Dry. This is the only word that I could describe for this race. This year’s edition of Seremban Half Marathon had been less satisfying compared to what I had ran before. It is not the bad traffic etc which had made this run a nightmare but it is the water stations.
I had planned to stay overnight in Seremban as it is not feasible for me to drive for 3hr before the race. After stopping at Melaka Town for a visit on my university mate, I proceed to Seremban and reached there at around 4pm. Instead of putting up a night in Angsana Inn, PM21 had changed the hotel to Crystal Star and it was a good thing to do. The hotel is clean and looked brand new. Upon settling down myself, I followed pm21, pm1, Ai Ling and Ah Loong to Tampin for dinner while Shine declined the offer. After dinner, it was time to head back and at last, I got to rest my feet. It was a tiring day and I decided to get to bed early after coming back from a short date (no details here :p).
Race day: As our hotel is close to the starting point, there is no need for us to rush to the starting point and report ourselves. After meeting Chen and Adam, we jogged to the reporting stations and the starting line. I wasn’t sure why I was nervous on this day but I guess it is most probably due to the difficulties that I have to go through like the undulating course and the hellish ending. But then, all of these would be nothing compared to what we are going to face in a few minutes time. The other thing which I had noticed was the fact that there weren’t many 21K runners this year.
Blam! Off we go! The pace was generally easy and slow most probably due to the anticipation of a difficult ending. Slowly I made my way up as I find the pace of a few runners were too slow. After about 25 to 30 mins of running, I was already anticipating the water station to be around but then, none turned up. It was a sponging station and it was a real disappointment to me. Along the route, I see people selling water for RM1 but I wasn’t bothered because I know this is ‘NOT SUPPOSE TO HAPPEN!!’ I was thirsty, damn thirsty. I upped my pace a little, potong sayur on quite a number of runners and eventually, the field thinned out where the distance between one runner to another was very far apart. There is one spot which loved to run through in Seremban and it is the road which the stream flows beside it. I mean the scene is really tranquil and I relaxed a bit just to enjoy the scenery. After that, I continued to run and spotted the penguins and somewhere in KM7-9, CM suddenly appeared out of no where! My friend, you came at last! So we paced together from KM8 onwards. His pace was really furious and his speed is tremendous. In fact, I had difficulty in pacing together with him where he nearly dropped me several times just right before the halfway. I can really see he pia kau kau lat for the race and I just tried to follow his buntut. Just right after the turning corner, at last the water station appeared after a good 50mins to 1hr run. At the water station was Chee Wee and he asked one of the officials where is the next water station. One of the officials mentioned that it is ‘somewhere’ down the road.
After the drink, I continued and as usual, CM is strong. He powered down the downhills and I had difficulty catching up. He actually inspired me to run harder and I did. I pushed and we potong many sayurs. Then, just after a small hill, I spotted Ah Loong. I mentioned to CM that Ah Loong is just in front and he nodded back to acknowledge. Then during an uphill, I pushed. I started pushing hard to give chase to Ah Loong. During my relentless chase, I even forgot about water stations and hydrating myself. Then came the hellish part where the 10K runners (to be more precise, ‘walkers’) would meet the 21K participants. Like the previous editions of Seremban Half, this place is messy. You can see many youngsters occupying the road and slowing you down because they were walking. At the same time, the road is bloody narrow and to tell you the truth, it is dangerous. But, I didn’t cared and I just ran on the outer lane occupying the road itself. My focus was on Ah Loong and I never leave him out of my sight. He was strong too and I believe, he too pia in this race. At last I manage to catch up and overtook him. I yelled to Ah Loong to run faster. Looking at my timing and distance, I was actually on par to break my PR of 1hr 53min.
Then suddenly, just right before the final climb to the finishing line, something happened. I felt very lightheaded and disorientated. In addition to that, I felt my fingers were numb and I knew something is not right. Shit! I did not hydrate myself well! I decided to slow down and ran to the petrol station to drink tap water. I drank a lot. I wasn’t sure how much but I kept on drinking for a good 30sec. Only after that I felt better and begin to regain all the senses on my fingers. I decided it is enough for me. I would jog from here. There is no point in doing a PR but suffering from god knows what kind of injuries that may surface. While standing at the petrol station and taking a break, I was waiting for CM to appear so that I could finish the race with him. I still had not spotted him so I continued with the journey. While Ah Loong was way ahead of me, I jogged to the finish line with my watch was blinking 1hr 55mins at the end of it. Relief at last.
It was a good race. Some of the runners whom I had met after the race commented that I raced like a loony. They were wondering how I manage to push hard at the hills. I just told them I did my best. During these times, there was a quote ringing inside my head and it is from Steve Prefontaine. He mentioned ‘A lot of people run a race to see who is the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into an exhausting pace and then at the end, punish himself even more’ These were the words which I kept to myself during the difficult hill sections. I wasn’t going to become Steve but then, his quote really inspired me to pia. It worked to a certain extent.
After collecting the medal and chit chat with some runners, I met Ronnie and the gang. While getting my drinks, I saw CM. He was resting and I asked him what had happened to him as I didn’t see him after the hills. Apparently, he rushed from Cameron Highlands and came in time to race. He actually raced without sleeping the day before!! If he had rested well, he would have smoked me easily as he was strong at the middle sections. We headed back to the hotel and I skipped breakfast with Ronnie so as to rest well and continue with the 3hr drive back to JB.
I had raced well today. Just like Ipoh, I ran all out during the race and I was happy in accomplishing that. CM and Ah Loong motivated me very much to give all I could during the race. Somehow or rather, I loved the difficulty of the race where I had to slog through the course and the disorientating traffic (human and vehicle!) during the ending portion of the run. But then, runners should be supplied with ample water stations as not all runners can actually breeze through the 21K literally without any water. I hope the organizers can improve on that. Overall, it’s fun.
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