Ipoh International Run

I was ill AGAIN in the run up to this race - that's twice in a month I've been struck by something. By Friday lunchtime I'd had enough so I went home for a rest, unsure of whether I'd make it to the weekends race or not.

Sat a.m. I was feeling better so I drove up to Ipoh. By the afternoon I was feeling quite good but somehow became worse in the evening. I felt fine except the feeling that someone had taken a blowtorch to my windpipe.

I look forward to these races SO much it takes a hell of a lot to force me out, and even at 4am the next morning, after a poor nights sleep and with the blowtorch feeling still there, I still held out hope.

I woke at 5.45am but didn't rise until 6.10am, only 35mins before flag-off! I decided that I would get to the point of no return before decided to run or not. I arrived with 10mins to spare. As I made my way to the reporting point, still 8 mins to go, a swarm of runners came past - I'd missed the start - they started early! (or so I thought). I reported and got my black wrist tag and started running - then I realised the swarm was just running to the start from a holding area. Phew!

By now I was caught up in the event and was all set to go. Somehow I managed to spot Ah Fook in the crowd and met up with him. "See you in 2 1/2 hrs" I said, giving myself an extra 30mins for this run.

This was a BIG run so the first 4km was a bit congested. At one point I punched a rather petite girl in the back of her shoulder (sorry 'bout that). After 4km or so the 10k route split from ours and it was a bit more calm. At 5km the 1km markers started which gave me a good idea of pace.
I was doing 6:00 per km and tried to stick to that.

It was a flat route and after 7km I started to become rather familiar with the runners in front and behind as we all ran a similar pace. Its funny how in long races like this these people become a big part of one's life for 1-2 hours as all one thinks about is the race, and the only people around are those who overtake or the ones you catch up.

As usual I slowly began to reel people in as the race progressed, and even managed to overtake a few who'd passed me earlier. I don't like being overtaken at the end but today there was one Vet. in a saggy yellow top who got me right at the end. He'd passed me at km5 but I caught and passed him at about km19 only to lose it in the end.

As in PD, my left knee (outside ligament?) gave me a bit of trouble in this race but not as bad as before.

Wow! 1km to go - check the muscly legs!

To my great surprise and delight I got a medal for finishing in 100th place, in 2:08:05, a couple of minutes outside my mid-race target of 2:06:00. Due to the seemingly accurate km markers I'm also awarding myself a PB for 15km - 1:30:43.

More run photos of me here.

There's another 3 Half-marathons before the Desaru & S'pore long-distance triathlons but I'm beginning to think I should give at least one a miss as I'm missing out on bike time - these days I'm cycling only 30-60km a week and will need to get some 100km+ rides in before August.