Bonkety Bonk

Hi.
You read it right. I bonked.For the second time this year. Heh heh. It's SCKLM Half revisited minus the hot sun.
But difference was, this time I had fun.
Serious.
It's kinda weird how you could feel so bad and have fun at the same time. I guess last week was a good week. Maybe that explains it all.

Pre-race I guess I was kinda asking for it. We had a late breakfast and then decided before dropping off our kids at my sister's, we'd have our lunch late at Bangi. Manala nak tau semua orang Bangi nak makan Domino''s jugak at 3 :30 pm. As a result pizza sampai lewat, so we ate at around 4 ish. Pastu we polished half a can of my brother's "slimming mixed nuts". I don't get the concept of eating nuts to make you slim but hey, who can resist eating really expensive roasted almonds and pistachios especially when it's not yours.

Anyway, we got to Putrajaya at about 7. By that time, perut rasa kenyang lagi from all the pizza and nuts so I just ate a quarter of my prerace snack, a cream bun. Pastu, because during my last half, I didn't take any gels and only ran with a bottle of Gatorade, I figured I'd do the same in this race and managed to talk my husband in doing the same. Ya, satu lagi bad choice.

At about 8 berlegar-legar at race site and we bumped into our old schoolmate . Sembang-sembang, kutuk-kutuk, gelak-gelak , last-last terlepas nak cheer on the Full marathoners. Aisey.

Then at 8.10 pm , we went to line ourselves at the gantry. Baru la nampak the famous KakJune with her fans. Gile semua beratur nak tangkap gambar ngan dia. Tinggal diorang nak mintak sign autograph je lagi, Kak June oii..hehe. Had a quick chat and then we were off lining ourselves behind the starting line cam cattle.

Mak ai panasnya. Tak padan ngan malam cuaca lepas hujan. Tak start race lagi pun kiri kanan bau ashem.
Aku konon nak try pace 10:15/per mile. Up sikit la dari last HM.
Huh, hareeemmmm.

Mula-mula start lagi takde countdown apa pun. Sedor-sedor je 'pom' bunyik gun.
The thing I don't like about big races is, there's too much crowd (duh!)
Dia ni himpit dia ni. Dia ni pijak kasut dia ni. Dia ni pasang muka saiko nak menang. Dia ni  siku dia ni.
In small races, everyone is friendly. Almost everyone is like, " Hey, have fun". And the runners are more cheerful.
Yang ni, mula-mula race je pakat pasang game face masing-masing. Adoyai.
Tapi  not everybody la. Korang yang baca ni aku tau tak buat..heh heh.

But the thing is in big races, you'll meet all different kinds of interesting people on the road. Ramai gak yang tegur WW's barefootedness. WW pun pantang tengok rakan sekaki ayam, mesti pakat sembang and then aku pun terkial-kial nak catch up.

Anyway, frankly speaking I didn't really like the route. Sebelum ni pi Putrajaya tak penah pun perasan the rolling hills. Mak ai, route dia asyik naik turun je. Well, WW claimed dia naik turun but I felt that It was like 60% naik je. Naik elevation banyyaaaaakkkk, pastu turun ade la ciput pastu naik balik sampai kadang-kadang tu aku ingat diorang ni nak suruh lari sampai Genting kot. Define your inner strength konon.

Somewhere along the way I said hey to AzHana. Azza, I have this ability to 'cam' people from their backs. Don't ask me how. I just know. I can even cam some of the regular runners by the way they run. Anyway, man, she was doing so good. Aku ni macam separuh mati nak kayuh lagi 10K , dia steady je. Tabik!

After 10K mark which I felt took forever, my legs felt like jelly and I suddenly felt hungry. So walaupun, I was guzzling Gatorade every 2 miles or so, I downed half a pack of Powergel and washed it down with Gatorade lagi. Dapatla sugar rush dalam 5 minit pastu hancus balik. My tummy started churning pulak pastu side stich ada datang mari pulak. It was freaking hot and there was no breeze. But you know what helped?
The random conversation with strangers and fellow runners along the way. Best jugak sembang-sembang sambil lari-lari anak ni. Bila sembang-sembang buat lawak sambil bitch about the hills, sedar-sedar je your already on top of the incline and you're your way down.

What I loved most about this race is the support crew. Fuh, memang tip top. Dengan kumpulan gendangnya, dengan cheerleaders nya, dengan music Pittbull pasang full blast tengah-tengah God-knows-where, dengan metalic-mime people ( I don't know what you call them) sitting creepily atas jambatan cam hantu boncengnya, dengan volunteers yang sangat cheerful if not very helpful and committed nya.
In short, memang BEST GILE.
Aku yang separa nak tergolek atas jalan pon sangat terhibur.

Anyway, I lost count how many inclines we had to go through because I sucked at all of them. Tu la, sapa suruh tak training hills. Padan muko. Dekat nak habis pun ada bantai kasik incline lagi. Masa tu aku redha je la. I promised myself this time, tak larat camne pun taknak jalan We met Kam Kasturie along they way, who gently said, " It's okay, jalan je la". Haha, that's really easy to say coming from a guy who walks with the same pace as my running.

I hate hills shows on my face

(pic courtesy of Kam Kasturie) 

Racing towards the end was the nastiest part. It was a long straight road where you can see that you have to run towards the digital clock but it seems like it's light years away.

So lari lah daku pada tahap kura-kura with WW running backwards to support me. Dekat end of the line,  bila ada banyak orang at the sidelines cheering us on, baru la aku pasang turbo anak penyu nak masuk laut.
Maka bolehla dapat timing sub 2:30. Haha

End of the line, One nice volunteer said to me while handling my finisher's shirt,
" You're an S"
" Nope, " I said. " I think an M"
" Takde la kak, You're definately an S"
She made my day the most.

 With Azza and KakJune. Get to finally chat with you guys. Sorry as usual got to go early for the kids.
Sorry gambar blur sebab pakai C3 jo 

I finished at 2:29.
I wouldn't call this a personal worst. It's a all out effort in a condition that I can't control. I guess I just can't handle overheatedness and too many hills. That's all there is to it.
And the idea bijak bistari Gatorade made it all worse.
Because when I got back, I threw up all my Gatorade. One whole bottle of it.
Heh