Army Half Marathon 2011

It is finally 4th September 2011, here comes the annual Army Half-marathon that I have been waiting and training for months. As I managed to go sub 4:45min/km for KL Half-marathon, I was hopeful that I can do it again for the Army Half-marathon and hopefully I can finally do a sub 100min Half-marathon, a target which I agonizingly missed 3 months ago by 38secs during the KL Half-marathon.

The race strategy of 4:45min/km pace throughout should be realistic for me to achieve my target provided that the distance is accurate and of course the nature of the route where I am allowed to stay on a fast lane running alongside runners of my pace. Last but not least is my condition and the weather, guess it should not be an issue since the race will start early at 5:15am where it is usually cooling.

Soon as the race started, I was doing fine, kept myself well hydrated and apart from the initial 600 meters of heavy traffic where I had irregular pace, I soon settled down to my intended race pace and registered with a time of 24:10min for my first 5k and only 25secs behind my target time of 23:45min.

The running pace from 5km to 10km was more consistent as I managed to clock 23:42min and rounded up my 10km in a good time of 48:02mins. But somehow I just could not find my form as I was feeling tired fast with heavy legs. Perhaps running through the grass patches at Tanjong Rhu area do play a part in breaking my momentum. somehow I just could not recover and as expected my pace continues to deteriorate to almost 5min/km before I finally completed 15km in 72:34min, which is 24:32min for the third set of 5km (10km to 15km) and disappointingly with a slow average pace of 4:54min/km!

As I was really slow from 10km to 15km, my thought of achieving or at least equaling my PB timing would be a really difficult task unless I can really start up my pace. As I tried to motivate myself to run faster, at 16km and 17km I managed to up my pace a little at 4:47min/km and 4:49min/km and was feeling great before I reaches the dreadful Fort Canning uphill, hard as I try and determine not to slow down but I could do nothing as the uphill run was draining a lot of my energy, felt breathless and heavy legs my pace again dropped to a slow 4:54min/km.

At 19km I made my last attempt to go all out but could only manage a 4:50min/km pace and as I sense I was nearing the finishing point, I ran as fast as I could at 4:32min/km to round up 20km. But at the turn after 20km I was really surprised to see the finish point within my sight before I ran as fast as I could across and was wondering why is my Garmin only showing 20:22km?

Based on my Garmin I managed to clock 1:37:18hr (Chip time) for the Army Half Marathon but soon after the race, somehow I was feeling moody or rather depressed as I the distance is obviously wrong. It was supposed to be a PB but no and not with such a poor average pace of 4:48min/km! I was hoping that I could at least equaled my PB and with 800m to go it is now something which I can never be sure if I will ever be able to do it!

I was confident that I will be able to keep up with my half-marathon pace of 4:45min/km, however I soon realized that it was wishful thinking as I only lasted 10km.

Post race findings:
1) I could have make the mistake of having too much for breakfast, as I felt my body can digest the food in time but with every step I was feeling heavy and it could be why I could not find the form to run.

2) The hill after 17km was a killer where it came at the wrong time when I was about to run faster, it was at this point that my stamina was instead further drained out.


EVENT: Half Marathon
DATE: 4 September, 2011
BIB/DIV:   5911 / Mens Open
TIME: 1h:38m:4s (gun) / 1h:37m:17s (net)



5k Spit

Lap (5km)	Time (min)	Avg Pace (min/km)
0-5	24:10	4:50
6-10	23:42	4:44
11-15	24:32	4:54
16-20	23:52	4:46
20-20.22	00:52	3:59

Split	Time	Moving Time	Distance	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss	Avg Pace
1	4:49.4	4:43.0	1.00	39	5	4:49.4
2	5:07.9	4:55.0	1.00	32	23	5:07.9
3	4:45.0	4:41.0	1.00	0	30	4:45.0
4	4:48.0	4:41.0	1.00	0	8	4:48.0
5	4:41.9	4:41.0	1.00	7	7	4:41.9
6	4:43.0	4:41.0	1.00	17	19	4:43.0
7	4:41.1	4:38.0	1.00	5	7	4:41.1
8	4:52.8	4:46.0	1.00	4	2	4:52.8
9	4:43.7	4:41.0	1.00	16	12	4:43.7
10	4:43.3	4:44.0	1.00	9	16	4:43.3
11	4:50.6	4:46.0	1.00	8	17	4:50.6
12	4:56.0	4:56.0	1.00	6	1	4:56.0
13	4:57.4	4:57.0	1.00	12	16	4:57.4
14	4:55.8	4:56.0	1.00	15	0	4:55.8
15	4:54.8	4:49.0	1.00	8	16	4:54.8
16	4:47.8	4:49.0	1.00	16	12	4:47.8
17	4:49.3	4:46.0	1.00	35	24	4:49.3
18	4:54.0	4:51.0	1.00	9	22	4:54.0
19	4:50.9	4:48.0	1.00	98	22	4:50.9
20	4:32.6	4:32.0	1.00	97	139	4:32.6
21	:52.7	:50.0	0.22	0	28	3:59.6
Summary	1:37:18.9	1:36:11.0	20.22	434	427	4:48.7