On Sunday 29 September, I ran in the Standard Chartered KL Marathon (SCKLM). This year I was in the leisure category – no stress, just take it easy. I did the same race last year (nearly 18 months ago) and I thought it would be a great opportunity for a progress report since the course and distance was exactly the same.
My time last year:
My time this year:
Looks like I’ve managed to shave off my run time by about 4 minutes after nearly 18 months of additional training. That’s really not too bad. Well, I can’t say I’m complaining.
I must confess that I had a little more incentive to run faster this year. I was trying to catch up to my friend who started half an hour before me. She said she would walk and she kept texting me photos of the markers she passed. Would I have finished as quickly if I wasn’t trying to catch up to her? Possibly. I definitely pushed harder than I would normally run but it was good to see that I can pick up the pace and keep it up.
Oddly enough, my Garmin record shows somewhat different timings. It recorded the race distance as 11.1 km and my run time records improved for both 5 km and 10 km distances:
- 5 KM – 26:27 vs 30:08
- 10 KM – 1:01:16 vs 1:08:55 (previously my fastest 10 KM) vs 1:10:27 (my Garmin 10 KM record for SCKLM2018)
According to Garmin, I made an improvement of 9 minutes over last year’s run. Following that recording, I have nearly reached Sub 60 for a 10 KM run! Gosh, I do like the sound of that… Anyway, regardless of which stats I follow, it’s still progress!
Run Analysis
I increased the tempo this year and felt pretty good for most of the way. Instead of the 2:1 run/walk rhythm I used last year, I was able to keep up a 5:1 run/walk rhythm. My knees gave me trouble somewhere around the last two kilometer mark when I had to tackle the decline near KL Bird Park / Masjib Negara. They were okay at a slow jog, but I felt left knee pains after I reached the finish line. I couldn’t bend it and had to limp for a while. Luckily, it didn’t last too long and I was okay to walk normally by the time we were ready to head home.
Gear, Water, and Food
After running a Spartan Beast, I have to say that I felt quite relaxed facing a 10 KM run. Breakfast was the usual peanut butter and two slices of bread, a banana, and a coffee (two sugars, half milk). I only packed water and didn’t even stop at any of the water stations.
No knee guards this year, but I ran with the 2XU MCS compression tights I bought recently from Australia. Did they help? Well, I still had knee issues towards the end of the race so I can’t say they were fantastic. However, considering that I ran without knee guards, trouble-free for most of the way, they definitely did help.
2XU advocates wearing compression for recovery. Could I extrapolate that to suggest that continuing to wear the compression tights on after the run helped my knee? If I had taken them off, would my knee have continued to hurt? Now there’s food for thought…
Related:
- 2XU Compression Run 2018: Half Marathon
- IJM Duo Highway Challenge – The Half Marathon
- IJM Duo Highway Challenge 2018 – Part 1
- SCKLM 2018: 10KM Cruise
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