Sunday, July 24, 2011

Marina21k 2011


I did everything right from the start, arriving early at 6pm to the race site, had my 2km warm up runs and with ample time for stretching and toilet breaks before I report to the starting point at 7:10pm, getting ready for the 7:30pm elite first wave. It was a race which I felt excited as I was looking forward to run with the elites with the entire course cleared for the front pack to run, it was indeed an opportunity for another PB. But unfortunately it was just not my day and my hope of a hat-trick of Half Marathon PB never materialized.

As the race started at 7:30pm I got off to a comfortable pace running right behind a potential top 10 female runner whom I knew was running close to 4:45min/km pace. It was the right pace that I needed to maintain for at least half the entire distance so as to have any chance of a sub 1:40hr finish. I was hopeful that keeping consistent pace behind an experience runner will help me conserve energy for the second half of the race.

As I was following closely behind her I managed to clock 23:48min for my first 5km, with a sight 3sec off from my target of 23:45min and on average almost 4:45min/km pace, and so far so good but somehow it was a rather tiring 5km where I was needed to run through grass patches and was forced to run in between narrow lanes enough for only 2 runners. Despite of that I was confident that I will be able to recover soon.

Soon after 5km it was the first u-turn point and I realized that she seems to have slowed down and so I decide that I should move on with my own pace and will look out for other pacers. While looking out I was probably too excited and with the mentality of “playing safe”, I unknowingly ran too fast as my 6km pace was 4:40min/km while 7km was ran at 4:36min/km pace. Soon it came the second u-turn point, I was getting tired as the turn also breaks my momentum. Despite of that I still managed to cross 8k with a pace of 4:44min/km. But from then on it was irregular up and down pace before I finally round up my 10km (second 5km split) in 23:27min, and I was 15secs ahead of time.

After the 10km mark I soon reaches the halfway point, it also marked the completion of the first loop and I was again back to the initial starting point. A quick glanced at the official gun time and it was about 48mins for slightly more than 10km, I was telling myself not too bad and I will just need to maintain this pace throughout.

Although part of the route was scenic but it was sickening as I will need to go through one more dreadfully loop again, it will be the same narrow paths, grass patches, followed by sharp turns and u-turns again and on top of that with runners from other waves joining in, it was more crowded and tougher to run as part of the routes were meant to be run to and fro with only cones as dividers in between the same route.

As it turns out, from 11km to 15km I was slowing down as I could not keep up with my 4:45min/km pace. The 10km to 15km 5km split was a slow 24:16min with an average pace of 4:51min/km, and from 16km to 18km my pace was inconsistent as I tried hard to up my pace but again was slowing down.

Soon it was almost 19km and with 2km left I felt it’s time to up my pace again. As I didn’t want to slow down and at split second I made a very bad mistake of making a wrong turn at the junction between KPE and Tanjong Rhu Road. I was making another run towards Jalan Benaan Kapal where instead I should have run towards the Tanjong Rhu Place direction. Feeling tired and frustrated I decide to stop my race the moment I reached 21.1km and I rounded up my run with another 2km cool down run back to the finish line.

Overall the race was not conducive for achieving a good running time as narrow paths, grass patches, sharp turns and narrow u-turns breaks my momentum. Despite of that, I felt that there are 2 points to note. Firstly I will need to control my pace better especially from 5km to 10km where I was 31secs ahead of time. Secondly, I will need to motivate myself to run fast even after realizing that I was taking the wrong route as there is always a chance of a self-timed PB.

Still it was a good run as my race turns training session took my weekend mileage to 25km, it includes my 2km warm up and 2km cool down before and after my race, a decent distance to clocked over the weekends. It’s now another countdown to the ultimate Army Half Marathon!

Split
Time
Distance
Avg Pace
Summary01:41:1721.1304:47
100:04:421.0004:42
200:04:431.0004:43
300:04:501.0004:50
400:04:501.0004:50
500:04:431.0004:43
600:04:401.0004:40
700:04:361.0004:36
800:04:441.0004:44
900:04:391.0004:39
1000:04:481.0004:48
1100:04:411.0004:41
1200:04:541.0004:54
1300:04:481.0004:48
1400:04:561.0004:56
1500:04:571.0004:57
1600:04:521.0004:52
1700:04:411.0004:41
1800:04:571.0004:57
1900:04:421.0004:42
2000:04:551.0004:55
2100:04:521.0004:52
2200:00:360.1304:46

5k Split

Lap (5km)

Time (min)

Avg Pace (min/km)

0-5

23:48

4:46

6-10

23:27

4:41

11-15

24:16

4:51

16-20

24:07

4:49

21-21.13

05:28

4:50





Monday, July 11, 2011

Jurong Lake Run 2011


This will be my first 10km race this year and in its inaugural year it will be the first race to be held in the western part of Singapore. It is always nice to run in a new route with scenic environment around Jurong Lake.

I was feeling excited as I wonder how will I fare since it has been a long time that I last compete in a 10km race, and to be exact it was almost a year ago in the Nike City Run on 24 Oct 2010 so I was a little doubtful on how fast should I run since I expect myself to be fitter as compared to 10 months ago, and especially now with the latest SCKLM ½ marathon PB under my belt.

As I looked back on my recent weeks of interval trainings and speed workouts, and also a check on the McMillan Calculator I felt 4:30km/min would be the right pace to run throughout the race and so ideally it will be a 45min 10km finish.

It was almost 7am as I was still queuing up for the toilet before I managed to complete my usual warm up run plus stretching, I was a bit late and did not have the chance go nearer to the starting point. But well, I will just hope that I need not have to waste too much time and energy waving in and out later.

Soon as the race was flag off at 7:30am, it was initially quite crowded as I opted to run more to the side which was a bit more spacious and surprisingly I was too fast and managed to clock 4:06min for my first 1km. Somehow I was feeling great and excited as I continue my fast pace with 4:17min/km for my second km.

At 3km I felt the need to slow down as I was starting to breathe harder, so I decide to drop my pace to 4:30min/km and the plan then was to stick to this pace throughout. I was doing fine as I managed keep to the right pace for the next 3km to 5km, it was a really tiring first 5km which I certainly over paced myself, to my surprised I clocked a sub 22min for the first 5km.

As my initial fast pace was coming back to haunt me I was slowing down from 6km onwards and to make things worse I started to suffer pain from side stitch, as I was still hopeful for a PB I tried hard not to slow down as I was hoping that I will get over it soon. Over 7 – 8km my pace continued to deteriorate to a terribly slow 4:47min/km and 4:51min/km, and with the pain persists I finally decide to give up my target for a PB and drop my pace to above 5min/km for recovery.

The slower pace certainly helps in my recovery but by then it was already 9km into the race. Feeling better, I started to overtake runners around me and also some Safra runners who overtook me earlier on. With the chance for a PB totally gone, my thought then was to just get over the race as I up my pace for a strong finish to recover some lost ground and finally crosses the finishing line strongly.

It was a tough and competitive 10km race which I was trying to “test” my fitness level, as the 1st 5km was almost an all out pace averaging 4:22min/km, a huge difference from the 2nd half of the 5km average pace of 4:50min/km. I really need to keep check of my pace for the coming Yellow Ribbon Prison 10km run in September.

Official results

RANKING

GUN TIME

NET TIME

SPLIT 4KM

SPLIT 6KM

74

0:47:21.37

0:46:37.00

0:18:05.56

0:27:41.58


Lap (5km)

Time (min)

Avg Pace (min/km)

0-5

21:48

4:22

6-10

24:11

4:50


Split
Time
Distance
Avg Pace
Summary00:46:3910.1804:34
100:04:061.0004:06
200:04:171.0004:17
300:04:241.0004:24
400:04:301.0004:30
500:04:311.0004:31
600:04:371.0004:37
700:04:471.0004:47
800:04:551.0004:55
900:05:081.0005:08
1000:04:441.0004:44
1100:00:340.1803:08