tahura trail run 2016

tahura run dates are announced for year 2016. 

this race was my first podium finish. 

this race was my first international run. 

i remember i did the 21km on saturday and the 10km on sunday. 

i enjoyed the trail, i enjoyed the weather, and i absolutely loved the experience. so i will definitely be back in 2016. also, i did not manage to see much of bandung the last time i was there. it was a short trip. the only thing i remember now is they have magnum coffee nyehehe. 

i will be back next year. to stand on the podium. and also to relive the experience. 

seremban half marathon 10km

to go or not to go:

'are you sure you should even be running this weekend?' - definitely the most asked question of the week. so many people posed this question to me, so much so, even i began to question myself.

i debated with myself. but before i knew it i found myself at the starting line of the seremban half marathon. so i guess i found more reason to go. i guess what pushed me to deciding to go for the race was the fact that quite a few of us were going, and i didn't want to miss the post-race-breakfast with everyone. yes, i'm such a foodie. but seriously, i guess it was because it was an out-of-kl run and quite a number of us were going, so i didn't want to miss out. so i packed my suitcase, and off i went. 

pre-race:

honestly, i was pretty nervous for this race. in the past month or so, i ran shorter distances, so 10km all of a sudden seemed really really long. 

the night before, i packed my race gear and went to bed early. i think i was asleep by 1030 ish. but when my alarm rang, i still felt like i could use a little more sleep. when i managed to pull myself out of bed, i took a hot shower and pulled on my race gear. its pretty much the same pre-race ritual. 

oh wait, the other part that always worries me pre-race is whether i can shit. and i could not. however, upon arrival at the race site, i suddenly wanted to shit. but there weren't any toilets at the race start. drove to the petrol station but the dude said their toilets only open at 7. my flagoff was at 650, so that was not going to work for me. i was stressing myself out already. i only had 30 more minutes and i needed to find a toilet, shit, get back to the race venue, warmup and get to the front of the start line. all of a sudden, that felt like a huge long list to do in too short a period of time. 

thankfully, managed to find a kfc. and managed to shit. rushed to the race venue, and managed to catch the gang doing their warmup. only managed to stride about 200m, stretched a little and headed up to the start line together with sinyee. well, i made it in time so can't complain about the lack of warmup, because at least i made it in time hehe. got to always look at the bright side of things. 

race:

i went steady in the beginning. i like to not go too fast in the beginning because i always prefer to have some reserve energy for the last 1-2 km. but this time my strategy kinda failed on me. approaching the 6th km, i had a side stitch. stitches are still bearable because i can still do a 5 minute pace or 450 pace. but approaching the 7th km, i had a cramp sensation under my rib, right below my heart. this - was unbearable when running. i really wanted to stop and walk because every stride i took, i could feel the pain. i couldn't take deep breaths because the pain did not allow my ribs to expand for deep breaths. so i changed to shorter breaths, tried to put pressure on my rib and notably slowed down my pace. i dropped to almost a 630 pace. so my strategy to go strong on the final kilometres kind of failed. 

you can see the pain in my face and my hand indicating where the pain was. 

it was quite a hilly route. admittedly, in the beginning, i felt that i was going at a good sustainable pace. i wasn't pushing myself too hard. 

despite the major slow down, thankfully i managed to still come in 3rd. i was so relieved to complete the race. 

it was a bad run for me, but on the bright side, i have to commend myself for persevering and pushing through the pain. the easy option would have been to give up and take a stroll back. 

post-race:

i learnt quite a few things from this run, in terms of the importance of my pre-race breakfast, in terms of what my strengths and weaknesses are when running, and of course i need to utilize this information to better my performance. 

we all went to pasarbesar seremban for breakfast. it was quite funny, because i ordered my wantanmee and went to get more food. so when i came back jeff was like, 'this one ah, order food already, disappear to go get more food.' because the uncle brought the noodles to our table and insisted the table ordered one but noone was there to claim it. nyehehe. such a foodie. 

congratulations to superwee who placed 9th =) also to don who bagged 2nd runner up, khiiren who placed 5th, zanehyyy who placed 9th and of course jeff, who did a superb run. 

major thanks to everyone who believes in me and supported me for my run, whether it is from good luck messages, to comforting messages assuring me i will do fine, to congratulatory messages, to people who actually came to watch me race. you cannot imagine how much the support means to me. 

i need rest

on tuesday morning, my body was dead tired. 

im trying to recall what i did. 

wednesday evening was some crazy 2km x 3, 1km x 3 run. 

thursday evening was a day off training for us. but the gang still went to mpsj and did our own thing. i was feeling lazy, so i just did a 30minute fartlek on my own. yes, when i'm feeling lazy, fartlek is the way to go. 

friday morning, i did a 2.5km, 2km followed by a 1km run. this wasn't really training for me. it was more therapy. often when im stressed about something, a good run does the trick. so i decided to go for a run. i felt so much better after my run. 

on saturday morning, i was meant to go for my long run. but i woke up late. as if that was not bad enough, i got there, and continued sleeping in the car. lol. i was feeling super tired. by the time i got up the sun was out. 

on sunday morning, i wanted to redo my failed long run, but it rained. haha not my fault i couldn't train nyehehe. 

on sunday evening, despite feeling tired, i decided i needed to do something, so i did 2km x 5. with a 3km warmup. 

monday morning i did 1km x 3 and 500m x 2. monday evening i did 500m x 3. 

tuesday morning i was meant to do a 1 hour run. but seriously the level of tiredness i was experiencing was indescribable. i slept twice. to recuperate. but it was really much needed rest. in the evening,  i did 300m x 8, and managed to do 1 minute for every set. it's a pb workout for me teehee. although my run form itself was far from good.

so, conclusion - rest is part of training. today im unbelievably tired as well. maybe i need the rest today. i've got race this weekend. 

parxi relay series 2

the last time i experienced this, i also dnf. and that was during my 3000m time trial where i stopped 600m short of the finishing. and yesterday was absolute dejavu. what i am afraid of the most, my most feared, hit me again - period cramps.  

if you have not previously read about my loads of questions on menstrual pain and exercising, click here. 

there is really nothing much to say. i tried to hold my position as far as i could. i even told myself its just a few hundred metres, i just need to persevre and fight through the pain. but i couldn't hold on. there came a point whereby walking was not even possible. 

'i knew you had period pain, but i didn't know it was that bad' was the most recited sentence of the day. normally, if i run on the day before or the first day of my period, i turn ice cold, cold sweat pours, i can bearly stand up, i cant control the tears, my back would feel like it broke into 25987 pieces, and i would just feel like i died and went to hell, and when the pain subsides some 30 minutes later after of course taking painkillers, i would feel like i died and came back to life. 

but i want to apologize to my team. i have a great team, all having great fighting spirit and great potential, which without this incident we would have had a great fighting chance to emerge top. i feel bad for letting them down. yet they did not blame me. they were truly concerned about me. so i think this day, is really about them. it is easy to be a team when things are all going right, but it is not easy to stay as a team when things go wrong. so i am glad to be a part of my team. because i feel nothing speaks more team than what they did and how they handled the situation yesterday. 

i am also super thankful to the people who helped me to the medic. major thanks to kelvin who carried me there, whom without, i think i would have never made it to the medic tent. of course the medic team did a great job nursing me back to a state where i could walk back to my car to pass out. of course superwee sinyee who was there. she's always there lah, not only in photos haha. and more importantly, thanks to all those who took the time out to message me after the race to check on me whether i am okay. i am forever grateful. 

do u run just to win?

'if not to win, why do you do it? why did you run as hard as you could?' 

to me, running is not just about winning. but just because i don't think winning is the most important thing, does not mean i do not run my best.  winning is a bonus. but more importantly, i try my best, for myself. is that really such a wrong mindset to have? 

let's talk about the flip side of the coin - in that winning is the end goal of everything. but really, at what cost? are you prepared to win at all costs? of course it is simple to say, i just want to run with the best people on my team, and no-one lesser than me, because i want to win and winning is oh-so-everything. but then remember, what you are doing is finding the best conditions for yourself to win, and not you yourself trying your best and fighting to win. i may choose to run not with the best people, i may be choosing unfavourable conditions for myself, but, i know i will fight with my team to win. and even if we don't we know we fought together and it is the journey ultimately that will be worth more than your golden team that barely knows each other and wins. 

but, let's take it to the logical extreme here. if winning is everything, then if today, there is a drug, undetectable, but allows your performance to increase threefold, you would go for it? taking it one more notch up, hiring the mafia to kill everyone better than you would be something you would be so willing to do because - winning is everything apparently. 

does that bring you the satisfaction you want? 

should winning triumph friendship? should winning triumph moral boundaries? should winning triumph social boundaries? 

people don't see that winning in itself does not bring satisfaction. if it were so true, we would so structure situations that would allow us to unfairly compete just to win, to assure unobstructed victory. in actual fact it is the thrill of close competition that attracts our interest. 

so are there any boundaries to winning is everything? 

personally, i feel it is good to want to win, but sometimes it is not always about winning. it should be governed by social and moral boundaries. and just because i do not think winning is everything does not mean i am not a competitive runner. i just value other things more than winning. 

winning is an outcome, but sometimes when people become so obsessed with winning, they lose sight of the the journey. they lose sight of who they are, who they once were. they lose sight of how they got there. they lose appreciation for people who don't win. 

one wish as a runner

its been 2 weeks since the parxi relay series 1 race. at that time i had a grave ankle problem. i had never wanted to be injury-free so much in my life. after the race, i was forced to take a long break from running. i literally could not run. the pain was to the extent that i didn't even feel like running. i stopped for a couple of days, and realized it wasn't getting any better. i was majorly frustrated - in my mind - my ankle hurts when i run, but it also hurts when i don't run, i might as well just run, no? 

of course, everyone else as i would have if i were thinking straight, could see the flaw in that statement. 

then, i tried running, but i realized, my limiting factor was no longer the pain in my ankle, but my heart. my fitness level obviously dropped. then i started thinking to myself, if my ankle hurts, i can still tahan the pain and run on. but if my fitness level is bad, there is no way i can run on. so perhaps i should just continue running, despite the ankle pain? no?

this is what injury does to a runner. not only the physical stress, but the mental stress as well, causing me to come up with somewhat amusing theories haha. 

anyways, so its been a 2 week break from running. my ankle has gotten better but still not quite healed yet. and im super worried for the 2nd series of parxi relay. i don't want to disappoint my team. 

i love running, beyond the point of sanity. 

sometimes, some days, its not about training, its not about running a pb, its not a competition. some days, its just therapy. 

PARXI relay Series 1

the thing with relays are that there is extra pressure. you don't want to let your teammates down and you don't want to bring them down either. so, really, pressure. also, my ankle was still really bad, hence the additional worry that i would not be able to perform. 

i was super nervous the night before. i packed my race gear and went to bed. i had my alarm set for 530 ish, but i think its the super pre-race jitters, i was wide awake at 340 in the morning. i tried going back to sleep, but to no avail. i got a little fedup with rolling and tossing and turning, so decided to get out of bed early and head to the race site early to get parking. i got to lake gardens around 6 ish, with 90 minutes before flagoff. 

and of course, the pre-race ritual - i had my breakfast in the car, which is always moolabar and a hot cup of milo. very consistent pre-race meals hehe. then of course headed to use the toilet, and then gear up. since we had plentiful of time on our hands, i walked a loop of the race course to refresh my memory of the route. and wah, the hills, the staircase, gosh! i was panting just walking the course. when done, i had about 20 more minutes, so i did some striding. i felt a stabbing pain in my ankle, and checked my watch for my pace, and saw a mere 520 pace. yes i was definitely worried about whether id be able to perform. 

i kinda visualized how i was going to run the race. well its not a super -plan, but the plan was to not die at the end of the race. so upon flagoff, i just tried to keep up with the 2nd pack of girls. the 1st pack was well, let's just say i never saw the 2 girls from beginning to end. 

i tried to follow them closely. when we met an uphill, yeah at times like those i wished i were lighter. felt like death. the staircase after, yeah i saw everyone walking, so i walked as well. i didn't want to push the stairs to die at the downhill section. i am so bad at uphill and stairs really, i was the last of the pack out of the stairs. 

it was during the downhill that i picked up my speed and went all out. i last kicked too early though. so, when i turned the corner and saw that i had another 200m to go, i really had nothing more in me. i was so so glad to pass off the baton to vishnu. i managed to come in 4th. 

our team did a great job. all of us gave it our best and we managed to come in 5th. and it was great fun supporting one another, cheering one another and pacing one another. it was superb that coach, sinyee and gordon came to cheer for us as well. really, you can see sinyee it alot of photos. she has more photos then the runners honestly haha. she really is like..everywhere! and of course, to be able to run on my birthday, of course made it a smashing day for me. 

of course congratulations to don and darren's team who made 1st runner up. it was a good fight. 

 can't wait for the next one. it's going to be major fun. hope my ankle heals by then.