19Jul09 Jog for Hope - A leg forward for charity

A missed call in the morning apparently came from a running fren Yvonne - read her blog on tis run here - (whom I first met thru boardgaming) asking if I was willing to help support some teens in their charity work. Why, yes.. why not?

The event is The Treehuggers Club's Jog for Hope, organized to raise funds for the spastic children of SCASF&FT. The Treehuggers Club is a society from Taylor's College Sri Hartamas.


Official website: http://jogforhope.wordpress.com/

Was told the run was a rather last minute event, and it double-dated the Siemens Run which was also slotted for the 19th July (Sun) morning. As I did not register for the Siemens Run this event provided another running opportunity for me.. plus doing something for the underprivileged children.

Was there quite early actually and got myself parked inside Hartamas Shopping Complex, registered, got my bib (#089) & JoH t-shirt and it was just 5 min shy of 7 am. Run was set to flag off at 8am.



Met Yvonne and Ling (hope I got her name right), chit-chatted until 7.50am and still no sign we were going to start. Finally close to 8 am the emcee came up - not to flag us off - but to announce some Datuks need to give a speech or two! Duh....



Run was finally flagged off around 8.07 am. The no. of runners were low (partly due to Siemens Run I suspect) and most of them were in the Taylor's category, so we in the Open category were very much left to our own small group at the front of the starting line.

Strange feeling being in the front first 4-5 rows compared to SCKLM's start where I was right at the back of like 4000+ runners which took me 4 mins just to slowly crawl to the starting line. :P

The Open category route was 9 km while the Taylorian's category was 6 km. Since I'm doing the Shape & Men's Health Night Run next week @ Putrajaya where I registered to run the 5 km, I was not keen to do a full 9 km this week (even though the week after next I'll be at the Adidas King of the Road for a 11 km run). Wah.. so many runs, week on week... as if I'm a seasoned runner. tsk tsk.



My two-mind on whether to do the 9 km or curi-ayam on the 6 km was resolved when I saw their route map. It seemed all runners take the same route for the 1st 6 km and while the 6 km runners end their run there, the 9 km runners continue for another 3 km loop.

So this meant I could just go for a fast 6km (I mean as "fast" as I could manage hehe) and when I'm back at the 6 km mark, to decide if I want to continue the remaining 3 km or call it a day.

I started at a brisk pace close to 11.7 kph. The run started off along Jalan Sri Hartamas 1 heading towards Jln Duta so it was a downhill run. Well.. since we were coming back via the same road, it meant we'll be asked to navigate this uphill run in the 6th KM... aiyoh.

In this run, you get to meet lots of the "sprint-walkers". They are the runners who'll sprint as fast as they could... until they pancit. Then they'll walk until they recover... and back to sprinting.. then walking.

Can be irritating sometimes.... you see them sprinting past you... wooo hooo... then while they were walking as they recover from their pancit, you overtake them, yah.... only for them to sprint past you again not too soon.. .woo hoooooo.... This sequence repeats itself until they put you out of your misery by sprinting away.

hehe, kids have that luxury of pace.

There were 1 KM markers along the whole route and I think there's a water station every 2 KM. Traffic police were around to control the cars and volunteers were stationed at key turning points to ensure you were headed in the right direction. Things looked pretty organized.

Managed to keep a rather even 5:41 min/km pace for the next 3 km even though some of the roads were sloppy. Until we hit the uphill climb from Jln Duta heading back into Jln Sri Hartamas 1 (yes, that same stretch of road we started downhill)....

And that climb seemed like an eternity.. eerr.. okie la.. mebbe it's just about 1 km but it sure felt like an eternity then. My pace dropped to 6.22 and I was most tempted to just walk out the last few hundred meters.

Until I saw Mr Ironman overtake me around the 5.5 km mark. Now, we've seen him earlier during the warm-ups and around the Starting line. He was then clad in a sarong - yup, a sarong - and he was doing his warm-up jog barefoot! We were just not sure if he was waiting for some buddies of his to bring along his shorts and running shoes. :P



Seemed like the sarong and kaki-ayam are his running trademark! LOL
Click here to see his photo in another run.

That kicked up my reserve tank and I pushed my way to the finishing line. All-in my Garmin recorded a time of 33:29+ min for this 6 km run. Should set me up nicely for next week's Nite Run.

HOW WAS THE FORERUNNER 50?I mentioned in my blog about the Forerunner 50 (FR50) sports watch that I'll write about how the FR50 performed in this run where I get to use the sports watch and foot pod for the first time.

Let's talk about the footpod first. Works like a charm without much calibration out-of-the-box. Just clipped it snugly to my Adizero laces and it started tracking my speed & pace thru-out the run. Told me I started brightly at 5:30 pace and dropped to 6:22 towards the end of the run. Average pace was 5:50 (this is slow as I shud be aiming for 5:40).

The package I bought came with a heart-rate monitor (HRM) but since I only got the package last nite (Sat), I didn't have the time to get the HRM set up for this race. Will do that for the Nite Run so expect another update from me there.

Back home, the sports watch wireless synced my running stats into my laptop and once the data got into the (free) Garmin Training Center (GTC) software, it provided some useful analysis on my run (see below).



Beside tracking speed, average pace, calorie, etc I can also see how much time I spent in each running zones (eg Zone 6 is a Fast Jog were the speed is from 9.66 - 12.07 kph). Apparently I spent 26 of the 33+ min at this level. My target is to spend most of my time in Zone 7 (10.71 - 13.79) :)



Lastly it provided a nice chart to show your run's progress... Looking at the chart, I know that I generally maintained a >10 kph speed and you can also see where I hit those "slopes" ie where my speed dropped, especially at the 5km mark, hehe.

WILL I BE BACK AGAIN NEXT YEAR?



Overall this was a quite well organized run (except for the late Datuk speech) considering the organizers are just college students. If they are doing this again next year, I'll certainly be back!

More photos available from the official Jog for Hope Flickr set.

Garmin Forerunner 50

After my first run at SCKLM a few weeks back, I realized my biggest challenge on Race Day is not knowing how to pace myself. I did most of my running at the gym (True Fitness) and only does one on-the-road (OTR) run on Sunday evening at KLCC.

On the treadmill, it's easy to pace and vary the speed coz you get all the info right in front of you! You can get to set speed, elevation, distance and even monitor your heart rate using the treadmill's control panel. Guess I am spoilt by the treadmill. :P

The obvious way to solve this - beside doing more OTR runs - is to get a "running watch" which can help me track distance, speed and pace during run days. These devices can also monitor your heart rate and if you get those with GPS built-in, you can even map your run on Google Maps. Cool eh?

I do not know what's the official name for these devices; some just call it "sports watch", some use the term HRM (heart-rate monitor) while I've also seen them refered to as pedometers.


Nike's sporty looking SportBand

A quick google narrowed me down to two choices - Polar or Garmin. There are a few other brands on the market - Timex, Suunto, and even Nike has their own Nike+ built into their new running shoes - but Polar and Garmin seem most popular with our local seasoned runners.


Here's the Nike Sportband shown next to their running shoes.

What these devices basically do are to track your movement as you run so as to be able to provide you with stats such as pace, speed, split, finish time, heart rates and calories spent. They do this via two common methods - i) a footpod device attached to your running shoes that transmit movement data back to your device, or ii) a GPS-based device that uses global positioning to measure how far you've run.

A footpod from the Garmin series

I'd wanted to know how Polar and Garmin are different and which target market they are aimed at. Couldn't seem to find much info about this from Google.. all they'd were mainly product specs etc. And what I knew about Garmin were their popular GPS navigational devices for cars! Didn't know they sell something for runners.

Luckily I came into contact with phoenix, a seasoned runner in the LowYat forum, who carries the Polar brand here in Msia and is knowledgeable enough to know how Polar and Garmin target their products.

He told me Polar is a heart rate monitor (HRM) centric company while Garmin is GPS-centric. This means if your primary need is to have a device to monitor your heart-rate, go get a Polar. Add a footpod later if you wish to track distance/speed.




The Polar RS300X recommended by phoenix

Note: Feel free to contact phoenix (at his website) if you wish to know more about Polar devices.

However if your need is more like mine ie distance/speed is primary and heart-rate monitoring is secondary, a Garmin might be a better option (especially if you intend to use GPS to map your runs). Garmin has made its name in its GPS navigational devices and it's carrying over it's GPS technology into it's Forerunner series of running devices.


The latest catalogue of Forerunner sports watch from Garmin

Initially I was going to get myself the Forerunner 305 but hesitated at its price (rm1,280) and the fact that the FR405 and FR310XT are newer models made it hard for me to splash the cash on the (older) FR305.

After careful study of their manuals (downloadable from Garmin), I decided the Forerunner 50 (FR50) would best serve my needs. The FR50 is fairly basic - compared to the newer FR405 - and it doesn't have GPS built-in but it has the two essential components; the footpod and heart-rate monitor. Not to mention the FR50 looks better on my wrist than the bulkier FR305.


The FR50 which looks just like any sportswatch

The full package (ie FR50 watch + footpod + HRM) is a few hundred ringgit cheaper than the FR305; and it does seem to do all that I need ie track my distance, track how fast I'm running and later analyze my splits, pace, and heart-rate.

The only thing missing is the GPS function but since I'm not going to run that many races in a year - with most of my training runs being done indoors at True Fitness - I can't justify getting a GPS device for the sake of being the Joneses with the latest gadget. Call me cheap. :P

Hunted around for shops that carry this product... and found one at Low Yat ie. Premier GPS in UG Floor. They made me an offer I can't refuse.. hehe. Well, actually it was more like I needed it the following day for the Jog for Hope run which would be the best run for me to testdrive this before the following week's Shape Run.



The picture above shows the Garmin footpod attached to my Adizero Tempo trainer. That was when I used it on the Tempo at the gym to compare the stats taken by the FR50 and those from treadmill. The footpod's more permanent home would be on my Adizero Ace (race day).

How well does the Forerunner 50 perform up to my expectations? Was it useful to help me pace throughout the run? How can it be used as a training tool? Stay tune for my Jog for Hope report where I'll also write about my first impression of the FR50 in my first run using it.

Now the only thing left to do is to find that dude who told me "running is a cheap sport, all you need is yourself and a pair of shoes." hehe

p/s: To those wishing to get the FR50, pls note that Garmin has just released the FR60 which has newer features plus a much smaller footpod.

SCKLM '09 - Interesting Photos

PHOTOS FROM AROUND SCKLM '09
Just sharing some interesting photos taken by laiwah during the run. :)


#1926, that's the bib number for Muniandy Ramadass who's the first local finisher for the Full Marathon. He clocked 2 hrs 31 min for this run. That's about 36 min for 10km (it's a 17 kph speed) sustained over 2.5 hrs!!

The overall winner is a Kenyan clocking in at around 2 hrs 17 min! :O


#2516 is Ruburn Kummar (MAS) who's first in the 10km category. He completed in 36.5 min.


Some of the Kenyan runners coming in for the 42km finish.


#1246 Georgine Beech was the winner for the Women's 10km category. Her time was 44 min.


Running is not all about winning. You also need to do it with style like our young fren here. :P His time is not bad though at 52+ min for the 10km.


I like #0439; she's a half-marathoner (see her blue bib tag) and she's clocking in at 2 hrs which's impressive. I like her running posture/form where she is a forefoot strike runner (vs "heel strike").

The runner next to her #2480 is also a forefoot strike runner. He's from the Pacemaker group, easily recognizable with their red running vest. They sent in quite a large number of runners.

What is "forefoot strike" running?


Never too old to run... and the grandma (above) deserves a bow from all of us! She not only completed her 10km run but did it in around 60 min!! That's a good 10 min faster than my finishing time.. aiyoh!

Next time anyone tells me he or she is too old to run, I'll pop this photo as my response, hah!


Interesting "twist" she has on her calves as she ran... looks dangerous to me oh.



Saw a few of these pairs of runners. Basically a runner leading another runner who's visually impaired. Warms the heart. Pity the photo is out-of-focus.


Turning into the Big Walk now... :P


Yes, that's the way to finish - smile and wave!


Okie.. now let's come to the "baby strollers". Firstly, how did the organizer allow non-registered runner to get into the route? Only those who clearly displayed bib numbers shud be on the running route, no?

Secondly while I understand why they are doing this ie strolling the babies - must be all nice and warm to have baby running along with daddy towards the finishing line - but HELLO, this is an International Marathon. Do they not realize they could be road hazards to the other runners who are coming in strongly to the finishing line either for their personal best time or position??


ah.. see.... #1240 is a Full Marathon runner and he's almost going to crash into the stroller as he tried to wriggle his way past the crowd.


Ah... eye candy :) The #0002 kid is super cool... btw I was not referring to the kid as eye-candy ;)


This is Peter Lee (#0169), who's leading his visually-impaired fren for the kids dash. Good for you, Pete!


Luv the way kids run... with such abandonment and stamina!! Go Kiddo Go

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The full set of 170+ photos can be viewed at my Flickr site - click here. If you find your running photos in it, email me and I can send the source file to you.

SCKLM '09 - Run for a Cause!

Sunday, June 28. Finally... Run Day is here! After weeks of anticipation, THIS IS IT!



A sell-out crowd of 12,500 runners... from over 30 countries. All converging this day to Dataran Merdeka to run a good race, be it the full marathon at 42km, the half- at 21km, the quarter at 10km (which is what I'm taking part in) or the fun run at 5km (which turned into the "amazing race", but more of that later hehe).

Woke up as early as 4.30am, quick breakfast of banana, oats, milk/soy and after checking to take sure we've all the necessary items - bib number, GoGear, ID docs, running shoes, some cash - off we left for Menara Olympia. Laiwah's following us along as "official" photographer with her 450D. Her first time shooting marathon/running event. :P

Reached Menara Olympia (where my office is located) just shy of 6am. No road block along the way to detour us. Intention was to park here and then walk to Dataran Merdeka as I do not suppose we'll be able to get any parking near the Dataran area since the full- and half-marathon runs flag off at 5am and 6am respectively, while our 10km starts at 7am.

Met up with the Datacomers - Ron, SuE, Daren, Wong, Patrick (and his two frens Yeoh and Chin). Two FFKed last minute - Aaron and Nicole. :S A quick change of clothes/shoes, bib numbers and off we strolled towards Dataran Merdeka.

We did not reach Dataran as early as I'd wanted and we ended up at the back of the block. This means we'll be slow off the block. Started with some warm-ups and stretching while waiyan seemed more busier catching up with many of her "long-lost" frens whom were taking part in the run. Anyway her category (5km) only starts at 8am.


The customary "Before Run" photo of the Datacom Team (from left) - Patrick, me, SuE, Ron and Daren

We were flagged off at 7am sharp... but from where we were standing/waiting.. we were still stationary. Duh! The front block took a rather long time to disperse up the route.

We did finally make it to the Starting Line (which is where our bib registered itself with the timing device to indicate our net start time). I glanced up to the digital timer and close to 4 min has elapsed since gun time. I knew it'll be slow to get off the block if we stayed at the back but I didn't realized it's THIS slow... aiyoh.


This is how it looked from my view while waiting for the other runners to disperse... (Photos taken from another site (c))

MY RUN
Anyway once I was past the Starting Line, slowly got into jogging pace. There were ppl everywhere!! Last I heard, the 10km category has about 4,000+ runners. It can be really difficult navigating your way past the sea of runners, each running at their own pace (some just walking along, aiks at just 500m off the starting line?)

I quickly picked a "pacer" ie someone who's running at a pace slightly faster than me whom I can follow and pace myself until I'm ready to move up a gear. I did not get this man's bib number but I would like to appreciate him for pacing me during the early part of the run.

The first water station was at 3km. I saw a huge crowd jostling for water so didn't bother to stop. I did see SuE going into the crowd to join the water-jostling. So she was keeping up with me then. :)

I continued to follow my pacer till close to the 5km point when I thought the pacer might be going at a pace that's too slow for me. After getting some water at the 5km water station I started to break away and picked up pace for the last 5km. Later SuE told me she saw me overtaking her at the 5km mark. Hmm.. so she was even ahead of me till the 5km point - not bad wor!! :P

Continued at a brisk pace till we reached Bank Negara. That's when we were approaching the last 3km of the 10km run. It was about 5 min to 8am then and I knew I was not doing fast enough splits to finish this race in my target 60 mins.

Picked up a faster pace hoping to finish strongly. Towards the last stretch along Jln TAR, I found I was even able to sprint towards the finish line! If I can "sprint" at the end, it's definitely poor pacing by me. :(



Here's how I did for SCKLM run:

Category: 10k Run 10km (Men)
Position: 766
Net Start: 07:01:40
Net Time: 01:08:53
Finish Timing: 01:12:28.03

DATACOM
Here's a quick snapshot of the other members from the Datacom team. Happy to report all of them completed the race, yeah!




Datacom Team (from top): Daren, Ron, SuE, Patrick and Wong

The Datacom team with our 10km finishers medals. Missing in the group pic here is Wong. I did meet him at the finishing line and asked him to join us at the rendezvous point... but didn't see him around.


The Datacom Finishers (from left): Jeff, SuE, Ron, Patrick and Daren

THE AMAZING 5K RACE
waiyan signed up for the 5k Run together with a few of her frens. She has been training and pacing for a 40+ min finish and imagine her surprise when in the actual run today, she ended up back to the finishing line in just 20 min!!


waiyan doing her 5km run ;)

Turned out there was some miscommunication and the runners were misdirected to a shorter 2km route!! What a downer!! Imagine signing up and paying for a 5km experience and getting shortchanged becoz someone didn't do their job properly (I'm blaming the organizer Octagon, and not the volunteers).

You bet there's plenty of talk about this "Amazing 5k Race" at the SCKLM Facebook page. Is it too much to expect the organizer to put up proper signages at each turning point in the route to direct the runners properly?

And when she approached the Race Director wanting to find out why they had such a "short run" - well, he was wearing the t-shirt with the word "Race Director" boldly printed on it - the answer she got from him was downright rude and shocking... that I chose not to print here.

A BADLY ORGANIZED RUN
While my 10km run was relatively without incident, it was not so for the full- and half-marathons. In addition to the Amazing 5k Race (above), the marathons were plagued with water station problems, traffic control, dangerously placed mobile toilets (imagine placing the mobile toilet on the opposite side of Mahameru highway such that when runners need to pee, they have to play "Why did the chicken cross the busy highway" game), marred the experience for many of the runners.

All of these have been widely cerita in the SCKLM Facebook page so I won't want to repeat them here. Go to the Facebook site if you wish to read about the hoo-has. :)

They even made a boo-boo about giving the first prize to the second placed runner during the prize giving ceremony. Aiyoh!

RUNNING FOR A CAUSE - Nature, Our Heritage, Ours to Protect
Part of our involvement in this run is taking part in their Run for a Cause event where we use this event to create awareness and raise funds for one of five selected charity organizations. I picked Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) http://www.mns.my/ as I wish to help create more awareness for MNS in their effort to preserve our natural heritage.

The result is a total of RM1,200 raised from my personal contacts and Datacom. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have generously donated to the MNS cause. And a note of appreciation to all the Datacom runners who took part in this charity run. :)


Group photo of both 10km and 5km runners. Congrats to all of you... you've successfully Ran Your Race!

Special thanks to my sis laiwah for coming along to take all the nice photos you see here.. The problem being the photographer is that your face doesn't end up in the album! So I searched for other marathon blog & photo sites, hoping someone would have taken a photo of laiwah in action.

Lo.. I found it at Winnie Wong's photo site. Thanks again, laiwah :)


(c) Winnie Wong

SCKLM '09 - Pre-Run Days

Friday, 26 June (T-2). After weeks of preparation and anticipation, the day is almost upon us. The Run Day is just a couple of days away and today's the first day for the collection of our Race Pack!

With Datacom sending a team of 8 ppl for the Run for a Cause event, I took the team out for a pre-race lunch at Hoong Hoong Yong Tau Foo at Ampang before we adjourned to Dataran Merdeka to collect our race packs.

It rained while we were having our lunch at Hoong Hoong but by the time we reached Dataran, the rain had stopped and it was a cool nice Friday afternoon while we waited in the queue for our race collection.


We'll be starting off against the backdrop of this historic building

As expected there was a large crowd... hmm, dun all these ppl got to go back to work? Then again I suppose they would be asking the same question of us. hehe....

I'd expected a long queue since we've 12,500 runners all coming to collect their race packs in only a 2-day period (today and tomorrow). Can't understand why SCKLM didn't spread the collection into more days or (even better) offer to have the race packs delivered to your doorstep (like what HooHa.asia is doing for the Putrajaya Night Run).

I think we started to queue around 1.30pm and the queue didn't seem to move much as the hot afternoon sun slowly started to trickle back, and the afternoon was not so cool & nice anymore. :(

The queue didn't seem to move AT ALL... the ladies in our group were starting to hide behind umbrellas, shades or watever cover they could find! A few started calling back to the office to make arrangement for their backups as it did not look like we'll be able to get back to the office anytime soon.

When it reached our turn, we finally understood why the queue moved so slowly.. the volunteers have to search for our running vest by size, and they also have to locate our bib number (ie the runner number we attached to our chest on run day) as the system already pre-allocated the bib number for us.

haiz... you can guessed what can turn wrong in such situation? Some people asked for change of vest size.. some bib numbers cannot be located... Murphy's Law cropping up everywhere.

In the end, six of us managed to get our complete race packs but two couldn't find their bib numbers! Another colleague who's collecting for two of his frens also hit the same snag - no bib number.

We reported the bib number issue to the Info Center and not surprisingly there was already a long list of runners who did not get their bib numbers too. I was told someone will call us back once they sorted out our bib number. Nothing much we can do but to leave Dataran and hope someone "will call" us back. It was already past 3pm when we left.

That was for the 10km queue. My colleague who's collecting for the 5km race was stuck in the queue till 4.30pm!! For his patience he got two bonus events - afternoon rain and computer system down.. kaka.

The irony was not lost on us that we actually spent more time waiting in-queue to collect our race packs than we would have spent running our race! haiz.

And on that evening, the SCKLM page on Facebook were bombarded with complaints from runners facing the same problems as us! tsk tsk....



As to the contents of the Race Pack, I like the quality of the material for the running vest, and the bag looks nice. Other than that, it's quite "bare" with only promotional brochures from StanChart and the sponsors masquerading as "contents". Aiyoh...

Saturday, 27 June (T-1). I'd tapered off my training runs at the gym since last Sunday to give my legs the proper rest before run day (I'm not 18 yrs old anymore la). To get my body back into readiness for tomorrow's run, I woke up early in the morning and went for a slow easy 3km jog at KLCC with waiyan. Nice to have a spouse who shares your luv for running. ;)

I usually do my on-the-road runs at KLCC in the evening.. and a morning run was so .... different. The air was very refreshing and you could almost smell the morning dew. Must make a note to do more early morning OTR runs.

At noon, I returned to Dataran to see if the missing bib numbers from yesterday were ready. I was expecting a large crowd at Dataran since the SCKLM page at Facebook said only 5,000 runners collected theirs yesterday.

Well, I was surprised to find that Dataran was rather... empty. Hmm.. did they get super-efficient in disbursing the race packs today? Or did the 7,000 just gave up after reading all the ceritas on the SCKLM Facebook? hehe...


The "empty" race pack collection counters that greeted me at Dataran

Anyway I quickly got the missing bib numbers sorted out, and can even leisurely walk over to check what the other booths were promoting. MGIS was doing their sports insurance and Reebok's there as well with their sports attire/gear. Bought a box of Powerbar at 50% discount and signed up for the Adidas King of the Road run (which is on Aug 2).



The lesson of the story? Pick up your race pack on the 2nd day la!! LOL

We met this couple who came all the over from HK to participate in this run! I should have asked but I supposed they took part in the StanChart HK Marathon as well. I really admired their dedication to running.


Yeah, the 1-Malaysia thingie... hehe

Guess what? I forgot to ask their names or to introduce ourselves. Duh? Where were my manners... sigh.


This is where we'll start (and finish) the race tomorrow...

Alrite, race pack collected, bib numbers ready... get an early nite's sleep and we are all set to Run our Race tomorrow!

p/s If you want to know more about all the hiccups on Race Pack collection days, drop in to the SCKLM Facebook site. :P

To view the full set of photos at Flickr, click here.