Saturday on Mt. Nuang Summit with Tony, Yvonne & husband.
After 5 hours of mountain training on Saturday, running a FM distance on Sunday morning was not really a great idea. I drag Tony with me for our weekly mountain training, March is the defining month for our UTMF preparation.
Met Yvonne and her husband on Nuang Summit, congrats Yvonne – it’s was her virgin Nuang adventure, and she made it all the way to the top.
1,600m+ elevation gain and 20km of technical trail. It was a great Saturday training, all i need next is 42km run on the road.
Few months earlier, Jiki asked me to be her pacer for Malaysia Women Marathon – which i said yes, coz i need the challenge. I paced Jiki twice before this during BIM 12’ and BIM 13’, she won women full marathon category last year.
Thank you Jiki for trusting me to be your pacer again. But on Sunday morning, we’re disappointed to find out that the haze came back after it disappeared on Saturday. Damn!! as we’re about to start the MWM.
Karen Loh, the MWM’s Race Director decided to change this event into a non competitive event due to haze and safety reason. It mean there’s NO winner and NO cash prize – smart decisive decision.
Jiki and i then decided to take it easy running this as there’s no incentive to push. It was great to see many friends running MWM as Pacer and Pacee. I saw Aizat with his “Red Riding Hood” costumes, it look brilliant. Great job Aizat, I can’t wait to see the next Marathon costumes.
As we completed the first loop (21km), the haze was getting worse and more thick! I had difficulty in breathing, I had to stop and walk a bit while Jiki continued her run as nothing happened.
Kalis jerebu ini perempuan! hehe
I told Jiki that i would catch up with her later. Which at the time i found it very unlikely, I decided to stop at 21km due to the haze.
Later as i reached the next Water Station, i was thinking hard and assessing the situation. I found out that i didn't have the heart to leave my pacee running by herself.
After drinking few cups of Gatorade and recovering from the earlier DNF, i decided to continue and ran after my pacee. I ran and pushed hard, magically i found my pace back, i try keeping the pace below 6 mins/km.
I ran non stop passed all the hills and passed more and more HM runners but my pacee was nowhere to be found. For the second time time, i cursed when i reached the bloody hill entering the SUK office. No time to walk, i pushed on and run all the way up.
Finally i caught up with Jiki at 32km, she was left to walking due to cramps. She said to many hills! I persuaded her to continue running, which she nodded.
When we reached the next Water Station just few minutes after 8 am, we were told to turn left and take shortcut to the finish line.
The race was over, as the haze was worsening - the organiser decided to stop the race, superb decision from my view. But a little disappointed as it was less than 10 km to the finish line, which we’re have no problem at all to finish it.
We crossed the finish line and completed 33.6km in 3:25 hours. I guess we have to redo this again next year eh Jiki?
Later in the evening, i did my second run for the day and stop upon reaching 8.6km.
Now, i can proudly say that Sunday i ran a Full Marathon distance for my 42nd birthday.
Photo by: Enaikay, just before the finish line.
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