Asics Reading Half Marathon: The Report

My time: 1hr 36mins 28secs
Overall Position: 1397
Total runners: 11181
Actual distance: 21.095km
This is my personal best thus far. It's the half marathon assault after my last race in KL back in September. My previous best was 1 hr 44 mins in the 2004 PJ Half Marathon. But that was also because it was shorter and flatter.


I still feel it's unreal that I have smashed my previous record by 8 mins because it was a race with lots of undulation. If I can describe the race course in the "Pacesetters Unit of Measurement", I'd say it's like stretching the "10km double-hill" into a 21km race course.

One of the two long marquees dedicated as storage tents for runners' belongings

Free shuttle: Double-deckers used to ferry runners from the train station to the stadium

It's a weather-driven performance. The weather was great, around 10deg C this morning. But still proved to be too cold for me in dry-fit and shorts. The sky was cloudy interspersed with some sunshine, which was heavenly.

Runners in bin bags to shield the cold

A long strip of cloud?

The event started at Green Park and ended at the Madejski Stadium, just a stone's throw from the park. What I do like about the stadium is that it is home to the Reading FC. Even though these guys don't play good football like other clubs, they do have an iconic stadium.


Their home ground image is enhanced by the presence of a humongous wind turbine that has formed part of this icon. And what I just found out today, it doubled up as a fan to us! Now you get electricity from wind and you get to cool runners off. Happy days...

The crowd was massive but I felt lonely. Previously in Cambridge, I get to mingle with college mates prior to start time. This time, none of my colleagues were in. So I was all by myself in this.

These guys are serious! And they play great songs too!

Like previous marathons, I make it a point to try new things. Previously I played with food in the name of science and see how I perform in a race. This time I got into mind manipulation, I call it "performance mimicry".

Well if you Google it, there's really no such thing as performance mimicry. I made that up, so forgive me if you're about to throw stones at me. At least, it's scientific!

I attempted performance mimicry at the start of the race. I mimicked the performance of a car.

I know this sounds ridiculous, and I do feel stupid typing this as well. This is what you probably get from TopGear overdose! What I actually did was to visualise the performance of a car; a car doesn't feel exhausted, doesn't cramp, shifts the right gear at different road gradients and has a radio!

Mimicry of a speed trap camera??

Before start, the engine was conditioned at a warm-up session. Yes, it's a VVT-i, so it doesn't tire in idle state. Radio check, shoe lace check, time check, time reset check, champion-chip check. The champion-chip is tied to the ankle instead of the shoe lace. That's the first for me.

When the race started, it took me 2 mins to cross the start line. It was a Pamplona Bull Run thereafter, rampaging through the roads without knowing exactly where each of those turns lead to . I felt nice overtaking most of the time but with 11,000 people, it was also difficult to shake off those around me as well as those who are already in front.

The spectators cheered. I turned on my iPod. It wasn't a good start. Come on! Guang Liang in a road race?! You have to be kidding! Can you imagine the damage it has done in the 5 seconds of me trying to get to the controls. It didn't get better either. Guess what...Gedo Senki's soundtracks! I felt like pulling the earphones off!

The ascend started from Mile 2-4. VVT-i worked well at optimum rev without undermining speed. No sign of exhaustion. But the radio went dead. I forgot to charge my iPod last night! What an absolute disaster! But it was a blessing in disguise. I kept the earphones on. It was better than putting into the pocket and risk losing it while running. It was an added burden since it's no longer serving me. Thing is, iPods are not like Vittel bottled drinks where you can toss them at the roadside when you feel like it.

Vittel water bottles

I counted if Work = Force x Displacement, then I'd have wasted 0.3kJ of energy carrying this dead gizmo by the time I cross the finish line. That's the amount of energy Raymond Hee has probably used to do an Ironman!

The second ascend was humiliating. That was at Mile 8. An IS220 was reduced to a mere Clio 1.2. If that's not enough, drive it on a flat tyre then! I was clearly feeling the drag. I downed a gel and a Lucozade at the water station. I thought it was necessary to arrest the steep decline into a Perodua Kancil. It worked! I was back in form in 5 minutes. But the effect didn't stay long and by Mile 9 onwards, performance flatted out and gone into a gradual decline.
So what happened to performance mimicry? Did it work? Was it effective?

If I measure by peak performance, then it worked. If I did it by consistency, then probably not. Well to be fair, I did think it helped in consistency in 3/4 of the entire race. If I were to take the last 1/4 show and prove as evidence that it has failed, then it's probably not fair or true either.

I certainly liked its effectiveness in pushing new limits to performance, I would say that the initial mimicry has provided frontiers in the game of mind over matter. This is a first for me and I certainly wouldn't want to use it for long-haul at the moment. A 15 to 20k run is fine and like any other skills, can be honed and improved further over time.

The last mile was the most frustrating. We were already in the vicinity of the Madejski Stadium but couldn't see the finish line. So near yet so far! When we finally entered the stadium, the finish line was in sight. Running with 11,000 people means that there would be at least hundreds crossing the finish line at the same time no matter how fast you are. Therefore I didn't bother jostling through to get a good spot. It's not the same like Malaysia's half marathons where those hundreds were probably the event total participants. And that is also after pointing a gun at school children's heads to make them run and make up the number for the event!

Runners crossing the finish line at the same time

One particular downside in UK runs is that they sell the event T-shirt rather than providing them for free. The one in Reading costs 12 quid a shot and that's half the price of the run! I have outgrown converting since studying in Japan but I couldn't help converting the T-shirt price. If I were to pay 12 quid in Malaysia, I could probably get a very good quality and branded T-shirt.

From bin bags to proper shields

Sweeper bus to pick up runners

The medal was nice. It's shiny on the embossed area and coarse on the invert. I am not sure what's it made of but the global price of tin went up in tandem with the months leading up to the race. So, my guess is tin, if not it has to be silver!