to 30K with love

First of all, I wish to congratulate Che for his maiden half-marathon, and he did very well too. And congrats to Shaqi to, for inching ever closely by completing his 30k, and his voyage (chewah!) to his maiden full marathon!

Second of all, I wish to say Alhamdulillah, for my health that I am blessed with now, to enjoy I while I am still strong and abled. I realised that I have forgotten to be grateful to Allah lately. Amin.

Thirdly, from now on, I wish to apologise to some people who thinks my putting my run timings in my blog as 'syok sendiri', as it was never my intention to brag (come on, look at them, there's nothing to brag pun), but merely as my own inspiration only, and as a note to myself to keep on improving. We can't stay dormant forever, la ok. Of course I do draw encouraging moral support from fellow blogrunners, and it is only natural to do so. Don't you draw support for people to awe at your new shoes, bags and other worldly materials?

That said, today's New Balance Pacesetters 30k was such a very enjoyable event for me. Great friends, breathtaking routes, good food post race, not-so-good medal but ok-lah, great run etc. Water stations were ok but I wished more isotonic drinks were served. It took pressures away from actually doing a full marathon, but offered enough adrenalin shot and challenge for a beyond half-marathon.

We arrived at Bukit Aman almost simulaneously - Shaqi, Diket and friends, Shuk, Ian, Nik, Kash and Fadhil, and we were as always, chatting away when the gun went off. All of a sudden, the group dispersed and I found myself pacing with Shuk at first, and he was then magically replaced with Diket after Shuk stopped for water. Me and Diket ran all the way strong to Hartamas, did our Subuh prayers, and went off again.

Diket pulled away near Matrade, and I was running alone (lama dah pakai keting Kenya tuh, bagi la pinjam pulak!). Arrived at the 20th km marker at 2:01 - so far so good. Then came the Double Hills! I went up there once back in 2007, and today I was struggling. Still running, albeit too slowly to my delight, but running nonetheless. My HRM was screaming at 184-185! But I slowed down considersably, when Shuk came and smoked away near Istana Selangor (?). Just by the Tugu Negara, I saw Fadhil behind me, and we ran together until Padang Merbok where he went for his home run.

The next 3-4 km was ok, going through Bank Negara (2nd time), into JKR quarters and back to Padang Merbuk. The downhill homerun was good for sprinting though... I came in at 3:14:22.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this one race, although my lack of training into Double Hills did shocked me to my very core! I suppose that is sort of a punishment for dwindling on the idea of running Bukit Antarabangsa and Batu Caves! I have enjoyed my 20km run prior to that, and the last section after coming out towards Wisma Tani. Double Hills - memang dessert habis...

I have had some side stitches going up the hills, after long absence of it. But the old trick to apply pressure helped. O well, improving is always better than degrading. Now, I look forward to LSD with those multiple hills.

We re-grouped post run while waiting for the whole geng to return, while having the oh-so-blissful cool watermelons. We were warming up to catching up on many stories, but before the Siti Nurhaliza and her LV bag surfaces, wifey called to tell the special nasi lemak at home awaits (she knows how to manipulate my cheat day). Siti Nurhaliza some other day, she is saved by the ringtone.

So thanks guys, for making this event a memorable one. Need my massage now.