Race Report: New Year Newton Challenge 2012

Date: 01/01/2012 5:30 AM

Type: Run (Race)

Distance: 25 km

Time: 1 hr 55 min 39 secs

Average pace: 4:37 min/km

Route: New Year Newton Challenge 2012

Route link: http://www.logyourrun.com/showroute/tOb0txVzf0asmt

Shoes: Brooks Glycerin 9

What one will be doing on 1st day break of new year?

This year I chose to start the year in a race.

Sound insane to some people, which if you participate in a race, one cannot have countdown party, and it's a "sin" to say "no" to sleep-in on public holiday. However, this sound cool to me, and I guess the same to all the runners that share the same spirit. I somehow feel runners share some common traits, which we love odd thing at odd hour and that is what shape us.

Race Pack Collection

I collected the race pack on 31th Dec, the day I reached KL by train.

The venue is not a commonly visited location (e.g. shopping malls, convention center) but a location which is difficult to assess via public transport.

From KL central, I took 3 buses (Rapid KL) to reach BK5, Bandar Kinrara. Not mentioning the time spend on waiting buses, looking for the tent for race pack collection, and the heat.

I spent 4 hours total just to collect the race pack.

Race Day

2.30am - Woke up. Toilet. Breakfast (1 pack milo, 5 breads)

4.00am - Depart in Joshua's car. (Joshua - manager & founder for Team Miracle Mile)

4.30am - Arrived at race venue

5.00am - Warm up

5.30am - Flag-off

I was still in recovering from SCSM and I had been wondering how far I can go this time. Knowing the route is full of uphill and downhill, with extreme elevation profile, I done some hill work out started 2 weeks before the race. I wondered it help.

However, here I go, started the race in a vague and "let's see how" state of mind.

The route started with some downhill and went uphill at bout 1km. Downhill at about 2km, and elevated again at 3km. The cycle repeated through out the race, the road never rest itself from went up or went down.

Being mentally prepare, the slopes didn't surprise me. However, it gave a challenge to me on how to run the course. I've opted the strategy to run at a steady pace - maintain the strength on uphill, and don't rush towards downhill. The purpose was to keep the leg fresh and delay the onset of fatigue.

The crowd started to separate itself in groups after a few KM. Runners with almost same pace were running together. I ran with a group of runners and we pace for almost 15km. (From km 5th to km 19th). There's a interesting phenomena on this course. There would be the same person leading during uphill, and there would be same person took the lead on downhill. Each runners will have their own strength and work together through the course. I was the one who could take the lead at relatively flat surface (for a relatively short period of time), and overtook by everyone on water station... because I stopped longer for the drinks.

I took my first PowerBar Gel at km-7th. Which was relatively earlier than the last FM on km-10th. I took PowerBar Gel for the next 3 water stations (4 PG total) that located around every 3.5km-4km. I was surprised by the amount of Gel I took, as it was the same that I took in FM. Was it a psychology effect to take or the course consume more energy (attributed to all the slopes)? However, the Gel did assist a lot on pushing me through the race.

I always would like to find out what's the strategy on taking endurance Food/drinks, how much we should take for a race? How frequent?

I took the advantages of flat terrain at about km-12 to gain back the time. At km-18 I decided to sacrifice the quadriceps by running downhill faster. For the uphill, I did better when doing small steps with higher frequency.

In fact, there was no distance marker for the race. I did not know the distance during the race. I estimated the distance base on water station, and certain location that I've purposely identified before hand. During the run, pace was by instinct. As I mentioned earlier, this is a "let's see how" race. The KM in this article was identified after the race from the route map. There was one water station extra from the original Route Map (where they served PowerBar Endurance drink). Also, I made the wrong identification for the second Petronas station and did a wrong speed up. In addition to that, I didn't know when it's approaching finish line. As the finishing point appeared after I made a turn, only I realize the race is going to finish.

Overall, this was a good experience enhancing race. Challenging route, serious runners (medium size participants, not too crowded), good weather (last year started 6.30am and was heaty), clean environment, spacious route, good volunteer given clear direction, enough divider of race route from cars, sufficient water stations.

However, some minus points for the race was expensive (rm65) and inconvenient venue of race pack collection.

After running the course, I guess most runners would realize their weakness and strength. They will go back to work on the weaker part and come back to challenge the road again. The same goes for me.