Borneo International Marathon 2017 - 07/05/2017
#AnonymousRunners #AR #BorneoInternationalMarathon2017 #BIM2017 #FullMarathon #42km #ForgetThePaceJustRun #janganuncitjugak
Borneo International Marathon 2017 - 07/05/2017
This is a super long write since i have got a bit too much waiting time while in Kota Kinabalu, so i write more. In summary:
1. I got what I asked for: a personal worst (PW) for a full marathon with 5:51 and an injured/painful knee. That's the return for poor training and taking for granted attitude. Note: RESPECT THE DISTANCE!
2. I have got my BIM medal and beautiful finisher tee (please do be jealous).
3. Overall, BIM2017 was a great event and deserved to be in my running list.
4. I had great time with my travelling buddies from Anonymous Runners (as always) and enjoyed meeting with many fellow runners including from Tawau Runners (especially my bro Dulmi Mullar, Mohamad Afiq,Mois Le BleuMary Meme OC and family) and the international runners (particularly the two Hong Kong marathoners with a record 208 and 280 full marathons respectively).
5. STOP READING HERE, else i shall not be held responsible for the time u have to spend reading/scrolling the story.
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Into the 3rd year of running, i've been more selective - not even bother trying new or untested events, thus a bit more time with family and much less worry about wasted time and money on those useless shameful money face organisers with their bullshit gimmicks. Personally, its no longer about counting medals (running out of idea what to do with those collected so far) and tees. Solo run can be more satisfying with more time to check and re-check at training plan and progression. For May 2017, I only registered for BIM2017 and SCKLM2017, both for full marathon with a 2-week break in between. I dont think its a good move but BIM is too tempting to let go and SCKLM is almost a compulsory event for me. (Note: Truly i am so fortunate to have great support and understanding from my beloved wife Rismawati Syafrizal, the blessing for each and every events i have participated so far has really allowed me to be biased on my choices between my priorities and responsibilities.)
However training has not been going well for me despite more time to prepare for. I only participated in the 21k 2XU Singapore in early April, DNS Score Run, and purposely spare the balance free from any event for the whole taper weeks before BIM. It's been raining in the evening, and when its clear, something personal or official came up. Sighhh. Milage wise, only managed to run about 120k for the whole April, way less than the average milage of the top 3 runners in Anonymous Runners. Mohd Yusnisan (Isey) has been maintaining an impressive 300km/month, setting such a good standard for the group. Anyway, air tickets booked, accomodation arranged, excitement plus anxiety already in the blood, butterfly in the stomach, the show must go on! I spend more time thinking and worrying about how to tackle the FM distance with the lack of preparation rather than just hit the road running and be prepared.
The night before departure wifey asked what time I am suppose to go to the airport and I was kind of blur and unable to clear my mind, 4am probably? 4 hours prior ETD, I dont even realised that I will be departing from KLIA instead of KLIA2. That morning, I was already up by 3am, done final check on the gears and only then start thinking how am i going to the aiport? (Too early for wise to drive to the airport, Uber or taxi?). Quarter past 5, eventually Mohd Habib Fadhullah fetched me for the airport, despite his very long absense from running. He dropped me at the airport then proceeded to leave his car with another friend. Meet with my travel partner Mohd Rizwan Jamal ard 7:00 and later on Habib came back to join us. We splitted at the boarding area as Habib is travelling on MAS, we are on Malindo. (Btw Malindo should change the airline name to RETIMED Airlines for the many times they have to retime our flight). Departure was delayed a bit, but overall the flight was ok, a bit more comfortable than Airasia, in my opinion. Smarter Way to Travel vs Everyone can Fly... lol
Habib already waiting for us at the arrival gate in KK Airport, but we still have to wait for Isey and Ismail Razali. We were really hungry and kfc seems just perfect to sit and have a wuick bite. I have not been to kfc for sometimes and stucked a bit on the menu list. No dinner plate no snack plate, its just 2 or 3 chicken instead. Habib re-joined us after a quick stop at starbuck, and ask me "do you know Kyky?" Who? Never mind!
After lunch we got very excited for the REPC, and its good that airport bus already available for the trip to Surya @ myr5 per person. The bus somehow need to be at least almost full before making a move. Then a group of runners from Hong Kong joined us, and then meet one familiar name in running - ET Tay. He even introduced me to Allen from Hong Kong who has completed 208 full marathons, wow, really WOW!. A bit of traffic on the way to Surya and when we reached there its really a runners spot. Repc was held at the 6th floor and its a bit tricky that u must go through the expo side before reaching the repc area, but it was quite a happening event and a quick and smooth one filled with Zumba, couple of booths, shows and events promotions. Bumped with Laksamana Tantari while he was enjoying the zumba session and then Tay again introduced me another 68 years old marathoner from Hong Kong with 280 full marathons under his belt.
Done with Repc, its time to check in. Taxi would charge us myr30 to the hotel, while uber "slightly" (cynically) cheaper at myr6. U decide which ride! We booked 2 cars, and at arrival Isey was charged additional Myr5 apparently for previous cancelling order. (Uber may need to investigate this kind of additional charges as it happened several times during our travels here in KK. We do report those through the uber apps). Anyway, it was still cheaper and efficient way to go around and we do ride on uber all the time during our trip.
At TH Hotel, Isey managed to get us 160/person for 2 nights, a good deal considering this is not a budget hotel. But i wonder why isey take longer time for registration, probably he offered more than information than required to the female receptionist. Good luck bro!. We split into 2 rooms, 610 and 614. I was on 610 with habib and zaini. Isey mael and wan at 614. It was a big relieve being in a decent comfortable room after a long journey. We all agreed to take a short break before deciding the next agenda. So i took a nap, and later on realised that Team 614 had left us and went to the market for sightseeing. Oh My God! What a betrayal! It's worse than being dumped by a girl! The worst!
Anyway life goes on, i was too hungry to be mad. We agreed to meet for dinner at Secret Recipe at Wawasan Complex, not too far from the market. We had a very good time, chilling out, cracking jokes, full of laughters and food was good too, what else you need before the event. With full blown tummy, we bought some groceries and our location seems only few km away from the hotel, we decided to go for a walk (do you trust gps?). Guided by the map, we walked along the KK Times Square and Gleaneagles untill we met a dead end, forcing all of us to cross over to the main road and continue walking. It feels like a group of Bangladeshi just finished night shift, hands full of weekly supplies, heading back to the quarters. Its only about 3km i think, but by the time we reached the hotel it was around 9:30pm, and we knew that we need to rest before the flag off in just few hours. I slept soundly through the night and have no idea what happened with Team 614.
About 1:45am all of us made it to the event site. Mael finally decided his choice of distance and habib was man enough to take the 42km. (Same story though, uber charged extra RM5 on Isey, lol). Stadium Likas already filled with lights and excitements and runners slowly arriving all in good spirit. Baggage counter service was smooth, no que to worry about. Bumped with quite a number of familiar faces including Mohd Azmi, Ucu Aman , also met my big brother Dulmi and his fellow runners from Tawau Runners group. Not much protocol or opening speech from VIP for flag off, (which i like) only decorated with a set of 4 songs of energetic zumba/dance. Weather was very nice too, in fact clear sky throughout the race.
My plan was to run easy for the first 5k, and just keep the muscles in check and decide later if i can increase my pace. Took salt stick about 30 minutes before flag off just to support mineral supplies protecting against cramping (usually i took salt stick after km8). It seems the plan works well, starting slow then catching up pace nicely, start overtaking some runners and gain some confidence. At km18, I stopped for Subuh prayer, (that sudden stop may also trigger some shock to the system and has some impact to me. I was still hitting pace 6 through KM23, then slowing to pace 7/8 the next 5km, and never recover after that. Start feeling the knee pain at KM29-30, and then the long 12km walk began. After KM30, each time i tried to bend my knee its really painful. Somehow, never along the route i had any intention to quit, no way DNF. I am more worried against cramps, which would surely crippled me down. Furthermore i had already clocked a 3:17 for 30km. By calculation, a 12km walking pace will require about 2:30 minutes, means I can still make it to the finish line with timing of ard 5:47 or 6 hours. That's still ample time with additional 1 hour to spare for the max 7 hours COT. That thought lifted my spirit and the "can-do" motivation.
For me, this game is no longer about finishing strong or pb, a fin tee and a medal will cover all of my expectations. From beginning, i already expected a potential personal worst and possibilities of injury with "nonsense" training / zero milage the past 2 weeks. Along the way i stopped couple of times, spend more time at waterstation, do a bit of stretching and tried to slow run, but nothing improved. I just can't run anymore, so i keep walking.
While climbing the hilly UMS area, we crossed path with Edi Annuar and also Khairul Dulmi (doing HM) from the opposite way, which means that they are already 2-3km in front of me. Not long after, had a long walk and chat with MrFive Zal (Fivezal), who is also preparing for Penang Ultra next week. That reminded me PBIM last year, when we had almost similar situation, but in this case, it was more of a strategy for the next battle for him. I was just stucked with a knee pain. After the UMS area, it was much flatter road by the sea side. The final 4km walk was like forever to me, but the scenenary was nice, took some selfie and once in a while tried some conversation with other walking runners. One guy was running a half marathon told me that he had not been running for the past 9 months and he thought that he had already passed beyond the COT. I wonder why he still join the race with no training at all? Later on, i find a bit of entertainment catching up with a guy with a colourful wig with orange shirt written #janganuncit (do not be the last one).
Finally, there I was, passing through the final km into the stadium and the last 500m on the red track inside the stadium, with spectators around applauding and motivating, and finally face to face with the final photographer at the finishing line, a sudden surge of energy against the pain pushing harder until they put the medal around my neck and then reward the effort with a finisher tee - it was a pure joy of satisfaction. I did it with 5:51, yes that was my personal worst! It's really a long 12km walk, painful one but honestly i enjoyed every moment of it and the whole route. The saying goes: "RESPECT THE DISTANCE". If you are not ready, accept the consequences and that was just the rule of running a full marathon. If you are not up to the COT, try lower distance, a half marathon instead!
Well, kudos to the organiser - many waterstation, good traffic (nvm cars still honking and so on) and road marshals, visible road and km signage, crews on bike, medics, crews with sprays, plenty of photographers and so on.
Congratulations to all fellow runners (too many to tag here) and especially my travelling group from Anonymous Runners (truly awesome to have good company like them, regardless of the results. Isey surrenderred early at the hilly UMS and decided not to improve his sub4 record, wan finished before cot even after taking an hour sleep somewhere along the route, Zaini Jai completed another fm, not sure what happened to mael (he finished also but ask him lah if u still curious), habib and Tharmendren Mahadevan finished with "style").
As usual, we close the race with lots of photo session. No activity recorded after the race until makan2 time. Enjoyed quite a nice mee bandung around the OUM area, then it started raining. Mael decided to show us the right way of using uber, i.e. by crossing over the road in the middle of the rain even though the driver can and will always make the u-turn to pick us. Later that night TM joined us at dinner, enjoying seafood; nice sotong tepung and butter prawn, unlucky we got the not so fresh siakap 3 rasa. Again, we had great time with food and stories, jokes and laughters and that just made the trip a beautiful and memorable one. After dinner, lesson learnt from the other night, we travelled by uber back to the hotel and had a good rest for closure of a long and colourful day.
The next morning, we had a chance to have breakfast at the hotel. Not too many choices of food but good enough to start the day. We missed it yesterday as the event started at 3am. The nasi lemak and mee goreng were quite tasty. Zaini n habib have to leave to the airport earlier for a noon flight. They booked uber, and moments later a blue Bezza arrived and we all say our good bye and ushered them both into the car. Moments later a blue Bezza arrived and eventually the red one just made a full round turn and dropped both of them exactly at the same spot. We all had a big laugh while both of them embarrasingly jumped into the other car. The rest of us went to the airport in the afternoon for a closure of BIM2017.
