Blood Runner in Putrajaya

To those of you who read my teaser posted on July 30, I'm here to tell you that I completed the Blood Runner in Putrajaya on July 31 and survived to tell the tale..

The Blood Runner is a werewolf-themed urban obstacle night race, promoted as Asia's first by the organizer, Switch Strategies. Set in the popular venue for night race events, Putrajaya, the race involved 10km of running on trail, road and pavement. Along the way there were obstacles that required participants to carry, jump, climb, balance and scramble through the streets of Putrajaya. 

I ran in Wave 7 (10:30pm) along with my friend Ainal. We were flagged off around11pm - the delay was due to poor weather conditions earlier. I found out later that there were celebs among the 5000 runners on that night. 

The first obstacle involved carrying water drums for a distance of 200m. The one I carried weighed a tonne; I quickly realised that I finally understood what it means when people say they feel the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Immediately after the first obstacle, the night was more of a personal hell than a fun-filled playground. Exhausted and running on low energy, I wondered how I would be able to pull through and the thought of letting the werewolves bite me seemed exciting to me, until it occurred to me that I had my energy gel with me. I brought two energy gels with me to heed the advice contained in the race guide. I gulped down my first High5 energy gel and almost immediately felt its effects. Recharged with a new lifeline, I was ready to take on the next obstacles..

The other obstacles surprisingly, were less tough for me. They involved crossing a series of tyres, climbing over some truck tyres and jumping over a wall. I conquered those. And I picked up pace in my run...

Next part of the course was a trail run. I never knew there exists a forest in Putrajaya and running in the forest at night was frightening. The Petzl Tikkina was a great help for me to avoid running into other participants, many of whom had slowed down due unfamiliarity with the trail and the fear of running into a werewolf. Their howling of those creatures were enough to send chills down one's spine. But I was focused to pick up my pace and catch up with the runners in the earlier waves. It was a perfect chance for me to run pass the walkers, so I switched to the high intensity mode on my headlamp and shouted, "Excuse me, passing through".. It worked! Fabulous!

The next obstacle was the sideways wall climbing challenge. Judging by long queue and the number of participants instructed to do air squats as penalty for failing the complete the challenge, I knew I needed concentration, endurance and coordination to overcome this obstacle. I quaffed the second energy gel and got myself psyched up for it. And man... I got through it successfully - with a few cuts on my forearms, but it's no biggie.

One part of the course was in the basement of a car park of a complex and it was here that I finally came face to face with two werewolves. These werewolves were in high spirits and excited to see the participants. When I passed them, they gave me a high five! The creatures (or actors) were there to provide a feel-good factor and they certainly delivered. 

After the brush with werewolves, the obstacles that greeted me next were more challenging. There were the balancing beams (I failed this), monkey bars, the climbing over a net mounted on a bus, and more climbing - on inclined planes with holes in them. And then there were the jumps over the M Walls - the joint surfaces were narrow and I heard a few participants fall (big thud.. ouch!) Hope they're were OK to carry on. The M Walls featured again at the end, just before the finish line...

And then I saw the giant werewolf float in the distance and I knew that I have all but completed the run...

I gave a high jumped, reached for the fangs of the werewolf float, feeling fantastic at having completed the inaugural Blood Runner...

Nett time: 1:56:33

Overall ranking: 303/1984

Gender ranking: 277/1319

A video posted by runwitme (@runwitme) on Aug 1, 2015 at 6:02am PDT

A video posted by runwitme (@runwitme) on Jul 31, 2015 at 9:27pm PDT

Sundown Marathon, Singapore

My first international race for 2015 was none other than the Sundown Marathon in neighbouring Singapore. A popular night run (the organizers claim that it is the biggest night race in Asia), the Sundown was held at the popular F1 Pit building. Surrounding the building was a hive of activity - various sponsor tents, F&B stalls, floats,  stage with live gigs, information signage and runners stretching out and warming up before the race generated an electrifying atmosphere.

After the sun set that day, the strong 26,000 participants were raring to go! This year there were four categories offered - 5km, (a new category this year to encourage more people to take up running as a healthy lifestyle) 10km, 21km and 42km. It was going to be an exciting night and the F1 Pit set ablaze by the fervent runners from near and far.

I participated in the 10km Men's Open category, which was flagged off at 10pm. Due to the high number of runners, we were flagged off in waves. I was in the fourth group (or "tribe" as the vivacious announcers referred us) that was flagged off around 10:12 p.m. That 12-minute wait felt like the longest wait in recent memory. Once I crossed the starting line, I quickly picked up pace to make up for lost time. I soon became the leader of the pack. I looked ahead and saw a huge number of runners ahead of me. Great! I love the feeling of passing other runners. Some of the runners in the earlier group I noticed had slowed down, a few even started walking. I checked my Garmin - it's not even 1km yet. Reminder to myself: don't start too fast and risk crashing out.

I weaved my way through the slower runners but there were just too many of them. Without a clear path ahead for me it was difficult to accelerate so I picked up my pace gradually and did what I read in the guide book: "On your right!" - I called out in a shaky, yet audible voice to the runners in front of me just before passing them. Some of them moved to their left as I closed in on them, but mostly they did not know what to do. I lost out of the number of runners I passed by 2km and but noted that there were two runners who passed me. So far so good.

Having participated in the Marina Run 2014, I was familiar with the Marina Bay Loop route. The terrain was mostly made up of pavements, pounding of which didn't give too much problem to my problem knee.  I continued to catch up with the runners ahead of me and there was hardly any pain in my left knee even when I quickened my pace. As there were other runners coming in the opposite direction (those in the second loop), I risked running into them whenever I attempted to pass the runners in front of me. Try as I might, I inadvertently crossed the boundary to the opposite lane. Traffic cones were placed as reminder to runners to stay within the set boundaries. I also noticed there were volunteers who directed those of us who went off-course to get back in the dedicated path. I was forced to slow down because some runners were obstructing me and I had to wait until a space was available to overtake them.  That may have affected my overall time.

Spectacular Singapore Flyer in the background

The race markers were clear despite the fact that we were running in the night. The signage for turns were clearly displayed. As the race wore on, I settled into a comfortable pace of 5:30km/min. There were three hydration stations and all of them were all manned. Perhaps because there were well manned (and I felt I wasn't in the way of the runners behind me) I took longer breaks than I should have. At the third and final hydration station with 100 Plus on offer in addition to water, I was ready to pick up speed again. I quickened my pace from 8km onward. As soon as I crossed the Helix Bridge at 9km,  with the finishing line in view and beckoning, I accelerated to it. Crossing the finish line felt incredibly good as I knew that I have accomplished my goal of the trip and was ready to go back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

Finishing time: 1:09:07
Nett time: 56:22

Rank: 590
Participants in Category: 6811