KL International Marathon 2006: The Field Report

The Finish Of 42.195Km In 3hr51min

SgRunners Outside Ancasa Hotel: Raring To Go

Pre-Race

Having just recovered from my flu 2 days before actual race day, I was more or less ready to try for a good run at KLIM06. We gathered on Friday night for a overnight train ride to KL. There was a big crowd, with families and friends of the large group of SgRunners going up for the run. That was going to be my first experience on an overnight train, and it was going to be fun traveling with running friends. We had nice drinks and good chit-chat, with last minute advice from sifu-level runners like Ultraman and flip. We had a good time. We boarded the train at about 10pm. The inside of the train is pretty narrow, but was otherwise quite comfy. It was fortunate all of us are runners, and many were petite…so movement was quite easy….hehe. There was a delay of about 1.5hours, but we were enjoying ourselves with games and chit-chat. Lights were on throughout, but I managed to get about 4hours of interrupted sleep with the curtains drawn…pretty surprised I could get some sleep too. I felt refreshed the Saturday morning we arrived in KL, another surprise, considering I had so little sleep.

We checked into Ancasa Hotel (previously known as Impiana Hotel) at about 10am. The hotel is nice, with a nice lobby. The room was good too. The group of us went for very nice Tim Sum at a oldish Coffee Shop (they still have these in KL), and we really enjoyed the good food. After breakfast, we met up with Kops and went down to the race expo. The location this year is very near to the hotel, and within walking distance. I bought the new flavours of PowerBar and was given a free water bottle. The others bought the new non-gassy 100plus, and they too received a free water bottle. We hung around for a short while, before going back to the hotel for check-in and a wash-up.

We spent most of the day at KLCC and the park…did lots of walking and had some nice photo sessions near the Twin Towers. I did not do any shopping at all, and only visited the Adidas and Nike outlets at KLCC. Nothing much different from those in Singapore. We had a very nice carbo-loading dinner at Nando’s, a chicken restaurant place next to our Hotel. 19 of us occupied 2 rows of tables, and I enjoyed my 1/4chicken with rice and coleslaw, downed with berry flavoured tea.

After dinner, DO and myself got some drinks at Watson’s while the rest went for some last-minute night shopping and jalan. We bumped in a friend from the Climbathon training and got the chance to meet runwitme and his friends. Wow…very friendly people, and always smiling as they talked. Hmm..we must get to know them better next time, maybe when they come to Singapore. We reached back to hotel by 9pm, and did have some last minute visitors to our room to get honey, bread, juices, Gatorade from DO…haha, he is like a mini super-mart. I pinned on the bib (A48) which Sotong had collected for us. Mine was for the Men’s Open, even though I applied for the Men’s Junior Veteran…but wth, it didn’t matter to me as I was not going to be anywhere near the top 20 anyway. We switched off the lights at 10.30pm, definitely too early to sleep. All I needed was maybe a good 2-3 hours of sleep.

More Pre-Race Photos

Race Expo & KLCC

Carbo Load Dinner

Race Day

Woke up at about 1.30am, and laid in bed till 2.30am before I heard the stirring of DO. So we got up earlier, and took our time to wash-up, change and I took 2 cups of coffee, a slice of raisin bread, and a PowerBar (cookies & cream). The new PowerBar flavour was yummy. I put on my usual race gear, red Asics top with blue Asics shorts and Cumulus runners. Brought a banana and a bottle of pre-mixed Gatorade (compliments from DO) along. We reached the Hotel Lobby at 3.45am and begun our light stretching. Soon we were joined by Kops21, Brokie, Kelly, Cokiee, Freddy, renoh, run3, astrogal and weishan, David & Emerlyn. Together we took a stroll down to the race start. The lights were brighter this year as compared with 2005 (I did my vrgin Half Marathon then). I met Hui Ling and chatted a bit with her. She was there to replace a friend to do the Full Marathon. Also saw Chua and Sok Hwa walking in, as well as Sumiko and her friend. We all chatted a fair bit, with some photo taking, before I went for my pre-race leak. Proceeded into the pen, and lined up alongside DO, astrogal, weishan and Runwitme. After a few words by the organizers, we wished one another good luck, and off we went slowly away.

The 42.195km Race

I ran the first 5km conservatively. Took me a while to get warmed up, and after the first water point at about 5km, I got quite comfortable. DO went ahead after 1km and he was pacing this Malaysian gal runner, who was wearing a very stylo black running suit (BSG). I kept them in my sight for most of the first 15km. The first 10km was quite uneventful, and I was just enjoying the morning, and running along, getting warmed up. Hit the 10km mark in 52min, with the crossing of the first championchip mats. The next 10km, I was tailgating a couple who were running mostly together. I picked up pace with the intention of banking early miles. I took a leak at the side of the highway (still under the cover of darkness…hehe), and continued on. At this time, I could still see the Black Suit Gal (BSG) about 100m in front. DO was about 25m in front of her. At about the 13km mark, I took a mini Snicker bar and downed it with the bottle of water I collected from the drinks station earlier. I was feeling good. At about 18km, I popped 2 salt tablets as a precaution, not that I felt anything in my legs. Right at about 20km, someone called out to me…'Anthony!' It was IronmanDreamer, Ben. Wow…how come Ben was overtaking me so soon (he normally comes from behind me in the final stages of races)?..hehe. Ben told me we were halfway (about 20km) at that point, and with some words of encouragement for each other, Ben moved ahead to find DO. Ben looked strong, and relaxed in his ironman running style. I took the opportunity to overtake the man I was drafting for the past 3km or so. With that I was running mostly alone with quite a group in front, and not many behind me. I had lost sight of DO, and I estimated he could be about 300m in front, together with the bigger bunch.

I crossed the 21km mat in 1hr54min. With just half the distance to go, I was still feeling good. No signs of cramps yet. I took my first PowerGel. We were running into the city area, and some vehicles were appearing. After a few km, I spotted the 4hr pacer, a petite gal who was running quite fast. She was ahead of the 4hr pace by a bit. I soon caught up with her, and had a good chat. She said she wanted to bank in more miles, so she won’t have to struggle later. She said that if I continued at my pace, I should hit about 3hr50min…and she egged me to move ahead. Well, I just did that and moved on. I was still feeling good at the 27km mark, though I was worried cramps would come (At SCSM06, I was hit by cramps at the 24km mark). I overtook BSG at about this stretch. She seemed to be affected by something. Some of the other runners were also hit with cramps, and were limping along. I overtook quite a number of people here, especially those who started out much faster than they were comfortable with. I was running back to somewhere near the start point as I could see many people cheering, and this was the point where we had to turn back out into the highway area. I saw Kelly taking aim with her camera, and I waved a little at her. I wasn’t sure if she was looking at me, or was watching the 21km runners about to come back too. Will check if she did capture a photo of me at this point. From there, I continued to run stronger, mainly due to the loud cheers of supporters and bystanders. Many who have just opened their stores were watching and clapping as the runners ran past them. It was quite interesting.

As I turned out into what seemed like a highway stretch, I crossed the 30km mark and championchip mat. The timer shouted "2hr45min". A quick mental calculation told me that I was still on track for a sub-4hr marathon if I kept to a 6min/km pace from that point, but I would not have much room for any unexpected surprises. I was quite happy that my cramps have not emerged till then…but it was not for long...Haiz. Small seizures to my calves started to come at the 32km mark. I slowed down a little, and popped another 2 salt tablets to be safe. However, the seizures got more serious, and I knew then I had cramps. I immediately changed my running style and form, curling up my toes, and having more heel strike. Along the way, at least 5 people, from China, Korea, Thailand were walking and suffering from cramps. I plodded on and soon saw the '7km To Go' marker. I immediately got deep-heat relief from the medical attendants at the drinks station, and rubbed them on both my legs. At the same time, I did not stop too long, for fear of my legs seizing up. I had about 50min to do 7km, which was pretty easy under normal circumstances. I continued running at a easy pace. Sometimes the cramps would go away, but mostly would hit me at intervals, threatening to seize up mt entire legs. From the calves, the attacks moved to my hamstrings. The feeling was made worse when that last 7km stretch was through the city area, lots of vehicles and fumes, and me wanting to hurry to get out of the smog.

With 4km to go, I was still chugging along. And then I heard IMD Ben shouting from across the dividing road. He was running in the opposite direction on the upslope, telling me to push on. I showed him the thumbs-up and ran a tad faster. Soon I spotted DO who was slowing down, likely that he wanted to play it safe. BSG had overtaken me at the 32km point, and I was trailing her most of the way till then. She sped up, and overtook DO and was easily 500m in front of me. I ran faster on the gentle downslope, and at the turn, took a raffia string (final point indicator) from the officials, and as I faced the gentle upslope, I knew I was into the home stretch. It was about 3km more to go. I ran up steadily up that stretch, my cramps not acting up as much. I was running just 50m behind DO. A few of the runners were to-ing and fro-ing with me. I did overtake some more people. I finally came up to DO in the final 2km stretch. DO told me that we will run up that final slope, and it was downhill all the way. I ran just slightly ahead of DO, skipped that last water point, and moved faster downslope. 2 people overtook me. With about 1km to go, DO came up and we ran side by side. I told DO that we could finish together. He said 'Yeah, let's do it!', and we ran faster and stronger. My cramps were still with me, and I was still running cautiously. We overtook a couple of people. At the final stretch, we were welcomed by rousing cheers and people shouting ‘Sub-4…GO GO GO!’…We could see the Finish Point from 100m away. Run3 and Cokiee cheered when they saw us. Cokiee ran about 50m with us. With 25m to go, we held up out hands and crossed the finish line together. It was really shiokzzz. I knew we did a 3hr52min as we crossed, and I was happy that I made it to sub-4hr, and that my cramps did not stopp me dead in my tracks. I was happy that DO too made his sub-4hr, and we did it together…CHEERS!

Pos Bib Name Country OffTime ChipTime 10Km Halfway 30Km
70 A0048 SUM ANTHONY Singapore 3:52:15 3:51:53 0:52:11 1:54:51 2:45:31

More Race Day Photos HERE

Official Race Results For Men's Marathon HERE

Official Race Results For All Categories HERE

Post Race

Upon finishing, I collected the skimpy paper bag from the officials containing the medal (not very nice-looking), a free pre-paid local phone-card, and a small hand towel. I saw the SAFRA MF group already resting. All of them did very well for their half marathon races. We congratulated one another. I joined DO for a cold soak in ice cubes…Brrrr… too cold for my feet. We then proceeded to go for the MYR15 massage, and that became a real agony for me when my cramps erupted. The strong man who was massaging me made it worse when he tried to stop my muscles from ‘moving’, and he was massaging very hard. I think I screamed because DO mentioned it later…haha. Fortunately, his boss, the lady sports masseur came to the rescue and gently eased the cramps away. It took about 15min of struggle and mini eruptions before he was able to massage me. Still, I had to cut the massage short.

Kops and Weishan soon came back from their marathons (about 4hr30min+), and we talked a little about the race. Weishan too had cramps, and was fortunate to have DO’s ‘heavenly massage’ to ease the misery…hehe. I got her some ice in a bag to cool off the aching calves. We then went to meet up with Brokie and the rest of the SgRunners, all of whom did very well for their half marathons. Run3 would have won a prize for her 1:56 effort; if only she was placed in the correct category…aiya…. Brokie was very close to winning a prize for her 1:58 effort as well, just 2 places less. After we have cheered our voices hoarse, and seen our ultra-marathoner astrogal come in before 5hr30min for the marathon, we assembled for some nice photos and proceeded back to the hotel for clean-up and check-out. We had a very nice 1.5hr Japanese lunch buffet at the Hotel Equatorial… fresh sashimi, sushi, chawanmoshi, tempanyaki, tempura, green-tea ice cream, dessert and fruits…wow, I haven’t eaten so much in one sitting for a long time already.

After lunch, we took the TransStar first-class coach back to Singapore. Each of us had our business-class seats individually, with attached video and entertainment system. It was very comfy and nice. I was happy I didn’t drive, as I could rest my tired legs. Dinner was provided on board the coach too. We arrived back to Singapore at 9.30pm sharp. I did not feel very tired, and in fact was pretty fresh. For me, this was a great outing, good run in the midst of fine company. I look forward to do more of such overseas runs and traveling with a group of like-minded runners in future.

More Photos HERE!

Photos On Mar 3

Photos On Mar 4

Photos On Mar 5