One year on from my inaugural Mizuno Wave Run KL

I can’t believe 9 months just whizzed by; 3 more months to another year. 2009 has been a year of running for me – serious running and races instead of the pit-pat jogs on the treadmill. Oh well maybe count the final months of 2008 if you want to be technical.

The Mizuno Wave Run in Bukit Tunku in October 2008 was my maiden race. I actually managed to survive the grueling hills and came away with a not-too-bad timing of 1:06 hour. This was followed by the IOI Community Run in Bandar Puteri Puchong – a 7.2km run finished in 42 minutes. 2008 was topped off with the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) in December – this event being the highlight and all the other runs leading to this was prep work. I completed the 10K run in 59 minutes.

After the SCSM, it was a lull of 2½ months before the Suburban Run in Sengkang in March followed by the Adidas Sundown Marathon, Laguna Phuket Marathon, Standard Chartered KL Marathon (SCKL), Shape Run and Army Half Marathon. I’ll close 2009 with the SCSM. I’ve currently slotted in the Great Eastern Women’s 10K and Run for Hope Fun Run in between.
There are one or two walks that look pretty interesting – may sign up for these; after all it’s a walking event and psychologically it should be a lot less taxing!

Up the SCKL, my training has been exclusively on the treadmill – a not too bad proposition for 10K runs with not-too-much improvements in the timing. I had been thinking of running outdoors but never knew where or how to start until I stumbled onto Ronnie’s blog and the invite for the Adidas Running Community.

Since I started the Adidas Running Community, I’ve noticed that I’ve increased my outdoor runs to 2-3 times a week (with zero running on the treadmill in the past month!), my running gait has improved with Ronnie’s and Kei Ming’s guidance, I don’t fear hills as much, I’ve restarted interval trainings/speedwork and my timing has improved substantially. For example, in yesterday’s 9.2km, I clocked 50 minutes – and this on 4 rounds of upslope and hills of 20 degrees.

Unfortunately I heard that the programme will come to an end in December which is such a shame. I’m still a long way away from running properly and I do really need the motivation to keep at running when the tough gets going. But most of all I’ll miss the chatter of everyone and the uber humorous Kelvin. Well fingers crossed, let’s hope Adidas/Krishnan and Ronnie will work out something.