Sunday, April 13, 2008

BHP Orange Run 2008...

Event: BHP Orange Run 2008
Venue: Piazza, The Curve, Selangor
Date: 13 April 2008
Time: 7.30am
Distance: 9KM (9.98KM by Polar RS800G3 GPS Sensor)
Shoe: adidas adistar Cushion 6
By Frank

It was a rainy and cold morning when I woke up at 4am. I was hesistating to wake up as it was just so nice to continue on sleeping. But I knew I have a run in 3 hours time, and so I forced myself out of bed at 4.30am to prepare. Just a simple breakfast consisting of bread with a hot cup of Ovaltine with oats. Enough to fill me for the run.

As I left home at 6.15am, the rain has been reduced to a slight drizzle. Met up with David at The Curve's parking before proceeding on to the entrance of Fitness First to pass the bibs to the other Runnerz and also those from Pacemakers. At 7am, the rain stop and the weather was cool enough to my advantage. Did my warmup and at 7.25am, runners from the A and C category, being the men open and men veteran were called upon to the starting line. I panic at first as my Polar G3 GPS sensor had trouble detecting the satellite. It was the first time I'm using it and the sky was cloudy so I assume that was the cause of it. But luckily, everything was set up few minutes before the race. I started at the middle pack with Cheang and Ping Loong. Sharp at 7.30am, we were flag off. Although this is a fun run, I took it as a race. I went on my race pace and managed to clocked an average of 5:05/km for the entire distance. I attacked each corner and hill and glad my body didn't let me down.

The first 3KM in the housing area of Mutiara Damansara was fine. I met Keat Seong here and we chatted for quite a distance before he asked me to go ahead as he couldn't keep up with my pace. Guess he is still recovering after a full marathon effort at the recent KLIM08. After exiting from Mutiara Damansara, the road became kind of harzardous due to constructions, plus the rain earlier caused certain areas to be slippery and not to mention the puddles of water. I went zig zag in order to avoid it. It was near the 4KM mark after the Pelangi Damansara area, when runners were greeted by the first hill climb. I attacked the first hill and soon came the second hill at Sunway Damansara. It was an approximately 1.2KM climb here and that's where Jamie overtook me and as usual, full of carbohydrate power, *poof* he went. As I complete this hill climb, there was a short down hill before the third climb which was the steepest heading towards the former Sony building at Bandar Utama. Although the steepest climb, I find that this is my strongest. As it isn't very long, I push on till I reach the top before I was greeted by a flat route all the way back to the finish line.

Just before KBU, my photographer friend, Jasmine was there to snap some photos as agreed. After zooming pass her, I raised my game a little and push. The second last corner after 1 Utama, is where I started to empty my tank. It was still an approximately 1KM to go, but I felt good. And as I saw The Curve, I knew I had clocked a good time and therefore dashed to the finish line as I crossed it at 00:50:53. I'm very happy with my time as the distance is very closed to the 10KM mark as measure by my GPS sensor and also the other runners. And not to mention the hills. And therefore as promised, I managed to redeem myself for this run after doing badly last year. A 00:12:52 shaved off. And not forgetting that I wore a heavy shoe which I did on purpose so that not only racing, I can actually train with it too.
. Orange Run, therefore I'm in orange...

Despite the "downgraded" goodie bag made out of a pretty good quality material (not sure what the bag is called) as it just consists of a finisher's certificate and a bottle of mineral water, I actually enjoyed the run. Nothing to complain here as it's after all a free run. Traffic control was better than last year and at least the water station served the original 100 Plus this time together with the tangerine flavoured. But I wonder. If the distance is so close to 10KM, why not change the name to 10KM run instead. Does BHP have a liking for 9KM? Hmm...

The goodie bag...

3 comments:

Jamie Pang said...

nice strong run!

Jamie Pang said...

oh ya, i think ur fren got a shot of me. if possible, can u ask her to email me?
thanks!

Frank Chong said...

carboman: Still got plenty to improve on, although happy with my results today. And sure do, I will inform her.