Phew, I ended my 2011 running season with a bang at Nike We Run KL 10K 2011. This year’s event took place at Padang Merbok and attracted 10,000 runners and it made for a really crowded race. The good thing about We Run KL 2011 was that the entry fee was significantly cheaper than most runs (thanks to the Buddy thing they had), and I can see a lot of newbies joining the race.

On the downside, the race was like any high profile 10K event, it was crowded with very poor observation of race etiquette and the narrow course was filled with people who don’t really intend to run. I guess that RM 25 entry fee is hardly any motivation these days to push one’s self to run, but I did see a number of newbies pushing themselves especially towards the finish.

I finished at around the 1 hour 5 minutes mark (gun time) while my watch recorded a time of an hour 1 minute, not bad considering I had to do a lot to get out of the “woods”. It was only after the 7 kilometer mark that the crowd thinned out a little, most likely due to the rise in elevation.

The finish line was located at a downhill portion of the course and it was really cool and fun watching runners zip pass each other to make up for loss time from the uphill portion. I must add that the finish area, unlike the course, was designed to cope with the high number of participants in the event, and I went through it (and collected a couple of bananas, a bottle of water, and the race souvenir thumb drive) with very little hassle.

I do however have a comment on those who “bandit” the run. That term is reserved for people who didn’t pay but end up joining the race anyways. In the case of Nike We Run KL 10K 2011, these “bandits” are very easy to identify, they do not have the Nike shirts which double up as the running bibs. Quite a number of these bandits showed up in the Putrajaya Night Run finisher shirts.

You know it’s fine that you want to run with the paying runners…but please leave the finish line alone, that is for paying runners only. The RELA members did a good job in stopping some of these bandits just before the finish line, but some made it through, running at top speed if I may add. Shame on you for being a bad example to people and no respect to both the organizers and those who actually paid to run in the event.

Anyways, if there’s one thing I would love the organizer to change next year would be staggered starts. The race course isn’t meant to handle 10,000 runners in one go and is in danger of being a walkabout in certain areas. New categories wouldn’t hurt either. Adidas has the 16.8 K AND 10K in the King of the Road race, so how about a Nike half marathon in 2012?

If you are wondering why the lack of updates yesterday, I’m actually in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, for a race this weekend, called The Most Beautiful Thing: Ultra Trail Marathon. I wouldn’t be running the 50K or the 100K but instead will be taking part in the 25K. All of the events are trail runs, so I can expect to get dirty this Saturday. One thing that is unique though for this race is that the organizers have put a picture of Steve Jobs on each of the running bibs that we are supposed to pin on the front of the runing vest.

According to the organizer, this was done to raise awareness on cancer, with Steve Jobs having fought the fight against the disease before succumbing to it. People may ask us about who is the guy in the picture (let’s face it, not everyone know who Steve Jobs each), and we are encourage to share his story and with that, help spread awareness about the disease. In other race related news, wish me luck, as I think the course is going to be tougher than the 42K road race I participated in earlier this year .

You’ll know when you are running in a foot race in Klang when a. the air stinks, b. the road stinks with garbage on the side, c. there are plenty of potholes on the roads,  d. there’s plenty of traffic and finally e. the sun is up and you are not even done yet. Not that I’m complaining, these hallmarks make any road race in Klang unique compared to other places, and being a Klang-ite myself, I can’t help but join them.

This morning’s Pink Charity Run at Harbour Place, Port Klang is not different. We started off at 7 a.m. from Harbour Place, a mall by the side of the main road in Port Klang, flagged off by a couple of celebrities (Yasmin Yusoff and the current Miss Malaysia), along with Pantai’s boss. The route was remarkably flat, devoid of hills and brought us through Pandamaran.

In the absence of traffic cones and with the free for all traffic, the role of RELA officers in directing traffic cannot be understated in this race, and those chaps did a remarkable job, so kudos to them. The 10 KM route went through Pandamaran before heading into Kim Chuan road into Bayu Perdana. From there onwards we ran into Taman Chi Liung and back to Harbour Place.

This was one of the more smaller runs with 1,200 participants and it was actually quite fun and there were plenty of familiar faces. This was despite the fact that the PJ Half was going on the same morning. The course wasn’t great, and at some parts downright smelly, dirty and the traffic dangerous, but like how some races are known for their steep inclines, to me, this is just Klang being Klang…and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The inaugural Putrajaya Night Marathon back in 2010 marked the first time I participated in the half-marathon category, having just ran 10K all the while. It was a well-run race and it was a good thing for newbies like me back then. I don’t know whether it was due to nostalgia, but I signed up for  Putrajaya Night Marathon 2011 despite knowing that it would be just several days after I return from a long holiday in Hong Kong.

As such, I can say I was ill-prepared for the race with just the Adidas King of the Road (16.8KM) a forthnight ago, and a measly 5 KM training run on the slopes of Hong Kong island several days prior to PNM. So imagine my surprise when I crossed the finish line last night with a new personal best for the half marathon, clocking in 2 hours 24 minutes!

Again, this was due to a very nicely organised race and what would I call a really fast route. There were gentle uphill inclines and the downhill portions tend to flatter runners. I also had the benefit of having experienced several parts of the route in other running events like the Shape Run and New Balance 15K. The organisers went out of their way to provide a really cool experience for runners.

There were plenty of water stations, located every 3 KM, and there were taiko drummers, cheerleaders, marching bands, folks blasting music as well as guys dressed up as superheroes and even the silver-coated guys pretending to be statues (usually seen in Bukit Bintang), providing some kind of support/morale boost to runners.

The race did highlight several concerns though. Whose idea was it to print the half marathon distance markers with an unreadable black font over a dark blue background? More importantly, traffic control created a pretty safe race but at the expense of the residents in Putrajaya.

I’m guessing that Saturday night was a really busy night, and there were complaints on the event’s Facebook place about traffic control alienating the entire 5th precinct. Hopefully the organizers and the residents can come up with an amiable solution for the next edition of the run, as it would be a shame if both sides can’t work together.

I didn’t take part in the Singapore edition of Adidas’ King of the Road race this year, but I made it point to run in the Malaysian edition that took place earlier this morning at Sunway Pyramid. This year marked the return of KOTR in Malaysia after a year’s hiatus, after THAT race in 2009 (race report from way back, here).

In any case, King of the Road returned strongly this year, with pretty much hallmarks to a well-organized race. The 16.8 KM event started at 6.45 AM, with runners running towards Subang before a u-turn bringing them back into the NPE. The New Pantai Expressway played host to the runners right up to the Templer interchange, where a u-turn brought us back towards Sunway Pyramid.

The fact that the race was held right next to the shopping mall meant that there was plenty of parking (but there was a terrible jam afterwards going out), and I guess that newbies would appreciate the abundance of facilities (toilets for one). The race itself featured water stations placed at regular 2-3 km intervals, you definitely can’t complain with the amount of hydration available.

The only problems with the race were more environmental then anything else. The weather was hazy and despite the lack of traffic (the organizers and the police cordoned off the entire highway, thus making us runners feel like Kings of the Road), there was a bit of smog, but I guess that’s a given running in the city (try the SCKLM full marathon route and you’ll get the idea).

I finished the 16.8 KM course in an hour and 51 minutes, it wasn’t a good time, considering the number of highway ramps in the way, and I’m not really good with u-turns. They mess with me head .

Two thumbs up for a great race Adidas, the turn-out was amazing. Hope to see you next year! Special thanks to all the marshals, water station crew, and the clean-up guys who you don’t normally see until the end of the event.

I had a very interesting weekend, which surprisingly didn’t involve video games. I took part in two runs, one on Saturday night, before taking part on a Sunday morning run several hours later. The former was the Men’s Health/Shape Run 2011 that took place in Putrajaya with a distance of 12.3 KM.

The run was a very nice one, it took us on a scenic route through 3 different bridges that connected Precinct 3 with the rest of the administrative city of Putrajaya. You can’t believe how beautiful the bridges are at night and the rest of the course was a mix of flats and inclines.

The race itself was pretty well organized, although I wished there was a staggered start. The turnout for the 12.3 KM event was massive and that made for a really cramped and slow start. The second water station was a bit of a mess.

The thing about short distance runs is that there’s always a huge number of runners going through any given water station (like a round of Lemonade Tycoon…there..my first video game analogy in a while) so it pays to be prepared.

Anyways, I managed to clock a 1 hour 18 minute time but I felt I could have gotten faster…which I did several hours later with a personal best for a 10 K at the Klang Admiral 5A Charity Run 2011. It was held at the Sultan Sulaiman Stadium, with the route taking us past the Istana onto the highway to Port Klang, before turning back past Harbour Place.

One thing about about these Klang runs…there’s plenty of food at the end. Not only that, the race was well organized, with a staggered start, a couple of water stations and a damn straight route with a couple of inclines.

You know about those bucket list things? Well, one of the items in mine would be to run a full marathon (42.195 kilometers or 26 miles) and I crossed off that item yesterday, having completed the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur International Marathon 2011 (SCKLM 2011) with a sub-6 hour time; to be exact it took me 5 hours and 49 minutes.

It was a number of firsts for me yesterday, the race started off at 5 A.M in the morning, and it was the first time I took a dump in one of the portaloos provided by the race organizer before the race (LOL). I actually ran a rather fast first half of the race, which took us through Brickfields, Syed Putra and onto that highway to Cheras before getting onto Tun Razak and back to Jalan Istana.

That took me an hour to do so, and I stuck with that pace until the half way point in the Bukit Bintang area (not before hitting places like Dewan Bahasa, the main traffic artery in the form of Jalan Loke Yew, Menara PGRM and Pudu. Like last year, the smell of food was in the air over at Pudu, but this time instead of Bak Kut Teh, it was wantan noodles. In the process of running this marathon, I beat my own half marathon time at the 21 KM mark, clocking 2 hours 29 minutes.

I ran for another kilometer before switching to running, and walking. The road surface was pretty bad after Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, particularly the Jalan Ipoh stretch, it’s like running on gravel. Traffic was pretty heavy at the time, but thankfully the traffic police and the city council enforcers were around to keep them in check. And at this point it was clear sunny skies with nary a cloud in sight…in other words, I got a good roasting.

We ran a pretty good stretch of Jalan Ipoh right until the Kepong roundabout before turning back into the city via Jalan Kuching. Another roasting was in order as there were very little cover, there was a shower station though and that was pretty cool. An old uncle pat me on the back over at Kilometer 35 at Jalan Kuching saying in Mandarin, “Boy, you are pretty big sized to be running in a marathon, and yet you are up here running with us. GOOD JOB!“

That made my day and since I was cramping pretty bad, I took a cue from him and decided to power walk my way back as there was only 7 kilometers between me and the finish line. The last part of the race was through Bukit Tunku, and this could have been a pretty killer stretch if I were to run through it, since it was really hilly. I only walked and jogged for a bit through this area and manage to get out of the place and into Jalan Raja Laut.

At this point I wasn’t sure whether I could finish before the cut-off time, as I had 45 minutes to do 2 kilometers with both thighs cramping like mad. Thankfully the auntie who was the 6-hour pacer came out of nowhere and I decided to follow her right till the end. She encouraged me to jog slowly and I made it to the finish line with 11 minutes to spare!

The race organizers did a very good job with organizing the event this year. The water stations were 2-3 KM apart, and not only was water provided, quite a number of stations had isotonic drinks and wet sponges. The route was pretty good, I got to see a lot of KL yesterday and traffic control was excellent. Now I’ve got both a full marathon finisher medal and a finisher t-shirt. Total number of Power Gels consumed yesterday: FOUR, thankfully with no ill effects.

If you are wondering where I’ve been for the past few days, I was actually in Penang, taking part in the half marathon event in the Penang Bridge International Marathon 2010 on Sunday. I can’t say my buildup to the race was the best, having been sick the week before, puking my guts in the morning a day before the race, and going to the toilet 5 times hours before the race.

The race started very early at 3 a.m., with the start and finish line being located at Queensbay Mall, Bayan Lepas. The course was rather flat with some highway ramps (always downhill) and the “bump” on the Penang bridge which we had to tackle twice. It would have been easy to hit a best time on a track like this, but the stomach problem I had over the weekend was giving me a hard time.

The problem with running with stomach discomfort is that, not only you feel uncomfortable every time you see a portable toilet by the roadside, the stomach gives a rumble that says: “Hey, you shouldn’t be running man, try taking a dump…or fart at least, both feel the same at this point”. It was horrible. The thunderstorm that came in at 4 a.m and soaked every single one of the half marathon runners was the least of my worries that morning.

I ended the race at 2 hours 56 minutes, 26 minutes over my expected finish time. But one thing I’m proud of is that the rest of my colleagues finished the half marathon as well, and for some of them, this was their first half marathon (their first race even)! Some of my colleagues took part in the 10 KM event, and they made it through as well. Overall, it was a very good group outing and everyone came back with finisher medals for a job well done!

This was my second race in two weeks, and I must say, the Nike City 10K Kuala Lumpur 2010 run was a bit of a disappointment. The route was beginner friendly, but since the race tagline was “We Run KL”, it could have been better. The organisers should have taken a page out of the KL Marathon (2008) organiser’s book but instead running on the highway and on Jalan Tun Razak seems to be the order of the day.

Starting at the KLCC outdoor carpark at Jalan Binjai at 7.15 a.m., the race was divided into two distance categories, 5 KM and 10 KM. I’m not sure why, maybe due to cost, but both started at the same time. The start was really congested as since this event was widely advertised, it attracted a lot of new runners.

Some of these participants, decided to slow down and start walking after a kilometre or two, hindering those who are running. I saw people getting shoulder-barged and shouted at (I did say “excuse me” several times), and if you are one of those “victims”…ouch..too bad..but it’s better to just get out of the way.

Anyways, by the third kilometre, the 10 KM runners had the route to themselves and soon enough we were on the AKLEH (Ampang KL Elevated Highway). Similar to the NPE, it was equally as boring and the only saving grace for this portion of the race was the live band at the u-turn near the toll plaza. I had a minor problem with the slope due to the blister I obtained during the race, funny, it was the exact same spot as the previous blister from the other race 2 weeks ago.

The last couple of kilometers took place on Jalan Tun Razak. The barriers put up for the race, blocking off one lane for the runners created a traffic jam, which was not good since we had to run along the road into the Tun Razak tunnel. There were several buses inside, and the exhaust smoke was pretty killer, comparable with Jakarta of all places.

Exiting the tunnel, runners did a u-turn towards the final stretch to the finish line at the Jalan Binjai car park. I finish the race with an unofficial time of 1 hour 7 minutes. Results are available at http://www.nikecity10kmalaysia.com/tools/results/results. You’ll need to get the bib number that’s printed on your shirt though, I’ve to go look for it later tonight.

On another note, I noticed that the Adidas miCoach app has a hard time getting a GPS lock at the start of two consecutive races. Maybe it’s because it’s strapped to my shoulder? Or maybe is it due to signal interference? I’m not sure but it doesn’t screw up during training. Anyways, I managed to get a signal lock when I started running, but there were some blind spots along the way. Strange.

I think the experience on the 26th of September would be permanently seared on my brain; this was when I ran 21 kilometers through a hilly tarmac race course and then walked 5 kilometers back to the finish line due to cramps. Recalling stuff for this Newton 25KM Challenge Race Report is going to be a painful one.

The bulk of  the race was under a really hot morning sun and I had an iPhone 4 review unit strapped to my arm. I’ll be honest here, I don’t run half marathons with my own iPhone 3GS, the amount of sweat is enough to make me doubt whether Belkin arm strap can prevent the phone from getting soaked.

But since this is a review unit, what the heck. I’ve even managed to get some very interesting race data courtesy of using the Adidas miCoach app with the iPhone 4. The miCoach app works with the built-in GPS functionality in the iPhone 4 to record race data such as distance, elevation, pace and route. Once the race information has been uploaded to the miCoach website, I basically have a really cool interface to evaluate my race.

First up, the route. The Newton Challenge took place in Bandar Kinrara 5, Puchong with two categories, 12 KM and 25 KM (it’s 26 KM actually, after checking with the miCoach app). I took the 25 KM event considering that I’ve taken part in half marathons this year, needless to say I gotten more than I can bargain for. The route took us through one of the most hilliest road races I’ve taken part in, even the UPM-based Mizuno Run can’t hold a candle to this.

There are also U-turn points that are very deep in, and the thing about U-turns is that you will be left wondering how far more to the turning point. Maddening…yes….depressing…yes!

Take a look at the elevation information recorded by miCoach and the iPhone 4. Yup, basically we tackled “valley” kind of terrain, you start from one peak, go down, and then go up to the next peak, like a V. Rinse and repeat. Just check out how many we had to tackle in the graph above. The 12 KM runners had it easy, tackling only one hill before turning back at the 6 KM point.

The miCoach app has this voice notification function that can be set to trigger every kilometer (which I did) to notify the user on some race info and it pretty much helped kept my pace in check which is around  6 to 7 minutes a kilometer. The only problem was the course itself. The second half of the race was a long winded affair going uphill and down again (several times) with one u-turn and water stations that ran out of isotonic drinks.

I did 21 KM in 2 hours 42 minutes, not bad considering how tough and hot the course was. I then walked 5 kilometers back to the finish line after cramping both legs, for a final time of 3 hours 40 minutes (yes, it’s horrible walking with cramps). There was no consolation at the finish line either except for a finisher’s shirt, the Milo van and the 100 plus booth were already closed. Meh…

I found out that the Belkin case proofed to be a snug and thankfully dry fit to the iPhone 4.The phone itself had its battery life reduced to half from a full charge, which is okay considering I had the GPS on for nearly 4 hours.  For those of you Nike fanboys out there, I know you wouldn’t be caught dead with an Adidas app, but don’t fret, there’s a Nike+GPS app for the iPhone. In fact, there are plenty of health care and  fitness related apps on the iPhone to check out: http://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/mobile-software-applications/id6013?mt=8

My next run will be a training run tomorrow or a day after, with a race coming on the 10th October, the Nike KL 10 KM run. If you see a guy wearing an orange Genting Trailblazer shirt and with an iPhone 4 strapped to his arm, that’s probably me.