A Journey to My First Ultramarathon (84 km) Part 1

Penang 100.

The first thing you have to do before you run an ultramarathon is to register for one. So I took the first step, i.e. I registered for 84 km of Penang 100 which will be held on 6 September 2014. The saying goes....."A journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step".

Helping out with the launch of the event by the Chief Minister of Penang, YB Mr Lim Guan Eng

There is actually a 50 km and also 100 km. So why did I choose 84 km? Since I have done 4 full marathons, trying to complete a 50 km will not be too big a challenge. But what about 100 km since it sounds like a bigger challenge? The difference between 84 km and 100 km route is Penang Hill. The route for 84 km and 100 km is similar in most aspect except you have to hike up and down Penang Hill. I have hike up and down Penang Hill a few times and certain stretches are extremely steep. I would not want to run more than 60 km and then having to hike up and down Penang Hill which is about 10 km. The downhill will be most risky on tired legs. We are given a 15 hours cut-off time to complete the 84 km and 18 hours for 100 km.

After running the Penang Run 2013-2014 1st Series then it struck me that I have to really focus and prepare for this race. I started counting......oh...I have only 14 weeks which is much shorter than I expected. Time to press the panic button ! Because I have not started to gather information about how to prepare for my ultramarathon.

To be continued....

Penang Run 2014-2015 1st Series Seberang Perai Utara (SPU)

The cube medal when you combine all the 3 triangles.

Having a tough time updating the blog lately mainly due to family and work commitments. And for the past the few weeks my brain is only filled with ultras...ultras and ultras. Having registered for the 84 km for the Penang 100 which will be on 6 September 2014. My biggest physical and mental challenge for 2014. My first ultramarathon ! Probably will be doing a series of blog posts as "The Journey to My First Ultramarathon" as a remembrance. Another milestone in my running journey.

The 3 medals that are triangular in shape

This year the Penang Run 2014-2015 has moved over across the sea to Seberang Perai. Honestly, there are a lot of Penangites who stay on the island who only knows about the island and nothing about the  mainland area of Penang. Come on guys and gals, Seberang Perai is still part of Penang. Don't be so ignorant. If you can travel to KL for runs, Seberang Perai is just across the bridge. And you can always enjoy the ferry ride by taking the ferry. And one of the great night view of Penang is to take a ferry ride at night.

Race Pack Collection

Of course, this year the Penang Run 2014-2015 has been reduced to 3 series, i.e. Seberang Perai Utara (SPU) on 1 June 2014, Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS) on 26 October 2014 and Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) on 11 January 2015. But it is still all Half Marathon of 21 km distances. And the medal this year is super unique. Three triangles with magnets join to form a cube, a creative idea from Mr Andrew Loh, the race director.  The good part of the Seberang Perai series are that it will be mostly a flat route for all 3 series.

Landmark along the SPU course

Starting point of SPU

After 3 months of not much training and with a short race of NTCRC 2014 of 9km this Penang Run SPU was tougher than usual. Although it was really a flat route. The lack of training really shows after 10km as tiredness and leg fatigue started to set in. Managed to pick up the pace after 16km when we started to run at the Butterworth Outer Ring Road (BORR) and managed to complete in 2:29. The straight and flat course at Jalan Teluk Air Tawar was real mental challenge. The best view is at the BORR where you can really see the whole view of Penang Island. I saw some runners stop and took photos of the view.

The star attraction of the race is "Sam Tai Chi". It actually weigh 15kgs. And they ran a relay wearing this. 

Lone Runners attracted by the "Sam Tai Chi'

This is one race that I have seen excellent road marshaling and support with lots of volunteers and police support along the course. The water station was well attended to and the starting atmosphere of the race is just great. The main attraction in the race is the "Sam Tai Chi" from Tow Boo Kong Temple (Nine Emperor Gods Temple) at Butterworth. These costumes are actually from Taiwan. And I heard they actually run the full race in relay wearing the 15kg costume and did a techno dance on stage ! We also have Malay kompang along the course. Other than the complaint of the nasi lemak, it is the most organised race of Penang Run series so far. Time to start my ultramarathon training after this race and I only have 14 weeks to train.

Thanks to Running Malaysia Magazine for the great photo.

NTCRC Run 2014

Runners running along the oil palm plantations.

This post is going to be short. As I have taken almost a 3 months break from racing and blogging. Work and family commitments have just taken too much time to race, training and of course blogging. NTCRC is a 9km run in Nibong Tebal starting at 7am. It is good to be back to a race after such a long break. It is running through the oil palm plantations and seeing the beautiful sunrise at the oil palm plantations alone is worth the effort. It is a race where timing does not matter. So I manage to snap a few more photos along the way.

Nice view along the route

This is the view that makes me stop running and start snapping photo. The sunrise at the oil palm plantation.

Another view along the route

Our little supporter along the route

Running closed to the finishing line. One of my more relaxed race where I just don't push the pace.
Thanks to Cheng Kean Wee for the photo.

But it is a well organised race with plenty of food and drinks at the finishing line. This is the first of many race that I have registered for this year and it is the shortest. Will also be attempting to do my first 84 km ultramarathon this year in the Penang 100 in September and the Penang Run 2014-2015 with 3 half marathons on 1 June 2014, 26 October 2014 and 11 January 2015. And of course, the full marathon of the Penang Bridge International Marathon on 16 November running on the new bridge. I think they will be a few more races in between and probably with another full marathon in Taiwan in early November.

Penang Run and Penang 100 promotion at the event

Another view of the oil palm plantations

Penang Run 2013 - 2014 4th Series - Race Recap

The giant medal and finisher T-shirt.

The finale is here. The final series of running from Teluk Bahang back to Esplanade. Realising a dream of running around the island of 84km. During my childhood where people in Penang are generally much poorer than the present times, one of my most cherished childhood memories was traveling around Penang Island on a bus when I was in Standard 6. We could not afford to travel out of Malaysia or even out of Penang. So getting to travel around the island was an exciting experience. At that time, we could not even afford to own a motorcycle to travel around the island. Running around the island become a childhood memory revived.

Runners waiting at the starting point

The bus transport to the starting point seems longer than normal as they are more traffic lights along the way. But it was a great weather to run. Cool and breezy morning with no rain. The fireworks just before the start was fitting for the finale event. Although the starting time was slightly delayed due to the bus transport. The route was a lot of downhill but it was not a steep downhill as compared to the 3rd series. Because of the downhill I was trying to hold back not running too fast as I have a bad experience when I run too fast on the downhill, it really hurt my knees. The injury still linger until now. It only really become a flat route when it reached Tanjung Bungah.

Thanks to the all the photographers that have taken these photos

Running along the roads near the beach with a cool sea breeze is really an enjoyable run. Watching the sunrise along the way was an added bonus. Although I have been running at a faster pace than I normally would for this series. But for this run I have made a fueling mistake. I didn't take a gel before the race as I was trying finished off the Power Bar which I got it for free and did not want to carry along the run. I only took a energy gel at about an hour into race and I missed out on the sports drinks at the 12km mark. The missing of the sports drink was a real mistake. My body and mind was craving for it after 12km mark. I have must been too engrossed with the running and miss out the water stations that offered the sports drinks. My pace start to slow down and energy level dropped. At the 18km, there is another water station but no sports drinks only water !

I should have taken another gel at that point which I didn't. I was already reaching Gurney Drive then. The drop in energy level start to be more significant and I almost wanted to run into 7 eleven to buy a sports drinks and continue. But I didn't wanted to waste the extra few minutes and was just trying to fighting hard against the drop in energy level and the craving. Finallly at the 20km, there is a water station that serve water and sport drinks. I just decide that I will just take the sports drinks and forget about another gel. The energy level starts to pick up and I was trying to push very hard at the last km of the race to break the 2:30. However, I managed to complete the race 2:30:12 with a pace of 6:46 min/km and the course was over distance at 22.18km. More than a km as compared to the 3rd series. And I ran my fastest pace of the 4 series. Probably could slash 2 or 3 minutes if I didn't missed the sports drinks earlier. Still satisfied manage to run a faster pace with a longer distance. Need to rest for a week from running to let this knee injury recovered.

The organising committee and the volunteers for Penang Run 4th Series

The final medal and finisher t shirt is really what all the runners at Penang Run is hoping for. Running all 4 series is not just the difficulty involved but the time commitment. We have to schedule your time so that you could finished all 4 series. Unfortunately, Penang does not have 4 seasons. If not, it will be running through all the 4 seasons from summer, autumn, winter to spring. But we do run through the heritage zone, the city, the industrial area, the kampung area, the fishing village, the hills in Balik Pulau, the durian estates, the dam at Teluk Bahang, the road along the beach at Teluk Bahang and Batu Feringhi, the floating mosque in Tanjung Bungah, Tanjung Tokong and along Gurney Drive and back to Esplanade. A complete circle ! And many areas of Penang which I have discovered because of this run although I am staying in Penang for such a long time. This run really allows you to discover  Penang on foot ! A big thank you to the everybody involved in the run. You have made this an unforgettable experience.

Look forward for the next series so that I can filled up my running calendar for 2014.

2013 A Year In Review

Running 3 Full Marathons, 3 Half Marathons, one 17km, and one 10.2km. Quite an eventful year after my first marathon in 2012. At least for this year, I could understand my body better when I run long distances. 3 Full Marathons seem to be the maximum of marathons in a year that I can handle with adequate recovery. Two of the half marathons seem to fit in just before a full marathon as training run. A 10.2 km race at the Rock to Rock Run is my least favorite run because I have a cold engine and take a longer warm up time and a 10K race is all about speed which means I have to speed from the start to the end. It really exhaust me. Currently, I seem to favor half marathon distances. But I also like the full marathon as it is a rest test of my physical and mental abilities. 8 races in a year is it too much? Or too little? To those who have 18 or 28 races in a year, 8 seem very little. But it kept me occupied running the whole year of 2013. I would like to focus on the longer distances in 2014.  Probably another 2 or 3 full marathons in 2014 and another 3 or 4 half marathons.

The PB of a full marathon comes from Borneo International Marathon with a time of 5:31 and a half marathon from the Penang Run 3rd Series with time of 2:23. Of course, the target for 2014 will be a sub 5 for a marathon and a sub 2:10 for a half marathon. And I think I have to shed 4 or 5 more kgs to run faster.

In December, I also get to meet Ng Seow Kong in person at the Esplanade when I was there cheering for the Tour de Malaysia Run runners when they arrived in Penang. The Tour de Malaysia Run is a run around Peninsular Malaysia for about 12 days starting from Dataran Merdeka. It was organized by Allan Lee and run by 4 core runners, namely Seow Kong, Rich Cai, Aun Utopia and Allan. Quite a number of guest runners joined to complete this historical event. Seow Kong who is an ultra marathoner is the person who inspired me to run my first marathon and I was very happy to finally meet him. You can find out more about the Tour de Malaysia Run at this Facebook link.

Photo taken at the Esplanade. Seow Kong is the person in the centre.