energizer night run Putrajaya 27.3.2010

29.3.2010
Energizer Night Half Marathon @ March 27, 2010

Intellectual discourse between FG and JS.. FG: I just ran 21km. JS: What did you run from? FG: !@#?..err...from my shadows… JS: Who won? FG: My shadow, of course! Don’t you know that you cannot run away from your shadow? It will always catch up with you!

After the last crampy pathetic Putrajaya Night Half Marathon run, the Energizer run was to be the saving salvage run, to ascertain my ability to run, to correct the wrong that happened in Putrajaya! Equipped with self thought schemes and strategies like how Rocky Balboa trained in the cold weather of Philadelphia against the mighty giant from Russia in Rocky, I trained on the treadmill and the tarry tracks of Bukit Hatamas. This time around the plan was to run at a slower pace. After reaching a peak run of just over 10km, I had to taper down due to insufficient time 2 weeks before the race. The week before the inaugural run, it was essentially real light and easy runs with hardly any significant mileage covered. Luckily I managed to catch a good night sleep on Friday. Saturday afternoon involved replenishment with lots of isotonic drink of 100-plus.
The race started in Cyberjaya at 8pm, with all runners donning headlights. I started the run at a slow pace, without pushing to be at the head of the pack. The fact that there were no markings did not create undue stress and running was made somewhat devoid of stress. The first marker that I saw at 9km and my timing was 52m, ok so far so good, I said to myself. The second part of the race was also relatively smooth sailing. I hit the 16km mark at 1h32m.

 All these was on whilst it was so-called Earth hour, but much to our dismay, all the street lights in Cyberjaya as well as the light from the high rise buildings there were still on throughout the hour. There was not a shred of indication to signify the momentous hour! And I was thinking before the event that when people around Malaysia would switch off their light, I would be depending on ATP, cAMP and the Kreb cycle for energy. Obviously, I was so wrong. It was business as usual at Cyberjaya with some construction work still progressing at full throttle at 9pm on a Saturday night! These are some of the thoughts that were playing in my mind while I continued my journey of running from my shadow. Boy! The last 5km of the run seemed never ending. Just when I thought that I was reaching the finishing line, there was yet another bend and another turn and another kilometre. The end just appeared so elusive. I was just running and running like an Energizer bunny.
One commendable effort by the organizers is that they prepared abundant drink stations at almost every 3 to 4 kilometre equipped with both plain water and Gatorade. At every drink station, I gulped down about 100ml of fluids.
At around 2h20m mark, the finishing line finally manifested and it was it was all over. I was tired but this time around (unlike Putrajaya), I was not panting or having cramps. What a good night sleep can do!
Next stop is NB 15km run on 16th May 2010…

Official result:
ASOKAN SHAMUGANATHAN J9036 (Veteran) No.89/221
2:22:14.95 (Chip time)
2:22:36.13 (Gun time)