Race Report - Merentas Desa Pulau Pinang 2012

Event: Merentas Desa Pulau Pinang 2012
Date: 18 March 2012
Location: Teluk Kumbar, Penang
Distance: 8km (7.48km)
Registration Fee: RM12 (Men Open)
Gears: Asics Landreth, Garmin Forerunner 405
Starting Time: 7.30am
Running Time: 00:43:03
Pace: 05:45

It is the first race in Penang and no doubt that all the top runners in Penang are going to flood this event. No doubt, it proves me right when I see some top runners from Forward, I-Run, The Wind, etc are stretching when I was looking for a car park slot. It was very difficult to look for a potty, hence I just walked to one of the lorong and settle it fast and furious.

By the time I walked to the gathering spot, all the Open category runners are instructed to gather at the start/finish line. I did not have time to do the warm up, so I just moved my body to heat it up a little bit, the heart beat still at 13x. Not so long later, I heard 'ke garisan' and 'bang', here it went.

I was trying to keep up with the leading pack, but you know what? They are too fast, I checked my pace, it was <4:00, crazy.... I started panting, so I slow down a bit, just to be able to maintain the top 30 position (cincai kira one laaa). It was all good until we hit the beach, it was between km-3 and km-4, every step I made was like sinking in the sand, it drained a lot of my energy, it could be the pounding force of my feet is too big and there was little respond. After trying for a few hundred meters, I had to walked, I could feel the strain in my leg.

By that time, I just see runners keep overtaking me, so sien.... after the beach run, it was going into the kampung again, I was OK with that until I saw the up hill trail, pace drop and had to walk again. Maybe I thought I should not run because I will injure myself, but maybe that was just excuses. I don't know.... 

After the run in the trail, then we had to go thru some path that is able to cater for one runner at a time only, overtaking is limited by the space and I had to slow down. After exiting the narrow trail, then I resumed the 5:00-5:30 pace to play catch up, but the legs are exhausted, the heart was screaming 'help me'!!!!

Then I can see that the finishing line, I just sprinted and slowed down because it was not a good run, and crossed the finishing line in 43:03. I had analysed the run, and the main let-downs are:

• Beach run (or I can say beach walk)
• Up hill trail (or again, up hill walk)

The Positive:

• Be able to run at max heart rate at ~190bpm for quite some time.

Anyway, it is good for me to know my weaknesses so that I can work on it, Malakoff Penang 17km is next week, hope that I can do better, since I have done the simulation run.

Attached is the details of the run:

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