New Balance Pacesetters 15KM 2009...

Event: New Balance Pacesetters 15KM 2009
Venue: Tapak A, Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur
Date: 17 May 2009
Time 7.00am
Distance: 15KM (15.16KM by Keat Seong's Garmin Forerunner 405)
Shoe: adidas adizero Tempo
By Frank

My third New Balance Pacesetters 15KM run since 2 years ago sees a change in the race route for the second time. And it gets tougher and tougher. Nevertheless, I'm not gearing anything for this run as I will mark my tapering phase for my Sundown Marathon in 2 weeks time with it, hoping to run at a steady 6 minutes per kilometer pace.

New Balance Pacesetters 15KM 2009 race route...

Having ran a 30KM LSD (Long Slow Distance) run yesterday, my legs were pretty heavy. In addition to that, a 8KM run before the race didn't help much especially when my stomach is acting up a little. But I know this needs to be done in order to bump up my mileage as I am seriously lacking from it for I just recovered from my migraine (I hope) a few days ago. Take it as a last minute rush but yeah, these are just how things shaped up in my training's closing stages.

Met up with friends like Ben, Yee Hua, Yin Fook and Yee Tze at the car park and we chatted while walking to the starting point. Quickly passed my baggage to the organisers before checking into the starting pent with Loke when we soon bump into Victor who was looked very tired. The start was in a staggered manner where the men will start 15 minutes ahead of the women. This had to be done as the starting area was just too narrow. I started with Loke and Victor at the back and it took us almost 2 minutes to just cross the starting mat, and not forgetting the way up was so congested that I can't even manoeuvre myself pass the slower runners. It was only when I got to the main road at Jalan Parlimen when I only managed to break free, running my way into the double hills route.

Just before entering Kenny Hills, Raymond who was a road marshall was there directing runners. He called out to me asking me to go faster for the rest are in front. Replied him that I was tapering. Haha... Into Jalan Tungku, I caught up with Alex, Kelvin and Kevin and managed a few good chats and laughter. Even Tony joined the fun when he rode his motorcycle passed us, polluting the morning air. We called out to him asking him to cycle instead. Haha... Soon later, we broke free from each other.

Halfway up the climb, the ribbon station appeared and I heard a familiar voice. Shih Ming was giving out the ribbons with some other marshalls. She reserved a ribbon for me but I thought the runner in front of me wanted to grab it which he did not. I ran passed Shih Ming only to returned back to grab it from her. And at this point, I noticed Lynn was there too shooting photographs.

Exiting the hilly area and into the open area above the Mahameru highway running towards the National Monument, I spotted Wan and greeted him. Paced with him for a while before I noticed that his pace was a sub 6 minute one. Decided to back off and it was a good choice as Kevin soon caught up with me. We ran together all the way to the end chatting and crossed the finish line together after running a loop around Lake Gardens in a time of 01:29:13.

No idea how will my finishing photo look like, but yeah, this is my first ever photo finish side by side with a friend. And I'm glad I managed to control my pace, for I'm really happy with my results. Exactly what I had in mind. It will be perfect if I only can control this for the entire 84KM at the Sundown Marathon.

Chilled around the race village meeting up with others including Adam, Keat Seong, Lionel, Lynn, Michelle and many more. It was good to see Lynn again and we had a good time catching up.

Though the event was really well organise, I didn't really enjoy it as much as I did during the previous 2 editions. I guess I was tired, and maybe the hot weather played a part too. Nevertheless, I had a good time with my friends as after the run, together with Lynn, Pui San and Shih Ming, we all went to Madam Kwan Cafe at Bangsar for breakfast plus lunch. And we were joined by a few other friends like Sam, Carmen, Leslie and Lisa. Though remained pretty quiet throughout the session, I enjoyed listening to the conversations between them as it was filled with laughter.

Front view of the finisher's medal...

Rear view of the finisher's medal...