MR25 Ultra Marathon

The MR25 is not on my original schedule. I was not sure whether I recover sufficient to participate. Even though I packed my bags the night before, when I woke up at 5am, I was still struggling whether I should join the event.

I already had two Ultra events recently (HK trailwalker on 20/21-Nov and Putrajaya 12 hr walk on 13-Dec). My right leg ITB was not fully recovered when I participate the Putrajaya walk. And I got another injury on my right ankle during the Putrajaya. I did have two short distance race walking practice that go through ok. At the end, I went over the MacRitchie.

I did not register before hand and just put my name down on the spot with $35 registration fee. The race started at 7am and last for 12 hours, going around the MacRitchie Reservoir for as many laps as you want. I decided to just walk all the way. Either complete 5 laps or 6 laps.


I completed my first lap of 10.5km in around 1:31:00, pretty reasonable timing. Part of the loop was quite muddy. Almost every participate has lots of dirty on the shoes, socks and legs. I was keeping my pace slow at the beginning and use some of racewalking half way after I have fully warm up. In the golf link, I was able to do a 8:11 for a km. But from about 3km in my 2nd loop, my right ankle injury comes back. I had to adjust the way that I walk in order to reduce stress on my right ankle. My second lap slowed down to about 1:40:00. I took a short break and started my 3rd loop. This time, it took my 1:45:00, still a reasonable timing. But then, may be due to my adjustment to compensate for the right ankle, I developed a problem with my left leg ITB. Most of the time, it is not a problem except when I walk downhill. There is almost no steps during the loop. The first 3 loop took a little bit more than 5 hours. It is very sure that I will have enough time to do 6 loops if my body permits.

After a short break, my 4th loop goes on. But just after I started, the sky started to get dark and there is a light rain. The tree/leaves are dense enough in the first part of the loop that I did not get wet at all. But I was worrying that if the rain get stronger, I may not generate enough heat in my walk. However, just another 30 minutes, the rain passed and the sun comes out again. Timing of the loop is 1:45:00 as well, pretty consistent. The last lap was slower at around 1:55:00, partially take extra precaution going into the last 4.5km. But overall timing is 9:12:35 for the 5 laps. I have enough time left to make it a 6 laps. However, considering my injury on my right ankle and left leg ITB, I don't want to make it worse and call it a day for MR25 Ultra 2009. The timing, in comparing with my 5 laps in 2007, was 56 minutes faster. Mainly due to reduction in break time and more consistent timing across the 5 laps.


I collected my certificate and the finisher's t-shirt but did not wait for the ceremony. I was simply too tired. During the MR25, I was not wearing my SKINS. Instead, I just wear a simple New Balance tight. I think that the SKINS does contribute to less fatigue in a long run/walk. I will definitely use it in the future.

Racewalking practice

Another loop in Stirling. 24 mins 9s for the 3.3km distance. Average pace at 7:23. about 6s faster than the last practice of 7:29.

I started at a slower pace and accelerate at the middle of it. Getting up to 6:40 at the last split. But notice that the heartrate also goes up to very high. Shin muscle is tired after the walk.

Racewalking practice

I have a practice of race walking along my usual Stirling loop. I try to practice the swing of arm and train my shin muscle. Took me 24 mins 36 s for the 3.31km. Average pace is 7:26. I started a bit too fast and within the 1st km, my right leg shin muscle was already tight. Next time, need more warm up before pushing.


My goal is to be able to complete the loop in around 20 mins by end of 2010. This will require a significant improvement over my current state - a continuous 6:20 pace. Currently, while I can attain 6:20 pace during interval training, I cannot maintain it for a 3.2km distance, not even maintaining it during a 400m x 6 interval training. Therefore, need a lot of training to improve it.

2nd Putrajaya 12 hr walk

This is my first time participate in a rack walking event. I was not sure whether I should participate even just a week before. The trailwalker in Hong Kong takes a long time to recover. And my right leg is still not 100% normal before I book my bus ticket to KL. The 12 walk is from 8pm to 8am and count by how many laps that you can finish in a 1km loop. I was hoping to finish 72 laps (averaged 6km/h) judging from the timing in Sundown.

The journey to Putrajaya is LOOOONG. I woke up 6:30am in the morning. I got out of the door at around 7:15am. First, I took MRT to Lavendar. Then, took a bus to KL at 8:45am. There is some jam at both Singapore and Malaysia custom. At the end I only arrive at KL at 4:30pm. Then, I took the Rapid KL train to KL Sentral. From KL Sentral, I took the KLIA transit to Putrajaya. At Putrajaya Sentral, I walk about 3km to the venue - the stretch in front of Palace of Justice. I arrived there at around 6pm+. Took me around 11 hours from my home to the venue.

I register, pay the fee and get my bib and champion chip. The goody bag included a t-shirt, mouthwash, some nutrition pill, heat rub etc.

I found the Hong Kong team and introduce myself to them. I prepared myself for the race. But I found that I run out of tape to tape my foot. Didn't check that properly.

At the start, the pace of front walkers are really fast. My original plan is to keep a 9 min pace. But was driven by the atmosphere and walking at 8:15 to 8:30 pace for the first hour. That sow the seed for failure. After 3 hours, I finished 21km. I started to slow down to 9min+ pace. By 4.5 hours, I started to feel tire. That is possibly caused by the combination of long travelling to Putrajaya and the fast pace in the first 3 hours.

The food supplied almost always has a long queue. I was just using my own energy bars and no issue on food.

I finish the first 42km in 6 hr 48 minutes, slower than what I did in Sundown. I was so tire at one stage that I can only do 4km/h. I was very very sleepy around 3am time as well. My right leg ITB started to act on me. Everything turned bad. When I almost want to call it a day, I took a last effort to put on a pattstrap on my right leg to control the ITB and started another lap of slow walk. The pattstrap helps but I was still at about 10 mins pace.

It just happened that the fast Malaysia guy (the ultimate winner at the end) passed me. Driven by ego, I try to follow him. I actively swing my arms to pick up speed. His pace is around 7:30, amazingly, I was able to follow him a full lap at 7:30 pace and even have strength to pass him. It is my 2nd win. After that, I was on and off, I was able to do quick laps between rest. I followed the French lady (the ultimate winner in female category) for a lap as well at sub 7:30 pace. It was fun.

At the end, I called it a day after finishing 60 laps with 48 minutes left on the clock. It is a fun event and I will definitely join the event next year. The walking on a uniform loop is actually tougher than Sundown since you repeatly using the same muscle group vs in Sundown, the up and down allows recovery.

In the final result, I believe I was ranked 50 among the male walkers and got a prize of a Genting Holiday card worth RM50. This is the first time I got a prize in a competitive sport event!

The Hong Kong team got good results as well - Billie, Issac and Cheung Wai Tak all got into the top3 in the 50km race, Issac got silver in 70km race and bronze in overall female category.

A few reflection on improvement:
- need to make better preparation next time (e.g. the tape)
- need better training (I haven't train for race walking for a few months)
- need a better plan on support
- need to learn more skill about racewalking. My brisk walk is too slow and not efficient.

A page of the GPS log can be found below:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/20471574