Friday, November 27, 2015

Shaping our future together – Top 10 @ Shape Night Run 2015

Oh my! I need to gather energy, willpower and courage to write this one. So many things to tell, so much drama. A friendly reminder to my readers, please bear with the long write up or just skip to photo only hihi. Ok let’s start the journey.

Category analysis and teammates selection

It was all started in August last year. I really wanted to participate in any team race. However, a good and dedicated teammate is so hard to come by. Some already got their well-established team, some are just looking for fun and some are just not cut out. There are so many team effort based races and I was so keen to participate.  I found the Shape Night Run 2015 ad from Facebook. It’s not a surprise that they are no longer with Men’s Health due to corporate takeover. I went through the details and very well enticed with their new category, TEAM Category 4 in a group (2 Men 2 Women). The team with the fastest accumulated time will be the winner. Interesting! Meaning that we don’t need to run in a group and finish together. We just need to push ourselves to oblivion PB and our total time will be ranked. This category was limited to 50 teams only. However, the prize was for top 3 teams only. So hard to secure one. The odds was obviously not in my favour. Ah well, let’s get rich and die trying eh (50 Cents). My shot was better with team category as I believe I won’t stand a chance with open category. Super competitive and top runners sure fast.
The poster!

The category and prize
The major problem was looking for teammates. I started with my [Putrajaya Night Marathon (HM) B2B SCKLM (10k)] accomplice/frenemy, Ariff. He was my worthy opponent and a tough one. Both of us screwed up big time for PNM and SCKLM B2B, sigh. Surprisingly he agreed. Yatta! Now need to look for women runners. I knew a handful of (slightly) fast women runners. Fast women runners? You crazy, even my current speed can’t match theirs hahaha. I wasn’t worthy to be their teammates. I contacted Mariah and Ryna. We used to train together occasionally. Plus their record and pace fall into slight to medium fast category for women. Both of them agreed. My dream team was now complete. Assembling this team was easier than I predicted. Menangis kegembiraan, dalam hati huhu. I created whatsapp group and we had a lengthy discussion on many topics. One of it was team name. The spirit was high. After some heated debate, google-ing activities, asking around, we finally agreed with Saisoku. It was Ariff idea by the way. Saisoku means fast in Japanese and we want to run fast and be a winner for this run, hoyeah. Now it’s time to register the run with newly formed Saisoku team. A promising team or at least we thought so.

Registration steps
Registration for Team category was different unlike other categories. There was no column in Hooha for team category. We have to email the organizer 1st stating our interest. Walawei. As the team leader, I emailed them but no reply even after a few days. I called them and they said they are well aware with my email and will reply soon. They did reply to my email (thanks God!) stating that I have to bank in fees for whole team and need to show them proof of payment. Only after that they will give registration code. I banked in, emailed to them, they replied with registration code and we registered ourselves. Fuhhh our registration complete finally. Long process. Saisoku will compete for the 1st time! Time to train! I took the liberty to collage our photos with team name and Shape Night Run poster and posted it to FB. Macam gila publisiti plak haha. Excited actually ;)

Saisoku!
Training and drama in between

Ariff offered to train all of us especially the bodyweight workout. He was the personal trainer once. Gathering all of us wasn’t easy as all of us busy with commitments. We did meet one or two times. Jadilah. Other than this meeting, we still train individually. We also met at races.

Saisoku minus one POJ training! The reward was Baskin Robbins 31% discount LOL
It was a long period between registration and the race itself, from September 2014 to April 2015. Many notable moments happened. I had a bad shin splint in March and took few weeks rest. My teammates worried but I assured them I’ll get better before Shape Night Run 2015 (before Men’s Health and Women’s Health Nigh Run in March). Luckily I did huhu. That’s not the only problem we were facing. Mariah wanted to quit from this group. She was having some personal matters. Oh dear. We need all of us or else we’ll be disqualified. We convinced her to stay as we still got time to train. She agreed to stay. Crisis averted. It was not long before she wanted to quit once again. Her problems got the best of her. We have no option but to agree. No point forcing someone who wasn’t ready. She suggested Scha as her replacement and Scha already agreed beforehand. Mariah emailed organizer about the replacement and luckily they accept. She felt bad for quitting but that’s the wise decision she made for the team. We felt sad for losing her but life must goes on. Scha was a strong woman runner too. Bukan calang-calang orang. We must win this run!  Or at least get a great placing. Ariff collected the race kit for all of us and surprisingly our bib numbers was in order of 1 to 4. Saisoku was team numero uno! We were the first team to register for this category hahahaha. No wonder the late reply from organizer and so many instructions for registration LOL.

The Route
Saisoku race kit. Numero uno team!

Race Day

Calm before the storm, pic taken in the morning
I came early to the venue. It was raining cats and dogs in the evening. Thunders were apparent and scary. I parked at open space behind Palace of Justice and having difficulty heading to the flag off area. I took out umbrella and walk as fast as possible under the heavy rain to the nearest tent beside POJ. All of my teammates were in Auditorium Cempaka Sari already. I was waiting the rain to subside but to no avail. After 15min, I decided to go to the Auditorium Cempaka Sari. Many runners were sheltering inside the Dewan Melati and became restless. There was possibility of this run getting cancelled. Met friends and many familiar faces. The moment I met my teammates was priceless. Reunion. Somehow we just found out the prize was way different from the original from their FB. It was no longer top3 but top10 instead. Woohoo more chances for us. Top10 mission then!

Bergabung meletop ah!
Generous top 10 prize! 
The Shape Night Run organizer posted to their official FB/IG about the fate of this run. They were waiting for the rain to subside and will cancel it if the situation not getting any better. Luckily, the heavy rain turned into drizzle after 30min. We went to the starting line as fast as possible because we want to standby at the very front of the line. I didn’t have enough time to warm up. The organizer decided to proceed the race but those who didn’t want to race can collect their medal and goodies at designated place and time later.

Flag off was done at 830pm and I ran with 4-4:30min/km pace. My strategy plan was to complete this race with average pace of 4:30min/km or lower. Ariff was slightly in front of me and I made sure he didn’t disappear from my sight. The road was slightly wet. Running on the wet road caused a not so efficient run. All went well but all hell broke loose at 7th km after the u-turn. Side stitches suddenly came and I couldn’t ran any faster. I maintained my pace and tried whatever steps possible to eliminate that stitches. All not working. Side stitches most probably happened because I didn’t warm up at all. Even after 2km the pain was still there. I managed to catch up with Ariff at 10km and he was having the same side stitches problem. We paced each other. Running side by side has positive impact on us. Even though we suffered from side stitches, running together has lifted our spirit and we could push ourselves a little bit. It became a sprint race for two of us for the last 200m. Ariff and I sped off and we were determined to outrun each other. Clash of the titans. All out all might. The winner for this race was meeeee!!!!!!! Yeay I won this short self-proclaimed race by few seconds hahaha. It was 7s actually. Moral winning. I gave Ariff a #brohug, both of us did well despite the side stitches problem. I did 11.31km in 52:25min with average pace of 4:38min/km. Hmmm bolehlah.

My race result
Cute? Obviously not hahhaa
We took goodies and lepak with friends while waiting for other teammates. I went to the finishing line again to give my moral support to Ryna and Scha. Ryna did well with 59:17 min. When Scha nearing finishing line, I ran beside her while encouraging her to finish asap. Scha did 1:07:56 hour. It was too early to predict our result but it’s not going to be easy. Few elites were spotted in the same category with us. We did our best and hopefully it’ll get translated into a great placing.
Y so serious? Peace y'all!
Y so serious? Let's peace berjemaah!
While waiting for the result, we met friends and hung out. Many didn’t realize about this team category. Well they didn’t read the info thoroughly. Lucky for us then hihi. I went to the official tent, want to ask about the result. Saw other team was looking at the result sheet and they were arguing with the officials as their team result was not in the top10 list. I took a peek and I saw our team was in number 8 spot! Yatta, hoyeah, woohoo! Top10 at last! Menangis kegembiraan huhu. Syukur. Mission accomplished. However, after talking to the team, most probably our team placing will be pushed to no 9. Didn’t matter as it was still in top10 position huhu. Need to wait a little longer for verification. I went back to my team and delivering this good news. All were delighted and excited. We went to the tent altogether and found out we were in number 9 spot. Final official result. Top10, yeay! 


No 9, top 10 at last! Yeay!
Result page 2
We made it! Menangis kegembiraan T_T
We did it! Saisoku top 10!

Our joy was a little short-lived when the official said the prize was not ready yet and they will deliver it to us soon. Oh okay. They will deliver the prize to the team representative and I volunteered myself. We took snapshots in front of the prize claim tent. A little bit off because we didn’t receive any tag, any paper or any memento as a winning proof. It was more like we won something but went home empty handed and without proof. All self-proclaimed. Ah well the most important thing was winning. We took snapshots a lil more, goofing around. Not every day you have chance like this.

Pose 1st

Pose 2nd

Pose 3rd
Selfie

Serious vs not so serious ;)
Gorgeous ladies
With Pacemamam Om nom nom
Selfie lagi
 Fast forward to few weeks later, their representative contacted me and came to my office. She came with Kelisa and I could saw her Kelisa was chock full with stuffs. We went through the prize checklist together and I unloaded the items afterwards. It was a lot! Literally a lot! It was RM10k worth goodies after all. RM2500 each. Took a selfie/wefie with her and I put all goodies onto a trolley. Izwan spotted me and I asked him to take photo of me with trolley. I went to my room, unloaded them all and susun accordingly. Took photos and updated it to my whatsapp group. All excited but shocked with that volume of goodies. They will pick the stuffs on a later date. I uploaded to Facebook and it’s not a surprise when friends shocked upon seeing the picture. I gave away few stuffs to my family and friends. They supported me and helped in many ways and it was the right time to return the favour.
Our prizes! Banyaknya!
Women prize

Men prize
Our prizes! Right for men and left for women
Okay, let’s not jump to conclusion haha. Such a long post. This was my 1st mixed team and also 1st time won this big. Really grateful. Without the support and cooperation with other teammates, this feat was totally impossible. We won’t stop and we'll become the unstoppable. Thanks for reading ;)
  
Related links
Result – Team Category

Shape Night Run details

March-ing, Men's Health and Women's Health Night Run race report

February was very nice to me but March was not so much of a fan. I took (almost) 2 weeks break from running as my shin splint became apparent. The pain was still bearable but I decided that I should take a break. The pain lingered after running and it became worse after speed or tempo session. The pain will disappear after a few days but it will come back right after any running session. I discussed with few (otai) friends and they gave useful tips based on their own experience. Their shin splint was a bad a** one as they even cannot walk properly. Jalan kengkang. I followed their tips and resumed my (easy) running after that. I'll write an entry on shin splint later. 

As for March, I’ve registered Men's Health and Women's Health Night Run. My earlier target was to get a PB as the previous Men’s Health and Shape Night Run (Men’s Health magazine now is no longer under the same company as Shape magazine) was my most favourite run. I re-started my running career hobby with Men’s Health and Shape Night Run back in 2010. My awake’run’ning.
Since I took few weeks resting, I knew the PB mission is a tall order. Already ‘pasrah’ that PB will be nowhere to be found. 404: error not found. I knew that I won’t do well as I refrained myself from training for few weeks due to shin splint.

I went to Cheras in the afternoon to pay a visit to the Quick Sport outlet. Few days prior I’ve contacted them asking about Garmin Fenix 3. They actually have ordered and there’ll might be few left. Luckily Apong and Hanif were quite free and willing to accompany. I’ve been eyeing Garmin Fenix 3 for quite a while but availability was an issue. Most of the shop only accept pre-order not walk in. We went to Quick Sport and I had to choose between Sapphire or Silver/Grey edition. Sapphire was too expensive plus the metal band was not suitable for daily running. I had a hard time choosing between Grey (black band) and silver (red band). After some lengthy discussion with friends and the shop owner, I chose the silver (red band) version. She said red was meant for a risk taker, getting out from comfort zone. I agreed LOL
Beli jam dan makan-makan ;)
Yang mana satu pilihan kalbu
Finally mine! My precious!
We had our lunch at Nasi Ayam Kampung velodrome. Quite famous here. I went home afterwards, playing around with my new expensive tool and getting ready to go to POJ for Men’s Health and Women’s Health Night Run. I went early to POJ together with Limi and Pico. Flag off was on time and I ran with my planned pace, 5min/km all the way. I cannot run faster as afraid it’ll aggravate my shin splint. Not much drama during the run except I struggled keeping with the kardashians pace. Weeks of not training sure took its toll on my stamina and speed.  I crossed the line in 60minutes with 5:05min/km pace. Hmmm not bad. I love my new toy by the way. Good and reliable. My shin didn’t feel any weird soreness. Guess the shin was almost healed. Post-race: met friends, took snapshots, hung around and chatting. I went home happy that night as I ran well and my body getting better.  
 
Pintu gerbang
Post shin splint pace, hmm not bad. My 1st run with brand new Garnin Fenix 3 hihi
WARs
WARs - We are satisfied Garmin user ;)
WARs - Kaki Lari
MARDI Runners!
Happening runners
Happening runners part II
Power of three, housemate and ex-housemate
Beauties and the beasts

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