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.