just did it.

Haven’t done 10K races for a while, so when Fairy said she was going to sponsor my race fee (RM10) I jumped at the chance. Also I am getting jealous inspired by Acap hitting 62 mins on her 10Ks.

I decided to do a few things differently this time around:

Replenishments

• brought my own water for the first time ever. Turned out to be a lifesaving decision since there was only ONE water station for this scorchingly hot day at KM8.
• learnt to drink while running. Rule is to just take a couple of sips each time.
• took powergel for 10K.

Pacing

• asked Jo to pace me, which meant I had to go to work immediately after flag-off, instead of my usual strategy (enjoy the scenery first half, go to work 2nd half).
• struggled to keep up with Jo, but managed to hang on for around 20 minutes. The route started with an incline, adding to the challenge. Next time will try to hang on for longer.
• by the time Jo dissapeared, there wasn’t many girls my category in the pack. So I tuned it down to a slower pace I was more comfortable with and hung on.
• strategy this time was attack first, hang on later.
• had trouble in the last kms to stay focused and not be reduced to walking (as always), luckily there was a guy who paced me until the end of the race. Still need to figure out a way to stay focused at the end of races.

Route was more like a crosscountry slash obstacle course, with uneven pavements, scary traffic, akar2 kayu pokok to maneuver through. Also there was no mile markers at all, so I couldn’t tell at what point was I in the race. All that said, it WAS an RM10 race, so I guess it was to be expected.

When I got to the finish line the crew said I ranked 13th in my category (it has to be noted that this was a small race and all the otais were most probably at Standchart Singapore or MPSJ). Was the fastest I ran ever, so I guess the new way works!

Time was 1:15:20 and the distance was probably closer to 12km. Yeay!