Seremban Half Marathon 2007

Pre-race, left to right: Quek, Siu Min, yours truly, Felix, Daniel, Kok Fang

Overall, Seremban Half is an enjoyable run. For starters, it's very near our rented house and secondly, there are six of us running! Not to mention a certain blogger personality who peer-pressured me into this race in the first place, the epitome of fitness in the medical fraternity - Dr Ray!


The organiser is competent too; we started on time and there were water stations every 5km. Adequate I think. And loads of free thirst-quenching refreshments at the finishing line.

The second quarter of the route, as Dr Ray puts it, was scenic. Saw him somewhere in the third quarter of the race. We ran together for a while, chatting. He kept commending on my pace, said I was fast and he can't even catch up - which I knew wasn't true! Was surprised with his "slowish" pace initially - after all he's a seasoned runner and a triathlete. I on the other hand, gave it an all-out sprint right from the starting line. And then it striked me in the face - most of the killer steepy terrains are in the last quarter of the race - he was conserving his energy! True enough, he smoked my arse after the last water station, while yours truly was limping due to calf spasms and tears welling in my eyes seeing Dr Ray's turbo-boost (muahahaha!). Now you know who was the one who couldn't catch up!

Post race, left to right: Felix, Quek, Siu Min (looking away due to severe leg pain), yours truly, Daniel.
Warning: I DID NOT PEE IN MY PANTS, in case you're wondering what the wet patch on my crotch was!

Having said that, I clocked the best timing for half-marathon this time round. (Not that I did many half-marathons anyway, this is just my third!)

Time:
02:10:52

Place:
91st

Clowning around.
Kok Fang mysteriously disappeared, so he wasn't in any of the post race photos. We suspect he went to nurse his severely chaffed nipples in the gents.

Here are the rewards of the race - the running certificate and the pewter "medal" (which looked more like a huge coin to me, but nevertheless nice!). In case you're wondering why would I wake up so early in the morning screwing my knee joints for premature osteoarthritis, here's the reason why!

Certificate and medal

The medal - Front

The medal - Back

The guys did pretty well. Daniel and Kok Fang, who were in the Penang Bridge Half Marathon last month, improved significantly in terms of timing. Daniel was about 10 minutes faster this time round, and placed 100th! Kok Fang on the other hand, did 30 minutes less compared to his debut in Penang! Awesome.

Here's the list of everyone's finishing time:
● KK - 02:10:52 (placed 91st)
● Daniel - 02:22:00 (placed 100th)
● Siu Min - 02:42:00 [debut]
● Kok Fang - 03:02:00
● Quek - 03:12:00 [debut]
● Felix - 03:22:00 [debut]

If you guys follow my marathon timings, you'd notice that I clock 5 minutes less in Penang Bridge, and 5 minutes less here in Seremban Half. Means I'd need to clock 02:05 for the next run, and 02:00 for the next, and come my sixth half-marathon, I should be able to clock sub-2hrs? Tough act!


Seremban Half Marathon Training Log:
05.07.07 ► 7.0km @ 00:42:35
08.07.07 ► 14.0km @ 01:18:40
Race day ► 21.1km @ 02:10:52

(Didn't really train that much for this run!)