Another 30k bagged

I woke up at 4am yesterday and quickly got myself ready. The previous night's sleep was not good and saw me waking up every other hour. CB Leow arrived at my place by 4.40 and we left soon after. When we arrived at the Bukit Aman carpark and saw so many runners getting ready for their weekend long run, the atmosphere alone inspired me.

We started running in a big group at around 5.35am. I was initially running with Jamie but at the Bank Negara KTM station decided to press on and use this run to see if a faster pace would result in any kind of negative consequences at the later stages. There is no better place than in training for a runner to try out different pacing.

I reached Jln Duta in appx 31m. I was running alone at this stage so I continued at the same pace and reached the Hartamas Petronas in appx 59m. I stopped to buy a bottle of 100plus before continuing. This stop alone took more than 3 minutes. After making one loop beyond the Petronas, I continued back towards Jln Duta with the bottle of 100plus in my hand.

My watch showed appx 1h30m before I made the loop at the Income Tax building. I bumped into Jamie, Tey and Chen who were making their way back to the Petronas. I had slowed the pace a little bit by this time and managed to reach the Petronas again in appx 2h03m. Here I stopped again and bought my second bottle of 100plus, once again spending over 3 minutes in the process.

I tried maintaining my pace but was starting to tire once I reached Jln Duta. My watch showed 2h35m when I was crossing under the flyover. Further up the road as I approached Jalan Tunku, I stopped and walked for a minute or so before continuing. This helped me regain some energy to push on.

When I reached the JKR traffic lights, I decided to go straight instead of turning left as this would save me another climb (I later found out from Tey that this shortened the route by almost 1k). I reached the Bukit Aman carpark in appx 3h10m while the total distance covered should be about 29k. Later I had a hearty breakfast with Tey, CB Leow and Chen before leaving.

Earlier that morning, Jamie had passed me the Endurox (sports drink mixture) he had bought for me, and tried it for the first time when I reached home. I hope it will be as good as I've been told it is. Tey has also bought me a pouch which I will be using for my marathon. I plan to carry enough beverages and gels to avoid or minimise stopping at the water stations. I am starting to get quite excited about the race. 4 weeks to go and these will be the most exciting but difficult weeks of my preparation!