(11/3/07-Sunday-Run Smart Tunnel race and catch up from behind)

The day before the run

Dinner consisting Lui Cha Fan or in English , Green Tea Rice .

Slept at 12 midnite . Woke up by dog incessant barking 1.30 am , not once but 4 times within a space of 40 min , by the time really sleep again is 2.10 am .

Woked up by dog again at 3.30 pm , total times dog woke me up , 5 times .

Breakfast

Woked up by alarm at 6.30 am . Breakfast glucose and dates .

Arrival at race location at 7.15 am


Immediately went to the starting point but people were all lining up and I can't find officials for me to give my reporting card . I asked around and people tell me they are at the front , which means I have got to go thru the men's group ( A group ) via the back to the front !! In order not to make people angry , I told them I'm going front to give my reporting card, so they make way for me .

There was no space to stretch and I used the min space I have to stretch my hamstring and thigh .

Race starts

I can see Lai already line up in front , I'm at the 7th row and Gunaseelan is next to me . As the gun shoots , he disappears , my 7th row becomes quite far back as everyone starting fast and we are stucked and I can't run fast . After 100 m only can get into the stride and I pace with Vincent for awhile . In fact Zul , pacemaker 43 and Eric Teo was already in front of me by 50 m .

The tunnel begins

At the beginning of the tunnel , Vincent runs faster and I can't follow him . In fact , before race yesterday , i already told Ronnie that I will start slow and not fast and use experience to slowly overtake . I can't see the rest of the PMs and was thinking I'm i going to be in last group of Pms this time ??

At the tunnel , 1st 2 km I overtake Zul and also Eric Teo .Towards the last 2 km of the tunnel , i suddenly see Lai, Saiful and I think its Ronnie , but they are like 150 m away . I maintained consistent pace and slowly overtook Saiful then Lai .

Coming out from tunnel

I see Ronnie in front of Chen , they are still 100 m away . We make a u-turn to go into tunnel again . At the u -turn , I can see I have behind me Lai , Saiful and Shine .

Inhaler before entering tunnel again

I took out inhaler from back pocket ( carefully as the cap might easily come out and i wouldn't stop to pick it up) and took a sniff . 2 people overtake me at this point . I held on to inhaler to save time but decided to put it back into back pocket . I couldn't . I tried again and this time I could . Now i can run "handsfree" . Slowly i overtook the 2 again .

Pain at knee

During the 2nd phase of the race in the tunnel heading towards finish , i could feel occasional pain at the right knee . I kicked the leg a bit and it was back to normal .It happen a number of times and i endured with it . It effected some nerves at the back and as i ran , there was some pain at the back nerves . After awhile it was back to normal.

Consistent pace

I maintained consistent pace , looking beyond Chen who looked like slowing down but I can't overtake him yet , Ronnie on the other hand looked liked he increased the pace as his gap from Chen further and further . I have to run faster if I want to catch up with Ron . Towards the last 2 km of the tunnel , i overtook Chen . Now , time to catch Ron . At this time i overtook Badrul and also overtook Vincent at last . Ron still 100 m away.

Mad dash to the finish .

Slowed down a bit when coming to the end of the tunnel coz its going uphill . Ron still 100 m away , I'm still chasing like mad and on my 7th gear . Last 800 m to go and at this point while chasing Ron , overtook another 3 other people from my A group . I'm like 50 m from Ron , I on my turbo near the finishing line and Ron suddenly turn back could see I'm coming after him and he is like 20 m in front of me but in the end i couldn't overtoook him . Ron 36th , me 37th place .

Overall , i'm happy with my performance coz i didn't started to fast , had a consistent pace averaging 4 min 30 sec per km pace throughtout except for the last faster 2 km .In the end , happy to come from behind and overtake some friends .



Distance :13.3 km
Duration of work out : 59 min 42 sec
Location :Jalan Tun Razak
# of times used Asthmatic inhaler and remarks : 2 times used inhaler , before race and during race as per story .

TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THIS WEEK : 40.60 KM