Brace yourself, this one might be painful! This wasn’t the worst race I’ve ever run, the most painful or disappointing …… BUT it wasn’t all bad, but not much was good either!
My alarm woke me up at 4.30a.m and everything was best it could be. Got up and took a shower, put on my new shoes which my sister, Joanne bought for me….(preparations for my first attempt of HSN21KM in October) Thanks sis….Love the new soles…..
At the starting line, I felt like a lion waiting to be let out of my cage. I was set and roaring and ready to go! Ready to race? Indeed! I was ready to rumble…..
As usual I arrived at the starting line with a belly full or nerves. Despite it being a small race- my own home town, the 29th Seremban Half Marathon. I chose this race for two reasons :- It’s my hometown-Seremban and the other reason, It fit into my training schedule (HSN21KM). I told myself, today I will do the best that my body will allow.
The flag off for 21 KM was on time at 6.30am followed by the 10 KM at 6.45am. My hubby ran the 21 KM where he had to weaved in and out, but didn’t push too hard. Eventually he got into a steady pace and managed to keep that 
going, right along the road, near my old school KGV- yes I was a former ex-Georgian….woot woot…., runners had to risked their lives running side by side with some “illegal”- The fast and the furious- car racers. The roads were not fully barricaded, just a few cones were placed in between. Never mind there hadn’t been any major incidences with traffic before this but I wish the organisers would still place safety of runners as their priority. Just because no one got run over (YET) doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. By 7am the sun was already out…I really started to struggle with my breathing- so hot la! Hope in the near future, the organisers will re-consider an earlier flag off time at 5.00a.m or 5.30a.m for the 21 KM Half Marathon- it will also help ease the traffic congestions and road closures too.
The route that the half-marathoners shared with the 10 KM runners did not have marshals (Maybe one or two-hmmmm,on their motorcycles, shouting at the runners, “Tepi, Tepi, lari tepi…..lari tepi….” parts of the roads were coned off, but runners had to share the roads with fast moving vehicles and cars- ah yo yo…”Kena langgar, tanggung sendiri”- The 29th Seremban Half Marathon’s tagline! Although yes, there were marshalls at certain junctions but some big junctions were not manned.
Water stations for 21 KM were placed at roughly KM 5, KM 9, KM 11, KM 14 and KM 17 BUT for the 10 KM runners, we only had ONE water station at roughly KM 5! Ah yo yo yo yo……well at least we had bottle mineral waters this year sponsored by Matrix and also Forest Heights- NO Pipe water this year…phewwww……
The route we did was EXACTLY the same as last year but blamed it on the age factor, to me…it had gradual climb littered along the route…Nothing steep but a loooong climb…Hmmmm, to me, it was like stairway to hell..LOL
Speaking of cones and course markers, directions were extremely non-existance or maybe, the organisers used recycled signages/directions- Dear organisers, Please, please get new ones next year!
Overall, to my surprised I managed to bag a limited pewter medal ( I was told by the organisers-only 50 limited finishers) phewwwwww…Thank you, Matrix for sponsoring this year’s medal-its really a cool medal compared to last year’s medal!
Bad runs are wonderful! They rock! They are superstar training moments and in every way ensure that you are becoming a better runner! Are you blur and confused yet? Why on earth would I be proclaiming the wonders of a BAD RUN?
No doubt, a bad run stinks and no one wants to have them…but as it turns out a bad run can truly make your run better by giving you some great new mental training tools. It took me some time of training to realize that after whining a bit over a bad run,there was a lot of good to come from it and I hope it helps you get to the finish line in better shape!
Will I run this again next year? Well, I might consider it if I needed a race or run in and I need the mileage!
chrisywong.com 