Race & Gadget Report : Reach Out Run 2015 - Racing with the Sony Smart B-Trainer

This morning saw me running my 1st race of the year 2015 at the Reach Out Run 2015, in Putrajaya, in the 10km category. This is the first time that I am racing so late in the year due to drastic cutting back of my training in the earlier part of the year, to let my injury heal properly.

IM4U Reach Out Run 2015 Finisher Medal
My race, powered by the Sony Smart B-Trainer.

I was feeling relaxed and easy for this race. With a full 8 hours of blessed sleep and a nice breakfast, I arrived around 5:30am to meet my running buddies from the GCAM MY Team at the pre-determined meetup point before we did a group photoshoot.

With my GCAM Malaysia Team running buddies.
Photo Courtesy of Jamie Pang

The Reach Out Run 2015 is a charity run organized in aid of 4 causes : Yayasan Jantung Malaysia, Persatuan Dyslexia Malaysia, Langkawi Animal Shelter and Sanctuary Foundation and Persatuan Kebajikan SVM. There were 2 race categories i.e. 10km and 5km respectively.
Malaysia.
My running buddies from the GCAM Malaysia Team including myself, were given free entries with compliments from Sony Malaysia.

With the other runners sponsored by Sony Malaysia
(photo courtesy of Sony Malaysia)

Anyway, back to this morning, we were expecting a 5000+ strong crowd but it was no where near this expectation, mainly due, I think, to the imminent threat of rain before the start. We could see stormclouds gathering in the distance while we stood around waiting for the race to start!

From past racing experiences, Putrajaya is notorious for being a hot and humid race venue but the rain and the cool breeze this morning totally turned the circumstances in our favour.


There was also an additional element to my race today i.e. Thanks to Sony Malaysia, I got to test the loaned Sony Smart B-Trainer unit along with the my running buddies from the GCAM MY Team. 

Racing with music in my ears is relatively new to me, but since it's a rare chance to test the device at higher speeds / intensity, I jumped at the opportunity.

Yours truly doing a "dance"...
Casual, relaxed chat with running buddies from GCAM Malaysia Team before the start of the race
(photo courtesy of Lim Choon Yuen)

The B-trainer I was given, did not disappoint from the start. It was very much lighter than my earlier wireless Sony Walkman model and fit snugly around my head. The ear buds also was snug enough in my ears that it did not move around at all throughout the race.

This device, besides being a walkman, also comes with voice-guided training, GPS, bluetooth, heart-rate monitor sensor all rolled into one. It is smart enough to even select the music with the right beat to match the rhythm of your pace and heart rate.

Back to the race... The rain started coming down heavily when Khairy Jamaluddin, our Youth and Sports Minister made his appearance just before the race flag off.

It was a very wet flag-off and besides sidestepping and weaving myself around the starting crowd after flag-off, I also tried to avoid stepping into puddles.

I must say, the race was well organized, the route of the 5km and 10km did not overlap and there was no usual bottleneck of 5km and 10km runners converging near the finish chute.

There were plenty of water stations for a 10km race - 3 water stations to be exact, placed at 2.5km, 5km and 7.5km respectively. There were also many marshals placed along the route and they directed the runners well. Kudos to the volunteers and marshals standing in the rain and later, the drizzle for us!

One thing that may need improvement would be, to have the volunteers inform the runners immediately after the Finishing Line or to have clear signages put up, telling runners who have finished the race, where they should head to collect their goodie bags.

Other than that, I was satisfied with the overall race organization.


The B-trainer worked perfectly, living up to it's waterproof claim and it's GPS tracking was pretty accurate! 

The actual distance ran was 9.74km with some undulation along the run course. I am satisfied with my performance and the morning rain was truly a blessing! I completed the race in 45min 15 sec with no gels taken whatsoever. My highest heart rate recorded was 207bpm, my fastest pace recorded was 4:08 with an average pace of 4:38. 

The workout summary from the B-trainer app on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3

I returned home and immediately uploaded the run data into the B-trainer app installed on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 via Bluetooth from the B-Trainer, where information such as cadence, pace, stride, elevation and heart rate was easily available for viewing in graph chart format.

Pace, Elevation, Heart Rate, Stride and Cadence data, available at a touch of your finger.

Suddenly, for the first time in my running career, I could see the benefits of having an electronic training log. Tracking my training progress from this device was easy and fun!

My pace splits calculated for each km during today's race

Looking forward to running more with my hot pink B-trainer in the near future!

My 1st Finisher Medal for 2015

IM4U Reach Out Run 2015, with the Sony Smart B-Trainer