Twincity Marathon 15 Jan 2017

#AnonymousRunners #TwincityMarathon2017#Marathon #42k #forgetthepacejustrun Twincity Marathon 15 Jan 2017

As of last month, i had set for a good target for this event, the first fm for 2017: to improve pb for fm. As of last week, changed for a conservative target: just finish the race. After the MHWHNR, not a single run to prepare for this one. Recovery has taken a bit more time than usual plus hit badly by virus "L&M, i.e, lazzie dan malazlahaku. Eventually finished my 5th full marathon with 4:53 (pending official result). Kira okla tu. REPC - went on Sat morning and clear line, very fast n furious, nothing like what i heard on day1 REPC with long que and issues with some bib. Probably I came too early. Spend more time at the many booths shopping for powelgel (i know i will need it very much this time with such lack of preparation and diet), salt stick (must avoid the cramps last week) and some pre race supplements. Managed to skip the ever seducing large discounts for compression gears.

Venue, event management n route - i like the ample parking choices, the huge event area with many booths, its like a fun fair. Reached the event area about 3, an hour before FO after contemplating of DNS and just have a go. Well its easy to get 1000 reasons not to drive 40mnts in the wee hours. Stand in the middle part among the 2100 FM runners, feeling a bit lost what to do before FO. No warm up or streching and runners watching then bumped into our very FMV and his pacer (Zaini Jai and Mohd Yusnisan), wish them luck but really not in the mood to chat.. lol. Nervous actually, dont know how will this end. By the way, so many AR guys joined the event as crew. Fyrus Azim Hanafi Zaidan and Syakir Isa manning the WS and luckily they still do their job accordingly. ARashid Ellizza seems enjoying the duty, super busy! I dont see Fafan CantoNa Sefiyyah Rajimin Saya Wanie. Overall, am happy with the overall event arrangement, WS every 3k, km marks, sufficient direction, road marshals n traffic and even some with hailler to make sure runner follow the correct direction. The one i hate is when runners from 12k and 21k mix with FM runners, making it very crowded and in a way demotivating with lots of them walking (eh but i oso walk a lot laa). Performance - from beginning my kind already set not to push too soon, and it really end up not pushing at all. HR rate only 1% at zone5, and 13% at zone1&2 (walking la tu). Not doing too bad the first 21km, running with the 4:30 pacers, running at average 6:04 pace and that indeed keep the motivation up and in check. It seems really doable and at first I wss thinking about doing it all the way. But then at KM22, went for Subuh prayer break. The stop and run gap immediately gave impact to my legs, start feeling the pain, sign of potential cramps and that reminds me of the MHWHNR experience. And i have been taking salt stick once every 9km, followed by powergel every 10km. Otherwise i probably already down with cramps. Struggle with pace Km27-38, walk run walk run, pace even drop to 9+, and that time i just dont care about timing anymore. At one point (dunno what km), saw Mohd Azmi running on the other side of the road, give him a big shoutout, he looks tired and probably started a bit late as I knew he just came directly from the Watergate 16HR (crazy lerr 42x2=84km!!).

Then the 5:00 pacers came along, and that beacome a morale boost, finishing sub 5 still not bad, that's better than the last 3fm i had. So i just play catch up with them and each km felt very long. When I start walking again instead of running at km40, one of the pacer remind me that once you walk, the legs will refuse to work harder. Exactly as i thought, and thats even better when it came from someone else. The final 2 km is like forever, but i wanted to finish sub5. Passed through that fireman's spray/shower, which is about 300m to the FL, i knew i just had no more energy, nothing but every steps count. A quick glance at the timeboard, i made it 4:53. Not celebrating though, its end of a fight but its not the right battle for me. Got the medal, got the fin tee, drinks and finally got the banana. I just need a place to stop and breath. Bumped with Laksamana Tantari and then Nicx Ryme with a hi and bye. Then met with Asaruddin Ariffin and then some of the other Anonymous Runners guys. Not really in the mood to take many photos, just too tired. Happy with the new AR shirts, lawa laaa...