NEW BALANCE PACM 15K by Jamie Pang

Another measly training week for me. I told myself that since this is "just" a 15K distance, I shouldn't just roll over and submit to running a lousy race. Most certainly I will not just run a lackadaisical pace. If I somehow crash and burn somewhere at the Double Hill stretch, so be it. But running has taught me one thing - to always try my best in whatever situation and condition.

The start of the race was quite abrupt and Geraldine and I were just heading back towards the starting line when the horn went off! We were looking for her starting ribbon (they ran out!) and hadn't quite gotten back to our original position. The start was moved to the road behind the field as opposed to the main Jalan Parlimen. As a result the runners were jam logged. Some, as we, who tried to circumvent the crowd ran on the road shoulders and one runner tripped and went down in a heap. He was perfectly OK flashing a sheepish smile.

The first K was 6:40 I think (I've yet to review my 205 data) but as soon as there were gaps, we were skipping past the runners despite the hilly stretches. On the several occasions where I checked my splits, I found that my sub 5 minute pace was quite comfortably sustained. The usual suspects were encountered along the way, with Kelvin unusually muted until I egged some noise out of him. Chen also was surprisingly very laid back and even paced with me until I pointed Choi out to him. Choi was running consistently about 200m ahead and I used him as a gauge. I think it was at the Bukit Tunku stretch that I lost Geraldine and I went alone. Chen dropped back at a water stop allowing me to overtake him. Then he caught back up with me and paced for some distance. At another stop I dropped him again as I was picking up the cups rather swiftly.

I felt that this year's route was quite challenging as we had to cover certain hilly sections twice. I dropped pace going into the second palace loop but got my second wind soon after. the Central Bank hill then sapped me again before I shuffled hurriedly toward the finish. The runner next to me suddenly shouted "Let's sprint to the finish" and the bunch of us made a mad scramble to the finish arch.

My position of 173 and timing of 1:18.48 was an improvement over the 2006 race of 1:24 (I didn't run last year). So overall I'm quite happy with the results and still consistent with my goal of getting faster with age! I shall continue with that mindset until my body tells me to start slowing down or else!

Jamie Pang
May 19th 2008