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

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
Summary	01:41:17	21.13	04:47
1	00:04:42	1.00	04:42
2	00:04:43	1.00	04:43
3	00:04:50	1.00	04:50
4	00:04:50	1.00	04:50
5	00:04:43	1.00	04:43
6	00:04:40	1.00	04:40
7	00:04:36	1.00	04:36
8	00:04:44	1.00	04:44
9	00:04:39	1.00	04:39
10	00:04:48	1.00	04:48
11	00:04:41	1.00	04:41
12	00:04:54	1.00	04:54
13	00:04:48	1.00	04:48
14	00:04:56	1.00	04:56
15	00:04:57	1.00	04:57
16	00:04:52	1.00	04:52
17	00:04:41	1.00	04:41
18	00:04:57	1.00	04:57
19	00:04:42	1.00	04:42
20	00:04:55	1.00	04:55
21	00:04:52	1.00	04:52
22	00:00:36	0.13	04:46

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