my run. I made sure I ran at the correct pace this time and I managed to run non-stop for about 3.8km but after that I started my run/walk routine as the day before. The result, 10k in about 85 mins. Not much improvement from the day before but i started to believe that to finish 10k in 90 mins is doable, and hopefully the adrenaline and the excitement on the race day will push me to the finish line in time.....hopefully.

6 days before race day, on wednesday i decided to do my final run at Kiara Park. Left office earlier and reached Kiara Park around 5.30 pm but minutes later the wheather turned awry and there u go, a heavy down pour! Patiently waited and at 6.45pm i started my run once the rain turned into a drizzle. Completed 4 loops (4.8km) and I stopped once I heard the azan maghrib from Taman Tun mosque.

The next day, I accidently noticed in the SCKLIM website that the distance of the smaller loop at Kiara Park is only 1.1km. That translates my 10km during my time trial run to be off about nearly 1km! The news dented my confidence a bit but then I told myself that finishing in 90 mins is still doable if i pushed myself enuf during the race. I then waited for that day to come.

Next Entry- The Race Day

Recitals......

Hi, never thought of creating a blog. But there must be a first to everything rite! So, here I am, trying to write my newly acquired interest....running.

I was never a runner since school days. I love sports but distance running was totally out from my mind. A quick dash of 100m might sound interesting (though i never won any medal in any sprint race i participated at school level) but I would frown if asked to participate in any distance exceeding 400m. Hate when i need to gasp for more air.....you know that feeling when u are short of breath. The shorter the distance and period the better.

I am quite fortunate that I did not start from zero. For the past 3 years, i tried to jog a short distance of 2km to 3km (top) once in a fortnight (yeah, I really struggled to reach that 3km distance), more of trying to maintain a certain level of fitness for myself. Yes I know that is a pathetic level but its better than no km at all :-)

Then it all started about 4 months ago, the SCKLIM. The eye opener...the wake-up call...the beginning. Though in a snail pace, i am surely moving forward and will not retreat from this new journey, Insyallah.

Till then.